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This page contains all 21 turns of Creation of Centuries.
Turn 1: 4000 to 3500 BCE
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Political map of Turn 1
Cultural map of Turn 1
Religious map of Turn 1
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41592831#post41592831
Events of the years 4000 to 3500BCE:
-c. 3900 BC—5.9 kiloyear event, one of the most intense aridification events during the Holocene. It ended the Neolithic Subpluvial and likely initiated the most recent desiccation of the Sahara desert, triggering migration to river valleys, such as from central North Africa to the Nile valley.
-The Mesopotamian and Egyptian areas are now seeing the first dense concentration of humans in urban environments. By the year 3500BCE, some of these are bordering on the establishment of proper states. The potters wheel, bronzeworking, proto-cuniform script, alongside early bureaucracies and organized religions, means that this area is ripe for some of the earliest empires.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Pre-Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Spanish pantheon
-Sometime in the late Neolithic, a group of farmers, trinket sellers, simple toolmakers, and other assorted types converge on the far western coast of the European Peninsula. They form a polity ruled by a morbidly obese man.
-Under the first five centuries of rule, any new methods for replenishing the soil and improving yields are spread throughout all lands under control of the chief. The most interesting development is that of ANIMAL HUSBANDRY. Given that this place is a latecomer to the agricultural revolution, the domestication of goats, cattle, pigs, sheep, and other assorted types helps massively improve food yields and provides valuable textiles and hides.
-The population gradually grows over this period, and begins to settle eastwards. Other farming settlements are displaced due to population pressures and raids by the Spanish. Many animals are captured and the wealth of the polity grows as it now has significant numbers of livestock.
-Attempts to discover the famed Laubergians comes to naught. Language barriers make it impossible to even work out where they are, with journeys taking months over the continent. Scouts do travel east with traders however, and discover that goods such as copper or amber do as much traveling.
-In an religious ritual, the chief sputters out the following:
"REMOVE KEBAB remove kebabyou are worst turk. you are the turk idiot you are the turk smell. return to croatioa. to our croatia cousins you may come our contry. you may live in the zoo….ahahahaha ,bosnia we will never forgeve you. cetnik rascal FUck but fuck asshole turk stink bosnia sqhipere shqipare..turk genocide best day of my life. take a bath of dead turk..ahahahahahBOSNIA WE WILL GET YOU!! do not forget ww2 .albiania we kill the king , albania return to your precious mongolia….hahahahaha idiot turk and bosnian smell so bad..wow i can smell it.REMOVE KEBAB FROM THE PREMISES. you will get caught. russia+usa+croatia+slovak=kill bosnia…you will ww2/ tupac alive in serbia, tupac making album of serbia . fast rap tupac serbia. we are rich and have gold now hahahaha ha because of tupac… you are ppoor stink turk… you live in a hovel hahahaha, you live in a yurt
tupac alive numbr one #1 in serbia ….fuck the croatia ,..FUCKk ashol turks no good i spit• in the mouth eye of ur flag and contry. 2pac aliv and real strong wizard kill all the turk farm aminal with rap magic now we the serba rule .ape of the zoo presidant georg bush fukc the great satan and lay egg this egg hatch and bosnia wa;s born. stupid baby form the eggn give bak our clay we will crush u lik a skull of pig. serbia greattst country".
-He then promptly dies.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Pre-Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-The Laubergians are a southern Germanic peoples who banded together from hunter-gatherer tribes that cooperated in settling a small piece of land. Their religion is a worship of a Great Eagle, said to have created the world and watches over Man.
-High Chief Algrobar is crowned "Son of the Eagle".
-An early form of writing is invented, using lines carved into rock or clay. A development from earlier counting systems, this form of writing is mostly used to keep records. No sound exists for individual letters or words however.
-The Laubergians keep to themselves for a long period of time, rarely mingling with those who sit outside their borders, and generally staying put in one place. This does result in an increased population density however, and movement towards tilling of marginal lands and forestry management in order to sustain resource usage.
-Hunter gathering is abandoned as farming becomes more suitable for maintaining the higher population density of the tribe. Trade with other tribes also occurs to a degree, mostly in order to import some foodstuffs. Manufactured tools are sold by those without enough land to grow food on.
-The 'Rites of the Eagle', Rites of passage for boys to become men, most of which involve physical prowess, are adopted.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Pre-Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-A chief is appointed to rule over the frog people. He then makes the following announcement: “Frog is stonk we will not be messed with for we are stonk frog who will honhon frog you.”
-The religion of Frogism is founded, based around the great god Garry and the “ouste” frog.
-The potter’s wheel is invented during this time by the frogs. Using it to craft perfectly shaped pottery of a high quality and quickly, they can store many items and goods in them. Some pieces of pottery are even sold to outsiders, with people on rafts heading up and down the Seine River to trade pottery for other items.
-As the population grows, more satellite villages spread northwards, especially due to trade links. The culture of the frogs seems to have become dominant, indicated by their style of pottery displacing others in the north. By the year 3500BCE, it is clear they have military powers as well. A layer of charcoal exists at this level along with several skeletons, dead from violent causes. It seems that force backed up the ambitions of the frogs.
-English traders eventually sail upriver and meet the Frogs, establishing contact and allowing for the start of trade, mostly in metals, pottery, and amber.
KriegsMar1ne – Britannica
Capital: Lundein
Culture: English (Pre-Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Anglican Pantheon
-The English people settle down, establishing a united early polity. It rules over the Thames valley, using a part time military force to control other farming communities.
-During this time, bronzeworking is developed in the Thames valley. It is unsure whenever it was developed independently or introduced from the continent, but with easy access to Cornish tin, this polity has access to a good deal of bronze. The people in there do not seem to realize their potential monopoly yet however.
-Scouts and traders filter throughout the Isle of Man (Britain in OTL) to establish trade contacts and keep friendly relations. They do especially well in the far west (Cornwall), where Tin can be mined for bronze.
-Soldiers, now wearing crude bronze helmets and breastplates, armed with bronze daggers and tipped spears/arrows, expand east down the swampy Thames. They subjugate many of the farming communities and establish systems of tribute. By 3500BCE, they have reached the sea and have begun to profit well from trade. Not much expansion is made outside of the river valley however, despite use of bronze weapons and armor, mainly due to slow travel times away from the river.
-Traders eventually meet a group of people named “Frogs” upriver in the southern continent. They establish good relations.
-To ensure a steady supply of Bronze, mining of various minerals and copper is conducted. Tin is also bought in sizable quantities from the west to be smelted with copper.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Pre-Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-On the Asian coast of the Aegean Sea, the Turkish people settle down. They establish a walled town called Istanbul, and eventually establish a network of other towns and villages owing vassalage to Istanbul. These towns still have a vague memory of 1500 years prior, when the massive lake to the north rose and became salty, with many people having to move home.
-Shipbuilding develops in the area to surprising lengths. Wooden pegs, ropes, reeds, grasses, tars, and other such items are used to sew or tie these early boats of wood together. Large solid logs are used to make a crude skeleton to attach the planks to.
-Using these boats and banks of oarsmen, raiding parties fan out over the coastlines making hard hitting raids to capture valuable metals, tools, weaponry, and other desired items. Eventually, some towns pay tribute or are annexed instead. When Bronze working spreads into the Balkans, this little polity steals bronze it cannot make.
-A slave army is created, whereby soldiers are effectively captured children taken in by the Turks. They are fiercely loyal and often compete over new lands to administer or raid. The Turkish people also engage in warfare often. This focus on warfare helps with expansion considerably.
-Alternative religions are tolerated, but quickly vanish as the Turkish people become dominant in the area. The Priest-Kings of this empire gradually develop a legal system, although being carried down orally it is difficult to keep track of.
-Traders on boats ply the seas and rivers looking for business. They become middlemen between the east and west, moving metals or precious stones.
-Fishermen also follow the traders, helping to vary the diet of the farmers.
Turn 2: 3500 to 3000 BCE
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Political map of Turn 2
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Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41604716&viewfull=1#post41604716
Events of the years 3500 to 3000BCE:
-Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a glacier of the Ötztal Alps. His cause of death is believed to be homicide.
-First pottery in Colombia at Puerto Hormiga (Magdalena), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of the New World.
-According to the legend, Menes unifies Upper and Lower Egypt, and a new capital is erected at Memphis. Thus begins the history of Egypt.
-First cities developed in Southern Mesopotamia. Inhabitants migrated from north. Early state apparatus appear, and the civilization present is considerably wealthy. Cuneiform script is invented.
-Skara Brae is constructed, and is a comfortable Neolithic village with buildings that makes every other house in the world look like shit.
-Stonehenge begins construction.
-World population hits 30 million.
-The Neolithic is generally accepted as coming to an end around this time, as distinct cultures with use of metalworking are now becoming prevalent.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Pre-Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Four elements
-With the advent of looms and weaving, cloth can be used for a variety of uses. One such is to create large “sails” on boats. These catch the wind and drive it at considerable speed. Of course, you can only downwind with these boats. Nonetheless, it helps massively for fishermen and traders plying the coasts.
-The Spanish people expand mostly along the coastlines, doing so very rapidly. Unfortunately, progress inland is much slower, and is more or less dependent on population pressures forcing villages to split as opposed to colonists actively moving south. Existing peoples are more or less peacefully absorbed, although some resist. They are dealt with by the militias.
-A new religion arises following the concept of four gods. One for each "element" for the Spanish people:
Dios de la Tierra: The God of the Earth. He is who causes the earthquakes and who grants the people food.
Dios del Agua: The God of Water. He is who causes the floods and provides the rain.
Dios del Fuego: The God of Fire. He is who punishes the people. He is who leads the people in War.
Dios del Rayo: The God of Lightning. The lead god. The one who provided life to the first people.
-Methods to improve agriculture are piecemeal and take a great deal of time to spread or retain. However, two field rotation is finally widespread. The land is left fallow for a year, whilst animals graze on the fallow land. It is not much, but it finally prevents villages from migrating every half century when the soil is exhausted.
-People must report for mandatory military duty to protect their villages as a kind of ad hoc militia. They sometimes carry the fight to the enemy as well. This system helps keep the villages together and aids in expansion.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Pre-Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-A new type of bow is invented. Using composite materials, it is much more powerful. Use of string to make the arrow spin in flight also improves it, resulting in much better kills when hunting. It is found to be equally effective against humans.
-The few remaining hunters spread south and east, and to reduce population pressures, bring along farmers and other assorted people to settle these lands. The original persons there are eventually displaced. Excavations reveal shattered pieces of flint in skeletons from this time.
-With increasing population pressures, the tribe is forced to send large numbers of people out to establish new villages. Marginal lands are also brought under cultivation.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Pre-Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-Around about this time, somebody has the bright idea of taking the potter’s wheel and putting it on its side, before attaching it to a log. Nobody realizes that the wheels and axle are a single solid piece of wood and difficult to move. This will probably be resolved in the future. However, it does make carrying heavy items a lot easier, especially after getting animals or people you don’t like to pull the cart.
-Using their new carts, men are carried along to the battlefield. They open with volleys of arrows and throw spears, before meeting with daggers and thrusting spears close up. With imports of Bronze from their allies on the Isle of Man, they do considerable damage to rival villages and tribes, and expand north towards the sea, mostly to secure coastal access. They are stopped however by the presence of several fortified villages, which retard attempts to push north to the coast.
-Using bronze trade, the French also manage to bully a few southern villages into joining, in return for access to bronze.
KriegsMar1ne – Britannica
Capital: Lundein
Culture: English (Pre-Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Anglican Pantheon
-Around about this time, somebody has the bright idea of taking the potter’s wheel and putting it on its side, before attaching it to a log. Nobody realizes that the wheels and axle are a single solid piece of wood and difficult to move. This will probably be resolved in the future. However, it does make carrying heavy items a lot easier, especially after getting animals or people you don’t like to pull the cart.
-Using this shitty cart, soldiers trundle southwards. Since moving overland is a tad easier (despite the lack of roads) it allows conquest of the southeast of the Isle of Man to be finished. With knowledge that inland is secure, the combination of coastal raids and land expansion helps win the southeast coast. Some of the villages hold out for longer, as they have begun to fortify themselves with earthen ramparts or timber walls.
-Attempts to create a formal military come to no avail. Most people spend their time on the farms, and anybody interested in fighting is more interested in competing in duels or actual fighting.
-Centered communities based around farming are created called Voorfarmers. A dedicated community of farmers who work together to maximize farming potential. These are a natural progression from land clearance, as it is noted that communities work well together in agriculture.
-An Establish worship and church chapter is created. Those studying religion and help spread it are named priests or priestess's. Quite quickly they become the elite in these farming communities. They take a portion of harvests as a tax, which is then used to build magnificent temples and to keep their weights triple that of the common folk, thus starting a long tradition among many men of faith. They do at least establish some degree of learning, although available to only 1% of the population.
-Boats ply the coastlines, following Cornish traders. They eventually discover the Spanish people, whom take well to trading bronze. Some men wish to migrate to the Isle of Man as well, hearing rumors about the abundance of bronze.
-Priests are told to spread their religion, but they have little interest in doing so, instead giving tithes to the gods above, whom reciprocate with bountiful harvests.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Pre-Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-During this time, new methods of food preservation are discovered. Mostly by covering food in something and seeing if it doesn’t rot. Olive oil, salt, salty water, drying, boiling and smoking have been found to increase the time that a food lasts. However, it can make the food taste better or worse as well. Meats tend to do well along with some fruits. Jam is even invented as well.
-Raids continue throughout the seas, but the other coastal villages have begun to wise up after several centuries. Some are building walls around them and creating militias to prevent ease of raids. Expansion nonetheless continues, although only along the coasts, and barely any gain is made inland. Since bronze working is common by now, bronze armor and weaponry can be used by these men for various purposes. The common farm tool is still made of flint, wood, or bone however, and so for the farmer, life is much the same now as it was thousands of years prior.
-A small group of boats sail as far west as possible, but are forced to return for supplies after reaching an island with a volcano on it. It does look fertile however, and even has people who don’t know about war.
-Traders now must pay taxes to cross waters and lands controlled by the Turk. Although annoyed, they accept that paying a tax is better than being killed and robbed. They even keep away other pirates. Taxes are higher on heretics however; hence a lot of merchants take to pretending to be religious.
-Trading posts are established with small military garrisons. They help to drive away competition and allow trade to continue much as it did before. Even an informal navy has grown.
-Attempts to find other civilizations come to naught, save for the Egyptians and Phoenicians. Most boats cannot do longer journeys, and instead stop off at villages or small towns along the way.
-The gods of the Turkish Pantheon are however pleased by this devotion to war and attempts to bring them spoils, they bring them success in warfare.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Proto-Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-During this time period, towns and villages growing on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea have slowly begun to unify under the same rulers. The town of Byblos becomes the capital of this state. The people here name themselves Canaanites, derived from the Canaanite word for merchant.
-With knowledge from Anatolia having trickled from the north, Egypt from the south, and Mesopotamia to the east, the Phoenicians manage to develop a new type of advanced boat. Utilizing both oars and sails, it can move at rapid speed no matter the weather. It can also carry large quantities of goods for trade. Given the central position of these people between various kingdoms, they have become middlemen for much trade in the area.
-A military is also formed to protect the wealth of this new city state, and some soldiers on these trading boats are well armed with sharp bronze weapons.
-Contact is made with the Empire of Dagger and Egypt, even with Mesopotamia as well through merchants. Livestock is sent as a token of goodwill.
-The Phoenician merchants later set themselves up to trade a whole manner of goods, such as foodstuffs, metals, and other luxurious items. These travel frequently in the trade triangle consisting of the lands between the Empire of Dagger, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
-Pathways are hacked into the soil and laid with stones around Byblos to facilitate travel. Irrigation channels are also dug to help with agriculture.
Damian0358 – Drslava
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Pre-Proto-Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism
-Sometime during the 4th millennium BCE, a new language has begun to break off from the older Indo-European common tongue (which is already dying out). The speakers of this new language settle the center-east of this European peninsula, establishing farming villages unified under the same religious and linguistic ties. The Mrvians settled in south-eastern Moravia, creating the monarchy of Drslava and the capital of Velehrad, which is the seat of the monarch. They established territories near the Morava River.
-These people manage to invent a calendar. In earlier times, farming north of the Balkans was difficult due to predicting winter. However, with this new calendar, one can quite easily record the length of years, set dates for religious rituals, know the best times to plant crops, predict the weather to a degree, and settle disputes or win bets.
-The king, Vnislav I Otradovec, calls for the establishment of trade on the Morava and Danube. Traders from the Laubergian tribes manage to help establish that another political entity exists besides them. They also enjoy trading, and given ready access to the great river, it makes travel between the two considerably easy.
-As the population steadily grows, they colonize up and down parts of the great river. The priestly class begins to grow, and calls for the erection of stone megaliths for both practical and faithful purposes. These megaliths would continue to be fascinating structures for many more years.
-A small defensive militia is also established. They mostly consist of a few people to catch troublemakers, drive off wild animals, and to patrol at dark. They have no uniform save a feather in their caps.
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Ruskie – Sitä rohkea hampurilainenkunta ja läpättääistan
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-The Taputtaailainen people end up settling Manhattan. They name it Juutalainen kaupunki, and begin to rub their hands in preparation of conquest and wealth.
-During this time, the bow and arrow is invented for the first time in North America. A useful device in hunting and war, it helps extensively with both.
-They then move eastwards to conquer the island they have begun on; although in some cases they persuade the peoples living there that they are truly working in their interests. Keeping aside food and using it for blackmail during famine is one such trick.
Turn 3: 3000 to 2500 BCE
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Political map of Turn 3
Cultural map of Turn 3
Religious map of Turn 3
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41628672#post41628672
Events of the years 3000 to 2500BCE:
-Humans continue with their curious activities. The first appearances of mega architecture, imperialism, organized absolutism and internal revolution are now around, with the Bronze Age fully in swing.
-Mesopotamia gradually evolves into a series of volatile city states competing for power.
-Egypt passes through the first four dynasties of pharaohs. Priests become powerful towards the end of this period.
-The Indus valley civilization appears, with sophisticated urban centers and a great deal of trade and activities going on, including a form of writing invented.
-Some organized civilizations with urban centers, organized religions, and centralized power structures with defined hierarchies begin to develop in East Asia.
-Prehistory is ending as writing disseminates and develops to the degree that accurate records of historical events are now being kept.
-Europe seems to be certainly changing. As lands become slowly scarcer in fertile areas, and the population grows, there are only two ways left, to innovate, or invade. The latter is easier, given that you could choose between spending 10 years draining marshes and cutting trees, or killing a man and moving into his hut, which takes about 30 minutes.
-Hillforts begin to become more common at this time. Archaeologists and ancient historians believe it is correlated with the rise of interstate warfare.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Pre-Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Four elements
-As people move around, they tend to bring knowledge of the wider world and curious objects back with them. Either due to knowledge or acquirement, a new type of composite bow is invented. Although it does poorly in wet or damp, it is extremely powerful and capable of driving arrows at great speed into unwilling targets. The use of string to induce spinning, and firing in unison, also makes groups of drilled archers terrifying to face in battle.
-As the villages of the Spanish grow, bud, splinter, and otherwise spread outwards, eventually a rival polity consisting of a fortified town and satellite villages is discovered. It uses a strange construction of massive stone and earth walls, preventing anyone from easily raiding the village. A protracted siege eventually brings it down, and the Spanish archers make short work of the opposition. The vassal villages surrender without a fight, and whilst some soldiers are content with looting, some ambitious men are increasingly making themselves rulers of these new villages.
-Boats sail along the coasts and eventually meet with sailors from other civilizations. Those from the so called Isle of Man, and those who name themselves Frogs. Trade links are set up, although these civilizations barely contact each other beyond trade.
-The faith is also taught to some people. Given that local religions tend to be similar, it mostly involves the former religious elite in conquered areas simply changing a few nouns.
-Extensive tin deposits are discovered. With some access to copper, and arrival of the art of bronze working, this area is becoming one of the bronze age trading hubs.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Pre-Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-As the culture and religious beliefs of these people develop, an early caste system seen as “ideal” is developing. In this hierarchy, farmers and warriors come primarily well off under this. To be a warrior also confers a hereditary title. Naturally, as lands and titles begin to merge, a landowning warrior class is slowly evolving.
-The class system is structured as follows:
- Chief
- Chief's Personal 'Cabinet' (house of elders)
- Elder citizens
- Warriors
- Farmers
- Workers
- Servants
-The class system is divided among these ranks. The lower classes cannot progress, but higher classes can be knocked downwards as ordered by the chief (usually from dishonorable actions).
-Within a few centuries, the Elder citizen and Warrior classes end up merging, whilst servants become increasingly composed of, and treated like slaves and second class citizens. Soon after, it becomes nearly impossible to move out of one’s social class.
-The Laubergians declare that they shall be peaceful, and go to war only rarely.
-Several years later, they requisition the land of a hilltop village, and after it rebels, the inhabitants are mostly murdered. The children and women are raped or sold into slavery, and the lands divided up.
-Expansion continues as a growth in population leads to gradual “colonization”, with the warrior class protecting these new farmers. It is noticed that expansion happens the fastest and most brutally in areas practicing Gavelkind succession.
-With copper extraction and trade now common, copper ingots become a form of exchange. Reasonably valuable, they help to integrate the area into economies further to the east, and help to grant it access to valuable bronze.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Pre-Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-Gradually, as the priests, merchants, bureaucrats, and other sorts need a way to keep reliable records, they end up slowly developing a form of writing, using carvings in stone, metal, and wood. Some even write down historical events, bringing an end to prehistory here.
-As coastal access is now paramount to control of the river, and much trade in the area, along with access to Bronze, the French try to bully these coastal villages into joining. Few accept, and mostly due to being diplomatically isolated.
-The French then engage in a series of bloody wars, using wagons full of men to travel to the field. The opposing forces have started to do this as well, but the organization of the French and ability to wage a war of attrition means that it wins in the end. A siege on a coastal town is noted for being the first recorded assault on fortifications in history, using ropes and ladders to climb up.
-All men must report for military service when the ruler commands it, of course, young sons are quite happy to engage in this activity, and do informal raids on the ruler’s behalf.
-As other villages are in French influence, they begin to redirect trade and pay tribute in the hopes they don’t get invaded.
-With coastal access, trade is starting to grow now that the French have control of the trade routes. At least they protect traders from ruffians, as that means they can tax them for more later.
KriegsMar1ne – Britannica
Capital: Lundein
Culture: English (Pre-Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Anglican Pantheon
-Other than the usual events of society, little much else of interest happens. Trade continues as before, military raids occur, but no expansion is made, and internal colonization slowly occurs. This does give neighbors respite, and eventually hill forts begin to pop up throughout southern Britain.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Pre-Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-With such dependence on their ships, it would make sense to improve on designs. Shipbuilders add a whole myriad of various sails, strengthen the hull, add banks of oars, and carve intricate designs into the ships. The occupants of these vessels are the speediest in the known world, carrying both men and goods.
-A whole group of ships are collected along with raiders for a full out proper invasion. They decide to invade the peaceful island of Crete, and end up taking it over with considerable ease. Conquest does take a few decades to complete, with many isolated communities hanging on for quite some time. The peoples were seemingly to be in the process of developing a civilization before this interruption, with innovations like writing, palaces, and flush toilets. The new rulers meanwhile, are content with this new base for naval raids, rich agricultural soil from volcanic activity, and the trade abundant. A capital is created here, named Siyaset. The Minoan civilization passes into obscurity after a brief flash of existence.
-Apart from that, little expansion is made. Many other towns and villages are building walls and calling upon each other to aid in times of attack, given that these rascals and pirates from Anatolia are killing, looting, and raping without end.
-Slaves are used to pave roads throughout the Empire, worked to death in some instances to make these strange stone pathways. It does help facilitate movement however, and means that armies can march quickly in times of trouble. Some merchants even sneak along them and pay bribes or tolls for ease of travel.
-Monuments of pointless dimensions are constructed. Reaching high into the sky and made of rock, timber, clay, mud, and bricks, these structures are used for religious rituals or palatial homes for the rulers. Well-fortified and towering over the land, they remind the peasantry what it means to be a peasant.
-Due to how many young men wish to fight for glory and loot, conscription is unnecessary, but becomes a more ritualized and formal process. One must remain a virgin until they kill a man in combat. Heretics are also taxed heavily (termed the Cizye tax) for the privilege of being second class citizens.
-Missionaries that leave the comfort of the temple to preach the word of the gods tend to end up murdered, and so make little headroom in converting heathens.
-Trade with the Phoenicians begins to grow exponentially, especially after the conquest of Crete.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Proto-Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Annoyed at the crudeness of early wagons, the Phoenicians decide to directly nail axles to the underside of a wagon, and have the wheel spin around the outside. They also manage to hollow out parts of the wheel and make it thinner, along with reducing the weight of the wagon. These various improvements lead to carts becoming faster, lighter, less tricky to steer, and useful for even more purposes. Given the size and wealth of this city state, the invention becomes common within a few years, leading to a boom in trade.
-As galleys develop in the city state, somebody looks at the sharp prow and wonders if it could pierce a ships hull. A test is done with two aged galleys, but the impact manages to completely shatter the front of the attacking vessel, and both go down in the harbor. Many years later, underwater archaeologists would laugh after finding what looked like a ramming action backfiring.
-The slightly more structurally secure galleys go on to explore the rest of the Mediterranean Sea, where they discover the Cretans developing a civilization. They are conquered within a century of formal contact however. Other explorations and traders manage to push as far as the Adriatic Sea and the island of Sicily. They are helped considerably due to not pillaging the people they discover, and sometimes even set up trade links. The spread of the Empire of Dagger is causing damage to trade however. There are rumors of a tribe of Laubergians from the traders, said to be a people with access to Bronze, knowing yet another civilization beyond Laubergian lands.
-Trade routes are gradually set up and spread. Byblos is starting to become the hub for trade routes from all over the known world. Mesopotamia, Egypt, Dagger, Minoa, Spain, Laubergia, and even goods from further afield sometimes appear. The Indus Valley and the Mrvians seem to produce items of worth.
-Most trading villages and towns begin to align closely with the city state of Byblos, enjoying the good trade deals to be had.
Damian0358 – Drslava
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Pre-Proto-Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism
-The Mrvian people seem unusually inventive. After discovery of tin deposits this naturally makes them able to export tin at premium prices down the Danube river and also southwest towards the Adriatic. However, moving it overland takes time and one Middle Eastern invention eventually finds its way here. It is the wheeled cart, which the Mrvians improve on after noticing ruts forming in the ground from the wheels. They start making axles of uniform width, and pave the ruts so as to create crude wagonways. This helps considerably when moving heavy tin ores and goods overland.
-To celebrate the newfound local monopoly of tin, a defensive militia is named the "Albatros", and are given special bronze armor, to differentiate it from any future militia that might be made.
-Horses are also brought over, and used to pull carts, although it is found that oxen are better suited. Horses seem too weak and small for the job, although they do travel faster with light loads. Some people try to ride them, but the weakness of the horse and lack of a seat makes this considerably difficult.
-The king requests that a building called a "Skijola" is to be constructed in a village. When built, people would head to this building to be educated in the multiple ways of the kingdom, such as the language of Mrvian (through oral tales and legends), farming, to train priests for calendars and the human body. These all interlink in an almost religious manner, and the religion of these peoples is gradually solidified through this communal and popular system. The King wants religious freedom, but his subjects find this absurd and fear that he will anger the gods by this.
-Settlements continue to spread along the rivers of Central Europe, mostly on a southeast trajectory through the Danube river basin. Fertile soil allows for dense population concentrations as well. Contact with the Laubergians grows to the extent that they are seen as a distinct people, rather than half legends and stories from travelers.
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Ruskie – Sitä rohkea hampurilainenkunta ja läpättääistan
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-Quite amazingly, these near savages manage to invent a crude form of writing. Given that they consist of a few thousand people hunting and farming using little more than wooden sticks and their own shit this is surprising. They invent a script which can record down messages, and at the very least, prevents good ideas from passing away into oblivion. They then finally establish this entire island as ancestral homelands, having driven away or assimilated all other competing cultures.
-The people here, given that their religion is about figuring out how the world works, decide to spend their free time thinking about things and writing them down. Some crude pictures of the skies show that they manage to work out the movements of various planets and stars, plus they even manage to apply this knowledge to hunting and agriculture.
-Manhattan islands total GDP for 2500 BCE is 40 dollars (adjusted for inflation).
Turn 4: 2500 to 2000 BCE
Political map of Turn 4
Cultural map of Turn 4
Religious map of Turn 4
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41653683&viewfull=1#post41653683
Events of the years 2500 to 2000BCE:
-The wheel spreads to almost every agricultural society in Europe. The spoked wheel meanwhile is independently invented throughout much of the Middle East and the Indus Valley.
-Writing is now widespread in most sedentary societies. The Phoenician alphabet covers any areas that have not yet invented their own.
-Trade in the Adriatic begins to decline, along with the towns there. Having previously profited from the movement in bronze southwards, the Danube is now the center of this trade. Many towns shrink back into fishing villages and contact with the east ceases.
-Trade routes in the Near East have begun to fluctuate between the Phoenicians and the Empire of Dagger. Pirates are near gone in those areas, but many city states favor the Phoenicians due to their lower taxes and less belligerent foreign policy. Roughly speaking, Mrvia, Empire of Dagger, Laubergia, and Greece, all are roughly in the same trading zone. Phoenicia trades throughout much of the Near East. An overlap exists over Greece, Southern Anatolia, and Crete.
-Egypt collapses and then reunifies under a new kingdom. Food production is increased by conversion of swamps to farmland.
-The Akkadian Empire forms, created through the work of Sargon of Akkad. It then collapses. Later, it is replaced by Sumer.
-Urban areas in China are forming for the first time. Along with Bronze usage and record keeping, there are guesses that Chinese civilization began at the end of this period.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Four elements
-Trade with the east begins to gradually expand. Traders bring back the idea of writing, which gradually diffuses over these centuries to become a tool for record keeping. Eventually, these symbols start to represent sounds rather than ideas or objects. Some people are even recording the events of kings, famines, disease, and rarely even everyday life.
-As a way to capture coastal villages, galleys begin to have decks full of archers on them, firing volleys into the villages from the sea. This initially works, until people start setting fire to arrows. The boat builders respond by covering the sides with wet hides. Unfortunately, due to the poor design of the boats, they can only become so big before they collapse from the weight of archers, or capsize due to attempts to put towers on them.
-Inland expansion is harder, as fortified towns require to be besieged before an assault can be made, if ever.
-Nonetheless, the available records tell us that this culture continued to spread, mostly down the Atlantic coastline, with some limited pushes inland nearby fresh water and good soil.
-Traders heading around also notice the availability of carts. They bring the idea back with them, although they are already spreading pretty rapidly, and within a century of introduction, have already spread into Northern Africa.
-The Spanish find out the story of the Phoenician galley incident, and promptly laugh.
-Spanish missionaries spread outwards to spread the faith, but there is little interest in their gods. The reply is “we already have enough gods thanks”.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-With improving leatherworking techniques and use of cattle, somebody decides to invent a leather cuirass. It is able to usually deflect blows from sharpened flint and sometimes even bronze, and the nobility take to it with earnest. Boiling the leather also improves the strength of it.
-Trade is now well established with the Mrvians, whereby copper is sold to them in exchange for tin. Trade however, begins to decline to the south and with the Mrvians to an extent. Travel down the Danube is easier and faster, bypassing the need to sail via the Adriatic. Eventually, Laubergia can only export copper to the Mrvians, as all trade southwards is now effectively dead.
-Earth and timber ramparts begin to be built around villages as a form of protection. Engraved bronze ingots are found buried in them as a religious charm. There is also evidence to suggest that they are reaching uniform weight and size, and have seen extensive use as a means of exchange.
-Evidence of Tin and Copper ingots is now also common, moreso in the area close to the Mrvian culture.
-Bands of warriors now patrol the “borders” of the Laubergians, hoping to deter any nasty sorts. They do not do much minus round up ruffians and prevent livestock from straying however.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-With demand for precious and utilitarian metals naturally rising, it makes sense to improve mining techniques. Hardened pickaxes using bronze, whilst costly, do improve production. The heads are also shaped to be used for multiple other uses (like killing) so as to increase the functionality of the tool. Rock crushing, sifting mud and rocks through filters, improved ovens to smelt copper and tin, plus other methods, are used to try and boost production of copper and tin. A few scraps of pure iron are found as well, and used to make small ornaments. The exchange rate of iron to silver is about 1:40.
-With increasing sophistication and wealth, along with a want to control coastal trade, the French move westwards, seizing coastal villages with little opposition. However, men come down from hillforts to do constant raids and it takes many years for them for eventually give in. By 2000 BCE, most places have some kind of earthen or stone ramparts.
-However, peaceful expansion is just as common, and as time goes on, increasing populations leads to migrations, and in turn, to settlement. Unfortunately, most of these areas are of poor quality soil or require marshes to be drained and forests cut down. Many other villages are fortified and put up some resistance, or try to screw over newcomers with various tricks.
KriegsMar1ne – Britannica
Capital: Lundein
Culture: English (Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Anglican Pantheon
-With little happening, the Kingdom begins to decay from within. The Beaker people are spreading through the area now, and beginning to undermine the religious and cultural values of the English. By 2000 BCE, it begins to lose power over the furthest borders.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-In response to the development of strong defensive walls, the first siege weapons follow. Ladders are an obvious invention, but more resilient towns require battering rams and towers on walls. Raids are less feasible unless in large numbers, but it allows assaults on fortified areas to proceed much more easily.
-With the advent of these, they begin pushing into Anatolia. Raids on the Greeks occur, but no permanent conquest can be made due to the more warlike peoples living here.
-The campaigns in Anatolia go exceedingly well with the use of a strong centralized state and powerful, hard hitting armies.
-However, people are sick of these invasions, and have responded with trying to form military alliances and trying to push back these invasions. When counter-raids are common, the Empire responds by constructing large walls around their settlements.
-The capital of the Empire is now importing food from further afield, paid for by trade tolls and conquest loot. It is massive, with a population in the tens of thousands. Meanwhile, smaller farmers are having their lands slowly confiscated by the new lords made rich from war. They keep many of them as slaves and build magnificent palaces for themselves.
-The ships of the Empire hunt down pirates throughout the area, and also try to subtly divert trade towards them. This has come to annoy the Phoenician merchants significantly. However, diverting trade is difficult, as trade tolls in Phoenicia are lower, and the city states believe themselves to have better luck with a less warlike people.
-The first schools are established. These schools are established mostly to educate the religious elite, although a few nobles’ children or mercantile types are seen in them as well. The basics of literacy and mathematics is taught. The Phoenician alphabet is now also here, and sometimes pops up in common use.
-During this time, massive coastal raids are attempted on Egypt. The Egyptian records tell of a “Sea Peoples” contributing to great calamity in the lands. These sea peoples demand tribute, but the Egyptian state is already in turmoil. 5 dynasties pass in a small period of just 40 years. The “Old Kingdom” collapses and decentralized polities rule as the kingdom is divided. The raiders never get their tribute. When the kingdom finally reunifies, it makes a strong effort to hunt down these raiders and to push them from their lands.
-Mrvian and Laubergian metals have to pass through this Empire, so it naturally forms a monopoly on them. To the South and East of Crete, the Phoenicians control trade.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Proto-Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-During this time, the Phoenicians hear about the various alphabets of the foreigners they trade with. Seeing the advantages in creating their own, they invent a script using a rather sparse number of symbols to represent sounds. Alf, bet, gaml, delt are the first four symbols. They are very successful, and begin to spread through trade links. Any civilizations without their own alphabets, very quickly adopt this flexible one.
-Trade galleys now travel in convoys, so as to ward off pirates. Mock wars with old ships are also done to prevent laziness, and efforts are made to make them faster.
-A great stone wall is constructed around Byblos, and all new buildings outside must be constructed 100 metres away from it. Given the security of staying inside, many buildings begin to grow taller or convert farmland into housing. By the end of this period, all agricultural activities have moved outside the walls.
-Gold mining also begins, and a large new port is constructed with many wharves for large trade ships. This trade hub is growing rich, yet attacks by pirates are repelled due to the strength of the navy.
-Other coastal towns and cities states are asked if they wish to become protectorates in return for protection of their trade routes. They agree, and a league of cities begins to grow on the wealth of expanding trade.
-Competition with the Empire of Dagger begins to increase as their ships and trade laws try to divert trade routes towards them.
-Contact with the Empire of Dagger is made, but without talking to the ruler of the Empire directly, no diplomacy can occur.
-Expeditions continue to travel westwards. Contact with Italy occurs, but it has little of value worth trading. Greece by contrast, is doing far better, to the extent that they are now developing sophisticated civilizations.
-Laubergian traders are now known by people, although they live a considerable distance inland. Representative of them are the merchants, whom actually rank poorly in that society. Declining trade in Laubergia also means that by the year 2000 BCE, hardly any Phoenician traders go that way anymore.
Damian0358 – Drslava
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Pre-Proto-Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism
-Seeing that trade is essential to the wellbeing of the Mrvian people, new river boats are built. With flat bottoms, sails, oars, and a light weight allowing them to be dragged overland by teams of animals or men, they are very flexible. They manage to sail right down the Danube River and into the Aegean and Adriatic seas. What’s even better, is that trade no longer needs to travel southwards through Laubergia. Trade increasingly moves eastwards.
-A new section is given to the "Skijola" called "Zikludne vlcvik", where people that join the militia are given instruction by elders.
-In light of the Laubergians declaring themselves peaceful, the king announces that the kingdom shall be peaceful as well.
-With the staggering popularity of the "Skijola", the King requests that more Skijolas must be built in the kingdom, including one in the capital. Eventually, one is now in almost every village, as a kind of shrine to all the gods.
-Farmers are told to attempt to create the hybrid between an ox and a horse. It is assumed a joke, although a dim farmer is reported to have sworn an oath to deliver the king one. Records of the event are damaged beyond readability in Mrvia, but contemporary records from Phoenicians, Laubergians, and the Turks mention this event. The Mrvian records appear as though they were chipped with a pick in an attempt to erase them, and the marks also indicating that whoever did this, was in a hurry.
-Archaeologists discover a horse skeleton and ox skeleton together when digging in a Bronze Age farm in the late 20th century, buried at the bottom of a pit. The top is full of curses on people whom disturb the site. Both skeletons are badly mangled. Chipped and snapped bones are seen, and perhaps most curiously, evidence that they healed and were damaged multiple times, indicating that whatever happened to cause this damage, was over a period of several years.
-The bones are quietly removed to the basement of a university after a recreation of events is constructed using 3d modelling. The short film is leaked to the internet, but is banned in all countries.
-An economic alliance is made with the Laubergians formally called the "Bronze Alliance". Tin is given to them, in exchange for copper. However, the Danube trade mostly makes this moot, with the result that more travels in the Mrvian direction than towards Laubergia.
-Following expanding trade, trade posts and villages spread down the Danube into the Pannonia basin.
-After hearing that his subjects consider religious freedom absurd, he attempts to pray to the gods, in regards of this topic. He sees them and they tell him that "They have chosen Drslava to be the safehaven for every religion in this world and, if he revokes the kingdom's god-given freedom of religion, that the kingdom will suffer to no end". After he stopped praying, he tells his subjects what had happened.
-The people assume that a pantheon of gods of varying powers must exist. Therefore, in order to avoid calamities, all should be listened to in case those gods are real. The people are still wishing that the king do sacrifices to the gods and give support to the establishment of temples and rituals. Most importantly, a name should be given to the Mrvian pantheon of gods.
-Tin ingots are adopted as a form of currency, although Bronze and Copper ingots are used likewise for similar purposes.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With the advent of strong textile cloth, somebody has the bright idea of attaching it to a stick and then putting that stick on a boat. Quite quickly, one can travel on this sailing boat and move goods and people around with ease. Rowers can help speed it up as well, or go upriver.
-The people change the name of their tribe to Valittu kauppias mailla, partly as acknowledgement of their new heritage. The culture meanwhile changes to Kauppiaat during this time in a gradual shift. Some adhere to the old ways, but these do not survive long.
-Jetties and wharves begin to be built in natural harbours around Long Island, used as staging points for boats to stop off. Due to the small concentration of peoples, they all tend to know each other well, and have good and reliable information networks. The advent of the sailing boat improves the feasible range of these networks over into the mainland.
-Settlement of the mainland slowly begins. The locals are already well known through trade, and they are happy to allow them in. Bribes of local rulers and gifts also help seal the deal.
-Through extensive trade and barter, these traders manage to discover of new hunting methods, bows and arrows, various flint tools, etc, but little else. Agriculture is incredibly primitive still, given that they are the only civilization with it in North America. Nonetheless, due to the inability to farm for extended periods of time, it forces movement around, particularly up the Hudson river. There is little distinction between hunter gatherers and these islands, although their farming methods are now spreading beyond their borders.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-The Bantu migrated southwards with considerable speed in the past, reaching South Africa by 2000bc. They settle down, and form the Zulu Kingdom.
-Agriculture is introduced, and in order to prevent the soil being worn out, a crop is grown on one patch of soil, and the next year, cattle is grazed on it. By rotating this yearly, one can allow the soil to regenerate, and to allow for the rearing of many cows along with growing grains and grasses as secondary food.
-Cowhide shields are made, with short stabbing spears as a weapon. Men are made to march barefoot to maintain discipline amongst them. They do well in raids on opposing tribes, capturing many heads of cattle or humans.
-All the old elders are killed and their chattels given to soldiers, in what looks like a small scale coup. Whatever happened, these people are on a different path now.
Turn 5: 2000 to 1500 BCE
Zimerman plays Chopin Ballade No. 1
Turn music
Political map of Turn 5
Cultural map of Turn 5
Religious map of Turn 5
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41680716&viewfull=1#post41680716
Events of the years 2000 to 1500BCE:
-Volcanic eruptions during this time cause global cooling and destroy many towns in the Aegean and Italian areas. This seriously damages trade and agriculture, with the result that many crop failures or diminished harvests lead to an exacerbation of initial problems caused by the eruptions.
-As a result of declining demand for bronze, reduced agricultural productivity, volcanic eruptions, and migrations of hungry peoples, political instability is now rife. These all lead to knock on effects on trade, meaning that a decline in bronze and farming output is having a knock on effect on other activities. Piracy returns as navies generally become less well funded and weaker, with trade also weakening from piracy.
-Central Asian peoples migrate into the Middle East, Europe, and the Indus, displacing the native inhabitants. Speaking Indo-European languages and bringing strange new inventions called chariots; they bring many problems for the natives, and end up creating their own states. The Greeks are one of the migratory peoples, who begin to displace the original inhabitants of Greece as they push southwards.
-The Indus valley civilization declines with the invasions of the Aryans. By 1700 BCE, they are gone completely, the cities left in ruins. Climate change also aids this decline, forcing migration to the east, mostly due to changes in monsoon weather patterns as a result of cooling weather.
-The mammoth goes extinct. The last group dies as a pygmy version of the once great creatures in Wrangel Island. The blamed cause is cooling of the climate, leading to starvation as food becomes scarce.
-Glass is invented in the near east. The element mercury is also discovered.
-Failed harvests, political instability, economic decline, and migrations; lead to the collapse of the Egyptian middle kingdom. A resurgence and then later expansion result in the addition of large parts of Judea.
-The first fragments of carbon steel are made in central Anatolia, although more of a rarity than the start of iron manufacture. By the 1700s BCE, the first evidence of Iron smelting and manufacture is underway, although the metal is actually weaker than Bronze and rarer, mainly used for jewellery. With the focus on Bronze anyways, there is little economic incentive for iron until much later.
-The Xia dynasty in China collapses, to be replaced by the Shang. Agriculture is introduced to Korea and Japan.
-Hammurabi forms and rules over a majestic Babylonian empire during this time. He writes the first code of laws in history. His empire is later destroyed by the Hittites by 1500 BCE. Elam, Babylonia, Assyria, and the Mitanni form in the wake of the destruction.
-The Mycenae peoples are ruling in Greece during this time.
-The Euganei of Northern Italy are displaced by the Laubergian peoples.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Four elements
-With growing populations in urban areas and the rise of inter-state warfare, the need has come for strong buildings, roads, bridges, and defensive structures that are not meant to last mere decades, but potentially hundreds of years of continuous use. Masonry is developed as a trade during this time, with masons taking on apprentices and being paid to help design and construct large buildings rivalling anything the ancients of the Neolithic built.
-The Spanish continue to expand, although diplomacy and blackmail factor into it more. Sometimes it is advantageous to trade with towns and villages (many of which are well defended and populated by angry persons). Inland expansion is still slow, especially due to the difficulty of ploughing new soils, deforesting areas needed for agriculture, and general expansion of the population. Nonetheless, expansion still occurs.
-Trade begins to decline. Whilst demand for bronze and local goods is still common in the west, hardly any ships go to the south any longer. Talks of nobody buying bronze anymore in the Far East are common. A move back to agriculture or fishing is now underway.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-The horse is domesticated to its full potential at this time. Selective breeding results in them growing larger. Improved harnesses and the advent of saddles allow them to be ridden and to drag carts. Soon enough, the nobility of Laubergia fight from horseback, with some merchants able to hire them to deliver letters or small goods.
-Taxation is introduced for the first time, whereby a portion of harvests are collected from each village and used for the upkeep of soldiers, maintaining religious buildings, and various other communal projects.
-Demand for copper mysteriously begins to drop, and now the Laubergians are suffering from the decline in trade pretty badly. Many traders move back to farming, and the social system stagnates.
-Almost no expansion occurs during this time, so people instead begin internal colonization on a greater scale. A combination of deforestation, declining southern trade, cooling climate, and erosion leads to many farms being abandoned in the south of Laubergia. Weak control of the south and economic decline there leads to the state unable to assert their authority any longer, paving the way for migrations.
-The migrations begin, with people splitting off from the Laubergians and heading south in search of new homes. This results in the displacement of Euganai peoples. They also intermix with them, adopting some of their culture and religions.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Proto-Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-Continued improvements in agriculture occur in this productive land. Vegetable gardens pop up with increased frequency as various new plants spread around the continent. They help to supplement the diet well. Herbs are also grown along with early orchards, and the diets of people are slowly becoming more varied and healthy. Of course, this is assuming that harvests are rich, which happens some years. Continued sacrifices and rituals or deals continue with the local deities. Of course, the local wolf goddess of the French people is claimed to hold back harvests some years, much to their annoyance.
-Cooling climate and declining trade leads to many difficulties for these people despite these improvements. Deflation of prices occurs with a sudden drop in demand for bronze overseas leading to some Mannish or Spanish merchants cutting prices in a bid to offload now worthless metals. Some people are even using bronze tools in agriculture now.
-Expansion continues as in prior centuries. Villages are invaded, otherwise forced to join via blackmail, or even do well enough from trade that they willingly join in return for military protection.
-The Ruler dies of some uncertain causes. With his death, a new movement comes into play. They advocate internal colonization of marginal areas, draining of marshes, and deforestation. Whilst initially successful at slowing down expansion into contested lands, it does begin to reduce food yields gradually as the soils are poorer. Robbery and crime rates increase, with the result that villages increasingly employ local watchmen and thief takers. Any existing villages of opposing faiths or cultures are quickly integrated.
KriegsMar1ne – Britannica
Capital: Lundein
Culture: English (Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Anglican Pantheon
-Through internal struggles, economic decline, displacement by new or competing cultures, and war, Britannica fades away into the annals of history. They have definitely left an impact and legacy however, and the peoples here are by no means no longer trading, warring, or otherwise engaging in other such activities. The cooling climate and declining bronze trade finishes it off for good.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-Much of Crete and other coastal areas are badly damaged by the eruption of volcanoes in the Aegean. These places, dependent on trade for their wealth, don’t recover. Declining agricultural output and trade means that the naval bases here aren’t even repaired a century after the eruption. Piracy begins to resurface around Crete, and control of the island begins to weaken.
-The Emperor declares a war on the Hittites. These are newcomers to the area, having settled in central Anatolia and displacing the Hatti people.
-Migrations are set in motion however, with refugees and raids flooding into the Empire of Dagger. The wars with the Hittites do not go as planned. No naval battles can occur, for the Hittites are based inland. With this in mind, overland attempts at conquest routinely fail, mainly due to declining quality of the army.
-The chariot is introduced to the Empire. It is adopted by the army for use in warfare, and by the nobility for travel and hunting.
-The motto of the Empire becomes: "If it looks at us funny, invade it."
-Cemal, chief architect builds a Military Academy in the capital. It is used to train future generals, because throwing burly men at each other is not the only way of doing things.
-Linear A, a native Minoan writing system, is adopted as the official script of the Empire. The rival alphabets are discouraged.
-A diplomatic treaty is signed with the Phoenicians: Reduction of tariffs and taxes on merchants operating under both states. Phoenicia will subsidize the Daggerian navy and armies.
-However, the Daggerian economy starts to go into decline. The ports begin to gradually become quieter and trade slackens. With the cooling climate and declining demand for bronze, tax revenue and agricultural output goes down and with it, the ability to maintain the army.
-Many of the great cities see a dispersal of peoples to the countryside. Greek barbarians are pushing from the west and many great old buildings fall into decay.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Proto-Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-With the spread of iron working from the Hittites and other such traders, the Canaanites eventually develop iron working for their own uses. Originally for jewellery and the rich, improvement of it slowly occurs over the course of several centuries. Whilst as strong as bronze, it is also more plentiful (albeit needing a hotter furnace). Demand for bronze begins to decline and imports of copper and tin from Crete, Mrvia, Laubergia, Spain, and Mann, also decline.
-Records of battles begin to be kept, mainly for histories or as reference to for later people engaging in naval warfare. The vowel appears suddenly in these records, and the alphabet continues to evolve.
-Naval resupply vessels are introduced, whereby a friendly vessel can sail out to meet one low on supplies and restock it. Of course, this requires a network of well supplied bases. Whilst expensive, it helps contribute to reducing piracy. However, the system breaks down with the bronze trade collapse.
-Unfortunately, the decline in trade makes it hardly worthwhile. Put under additional strain, the Phoenician navy cannot deal with the pirates of the Aegean. Declining demand for bronze means that there is little point to do so anyways. The Egyptians are suffering likewise, and trade further declines.
-Inevitable deflation also hampers trade as populations are culled through famines and war. The Phoenicians luckily escape, but are left with large numbers of bronze and iron in stock. The concept of a bank is invented as a place to store these. Starting as blacksmiths lending to poor farmers unable to buy the tools themselves, they repay in the form of harvests. A proliferation of iron tools results.
-The Egyptians eventually arrive near the Phoenicians. However, the remaining cities trading with Phoenicia quickly submit vassalage and raise a huge army to intimidate the Egyptians into backing down. The Egyptians do not dare try to attack such a confident league of wealthy cities, especially ones armed with iron.
-Expeditions head outwards to try and work out why the situation is overall crap. Heading to Mesopotamia, to the Mrvians on the Danube, and to Sardinia, they do not learn much minus an affliction to crops and poverty brought on by declining use of bronze. They do find areas suitable to colonize however, particularly along the North African coast, Sicily, and Sardinia. Hardly settled and good for farming, it is thought these can have colonies established for purposes of trade and food.
-A diplomatic treaty is signed with the Daggerians:
--Reduction of tariffs and taxes on merchants operating under both states.
--Phoenicia will subsidize the Daggerian navy and armies.
-Horses are imported from the peoples of the Pontic steppe, and used by the nobility.
-The Writings of αηιραμ the Elder, circa 1900 BCE:
Phoenician people worship not only their gods, but their wares. And as Phoenicians worship a myriad array of gods and practice myriad religions, there are myriad goods passing through Byblos. Sheep, Trinkets and Incense often sit within 4 or 5 cubits of each other at market, and they are normally sold within a short amount of time. And bags full of these goods are sent on galleys to various destinations across the sea. And the sea is not the only place where these goods arrive from, oh no. Goods from Mesopotamia, Egypt, Dagger...
Last week I bought myself a small statue, around a palm in height. It is woman, with four arms. No-one I know worships the god that I assume the statue resembles, so I must draw the conclusion that it is from the east, maybe the north. However, this is typical of the goods that pass through Byblos.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Pre-Proto-Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-Understandly, people travelling great distances need to record landmarks, settlements, roads, and ways to understand where they are in relation to them. The first maps appear, mostly as heavily distorted scrolls showing roads and rivers, with little care to dimensions beyond recording distances. They are initially used by merchants and Kings. Some versions later appear that are like encyclopaedias, with fantastic beasts and peoples drawn on them.
-A new defensive militia called the "Grlnce" is formed, with the purpose of defending the "border".
-The king changes the name of the kingdom to Velkij Donaljea, in tribute to the Danube, source of the wealth and prosperity of the Kingdom.
-The king declares all territory to the east that the Danube passes through is rightful Mrvian territory. Expansion occurs along roughly that path, although the Mrvians branch outwards into the as of yet unnamed plains between the mountains.
-A letter is sent to the Empire of Dagger, informing them to stay away from the great river unless they mean no conquest.
-Seeing that the people still wish for the Mrvian religion to be organized, the King prays to the gods once more. He sees them once more and asks them what to do. They tell him not to worry and disappear, leaving a tablet behind.
-The King reads the tablet: It speaks of the five gods he sees appear in front of them: Cherlivgob, the god of chaos; Rudagest, the god of hospitality; Dunalvija, the god of water; Porenper, the god of thunder; and Dižbeg, the protector of the world and the head god. It also speaks of the female witch and rival of the gods, Bajba Ylaga, who was the controller of death. The gods do not approve of sacrifices and rituals, as they believe they are Bajba Ylaga's work.
-The tablet also states the land of Drslava, the birth land of the gods, must always stay a place for religious freedom, to keep the religious purity of the land that the gods remember from their youth, and will crush any foreign nation that attempts to establish a specific religion in the state.
-The king once more tells his subjects that the gods have spoken to him once more and that, for those who wants a religion of the pantheon of gods the Mrvians have, can have it, but to not anger the gods, Apatheism will stay. The information on the tablet becomes the Mrvian religion of Pržk (the start of Slavic paganism) and the tablet itself is named the Lesch.
-However, poor agricultural output leads to many people migrating along the Danube to search for less exhausted lands. They end up pushing out some of the original inhabitants in the process. It is rumoured they are heading south.
-Relative decline of trade has brought further problems as well. Not only does trade ties with Laubergia weaken, but so too do they with the Empire of Dagger. Boats are broken up to be converted into housing, and many traders chance their luck elsewhere.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With people looking at the skies more frequently, correlations are noted down and eventually large stone monuments are built for use as calendars. Religious elites come into being as they can accurately predict the best times for agricultural activities and festivals. They can also record messages as well, and thus within a few centuries end up allowing agriculture to take advantage of the varied seasons. Expansion can now reliably occur. Two field rotation is introduced as a means of ensuring the soil does not exhaust itself. Agricultural output grows, and the forests begin to be cleared to make way for farms.
-The lack of earthworms and bees makes agriculture actually quite difficult. However, wild rice is successfully cultivated as a staple grain, it being the only grain for use so far. There are also no domestic animals save for dogs.
-With this in mind, expansion continues onto the mainland. Forests are slowly cleared and wild rice paddies are constructed. Pretty soon, the rice strain mutates and is selected for until the grains are sufficiently large. However, this ends up displacing hunters gradually over time. A few fights occur, but inevitably the farmers win out.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-The wheel is invented by the Zulu people. Quite quickly, carts are invented to be dragged by cattle. With this aid, the Zulu can migrate around much more easily, packing up their possession and storing them on a cart as they can follow the herds. Some people even build small houses on them, made out of sticks and hides.
-Using large flanking manoeuvres and encirclement, the Zulus intimidate tribes by appearing much larger than they actually are. The use of carts for rapid movement and splitting up the forces also aids extensively. Many enemy persons are captured in battle along with their cattle.
-Eventually, via snowballing and acquirement of wealth, rival tribes are assimilated. Movement by foot however, restricts communications considerably.
-Attempts to increase wheat production do not go too well. Farming is still Neolithic here, and the only way to grow more is to expand the amount of land under cultivation. A series of cool years also diminish harvests as well.
-Migrations occur more frequently as pasture suffers from cooler than usual weather. People pack up and farm less, for now.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Proto-Japonic)
State Religion: The Great Pantsu Totem
-In the middle of the Bronze Age, Japan was still populated by hunter-gatherers, and civilization seemed far away on the timeline. But then, a group of strange, tall, large-eyed people appeared off the coast of Honshu island, their leader carrying a giant wooden totem on his back, which resembled a woman’s lower body dressed in knee socks, skirt and striped panties. They impressed a local tribe with their religion and taught them the ways of agriculture, metal working, writing, sailing, currency, and wearing underwear. In record terms, a small civilization appeared on the archipelago, and now they desire to grow…
-Iron smelting is invented in the Japanese Archipelago by the Wapanese people. Newcomers from Korea, they begin to displace the Jomon and Ainu peoples. They are the first farmers, metal-workers, and have a lot of mainland influences from Chinese culture. The lack of iron does not deter the Wapanese however, and they make good use of what little they have.
-A mixed army of spearmen and archers are used to safeguard the first colonial attempts on Honshu, beating back the hunter-gathers in raids, and often taking the fight back to them.
-The Shimapan Guard is assembled, tasked with guarding the Pantsu Totem. The Great Pantsu Totem is in the central square of Akihabara, surrounded with a fence and having The Shimapan Guard stand around it, not responding to anything unless it’s an apparent threat to the Totem
-An order of elite warrior monks/secret police called The Nice Guys is established. They are celibate (they swear that they shall have no wife other than their Wai-fu) and wear crude straw fedoras. They are also not allowed to shave. Many get around the celibacy rule by inviting young virgin girls to stay at their temples for varied reasons.
-As these newcomers multiply, they construct rice paddies, engage in fishing, worship shimapans, and are wishing to domesticate a small carnivorous mammal. Unfortunately, the closest cat to them lives in Syria. Harvests for some reason during this time are very low for a few years.
-On the Pantsu Totem religion: The Pantsu totem, carried into the land by The Great Prophet Fatto Moefaggu, is believed to be a representation of the lower body of the goddess Wai-fu, who lives in the mind of every male believer and manifests herself differently to everyone. She is believed to be the goddess of love and the protector of humanity. The followers of the religion believe that if they live a virtuous life they will be rewarded with spending the eternal afterlife with their idealized version of the Goddess.
The great Book Of Moe is the primary sacred text of the religion, which describes rituals and commandments to true believers, which include the following:
Every man must make a pilgrimage to the Great Pantsu Totem, where he and other pilgrims must perform rituals and ingest a hallucinogenic substance which gives them visions of their Goddess approaching them. Also, they must acquire a Wai-fu figurine to use for worship.
Every man should find and marry a woman that most resembles their vision of Wai-fu, and the woman must do everything possible to look and act like her husband’s vision of Wai-fu.
Any man, whose advances were rejected by a woman, is encouraged to join the Nice Guys.
Turn 6: 1500 to 1000 BCE
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Political map of Turn 6
Cultural map of Turn 6
Religious map of Turn 6
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41714536&viewfull=1#post41714536
Events of the years 1500 to 1000BCE:
-The usage of Iron has now spread throughout most of the European and Middle Eastern world, save for many peripheries such as Spain, the Great European plain, Scandinavia and the Isle of Man.
-This period, along with the earlier few centuries, is colloquially called the “Dark ages”, it covers the transition from bronze to iron. It also represents the collapse of many bronze using civilizations in favour of ones that migrated from the Asian steppes. Generally speaking, most of the peoples of Eurasia end up migrating from one place to another.
-A Greek King is dismayed to find that his wife has run off with a Hittite noble. He gathers up all of his allies, most of which are in it for the spoils of war. They invade western Anatolia and besiege a city there for ten years. The war ends up consuming both parties in the war, depleting the treasuries and armies. Eventually, the city is captured when the Greeks sneak inside via a horse. They soundly sack the city and murder the entire high nobility of the Hittites, bringing a political crisis. The combination of famines and economic decline weakened it, but this war was the coup de grace.
-The king is pleased. He returns home where he finds his kingdom being destroyed by the Dorian Greeks. The Dorians then proceed to ethnically cleanse his people.
-It is discovered that disruption of trade routes, increasing use of iron, and the Hekla 3 eruption (which cooled the climate for two decades) may be mostly to blame for these migrations and low agricultural yields. The switch to iron also shows that trade has largely decentralized. No trees grow for 20 years it is said.
-Palace economies are collapsing, in favour of decentralized villages. These villages are characterized by use of iron, heavy ploughs and farming equipment made of metal, poor literacy, and use of Indo-European languages. The areas of Greece and Anatolia are prime examples.
-Israel forms during this period, becoming a powerful regional kingdom and able to push out the Egyptians. They remain on good terms with the Phoenicians, on account of common language and control of trade. Some cities in the Phoenician league pay tribute just to be on the safe side. No attempt at invasion is made, given the Phoenicians power.
-Egypt is in the so called the “New Kingdom”. It begins to break down near the end of this period as it is flooded by wars, attempted invasions from “Sea Peoples” and Lybians, plus a loss of the Levant to the Kingdom of Israel. It holds onto its homelands, but never fully recovers.
-The Kassites overrun Babylonia and found a dynasty there. They are then overthrown by the Elamites.
-The Olmecs appear in Mesoamerica. Agricultural societies are also growing in the Andes and parts of the Caribbean and its coasts.
-The Hittite Empire conquers much of the Middle East. By the year 1200 BCE however, they collapse, and the Kingdom of Phygria ends up taking root in central Anatolia.
-Writing is invented in China, along with the Chariot. This is attributed to the so called “Yellow Emperor”.
-The Dorians are on the move. They push into Greece and destroy much of the Bronze Age civilizations there. The art of writing is lost, and disruptions in the bronze trade lead to the adoption of iron as a substitute. Eventually, city states begin to grow throughout Greece, particularly Athens and Corinth.
-Hinduism is now widespread throughout northern India.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Italic)
State Religion: Four elements
-The calendar is invented, and with it, astrology. The priests of Spain chart the heavens and begin to make forecasts and predictions. Sometimes bollocks, sometimes correct. They do manage to end up finding an excuse to build more temples though. Farmers sometimes ask the priests for advice, and in one such temple you can apparently speak to the gods yourself. A ruse is uncovered when a priest is found hiding behind a grate. He was discovered when he smelt the feet of a dung gatherer and vomited.
-Expansion is now increasingly slower. The nobility are increasingly decadent and stagnant along with the priesthood. With a decline in trade, they don’t even have any desire to engage in exploration or financial pursuits. Eventually, they retreat to their villas and palaces, content with watching more peasants being forced to opt into the palace economy when their individual harvest fails, and the market is controlled by the local lord, blackmailing them into giving up their land.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-With the situation deteriorated, the new King announces a series of raids on the peoples to the north. These are Indo-European migrants. They are spreading throughout Europe, displacing many older civilizations. Laubergian warriors raid the smaller tribes and carry off a great deal of loot. Rape and burning of settlements occur as well, and the once weakening borders to the north come under firm control once more. Counter raids are also common, with the result being migration to the south. Eventually, the migrating people are forced to go around Laubergia itself.
-Various warriors and horsemen accompany the migrations south. Whilst agriculture steadily improves again, it fails later on in this period due to more erosion and cool weather. Some lands are permanently abandoned, and the centre of population begins to shift south as famine grips the land. The King attempts to reassert his control over the Southern Laubergians, but succeeds at only securing the eastern half. This portion is gradually extended westwards over time. Other Laubergians continue to settle in the peninsula, moving into the Po valley. However, control over the south Laubergians is temporary at best. Unruly and becoming increasingly influenced by the people they are mixing with, they begin to ally with the Villanovan peoples to assert their own independence. Iron working is introduced by the Villanovans, bringing an end to the Bronze Age. Soon afterwards, trade reaches its minimum.
-Traders march out westwards, looking for others to trade with. They more or less spread around the Alps and Northern Italy, but find little minus agricultural products. Grapes are grown here, and pressed into wines. After some taste tests, the merchants begin selling bronze to these simple farmers and export the wine back to Laubergia. Bronze is declining however, as these farmers seem to cherish bronze only for trinkets. They make their own iron tools and weapons. This wine is popular however, and is drunk by many wealthy people.
-Later, with expansion into the Adriatic, several fishing villages end up growing into ports. The development of a new type of sailing ship also aids with moving goods around, although growth in trade is slow. Few shipwrecks are discovered on the seafloor from this period, and most of them tend to be half empty, carrying wine jars or remains of fish. A little bronze or rusted iron is also seen, evidencing to the tiny volume of trade.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-With poor weather causing some lean years, economic decline brought on by a collapse of trade, and migrations causing all sorts of conflict, when a strong leader is needed most, they do not appear. Many people pack up and leave in search of better lands, whilst the nobility are content to stay in their comfortable homes. The king ends up losing a lot of power during this time of decentralization, and with the advent of iron many villages are fortifying themselves and openly refusing to pay him tribute. His own weakness prevents him from making any actions.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-With spreading use of iron metalworking, the Dorians and Hittites with the Phoenicians end up quickly spreading use of ironworking to here. The Daggerians also invent the first “roads” in the modern sense. A plumb line is used to line up level areas with packed earth, and then laid with large stones. This immensely improves travel, as now you can travel along routes without them degrading into muddy quagmires when wet, or dusty clouds during dry times. Of course, these roads do help, but not so much when repeated invasion eats away at the empire.
-The Emperor declares a retreat to the core lands. Many former towns are abandoned to be conquered by the Hittites as the cost of retaking them would be too great. The new army rearms itself with iron weapons and armour, before pushing off the Hittites in a series of wars. Eventually, the Hittites collapse, but the Kingdom of Phrygia steps in its place. The wars calm down for now, but tensions are still high.
-Money is heavily taxed from the nobility, of course, this results in a series of rebellions and civil wars, further shrinking the borders of the empire. Eventually, the money is used to completely reform the army and buy the loyalty of the peasantry. The nobles lose many of their large landholdings, which are broken up and “redistributed to the people”. The state controls these estates, and uses the finances to rebuild roads, defensive structures, ports, and eventually finish military and naval reforms. This is considered the end of the old Empire.
-Ships now sail to the volcanic islands, scooping up ash and storing them in jars or sacks. It is discovered they can be used as fertilizer, and when introduced to peasants with their new iron tools, agriculture makes a splendid recovery. The cold weather hampers this, but recovery is truly underway by the 11th century. The Dorians are also keen on importing this ash, in return for goods such as olives and olive oil.
-The western part of the straits is colonized by various outcasts, traders, and impoverished farmers. A fort is eventually constructed to help control the straits.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Moving around goods and organizing debts is difficult, and of course, so is bartering. Use of metal ingots is common as a means of exchange, but the Phoenicians are the first to take the creation of such monies seriously. They make bronze, gold, copper, or silver ingots, with a special mark stamped into the side to show that it was supported by the state. Of course, they are worth more or less the actual item itself. It takes a while before stamping the value in it becomes commonplace, and even longer for it to disseminate and become commonly used. However, now that wages and lending exists, the first banks and investment into businesses can occur, with the result that trade is now flourishing after the collapse of the bronze trade.
-The navy begins to shrink and have higher standards. Ships are being fitted with bronze or iron to strengthen them, and more rowers to increase speed in the water. Eventually, large rams are affixed to the front, and enemy vessels are rammed before boarding, as an excellent method of dispatching the enemy. Of course, shipwrecks are discovered more often now.
-A cavalry force is established for protection of the city states. With equipment (save for the horse and bow) paid for by the government, this means that anybody who owns a horse can join the army. Soon enough, this new force becomes the cream of the nobles and sons of the wealthy who prefer war to trade. Travelling fast and lightly, they decimate armies with hit and run attacks. It is no secret that the Kingdom of Israel is terrified of them.
-Bronze and iron is now commonly used by people for armour and weapons. Whilst bronze is on its way out, people still make helmets or breastplates from it, whilst soldiers use iron spears and swords. Of course, military reforms or organization is rare, as the Phoenicians rarely go to war.
-A search for cold resistant crops is underway, as now the merchants realize that such crops will be a boon in colder areas or during winter. They eventually manage to find such strains. They travel around selling them to people, and marginally manage to increase land under cultivation. These strains eventually begin migrating north out of the Phoenicians comfort zone, reaching deep into the Eurasian plains.
-A code of laws is introduced. It is mostly the same as the Babylonians, although translated and edited to fit the peculiarities of a merchant republic.
-Composite bows are one of the goods imported, whilst gold, spices, incense, and other metals precious or not, and alcohols, end up travelling throughout the trade routes of the republic.
-The state begins to collect gold in reserves as a rainy day fund.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Proto-Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-With a need to record maps and the world around with increasing accuracy, the art of geography comes about. Using records salvaged or copied from other peoples, and a library within which to store them, a group of people are selected for the task of documenting the world. Eventually, they manage to create not only an archive on every civilization past and present, but records on the world itself and even a world map.
-The King encourages his subjects to be hospitable, so that foreigners decide to come and live in our kingdom. Of course, when foreign migrants come looking for food, this causes problems. Not only do they speak funny languages and have different gods, but they compete over land. This ends up forcing the unlucky bastards to move once food stocks dwindle. Fights break out, and migration southwards is underway. Trade along the Danube dies as the bronze trade comes to an end.
-The King proclaims Moravia as rightful Mrvian land, which will be colonized after the eastern Danube territory is fully colonized. Unfortunately, it’s already full of people who don’t like being ruled by him.
-Danube expansion becomes less of a priority as people move out into the Pannonia basin, seeking out fertile or warmer lands.
-A new city called Aqinca (OTL Budapest) is built, where the religion of Pržk is has a site of pilgrimage located, the first Pržk church is built here. Of course, it is no city, having a population of a mere two-thousand. It does have a smaller village on the opposite side of the river too, as of yet unnamed. It is said that it is a part of Aqinca as well.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With expansion of these simple farmers now underway, the demand for flint tools is steadily increasing. The first mines and quarries are established, and they even manage to find tiny amount of native copper or iron, cold worked to make trinkets or some sorts of tools. Whilst expensive, it does help to develop trade as minerals are now travelling over the North American continent. Given that these people are also traders, they manage to spread the concept further afield as well.
-Following the traders are the farmers. Of course, given that farming is so useful, some neighbouring tribes are abandoning hunter-gathering in favour of agriculture. The clearing of forests also has contributed to this, and people are increasingly dependent upon grown foods. Rice, and eventually fruits and various vegetables are grown. A shortage of meat is a constant problem, given that the only such animal capable of being domesticated for that purpose is a flock of turkeys in Mesoamerica.
-There are now no doubts that the New World is now in the midst of an agricultural revolution.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-The Zebra is domesticated for some strange reason. They are too unpredictable to be ridden well, and so centuries of selective breeding must go underway for them to be of any use. Eventually however, zebraback riding is now common amongst the Zulu. With the use of carrying most of their possessions with them and travelling quickly, the first true horde has appeared in Africa. It makes its living by war, in the manner of the men of Eurasia.
-Travelling southwards, many tribes are subjugated or annihilated in a series of wars intended to secure access to the sea. This is managed in the space of a mere generation, but infighting over succession and the lack of any real state apparatus means that gains are just as easy to lose as gained.
-Road building is underway. The low population density makes these almost pointless, but real gains and improvements are noted through simple changes such as packing the ground or erecting signposts. Eventually, a network of simple dirt roads covers the Zulu Kingdom, allowing fast movement of a strike cavalry force. The rest of the time however, the roads lay disused minus for what little trade goes on here.
-Sedentary agriculture is rarely practiced, so selective breeding of grains goes poorly. Most effort is focused into pastoral animals instead, breeding cattle and zebras.
-Understandably, holding onto lands is a problem as a nomadic tribe. A system gradually develops whereby the conquered tribes are to fight for power and prestige with a series of staged wars. Infighting is formalised through this method, being used to ensure the stability of the Kingdom.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Proto-Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-No culture is complete without their art. Great attention is to be dedicated to development of the arts, first religious (people's renditions of Wai-fu), but then it spreads to other genres and styles. Art is used to impress the more peaceful of the primitive locals into submitting themselves unto the Great Wapanese Empire. Visual art develops during this time, with a focus on strangely large eyes, dyed hair, pale skin reminiscent of the original hunter-gather peoples, and often overdeveloped secondary sexual attributes.
-Emperor Shinji I (The First) Moefaggu, distant heir of the Great Prophet and first Emperor Fatto Moefaggu, starts an ambitious campaign to unite the people of the Honshu island under his rule.
-Of course, most scholars realize that these early tales are of an island dominated by petty kings that eventually unified. The Moefaggu are not above rewriting inconvenient records however, in order to prove to people that they are divine rulers.
-Of course, military force is used as well. Although iron is scarce, spears can be reliably mass produced, whilst swords are kept for the elite nobility.
-The state religion becomes colloquially known as “Waifuism”.
-The Nice Guys are to be tasked with internal security and religious propaganda; they should seek and convert non-believers and those weak of faith close to home and in newly-acquired territories.
-Wapanese Macaque monkeys are tamed and kept as pets by the Wapanese. A story is eventually written about them:
While out walking, a crab finds a rice ball. A sly monkey persuades the crab to trade the rice ball for a persimmon seed. The crab is at first upset, but when she plants and tends the seed a tree grows that supplies abundant fruit. The monkey agrees to climb the tree to pick the fruit for the crab, but gorges himself on the fruit rather than sharing it with the crab. When the crab protests, the monkey hurls hard, unripe fruit at her. The shock of being attacked causes the crab to give birth just before she dies.
The crab's children seek revenge on the monkey. With the help of several allies — a chestnut, a mortar, a bee, and a cow pie — they go to the monkey's house. The chestnut hides himself on the monkey's hearth, the bee in the water pail, the cow pie on the dirt floor, and the usu on the roof. When the monkey returns home he tries to warm himself on the hearth, but the chestnut strikes the monkey so that he burns himself. When the monkey tries to cool his burns at the water bucket, the bee stings him. When the startled monkey tries to run out of the house, the cow pie moves and trips him and the mortar falls from the roof, killing the monkey.
-With agriculture and iron working now spreading throughout the so called “Honshu”, rival polities are appearing as minor nuisances to the Emperor. The biggest losers are the hunter-gatherers, who are forced to migrate north into the wooded areas or to give up their former lifestyle.
Notes: Each turn will now last 250 years instead of 500. The next year will be 750 BCE as opposed to 1000 BCE.
Turn 7: 1000 to 750 BCE
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Political map of Turn 7
Cultural map of Turn 7
Religious map of Turn 7
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41775258&viewfull=1#post41775258
Events of the years 1000 to 750BCE:
-Various Indo-Aryan kingdoms pop up in and out of existence in India. Panchala, Kuru, Kosala, and Videha.
-The Zhou now rules China, although many of the stories told of it are often exaggerated or distorted. Eventually at the end of this period it is ransacked by barbarians and splits apart into a series of petty warring kingdoms.
-A political crisis results in the breakup of the Kingdom of Israel. It is thought it is due to a succession crisis, although the main source of information is full of contradictions.
-The city state of Sparta is founded, and the first gold hats are also invented.
-The prophet Zoroaster creates Zoroastrianism. His philosophical influence spreads throughout the Middle East along with his religion. It has a major influence on the religious beliefs of the people of the Levant, including Semitic religions.
-The Israeli Kingdom and Egypt begin a long relative decline as foreign powers invade, along with internal political problems leading to civil unrest. Egyptian cities eventually are abandoned and much of their civilization and culture is lost.
-The Celtic language and culture is now spreading throughout Europe, with ironworking technology spreading into the parts of Europe further displaced from trade routes. By 750BCE, the Celts and Iron are now widespread in the Isle of Man, Iberia, and Germania.
-Two new groups of peoples form in Italy. The Hellenistic Estrucans, and the Laubergian Estrucans. The former speaks Italic languages and has some mild influence from Hellenistic culture, settling mostly on the west coast and Corscia. The latter has more Laubergian influences, most notably in religious faith. They predominantly are settled in the Po valley and throughout the northwest, bordering Laubergia.
-The first historic solar eclipse is recorded in China.
-The English of the isle of Mann begin to be displaced by the invading Celts. Their culture and religion begins to melt away.
-The Olmecs begin to decline, with many urban centres becoming depopulated.
-The first Olympic Games are held in Greece, between various city states eager to compete and show off their own states achievements. The Greeks also adopt the Phoenician alphabet (modifying it heavily) and establish colonies in Sicily, Italy, and Anatolia. They heavily influence the Etruscan peoples, particularly in the south.
-The horse trade, going south from the Ukraine, is well established and is now considerably profitable.
-A group of Estrucans and various other peoples in seven villages around a river decide to form a city state. They name it Rome.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Italic)
State Religion: Four elements
-Ironworking is introduced to Iberia, and quickly becomes used for a variety of weapons and armours. Soon it even becomes used for shovels, ploughs, axes, and other such simple tools. Forests are cleared more easily, the land broken up for cultivation, and agriculture generally improves.
-Horseback riding is also introduced, with nobles now breeding horses and riding them. Sometimes they go to war as well. Wars are pretty slow going through, as most nobles are concerned with living comfortable lives on their estates. The King demands a shake-up, but nothing really happens. He is quietly ignored.
-Sailing expeditions begin to travel further afield. Some reach down the west coast of Africa and discover an island full of a most savage people. They eat unrefined grains, live in thickets and caves, and wear furs. They use flint tools and have no farms or large buildings. Other islands are also spotted, but are found to be uninhabited. They are very warm.
-Berber peoples are also discovered in Northern Africa. They know some tastes of civilization, and are happy to trade. Ships also travel north and eventually re-establish permanent contact with the Mannish and French. Agricultural goods, with some metals such as tin, copper, and iron are moved.
-Foreign ways are tolerated considerably now, so much so to the extent that now Mannish religions are allowed in Spain, although it’s mainly practiced by traders uninterested with preaching.
Zillamaster55 – Tribe of Laubergians
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Proto-Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-The raids on the north expand, but are less frequent. Of course, this does nothing but annoy the inhabitants. They eventually begin to construct large hillfort defensive structures and whenever the Laubergians arrive, they run inside. Since the raids are not meant to capture land, gradually the Laubergian raids bring back less loot or goods. No tribute is demanded either, so people take to either fleeing or fighting.
-The Laubergians struggle to create a system to keep agriculture in check, trying to find various crops that are good for varying forms of topsoil. They fail horribly, and are forced to replant trees, and abandon depleted soils until it recovers. Walls are made to try and prevent erosion, whilst ditches are dug to drain off water. The population has still risen beyond the carrying capacity of the land however, and many people continue to migrate or try their luck at other opportunities as agriculture fails. Many smaller farmers are eventually swallowed up by great magnates who have the resources to maintain the land and a surplus that allows them to blackmail small farmers.
-There is a great focus on trying to improve trade, but with little imperative from above, there is no clear idea of what to do. Eventually, roads are packed, ports rebuilt, and traders encouraged to travel further, but this does little to boost trade. It still remains on a local agricultural basis with some small movement of luxury goods.
-In one desperate attempt, the influence of the priests is curbed. Many of them lose their lands, tithes are removed and swapped to a voluntary basis, and many temples now must pay a tax. Needless to say, this represents a virtual coup, and a civil war erupts before it is quickly quelled. The great lords have now risen to power. Although the removal of the taxes allowed more gains for the peasantry, the lords used the civil war as an excuse to grab power. Eventually, money falls out of usage, and the poor farming opportunities results in a decay into a feudal system. They keep their own armies, own much of the land lost by bankrupted farmers, and are in favour of decentralization.
Eli45 – France
Capital: Paris
Culture: French (Italic)
State Religion: Frogism
-As the Kingdom is met by various Celtic tribes, eventually the political system begins to break down. These tribes eat away at the lands of the Kingdom and eventually displace the ruling elite. Civil wars and infighting makes it worse as the ruling dynasty becomes ineffectual through inbreeding and an inability to adapt to changing times. Their people still survive however, their culture and religious beliefs having spread considerably. Some of them move around to settle new places, whilst abandoning old homes.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Proto-Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-With populations rising in urban areas and farms needing ever more irrigation, sanitation and water supplies are of utmost priority. A sloped bridge several kilometres long is constructed, in order to supply water to the capital. It is such a success that the government embarks on the construction of several more, and soon they are built throughout many cities. Water supplies improve drastically, even for rural peoples, who can build smaller scale versions for agricultural estates.
-The Emperor realizes that he needs a proper war to shake things up. Motherwell rules. He assembles a fleet of frenzied soldiers, paid with the promise of loot in Egypt. A large force is sent and they easily ransack the weakened country. The Pharaoh is deposed and a client state is established with the express intent of funnelling taxes to the Empire of Dagger. Using this money, large scale public works projects and military reformation can take place. Of course, the Egyptians rebel often, and the country is becoming impoverished through years of neglect, war, and crushing taxes.
-The Cretan reforms are introduced. The army is now a citizen’s militia, rather than using the armies of the nobility. The citizens are raised during times of war, although they have to pay for their own equipment and lodging most of the time. The nobles become the heavy cavalry and officers of these armies. To allow such a thing, many horses are imported from the steppes of the north, and soon enough a reliable trade is now underway supplying well bred horses to the civilized peoples of the south.
-A peasant’s bank system is introduced. A farmer can apply to borrow some money from one in return for agricultural tools, seeds, animals, etc with the purpose of repaying it back at a later date. This operates well in the countryside, and interestingly enough, smaller families tend to use this system more often, and families in which only one child lives long enough to inherit the land tend to use it the most. High interest rates also tend to cripple many farmers, or disincentivize many borrowers.
-Merchants quickly steal the idea of the land bank as a means of borrowing and lending money amongst themselves. Both systems still suffer from a lack of reliability in business however, and one way of cheating banks emerges. One could borrow money for a ship, take out insurance on it, let it sink, and then claim the money.
-With slaves caught or bought in Egypt, a road building programme emerges. Large, straight, well drained, and well maintained roads are constructed between the major cities of the empire, and are readily adopted by travellers and the army for rapid movement.
-Diplomats are sent to the King of Phrygia to call him a “wannabe hobnocker”. Enraged, he allows raiding parties to visit the empire. Most don’t penetrate very far, and tend to only focus on the smaller villages.
-Ad-hoc diplomats, tending to be former and experienced merchants, are sent throughout Greece and Italy. They manage to acquire permission to dock the empires naval vessels there, and sometime later, the naval sailors also enjoy visiting the brothels at these docks. Some even desert. Finding people to work in the navy is difficult, although a practice has emerged where some men are willing to press-gang them into service, in return for money of course.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Some merchants, record-keepers, writers, and other such peoples are demanding new materials to write upon. Somebody has the bright idea of shredding old rags of cloth, then mixing it in water before setting it in a frame. Once complete, it creates a strong paper perfectly suited to writing on. Suitable fibres can be from almost any source imaginable, and since it can be recycled and is made from typically waste products, this helps with lowering the price. Although still somewhat costly, it does help make it accessible to most merchants and state bureaucrats, who use it extensively for documentation. Some survive for centuries before sitting in museums or being recopied. Cloth production and cultivation of plants also expands.
-With this finally in order, a giant library is constructed in Byblos. The merchants meeting decided on a vast library to store all financial records of note, histories, philosophies, epics, and other noteworthy tales for posterity. Anybody who arrives in the city, is duty bound to bring his text to the library so it may be copied.
-A bureau de change, where foreign monies can be exchanged for Phoenician ones, is established. It is mainly run by a guild of jewellers and goldsmiths, who recognize the importance of measuring weights, checking the purity of metals, and overall exchanging them. The earlier reserves set up come in handy. By checking the flow of metal reserves, one can also crudely measure the trade surplus or deficit of the trade league.
-Colonies are established in Lybia and Sicilia. Some of these traders meet Greek merchants along the way, and thus trade routes can be set up and expanded. During these 250 years, the sphere of the near east quickly expands west. Traders are now travelling as far as the Balearic isles and Southern France.
-Trade routes now also extend to Italy, whereby their lovely wines and other agricultural goods can be bought. Olives are also popular, along with olive oil. Eventually, luxury goods from the East are now travelling to Northern Italy often. Similar happens with the Greeks, where trade is expanding now that the city states have settled down and are visiting Italy often in conjunction with the Phoenicians.
-Relations with Israel improve after taxes on the happy merchants are lowered. They are grateful allies, although the decline and breakup of their kingdoms means that warfare with the Phoenicians is unwise anyways now.
-The individual cities are still mostly independent, although the establishment of the library and the metal reserves in Byblos means that this city is starting to predominate over the others.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Proto-Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-Improved agricultural methods are being introduced to the Kingdom. Some are piecemeal inventions popping up randomly, but some are foreign imports. They include iron ploughs, improved animal harnesses, and the proliferation of village blacksmiths, specialized in their trade. Somebody also has the smart idea of using bonemeal, ground up fish, manure, and other such rotted items as a form of fertilizer to improve yields. Of course, this requires extra imports, and so barges now travel up the Danube, full of rotted fish bought cheaply from fishermen on the coasts.
-State taxes are introduced for the first time on a systematic and wide scale. They are levied on everybody, taking ten percent of all their earnings. A new type of farmer is introduced called the "Prtaksz". These farmers are exempt from the tax, on the condition that they produce food which is bought for the same price by the state. This ensures a minimum price for food, and encourages them to expand production. Naturally, many people wish to join this group, rapidly progressing into minor gentry.
-The king, seeing his subjects expanding into the Pannonia basin, claims it as rightful Mrvian land. He also asks the peoples of Moravia to join his kingdom. They refuse, preferring instead to be ruled by themselves. They, or their leaders or any particular class for that matter, refuse because of the lack of incentive to join.
-Diplomatic contact is made with the Greek city states, which recognize the existence of the Mrvians, and are willing to trade. Some even offer the rotted fish and bones that the Mrvians seem so keen on importing.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With hunting becoming problematic with the spread of rice paddies and basic agriculture (fruits, vegetables, and trees are now being cultivated or kept in groups), somebody has the bright idea of inventing traps. Using ropes, boxes, strings, sharp sticks, bows, and other sorts of crude contraptions, many wild animals can be caught and eaten. People have also started to breed dogs, given that they are the only domesticated animals around. They are bred for a whole variety of working jobs, and even for meat. Some are also bred to be large and to drag travois (a type of frame on which to carry things) around.
-Expansion of these Neolithic farmers continues, although without much impetus from above, little but the same happens. Some little trade and pathways are made, villages grow and split as they spread, and trade routes grow, but nothing much else happens. There is no clear direction as to expansion either, and now asserting political control is increasingly difficult as you must travel further and further to maintain borders against annoyed hunters or rival villages.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-Bronzeworking is finally introduced to the Kingdom of the Zulu, mostly through interaction with traders and increasing demand for suitable armour and weapons. It is mostly ceremonial at first, before slowly trickling down throughout the soldiery as a means of making weapons that aren’t made of flint or bone.
-A special bodyguard is formed of heavy zebra cavalry. Their role is to crush rebellions and internal dissent, so also acting as a form of secret police as well. They are brutal, killing revolting people before they even rise, and keeping the vassals in check. They grow in power and eventually displace the nobility, working almost as a personal arm of the king.
-The kings focus on centralizing power in his hands further drives this, and the state eventually becomes himself and his bodyguard. The bodyguard even form the first bureaucracy, taking some taxes for themselves and living considerable lives of luxury. Of course, most places they take over are Neolithic or using Bronze. Expansion is still somewhat restricted by existing geography, so many take to burning forests or villages whenever they get in the way of the zebra hordes.
-The state becomes increasingly stable. Art is encouraged, but it is merely a passing resemblance to existing art, with little innovation or boundary pushing.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Proto-Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-Increasing architectural sophistication is now being utilized. Despite the heavy presence of timber and skilled working with it, there is still a problem of making truly strong buildings that not only can withstand heavy assault by man or weather, but are also fireproof and impressive. Large quarries are set up along with dedicated masonry workshops to build and maintain strong stone structures. Large temples/schools are constructed, along with basic roads and walled fortifications. The Wapanese are of course lazy, and tend to build their fortifications into hills rather than making tall and thick stone walls.
-Fishing and trading ships are being used to help transport soldiers along the west coast as expansion proceeds smoothly. Some rival chiefs or villages resist, but are eventually overpowered. The seas on the other sides of the island are well known. The rulers wish to expand their holdings here, seeing control of coasts as vital.
-With cold climate much of the year, especially to the north, fishing becomes an integral source of food. Around this time crabs and octopi become part of the Wapanese cuisine.
-A legend appears, in which the evil octopus god Tentakuru wanted to marry Wai-fu, and when she refused he raped her. To avenge her, the first Emperor Fatto Moefaggu had slain the godly beast, but Wai-fu was already defiled and gave birth to millions of ugly children which now live in the sea as octopi. Believers are encouraged to catch, kill and eat the octopi to further avenge their goddess. Of course, the Octopus has an extensive range and over three hundred species. Nonetheless, this doesn’t stop the Wapanese from trying to eradicate them.
-With local lords the only ones powerful enough to build fortifications, they are well placed to rule individual villages. A feudal system is encouraged and develops, with the Emperor seeing it as a way to expand quickly. Eventually, small stone forts are popping up everywhere, and peasants pay their lords a tithe in the form of rice. They are also obliged to serve in his armies and the Emperor grants his vassals land in return for military service. Some manage to get away with an informal “cowards tax” where they pay somebody else to fight on their behalf. This class eventually is named the Samurai, with the lords being Daimyos. They are still weak however, given that the Empire is small and the Emperor powerful through use of a strong personal army and extensive road network for rapid movement, alongside his secret police “The Nice Guys”.
-Missionaries begin to spread outwards, even beyond the borders of the Empire. They seek to spread their faith to the unconverted heathens on the rest of the island. They have little luck with the Ainu or Jomon, who tend to kill them. Success is more likely on the rest of the island amongst the settled peoples. Eventually, expansion northward halts as it is too cold or desolate to find willing converts who don’t want to kill them. They do wildly successfully in the west though, converting many outside of the Empire, although raids by Samurai and growing power of the Empire means that by converting many can keep their lands and rule as beforehand in much the same way.
-One of the Nice Guys writes an illustrated story about four Waifus sitting around, drinking tea and playing music. It becomes widely popular and the author writes a sequel, where one more Waifu joins the club. Since literacy levels are still low and copying texts by hand is hard, mass readings of these stories are held in schools, temples and monasteries. They also use a strange Chinese invention, where text is recorded on wooden or bamboo strips.
-Following this publication, scholars argue whether there is one Wai-fu or many, and they come to the conclusion that there are many Waifus, who are part of the one great Wai-fu, that are responsible for different aspects of life and nature. Waifuism becomes polytheistic, which also aids with conversion somewhat as the faith can adapt to local peculiarities.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Irreligion
-General Ulysses, the chieftain of a large tribe, marched with an army to the western side of the gulf. Through negotiations with the leader of several other tribes, they massed a large enough army to wrest control of the gulf and the land to its west.
-The Xerxes tribe, having farmed Manioc, fished, hunted, and even dabbled in trade and contact with various other peoples since time immemorial, are settling down. They are the first people in the area to invent the concept of using stone in building, using quarries to gather stone, flint, and other such basic minerals for use. They use the stones to create small mounds around their ancestral lands, with low walls of rubble and dirt. With men stationed on top, they can ward away many angry foreigners.
-To impress the tribes and maintain control, parades of the best warriors are held in the central village where the chief lives. Using this show of force, he can very often intimidate his lesser and blackmail visitors. This is used to force tribes nearby to allow traders and travellers to use paths without molestation, and to maintain them for future use.
-Trade routes eventually are clearcut and the pathways clearly defined as a means of improving travel and by extension trade. This is still very much a Neolithic society however, with low population densities. People rarely settle down or store food in bulk, but they do at least have the ability to grow manioc. Unfortunately, whilst it is a good staple crop, it possesses less calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, and fibre than most grains (maize, rice, wheat). Cyanide poisoning can occur without proper processing of toxic varieties too. After harvesting, it rots quickly.
Turn 8: 750 to 500 BCE
Ancient Roman Music - Synaulia I
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Political map of Turn 8
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Religious map of Turn 8
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41812187&viewfull=1#post41812187
Events of the years 750 to 500BCE:
-Anglican paganism begins to die out in the Mannish isles, along with the English culture, as Celts displace it. The original inhabitants begin to migrate to Iberia; it is thought that some of them directly assisted in the formation of Portugal, or so the stories say.
-The Assyrians create a massive empire, laying waste to the Elamite Empire, Israel, Syria, and Babylon. They slowly subjugate the lands around Phoenicia as well, before invading it outright. They are in turn replaced by the Neo-Babylonian Empire, followed by the Persians. Cyrus the Great is responsible for the initial growth and reform of the Persian Empire, which stretches from Anatolia and Egypt into the far Indus. He agrees to however leave the aged Empire of Dagger and the city of Byblos alone along with some Greek cities, due to exhaustion and the promise of tribute from the Greek cities, some of which allied with him. He is forced to suppress revolts anyways, and cannot dedicate too much resources to a prolonged conflict.
-The hanging gardens of Babylon are constructed.
-Confucius formulates his ethical system of Confucianism, which proves highly influential in China.
-The Persians declare Zoroastrianiam to be the state religion of the Empire, it soon becoming widespread and one of the first truly successful major religions. It later goes on to heavily influence Jewish priests living under the Babylonian and then Persian Empires whilst Israel is under foreign rule. They eventually finalize their liturgy and organized belief systems. When the Persians conquer Israel, some Jews move back and construct a large temple, and begin to preach their variant of the ancient Semitic religions as the true faith.
-The Kushites invade Egypt and displace the former rulers, and in turn are displaced by more foreign invaders, the last of which are the Persians. Hieroglyphs also begin to fall out of usage in favour of Demotic, a script easier to work with and used with paper.
-Phoenician papermaking is adopted by the Persians, with it later spreading throughout the Empire. It is considerably rapid, with discovery of a cache of government papers found in the Indus as early as c.470 BCE. It continues to spread over successive centuries.
-A climate change affects all the Bronze Age cultures in Europe with colder and wetter climate, and tribes from the Scandinavian Nordic Bronze Age cultures are pushed downwards into the European continent. Ironworking is introduced to Scandinavia at around the same time that these migrations take place. Whilst having little impact outside of Scandinavia, it is enough to create problems in central and northern Europe.
-The Greek colonies are now rapidly growing, with the colonized area being named Magna Graecia. Phoenician colonies are also growing at around the same time as well, albeit further to the south. It is during this time that the Phalanx comes into military use. Thales of Miletus and a series of other philosophers also appear, marking the start of Greek philosophy. Athens introduces democratic reforms,
-Trade suffers temporarily in the Mediterranean due to the raiding activities of the Empire of Dagger. A heavy response from the Greek city states eventually forces them to back down. This process reoccurs with the rise and wane of various Empires, although the Persians manage to restore peace and prosperity after many miserable years.
-Gautama Buddha attains Enlightenment, and begins his ministry. He founds Buddhism in India. In India it is also the Age of the Mahajanapadas. 16 great kingdoms rule India: Kasi, Kosala, Anga, Magadha, Vajji (or Vriji), Malla, Chedi, Vatsa (or Vamsa), Kuru, Panchala, Machcha (or Matsya), Surasena, Assaka, Avanti, Gandhara, and Kamboja.
-First archaeological surveys of the Arabian peninsula by Babylonian King Nabonidus.
-Sunshu Ao (孫叔敖), China's first hydraulic engineer, creates an enormous artificial reservoir by damming a river for a massive irrigation project while employed in the service of King Zhuang of Chu (died 591 BC).
-Lost-wax casting is spread to Ancient Greece.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Iberian)
State Religion: Four elements
-The Spanish one day realize that knowing mathematics might help them a lot in day to day life. A philosopher finds out that the sides of any right-angle triangle obey the rule that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, thus allowing one to calculate the length of a side given that you know the lengths of the other two. A student takes note and begins to think heavily on this, looking more closely at the implications of this theorem. Later on, he suggests that you cannot express a real number using a ratio of a/b (where a and b are integers and b is not zero), when he is examining his former work. Doing this manages to piss off the inventor of the theorem so much he calls his former student “A fucking retard” and then drowns him in the sea. These discoveries still spread however, and both men are widely venerated for their achievements.
-Trade routes continue to expand, especially with the newly established Portugal. They now stretch as far as the Jutland peninsula, and eastwards around Iberia. Beyond common goods movement and little initiative from above, minus rather vague directions, there is no real improvement beyond natural expansion. However, trade is now becoming linked with the Phoenicians and Greeks, even some Estrucan traders and the Celts. With this in mind, the Iberian Peninsula is now drifting into the sphere of the major world, with trade routes reopening and ports growing along the North African and Iberian coasts. Ships can finally stop off at Phoenician and Greek colonies for supplies and to sell goods brought from as far abroad as Scandinavia. Of course, this means they can access not only Phoenician and Greek markets now, but their libraries, philosophers, and soldiers.
-Traders also try to get down the coast of Africa, but few places to resupply, hostile natives, and poor weather means it’s impossible to get further south than the uninhabited coastal islands off the west coast. Well, on their way back they discover hunter-gatherer nomads on the island, who worship large dogs. They gift the sailor’s wild canary birds to take home.
-Iberian paganism continues to seep into Spain, mainly through traders and aggressive evangelizing by Portuguese missionaries. The old religion seems to be increasingly sidelined and forgotten, much to the annoyance of strong adherents to the old ways. Inter-religious violence begins to rise, and various members of the nobility shift into action to convert or play off competing interests. The new faith, a Mannish import, takes root in the coastal towns and cities. It is no surprise that their ornaments are made of tin, a metal from the homeland of Mann.
-Similar to the Daggerians in the prior centuries, early banks are set up to lend out seeds, tools, and other agricultural services to farmers. Investment into them is also possible. These banks are most popular among Mannish immigrants, mostly composed of entrepreneurial types. They invest into land and begin to make considerable fortunes from supplying coastal cities. The rise of trade also allows them to grow wine and olives for commercial purposes, and these crops are popular. Of course, their money buys influence, and they begin to displace the Spanish and compete with the nobility for power. Some cities are even becoming Iberian and speaking a hybrid of English and Spanish.
-As expansion of lands becomes essential to maintaining influence, those who feel threatened by the immigrants and rise of Iberian paganism decide to expand outwards, without direct approval from the King for wars. This weakens his power as infighting between different factions boil underneath his Kingdom, but does help expand the Spanish domain, with them rapidly spreading inland to conquer and quickly displace people. This brings them into conflict with the Celts however.
-Somebody also realizes that making sure doctors aren’t whackos is wise as well. Limited legislation and policing results in doctors clearly intended to con people out of money are jailed or have their bollocks cut off if they refuse to pay a fine. Many others escape by the as of yet unexplained placebo effect, but at least it prevents people from being conned, and encourages doctors to work out how the body works. Cutting up humans is looked down on; so many try to work out how humans work by cutting up cows, monkeys, and cats.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-Warriors who are not in combat are now made to turn back to hardworking jobs instead of being professional soldiers. Gradually, the warrior class melts away into just those able to afford it (such as the nobility), and most soldiers become standard levies, drummed up whenever a war goes on.
-In order to help fertilize soil, trade links to the south are set up to acquire valuable manures, fish, volcanic ash, and other such useful additives to the soil to induce fertility. Smaller farmers are unable to afford it however, and so often rent their land from a landowner or engage in communal farming where they can pitch in to buy the needed goods.
-As the age of the warrior class ends, a new one emerges. The humble blacksmith is now more necessary than ever if the world is to keep humming. Tools, weapons, nails, bridles, belts and bolts are all manufactured by these hardworking men. They rise in social status, and eventually form guilds, where they can take on apprentice blacksmiths and look out for their common interests. Naturally, this also results in a labour cartel and good influence throughout Laubergia.
-The rulers of this country begin to increasingly reform the civil and military administration as his society becomes increasingly complex and introduced to foreign influences. He disbands the old tribal system and reforms Laubergia as the Kingdom of Laubergia. The first King is named “Otto the Great”. He declares that the land of the priests shall be given to the smiths for their hard work, claiming the former to be decadent and degenerate. The smiths become an incredibly powerful class, and lift restrictions on most other trades to encourage amateur blacksmiths to go elsewhere. They keep a tight grip on control of the blacksmithing industry however, which eventually extends into mining and foreign trade involving it.
-The old religion begins to fracture and decentralize as the priests weaken and the state is uncaring about it. Eventually most villages end up doing religion their own way.
-Hearing of the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Estrucans success with banking, the goldsmiths of the blacksmiths guild are given the right to set up and operate banking institutions for the lending of credit and to facilitate investment. Naturally, this results in giving them a lot of control over finances as well, and eventually even wars. The successors to Otto are lesser men. Manipulated by the guild they end up going on a series of wars to the south, expanding their holdings. Many foreign blacksmiths are killed in the wars, and the guild extends their control to here as well.
-In direct opposition is the high nobility, characterized by heavy land ownership and agricultural wealth. They are hostile to the blacksmiths, often setting up secret smithies or trying to weaken their powerbase. The monopoly on iron mines and relatively low production of iron, along with low trade volumes assures the guilds stability however. The nobles eventually take to controlling the forests themselves, trying to control timber supplies needed by blacksmiths. Heavy price inflation of timber occurs, and many people begin to switch to building in stone.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-In order to help increase comfort when riding a horse, and to improve fighting in battle, the first function built saddles and stirrups are invented. They are by all means crude, with a small wooden frame with a felt or leather covering as a saddle, and leather or rope loops for the stirrups. The first protection for horse’s feet, where leather padding is placed, is also introduced. No metal parts exist yet. The cavalry of this empire is much improved however. They start to heavily raid Phrygia before the Kingdom eventually falls apart. One bizarre treatment is to steal women and to pour molten gold into their mouths.
-To also avoid retribution by powerful people, the Empire takes to naval raids on Magna Graecia and even some Phoenician colonies. They respond by building thick and high stone walls, and gradually the raiders are forced to prey on less well developed colonies further afield as time goes on. Pirates eventually attack them along with other navies, and the lack of resupply bases helps increase attrition rates. Eventually the Greeks in the motherland decide to put a stop to this, and raise large navies to deter the Daggerians. With control of naval bases and increasing wealth, the Greeks are able to fund their navies well.
-The Emperor asks the Greeks to politely stop expansion in Anatolia. When he hears of the many replies of all the varied city states, some outright refuse, whilst others are more conciliatory. He spits in the faces of the Spartan delegates, who return home to raise an army. They wait for a fleet to land in their Italian colony of Tarentum, where they ambush the raiders and slaughter all of them. This happens three times before the raiders stop coming.
-The Empire sends colonists to the Balearic Islands. With low supplies, hostile Phoenicians, and Greeks constantly harassing supply ships however, the islands remain rooted in subsistence agriculture for a long while until a port is established. The native inhabitants are found to be excellent slingers, trained from childhood to sling stones or metal balls with considerable force and accuracy. They are willing to be mercenaries, albeit demanding good wages and holiday schemes.
-With funds stretched and naval ambitions thwarted for now, the Empire takes to improving fortifications along the eastern borders of their empire. Wars with the Phrygians initially results in a long stalemate, but the Empire wins out in the end due to their well-timed cavalry reforms. The Kingdom of Lydia succeeds them, which is too involved in eastern wars to defeat the Empire of Dagger. The Persians eventually wipe out the Lydians and establish a satrap as ruler of the new kingdom. The Empire itself went to war with Dagger, and took many provinces before slowing down as the Greeks and Daggerians began to stop fighting and become more openly hostile towards the Persians. The defensive works would take years to reduce, and the tired Cyrus sued for peace.
-Refugees end up settling the Balearic Islands and southern Thrace in increasing numbers in order to escape warfare.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Now that paper is more common, some merchants are finding it annoying to use cumbersome ink blocks and reeds, especially as they can be messy and fragile. Somebody decides to boil a feather and shave off the feathery part, before cutting a notch in it. A liquid based ink is also developed, made from soot and/or tar. Wax tablets are also invented for note-taking, which can be scratched into with a stylus. With these inventions, merchants are starting to place ever more importance on literacy, putting their children into religious schools. They not only become literate, but begin to learn philosophy, and most shocking of all, begin to ask painful questions. Greeks often visit Byblos and vice versa, seeking to exchange thoughts.
-Bad news for the Phoenicians. As power and trade begins to gradually shift west, the Phoenicians are still heavily decentralized. They do not bother much about protecting a far off city which has little power over them. The Assyrians attempt to conquer the Phoenicians, but initial wealth and strength allows them to initially deter the Assyrians, before then they have a massive invasion and attempt to reduce the city of Tyre. It takes a gruelling half decade before it eventually falls. The Assyrians cannot celebrate their victories however, as soon afterwards they collapse and are replaced by a Neo-Babylonian empire.
-Later on, the Neo-Babylonian Empire forms and begins to push on Phoenicia, hungry for conquests. The cities attempt to repel the Babylonians with the Seher'Seher and peasant levies, using the peasants as a distraction. They try to let them retreat but many of them rout anyways due to poor discipline. The Seher’Seher manages to harass the Babylonian supply lines and enact a Fabian policy, gradually wearing down the enemy army. They destroy isolated small enemy elements with the cavalry, but stay clear of pitched battles. A book is written on the subject by an angry Babylonian, called “On the coward’s war”. The Phoenicians write a similar book, but titled “The art of metagaming".
-The Babylonians respond with large scale sieges and pillaging the countryside, forcing people to take up residence within the city walls or to flee by sea. The colonies are all too happy to accept these refugees, with them not only swelling in size but power. Trade and commerce is badly hurt by the wars, and several cities are eventually lost to the Babylonians. It is but a pyrrhic victory. The Babylonians are forced to pull back from the war after the Persians invade their homeland. War exhaustion eventually brings it tumbling down, and the Phoenicians, whilst they manage to recover, will take many years for their Levantine cities to recover, some of which were completely depopulated and ravaged by the wars.
-The Persians eventually reach the Phoenician cities, and in more campaigns manage to reduce even more cities. The Persians also start rebuilding the old ones, and eventually abandon their attempts to take the hard core of Phoenicia when the city of Byblos and their navies prove impossible to crack. That is, for the time being. Many old cities have been successively lost through salami tactics, and three powerful empires with much initial impetus are able to take more land each time until the Phoenicians are left with a rump state. Their colonies are doing successfully, away from all the war and taking in many refugees. Cyprus meanwhile is conquered after a coup by the Greeks is contested by the Persian Empire. The invasion is never fully completed, with it split in half between the two parties, each wishing to assure Cyprus they are there to restore their independence. They remain for centuries.
-To resolve these issues, a new reform is drafted and pushed through. Many of the tired cities weary of war agree to it if it means security, at the cost of giving away from freedoms. Every city now must elect representatives from the male, landowning/wealthy population, which then not only rule in each city, but in Byblos as well at the central senate. Concerns can be issues which are binding to all cities. Given the preferential treatment of Byblos, this is an excuse to bribe these men (who are unpaid nobles or merchants sons) and influence them into levying taxes and organizing a standing army for the protection of the cities. Whilst this takes time, the Persians see it as threat enough that Cyrus the Great agrees to a treaty. He will allow them their independence in return for an annual tribute to the Persian Empire. He even allows them to resettle some of the ruined cities, although with populations in the mere hundreds they will unlikely recover.
-Receipts come into common usage, as a means of ensuring that a merchant will compensate somebody for goods of a poor quality. Eventually it is integrated into law, and is more humane than previous punishment. If a merchant was found guilty of selling poor merchandise, his nose was drilled through as punishment. With increasing international trade dependent on a working legal system to ensure trade can run smoothly, this makes foreigners ever happier to trade.
-As the colonies expand, there is now settlement in Algeria and Tunisia, although they manage to discover a group of native inhabitants speaking their own language who are very perplexed at the arrival of these foreigners rudely settling in their lands. To the far north, Phoenicians meet friendlier people, and gift them paper making tools in return for their fine hospitality.
-A strange new development comes about. The Phoenicians introduce a system where you can buy part of a business, where the local government will keep track of your share. The owner of the business is obligated to pay out some of his profits to these “shareholders” in return for investment into his business. It is already piecemeal in existence, but the recent legislation change has formalized it and means that outside of a single city, it is recognized by all people in agreement with that law. It expands upon on the earlier peasant banks, some of which rent out land now. Income is deathly low however, so only people with a great deal of land or large businesses can afford to get the ready connections and willing backers to develop their business.
-Slave usage expands from all of the ongoing wars, many of which are bought by merchants or nobles to work for them. Of course they don’t need paying, which is one way the wealthy can avoid the rising cost of “free” labour.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-Mathematics is formally introduced, mostly by learned men needing to figure out ways to record numbers and do complicated sums that require more than their fingers and toes to count with. And so the abacus was invented, and the concept being so simple and easy to reproduce that within a hundred years almost everyone owns an abacus. Merchants are very pleased, and teach their children that when they carry the two, it turns out that the person they are dealing with actually owes them money. Much later, somebody also states that: “Any object, wholly or partially immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.” He then is so excited by the discovery that he ran through the streets naked (as he did not have time to dress), shouting for a horse or ox to ride (so he could get quickly to the king to tell him of his discovery). This story was originally part of his memoirs, but later destroyed for unknown political reasons. As such, it was only retold in foreign countries.
-A curious new law is introduced, one that is certainly a novelty. The age of marriage is to be introduced to 18, meaning that one cannot start a family or have children beforehand, without the support of a landed person. Whilst the law is often flouted, it eventually becomes a cultural norm in the Kingdom, with the other effect of paedophilia being increasingly looked down on and becoming socially inacceptable. Another affect is that families tend to become smaller as one as less time before dying to give birth. The number of children shrinks a little bit, but with less land to divide up between their inheriting children, it is noticed that wealth stays in the family for longer. Reinvestment into land increases by a tiny amount as a result, seeing it as something to be worked over for generations.
-The King offers the people of Moravia the following: That the kingdom will protect the people of Moravia under two conditions, they must respect the rules of the kingdom and accept the king as their superior. If accepted, they would be autonomous, but would legally be part of the empire and Mrvian citizens. Some people in Moravia see it as a chance to get access to lucrative trade deals or to sweet talk and influence the royal court. A fair number of villages and towns with their respective chiefs join, and then bicker with their rivals (who consider themselves old blood as opposed to these new upstarts) over holding of offices or taxation laws. Most nobles end up exempting themselves from taxes by abusing the privileges of the special farmer, causing the burden of taxation to fall on their vassals. The residents of Moravia are also keen to join after hearing that fierce peoples of the north are moving because the gods made their land cold. The Northmen will apparently try to take their lands, although the Kings army will intimidate them to leave.
-Diplomatic contact is made with the Estrucans. Oddly, the King wishes to speak on favourable terms to the Roman King, lording over a minor city in Latium. Contact is disrupted when a revolution throws him out and establishes a Republican system.
-Trade with the Greeks expand, and with Laubergia as well, as the roads and ports steadily recover and improve. The Greeks have begun to catch onto the advantages of using fertilizers, but there is still plenty for export. Shellfish, fish, volcanic ash, bones, and refuse are all gladly bought. Some men even try eating the oysters as a delicacy, and bring them back as freshly as possible in barrels of water. They are enjoyed by the Mrvian aristocracy, who see them as lowering sexual inhibitions and allowing them to engage in much debauchery. Some even attempt coitus with dangerous things, if the presence of a shattered pelvis in a royal tomb suggests.
-A map is made showing off the "borders" of the kingdom, when the kingdom gains the entirety of the Danube, Moravia and the Pannonia basin.
-In 671 BC, a man named Palat took the Phoenician alphabet and went around the kingdom, asking the people to pronounce the foreign alphabet. He then took the most common errors made in the pronunciation of that alphabet (and there were a lot) and reshaped many of the letters to compliment the errors (in a sense making the errors part of the alphabet he made). He then released a book in 656 BC called "Ricnilkv z niradnod", containing the alphabet he has made. This alphabet is known as the Mrvian alphabet, but more formally now as "Palataca". It also contains a series of short poems and some closer looks at varying concepts. It is noted that the words for “horse” and “oxen” are also bizarrely structured so that pronunciation of a compound version of the word is both nearly impossible to pronounce and regarded by scholars as grammatically ugly.
-A delegate is sent to Phoenicia, to ask about the instructions of how to make paper, to allow the Mrvians to create it themselves. The Phoenicians are all too happy to share, and eventually a dedicated paper mill is established in the capital. It is initially rare however, and even collecting rags from around the kingdom does little to improve the matter.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-Construction of large buildings is now possible now that large stone quarries can be established with professional masons. They plan out the construction initially of large communal buildings in the villages. Starting with temples or palace complexes, eventually some people even build their houses out of them in areas short of wood. Wood shortages there are aplenty in the more populated areas as well. With forests cleared to make way for carefully irrigated rice paddies and the need to make pathways and buildings which do not sink into the soft mud, complex and intricate large constructions are made to allow a degree of safety and comfort when walking around or sleeping in a house assured not to sink into the mud below. Canals are dug as well, and busy markets have shops built into boats, where a merchant can happily moor and set up his wares for sale.
-With the arrival of the temple building phase, many smaller villages begin to consolidate as the manpower and resources required to build these temples is immense. The priestly class which emerges then begins to tax the farmers and use these tithes to live lives of comfort. They even build roads or canals sometimes, and can afford to keep food stocks in reserve for lean years or armies.
-The first recorded “wars” begin here, as now the first armies can be supported for prolonged campaigns. Actual wars of conquest or extermination are now underway throughout the Hudson valley, particularly on the smaller tribes. They begin to try and raise their own armies or federate as well now. Agriculture is spreading with considerable speed up and down the east coast, and has now begun to adapt to local conditions where it can be supplemented with existing native plants.
-Most expansion is still confined to rivers or areas with a great deal of water nearby, so naturally expansion is gradually migrating towards the Great lakes. Whilst heavily used for trade, beyond them the land is unsuitable for rice agriculture. Native copper working and ornaments appear in increasing numbers at this time.
-This “sphere” of common trade routes, plants, peoples and technology is now rapidly adopting a great deal more plants or supplementing existing ones. The Taputtaailainen now have access to chenopod, marsh elder, squash, sunflower, erect knotweed, littlebarley, maygrass, and most importantly North American Rice (an offshoot of wild rice). However, most of these crops are of marginal importance and tend to be grown in gardens, and do not transport well or have few markets. They are very tasty however.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-A bout of stagnation, interspaced with civil wars and rebellions is mostly happening during this time period. The Kings lose a great deal of control, and most of his successors are too inept or unwilling to reverse the situation. Eventually, control over the outer parts is increasingly weakened, and now people are even refusing to pay tributes. The knowledge of working with metal, agriculture, zebra domestication, and many other innovations and discoveries continues to spread however, mostly to the north.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-Horseback riding is introduced to the Wapanese islands after imports from the continent prove successful. Ridden bareback, it is a very rare specimen, all the more so due to little pasture. It is highly prized by the nobility and kept as a sign of social status.
-A string of forts is built along the northern border to protect the inhabitants from raids. Population density up there is extremely low, and so the forts tend to be smaller and most scattered, barely even more than a strong stone tower with a few watchmen to keep an eye out for the savages to the north. Most people tend to head to the south or west, colonizing the lands more suited to agriculture. They till the rich soils and water their paddies.
-Emperor Naruto III Moefaggu pays for the upkeep of philosophers and is a known benefactor of the arts. They are grateful to him for this, and with a secular source of income, they can begin to focus on secular topics for the first times in philosophy and art. The first philosopher to think about the world without referring to explanations from mythology appears.
-Education is now available to most middling and wealthy people. There is little incentive to do so however, as most tend to go into religious matters or trade if they learn to read or write. For a peasant, these skills are useless save for being able to recognize legal documents. Most peasants at most know how to read or write 20 or so words of Wapanese.
-Selective breeding of macaques is now underway, with selection for more docility and more ascetically pleasing traits. Of course, some horrible mutations and genetic diseases happen now and again. The most successful breeds tend to be those bred for work in entertainment or robbery.
-Diplomatic contact is made with China for the first time. Of course, it is a series of warring states constantly infighting, and so finding a representative of all these peoples is difficult. They do find a man claiming to be “Zhou” Emperor, although his demesne is small and the history of the past too legendary to hold true to. They give him a gift of a beautifully illustrated copy of the Great Book of Moe in Chinese, with a rich, gilded cover of finest woods and silks. It is poorly translated however, and the Emperor misinterprets their religion as creepy.
-Naruto III Moefaggu sends politely-worded letters to the settled lords of the Honshu, proposing them to enter the Weeaboo Empire peacefully as Daymios and Samurai if they convert to waifuism (if they haven’t done so yet). They can retain a large degree of autonomy and pay minimal tax and owe minimal levies to the Emperor. The people of their lands can continue living their old ways as long as they don’t conflict with teachings of Waifuism. Also, they must let The Nice Guys build a monastery in their province. These monasteries end up being taxed as well.
-The lords, having already converted, are keen to join a prosperous and peaceful empire if it means allowing themselves access to the markets and temples of the Empire, where they can also influence particulars and improve their own social standing. The first dynasties of importance begin to emerge, often subtly influencing the royal court to support their dynasty and changing policies as time goes on. These families often are in heavy competition with each other.
-Trade and missionaries intermingle with the Chinese peoples, although their conversion rates are less than successful. Maintaining a centralized and organized religious bureaucracy so far from home with so few resources is exceedingly difficult, and many missionaries are forced to take up jobs themselves to support their meagre efforts. Even then, suspicious lords sometimes banish them.
-The Island of Shikoku is colonized for the first time. Trade fleets also meet some Ainu tribes in Hokkaido willing to trade, and too far from the wars south to be bothered by the Wapanese.
-Emperor Naruto III Moefaggu, a favourite of the people, had 4 healthy daughters and one stillborn son, thus leaving no heir to the Moefaggu dynasty. This made him change the inheritance laws to what was later known as agnatic-cognatic primogeniture: females can inherit if there is no male heir to the title. Thus, the first Wapanese Empress, Konata I Moefaggu came to power and performed quite well, which calmed many of the voices against females in the position of power. However, she found out later in her life that she was homosexual, and, for completely unrelated reasons, decided to go celibate. Thusly she produced no heir at all, and her younger sister Tsukasa I Moefaggu, a shy woman with a lisp, inherited the throne. She was happily married to Ruffy Onugoingu, a brave but slow man. They had a son, Zoro I Moefaggu, ruthless and cynical by character, who became Emperor when his mother died of being in the palace toilet when it spontaneously exploded. Legend claims that after this Ruffy appeared before the assembly of lords with a speech, declaring that Zoro was actually of the Onugoingo bloodline rather than Moefaggu because (as he believed) the inheritance law meant that the child is always of the father’s dynasty. It is said that after these words were said, a prominent daimyo approached Ruffy and slapped him in the face, saying “nigga dats bullshit”.
-With increasing troubles in the royal family, the great dynasties make moves to consolidate their power and to keep the other dynasties down as long as possible. They are collectively all named “kuge”, meaning “court nobility”.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Irreligion
-Very little happens to the peoples here during this time. Population growth is steady, but low, and trade routes slowly fan outwards to cover more ground as now simple canoes and small sailing boats are being used for coastal travel. Change is so slow that life is much the same now as it was 250 years prior, save for fashions, language, and stories.
Chevelle – Kingdom of Portugal
Capital: Lisbon
Culture: Portuguese (Iberian)
State Religion: Iberian Pantheon
-The Kingdom of Portugal is founded in Southwest Iberia. There is little clue as to the origin of these people, but the presence of Anglican paganism and heavy cultural influence from Mannish traders and the Spanish (a closely related culture) lends the theory that these people are composed of Mannish and Spanish expats is lent a great deal of credibility. They establish a busy trading town called Lisbon, found a new religion, and then make incursions into the nearby lands to subjugate the peoples there. Linguistic evidence also suggests that many loanwords were borrowed from the homeland as well.
-The Longbow is invented. Made from a single piece of wood and as tall as the user, it requires a strong user and years of training. Once in the hands of a capable man however, it is a horrifyingly deadly weapon with long ranges, high rate of fire, and the ability to pierce most armour. A small group of longbowmen accompany a nobleman whenever he goes to war, and they are used to pick off men from the walls of smaller hillforts before the assault.
-Given their extreme proximity to Spain, common trade routes, common heritage, and even the Spanish tolerance of foreign religion, many technological advances can leak into Portugal, and is practically in the same economic zone.
-Of course, the Portuguese do not return the Spanish tolerance of religion. Many men are sent north to convert the heathens, and the Spanish government seems to tolerate them enough that they don’t even bother stopping them from building large temples and knocking down heathen ones. It is realized conversion by force is unnecessary, and so the faith begins to rapidly spread northwards with little opposition.
Kamikaze470 – Tefullmorostan dol el Wizterbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-Out from the lands of Africa, the Tozholleronese emerge as a distinct ethnic group and political state. They settle the coast sometime after meeting the Phoenicians and Greeks in prior centuries. They trade not only goods but ideas, and soon enough are confident to establish a coastal town supported by trade, fishing, and agriculture. The power and peoples of Al-Cido Monts grows, adding satellite s around it in a widening web, until it is ready for the world stage.
-The religion of the Tozholleronese peoples is "Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim", meaning worship of the great dead in their language. It is a polytheist religion in that it is widely believed that each and every spirit, which are typically called Styajaid, Mollastuahd, or Gujajaisten depending on their role and duty, are deities who are the driving force beyond all that is natural life. Public festivals are held every three decades in order to hold great respect for the dead, often parading through towns wearing elaborate costumes and then some. Privately, families are expected to have a household shrine dedicated to their ancestors and pray for good fortune.
-A branched off wayward sect, Maggaqarisim, holds the belief that practicing infanticide will appease ones ancestors and ultimately bring good fortune in life. Maggqarists also believe that upon death, all their sins accumulated in life will be forgiven, and they will be taken to the Promised Land where lust and wealth beckons.
-The city state forms a camel fighting force called the Shariyyah, composed of handpicked noblemen whom act as the king's personal retinue. They are experienced from years of travel and having to fight to put down revolts or bandits.
-In times of war, men without any means of income must oblige to serve in the armies of his king. In addition, the ruler may see fit to conscript any and all young men into the military. Of course, with no wars going on, this is effectively ignored. For the time being that is.
-As port towns mushroom on the North African coast, this city state profits well by setting up caravan routes between the towns. With the camel’s ability to travel unwelcoming terrain, it also means that missionaries can make good use of them for conversion missions. Over the course of several decades after their initial founding, the religion spread, followed by political control as these heathen villages are shown the light and brought under dominion of the King.
-Bronze ingots are introduced as a means of exchange or currency, an idea borrowed from the Phoenicians and Greeks that come to trade with them. Schools are also set up in the same style as the foreigners, which also adopt the Phoenician script for lack of an existing script. Children are educated in how to administrate their flock, on how to read, write, mathematics, philosophy, and foreign languages.
-The practice of Maggqarists is most curious, but it does result in a disproportionate amount of influence given their numbers. As they practice infanticide, it results in that fewer children exist to divide up their lands amongst. They not only keep their holdings together, but are more incentivized to reinvest into their lands as they will tend to stay together and in the family for longer. Eventually, through family management and larger than average landholdings, these families are starting to rise in power throughout the land, eventually hiring their own workers or renting out land, and building agricultural estates.
-Eventually, boats are bought or constructed, and sailed to visit the Phoenician or Greek colonies. The Etruscans are also met, along with a minor city called Rome. Trade is established and contact is frequent.
-Many new technologies and discoveries are introduced during this time. Ironworking, composite bows, and agriculture intended for large scale production and export. Dates are grown and enjoyed, along with olive oil. Vinegars, honeys, fish sauces, and all sorts of various and flavoursome condiments are either made here or imported. One treat is to mix olive oil with vinegar before soaking bread in it.
Turn 9: 500 to 250 BCE
Ancient Roman Music - Musica Romana - Pugnate II
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Political map of Turn 9
Cultural map of Turn 9
Religious map of Turn 9
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41851010&posted=1#post41851010
Events of the years 500 to 250BCE:
-The Grand Canal of China begins construction. Confucianism expands throughout China and along trade routes, soon becoming a major movement. Cast iron is also invented in China, used for a whole variety of weapons, tools, and armours. The Chinese philosopher Li Kui writes the Book of Law (Fajing, 法经) in 407 BC, the basis for the law codes of the following Qin Dynasty and partially that of the Han Dynasty.
-The Chinese state of Qin eventually manages to unify the western portion of China at this time, and at the end of this period, Qin Shi Huang takes the throne, vowing to unify China for the first time in history.
-The crossbow is independently invented in Greece and China at around the same time. The first donkey-powered mills are also constructed in Greece.
-The city of Babylon is finally abandoned.
-The Greeks invent the Anchor with flukes. The Greeks also start to use shear-leg cranes for construction and loading of ships, and invent linear perspective.
-Buddha dies, and Buddhism becomes an organized belief system. It becomes the state religion of the island known as Ceylon or Sri Lanka.
-The collared peccary becomes fully domesticated around this time, and begins to spread into the Caribbean area. American rice is also now spreading into the Midwest and Southeast, with many farming societies starting to develop. Guinea pigs and Moscovy Ducks are also being domesticated throughout South America, but are restricted to agrarian societies. This is also the period where we see complex societies finally emerging in greater numbers, such as the American Northeast, Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, and in the Andes. Manioc has also spread into the Andes and the Amazon, whilst Maize has spread into what we now call Columbia and Northern Mexico.
-The Persian Empire goes into terminal decline. Initially attacked by confederations of Greeks, Phoenicians, and the Empire of Dagger, they exhaust the resources of the state and have little to spare for revolts in Egypt, Caucasia, and the Indus. The Egyptians later declare independence to form the Fourth intermediate period in Egypt, ruled by the native dynasties. The Maurya Empire also eats away at the eastern portions of the Empire. Eventually, the Persians fracture into two halves. The Pontic Empire, and the Parthian Empire, succeeds it. Armenia becomes an independent kingdom, whilst the Israelis constantly rebel. Many Israeli people are angry that the Persians stole their land, and demand it back.
-By the mid-3rd century BC, the Romans had secured the whole of the Italian peninsula, except Gallia Cisalpina (Po Valley). Over the course of the preceding one hundred years, Rome had defeated every rival that stood in the way of their domination of the Italian peninsula. First the Latin league was forcibly dissolved during the Latin War, then the power of the Samnites was broken during the three prolonged Samnite wars, the Greek cities of Magna Graecia who were unified after Pyrrhus of Epirus finally left Italy, requiring the Greek Cities in southern Italy to submit to Roman authority at the conclusion of the Pyrrhic War. Sparta assisted Rome as an ally in the Pyrrhic war, although its long decline led to its support of Rome being more out of opportunism than actual attempts to gain influence in Italy.
-The decemviri come to power in the Roman Republic. They enact the twelve tables, the foundation of Roman Law. The Southern Estrucans are gradually assimilated by the Romans, and go into terminal decline.
-Greece is gradually split between 3 major factions. Sparta, the Delian League, and the Macedonians, Macedonian expansion was opportunistic, mostly preying on unaligned cities. However, with the Delian League and Sparta not going to war with each other, it allowed the Spartans to focus their military efforts on Macedonia, especially as the Empire of Dagger used their military to threaten them. Macedonia remains a fairly large and powerful Kingdom, but competing states means that it does not willingly break out of Macedonia. It looks to expansion elsewhere, most notably in southern Thrace.
-Eastern Sicily is thoroughly colonized by the Greeks, who begrudgingly accept that western Sicily now belongs to the Phoenicians. The Greek city of Helike sinks into the sea causing the death of its entire population.
-It is the golden age of Greek culture. The Greek playwright Aeschylus completes the Oresteia, a trilogy that tells the story of a family blood feud. The plays will have a great influence on future writers. Euripides presents his first known tragedy, Peliades, in the Athenian festival of Dionysia. Herodotus completes his History, which records the events concerning the Persian War. Democritus proposes the existence of indivisible particles, which he calls atoms. Anaxagoras tries to square the circle with straightedge and compass (he fails).
-The Greek physician and philosopher Empedocles articulates the notion that the human body has four humors: blood, bile, black bile, and phlegm. First performance of Sophocles's Oedipus the King. The city of Rhodes is founded.
-The Jomon people die out in Wapan.
-The Statue of Zeus at Olympia by Phidias, one of the seven wonders of the world, is completed.
-The Celtic peoples invade Ireland and have settled the entirety of the British Isles by this stage. Anglican paganism is now a minority religion.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Iberian)
State Religion: Four elements
-With increasing sophistication of society, the state, and economics, it is no longer feasible to hope that problems resolve themselves. A civil service is set up to administer taxation and the funds of the state, that being its primary role. Secondary roles include paying for the upkeep of the army and effectively establishing local and regional governments that relay back information to the top. The Spanish state is not only centralized, but with many arms and branches of government that to rule and administer their lands. Roads, water supplies, food storage, barracks, armouries, trade, ports, navies and education are all under some degree of control from the state.
-A large army is assembled and lead to the southeast of the country, besieging towns and cities as the Spanish seek to dominate the peninsula. They eventually control a vast area of land sweeping south-easterly, quickly setting up effective regional governments and bringing in much desired tax revenue and trade tariffs.
-Spain and Portugal seem to be getting along. The rulers of both countries eliminate border tariffs, effectively integrating their economies and allowing people to operate businesses in each other’s respective countries. The ebb and flow of trade sometimes annoys their own citizens who see foreign competition as bad, but overall it does more good than harm. Iberian paganism is also spreading throughout Spain more rapidly, especially as the old religion is losing state support. The King of Portugal also wishes for cordial relations to improve to become a military alliance as well.
-When the bureaucracy was reformed, the priests were not included. This is but one small part in the decline of the four elements. Riots and murders often take place in areas that tend to have poor harvests, little trade, and nobles fighting for control. Many people switch from one religion to another for practical purposes.
-An expedition is sent down the west coast of Africa. They manage to revisit not only the islands discovered before, but also get past the dry lands of the north to find a wetter, hotter land, populated by a fierce people. The navigator Hanno names them as “gorrillae” and kidnaps 3 women to take home.
-Expeditions also proceed into the Mediterranean, where they discover the Balearic isles and meet several Greek and Phoenician city states. Trade is formally established and knowledge exchanged as now traders in all these parts are aware of cities and towns further afield, meaning many new markets.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-Guard patrols are set up along the western borders of Laubergia, in order to deter Etruscan raiding parties. As Hellenic influence spreads northwards, the Etruscans are settling down to create city states anyways, albeit with a similar cultural and religious background as the Laubergians.
-Laubergian traders and diplomats head to Rome and Greece, to proclaim a declaration of peace, in order to open up the possibilities of trade-routes between the nations. The Romans are quite pleased that a far off and powerful Kingdom recognizes it as an equal on the world stage. The Greeks are likewise happy with the establishment of trade between their respective countries. Initially by land, trade is carried by ships travelling through the Adriatic, stopping off in many places along the way. The treaty signed in 497 BCE is seen as the start of the period where urbanization got underway in the Italian and Dalmatian areas.
-Laubergia also offers Rome an economic alliance, whereby tariffs are not imposed on goods, and merchants in both countries are able to operate freely without harassment.
-Priests receive a small benefit of tax income, to keep the ancient traditions alive as various religions spread inwards. This tax is raised from a levy in each village or town, and used to help prevent incursions by peoples professing another faith.
-Blacksmith rankings are divided by income and wares, rather than a singular class. This is to help separate trade, and stop single-family monopolies from owning an entire bloc of trade routes. Unfortunately, this results in the blacksmiths forming more specialist guilds, often collaborating, although less than before. Goldsmiths, bronzeworkers, ironmongers, armourers, etc are all separate guilds, and now that they collectively hold less power, the nobility are starting to try and undermine them further through more reforms. The rankings later become meaningless anyways, as the richest smiths control the guilds, whilst increasingly poorer ones are left with smaller slivers of wealth.
-The first true paved roads are introduced. With moving armies over vast distances always being problematic, the solution seems to be to excavate and pave flat, straight roads, with good drainage and rising above boggy or dusty land. Merchants and travellers also pay tolls to use these roads, and eventually the Etruscans build their own networks, with one that even leads to Rome.
-As the Roman Republic becomes larger, mostly due to the efforts of Laubergia, they end up taking over many former Etruscan cities and expanding to unify the Italian peninsula in a series of wars. The Northern Etruscans petition to Laubergia to form a coalition, on account of shared culture and religion, plus a desire to maintain peace in Italy.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-With the recruitment of Baleric slingers, somebody decides that the basic design along with the shot can be improved upon. Long staffs are shaped, and a sling attached to the end of them. With this, one can throw a projectile that is heavier, further, and with more speed. Small furnaces are also built or maintained by the army to melt lead in, which are made into round balls to be thrown. Lead mining becomes a quick necessity, and soon lead is one of the many imports of the empire. When well drilled, groups of slingers can chuck volleys of lead bullets at people with devastating effect. They can even damage the weaker sorts of buildings, and easily bash through brittle armour.
-Raids are conducted on the Persians constantly during this period, with many men operating in an almost guerrilla-like fashion. Whilst it does not stop their large armies, it does help to annoy their supply routes and to damage their smaller groups of men. Horses are also being bred to be heavier, and to carry riders with heavy lances. When brought to charge against Persian light infantry, they are devastating.
-A series of large battles occur during this time period involving the Persians, Dagger, and often other powers. In one such battle, the Persians brought elephants. Whilst they terrified the cavalry and looked as though they were to crush the Dagger army, a large group of heavy slingers focused their fire onto individual elephants. The sickening sound of fist-sized lead balls shattering bone and the pain caused the elephants to run amok amongst the Persian army, until their lungs were pierced by their splintered ribs. Other shots are luckier and hit the head or legs, disabling the beast entirely.
-For some reason, it is bizarre how Dagger had managed to beat the Persians. However, a quick look at their treasury tells a different story. The coinage is being debased, and for the first time in history. A type of loan called a bond is sold to wealthy members of society, who see it as a way to support the state without being called up for military service. Finally, the Phoenician cities are subsidizing Dagger, allowing them to practically buy up every slinger and cavalryman they can find, training them to work as units, and then devastating Persian light infantry and cavalry. The Persians try to respond by adopting archers, but the range between both armies is roughly the same. An imbalance in financial resources allows Dagger to even reclaim lands, although indirect assistance from other rivals of Persia also helps. By the end of this period however, Dagger is left with heavy war debts, and a shattered economy and country. Only their unique placement for trade allows them to continue.
-Dagger and most of the Greek cities gradually become rather cordial towards each other, with Dagger promising to end shipping raids, and the Greeks sending military help and some financial assistance against the Persians. Greek fire is also exchanged during this time, although Dagger quickly claims it for itself. It is put into small clay pots and lit, before being thrown from a heavy sling. It is particularly good at setting fire to things.
-During this time the Phalanx formation and new ship designs are adopted from the Greeks. Large ships are rowed by multiple banks of rowers now, allowing them to ram vessels with considerable force and ease. Onboard are heavy slingers to attack enemy vessels, and small towers are built on the ships to provide a firing platform.
Mallow234 – Phoenicia
Capital: Byblos
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Woodblock printing is invented at this time, as a way of reproducing pictures quickly and cheaply. Of course, making the initial negative takes a lot of time and skill, but when ink is rolled onto it and then is pressed onto paper, it creates a uniform and perfect picture each time. The sale of illustrated books skyrockets as people who cannot read can often enjoy them. The only real prohibitive cost now is paper, but many often use cheaper materials of poorer quality as a way of cashing in. Pictures of battles, mythology, and cities are all too popular. Some authorities even use them as a way of printing out the laws of the land, by showing various offences and their punishments on public noticeboards. Other official notices also appear, and a few words of Phoenician usually are on each one, detailing one event or another. Quite quickly, the printers also come under control of the government, lest they print unfavourable material.
-Iron plating is trialled on ships, but it is too costly and they often rust quickly anyways. It is found to be more useful to use the iron to brace the structure of the ship. Whilst costly, these ships also can be built larger and suffer less from the wood warping. They are always salvaged when they come to the end of their life, and are often suitable for ramming due to their improved strength.
-The first aqueducts begin to appear in Phoenician cities, mainly as a way of transporting water to urban centres from far afield. Poor architectural design often limits their practical use however. This period also sees a great deal of port expansion, in order to accompany the larger ships, along with the establishment of great granaries for times of famine. Food surpluses are easier to build up, although rodents and preservation are constant problems.
-There is an introduction of a system of courts, with judges and juries, to bring justice down to the local level. Many magistrates in the cities were inundated by the increase in crimes and laws that had to be managed, and so established specialist courts and juries to specifically deal with the matter. Judges may work on their own in the case of petty crimes. The senate is reformed to give more power to far-off city-states, mostly to administer their own courts and appoint judges. In return, Byblos has control of higher governmental functions, such as control of law-making and diplomacy.
-Tariffs are overall lowered. The Phoenician government begins to suffer from a lack of funds, and is forced to borrow money from private lenders, along with raising taxes on land, rents, and incomes. This does help trade significantly however, and many merchants and some people are pleased that they can now export lead, buy pottery, wine, and olive oils. Money is also sent to subsidize the Greeks and Daggerans in their long campaigns against the Persians, which is another drain on the Phoenician treasury. One of the great problems is the inability to raise taxes from far off parts of the trading empire, forcing Byblos to be dependent on mostly itself and donations.
-A colony is established on the mouth of the Danube River. Once having finished construction of the city walls, it is handed over to the Mrvian Empire. In return, the Phoenicians hold fleet basing rights. The abacus and the riverboats of the Empire are also brought down to the city, where many are bought and then spread throughout the Phoenician cities, which rapidly adopt both inventions. The longbow is also introduced during this time, when traders visiting Portugal bring the invention back with them.
-Most Phoenician colonies expand to considerable sizes, gaining land in the west. Of course, the financial and power centres of the league continue to shift westwards. Byblos is increasingly losing control over the area, is having shrinking revenues with which to spend on policies, and even military power as well. Some of the cities in the west are even larger than Byblos, particularly Carthage.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-The segmented arch is invented through years of experimentation in architecture, masonry, and engineering. By laying stones or bricks into a semicircular shape, it is found that the weight they support is pushed down and into the sides. This allows for buildings to be built with thinner and taller walls with more space inside them, and for higher roves and buildings in general. The concept can also be applied to bridgebuilding, where very strong bridges can be built over rivers (at considerable expense). The full implications of the arch have yet to come about, but already arched roofs are starting to be built.
-A navy to protect merchants is established called the “Uystricvi”. Composed mostly of small galleys sailing up and down navigable rivers, they protect traders from pirates and enforce the payment of tolls. They do not go to the Black Sea or beyond, for it is too far to resupply from (unless one has basing rights) and the Daggerians tend to cover the waters from that point on anyways.
-To celebrate the increase of the kingdom, the king declares that Velkij Donaljea is now an empire. A new flag is introduced as well to show that the transition has happened. The Kingdom is now a passing memory, hopefully along with an incident involving equines.
-In an attempt to stop Moravian nobles from abusing the privileges of the special farmer, the special farmer cannot own more currency than is needed, meaning nobles have to give up a majority of their money to gain the privileges of the special farmer. Of course, this definition is hideously skewed as the years go on, all the more so due to inflation and deflation of various goods and services as people have little understanding of it. The landed get around it anyways by storing their money in kind form (such as large stocks of gold, especially in hidden or foreign banks) or spending their money quickly before the tax man arrives. Some reinvest it into their land, introducing large ploughing equipment, improved farming tools, and the hiring of labour. Such things are not easily taxed.
-Formal diplomatic relations now exist between Mrvia, the Estrucan city states, Rome, and the various Greek polities. The Empire formally names itself “Protector of the Greeks”, seen as a formal binding alliance to them. During the many wars, the Empire often sends mercenaries at low prices to be hired by the Greeks, along with other indirect but supportive measures such as subsidies, loans, and galleys.
-An angry letter is written to the Emperor of Dagger, stating how he has no claims on his European holdings and requesting him to give it to the Greeks, at one point writing "remove kebab from the premises" in Mrvian. This is despite the fact no Greeks have ever lived in Dagger, and that these European holdings have been held by Dagger before the Greeks even existed as an ethnic group.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With the move to settled societies, complex trade, and above all, a need to move heavy things, somebody comes up with the smart idea of inventing the wheel. Initially a crude wooden disc, there is nothing large enough to pull large wagons. The existing travois is modified so that light wheels are attached. Soon afterwards, larger ones start to appear, pulled by teams of heavy dogs bred for the job of hauling them. Smaller ones are used for single riders, although the harnesses used for the dogs are considerably crude and put strain on their bodies. However, it is an improvement nonetheless, and the system rapidly spreads. Traders are now using them to carry goods between rivers and lakes, or overland. Roads begin to slowly widen and more trees are consequently felled. Dog breeding is also good business, and rice is always needed in bulk to feed both man and dog.
-The “basic law” is introduced. Written as a number of short and obvious laws, they detail how to manage the most common crimes (theft and violent acts), along with property and managing who owns what, the role of the state, religion, and various taxation rates. Universally applied to every populated area, it also requires a “Marsalkka” backed by military force, who upholds these laws and collects taxes. An extra tithe is introduced on the clergy, seen as wealthy people who have money. This annoys them, but a few strategic murders and public executions silence them.
-Expansion mainland continues along the waterways and now the appearing trade routes, along which traders and travellers are increasingly moving. The appearance of the dog-cart helps with this considerably, and boats are now plying the St Lawrence River. Of course, moving bulk goods overland is hideously expensive, and boats are used wherever possible. Some villages and towns are starting to assert their own independence now, and military force or political and diplomatic manoeuvring has to be increasingly used.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-Exchanging things for other things is a real bother. That’s why the Zulu invent money. Using pieces of bronze or other useful metals, one can represent wealth in physical form and much more easily buy goods and services. The Zulu state is quick to get in on this, by stamping metals with their seal and mandating that they are the official ones. With this, trade has begun to expand and now merchants are busy loading up Zebras and trotting around looking for people to trade with.
-With reassertion of control by the King, he not only brings in the prior mentioned monetary reforms, but also uses the army to crush dissidents and bring back stability to the country, along with booting out troublemakers from his court and reforming the tax system to take peoples new wealth into account.
-The first prison is established, where troublemakers and people with different opinions are locked up. Tribes are also contacted to help the Zulu King regain power in return for positions in court and new lands. Despite this, little expansion of the Kingdom takes place. Villages continue to grow however, and the development of agriculture in many parts is starting to result in the rise of a new class who own grain stores as opposed to heads of cattle.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-As Wapanese people are lazy and wish to find ways to make their lives easier, some educated fellows who had the ability to access clerical schools and have a workshop to themselves, begin to make simple plans and diagrams of various pieces of complex equipment and machinery. They identify simple machines such as levers and gears, and during this time, a selection of odd inventions comes into being. Included are rotary querns, drawbridges, pulleys, gates, water clocks, and other simple mechanical devices.
-An educated, horse-riding samurai called Shounen Jampo, who is said to have ground his loins into uselessness from all the riding, comes up with the genius idea of putting a piece of leather onto the horse to dampen the impact to one’s balls. The same samurai comes up with the idea to put slippers onto horse’s feet, but that idea failed horribly as the horse slipped, fell, crushed Shounen under its weight and died.
-Horse archery is introduced as a formal sport, and as a means of combat in warfare. Nobles can easily fire off volleys of arrows before retiring. They are an excellent skirmishing force, although inflexible when the time calls for heavy cavalry.
-Raids from the north begin to increase in numbers as the tribes now have a type of sailing raft. Doing hit and run raids on coastal villages, they can do a lot of damage.
-Professional horse breeding stables are established as a way of introducing desirable traits to horses such as speed, size, and agility. Of course, they are still mostly kept for the nobility, with stock that could be culled is instead sold off to the wealthier merchants or farmers.
-A giant stone statue of Fatto Moefaggu overlooking the Akihabara bay is constructed. The first Chinese language school is also built in Akihabara, mainly populated by the retainers of Chinese merchants.
-Through trade with the Chinese, some books on Confucianism make their way to the Weeaboo Empire. The Emperor Claudo I Moefaggu and the 12 most prominent religious scholars study the books, in order to learn and borrow from Confucius’s teachings and adapt some of them to Weeabooism, particularly the parts about loyalty, discipline and respecting your elders. Using this knowledge they write The New Great Book Of Moe, where they describe a set of virtues, following which will guarantee that your Waifu will like you better when you come to her in the afterlife, and not following them will ensure an eternity of your Waifu giving you blue balls. Women are said to (partially) be of divine nature because of their resemblance to the Wai-fu. If they lead a virtuous life they are promised to be reunited with the Wai-fu in the afterlife, but she will reject them if they lived a life of sin. They tell the people that they have been visited by their Waifus, who told them to write this new book. The Chinese find it interesting that the Wapanese adopted these teachings, and agree to keep trade links open.
-To prevent the country from centralizing too much, the Emperor commissions a construction of a Winter Palace in one of his westernmost parts of the newly acquired lands on Honshu. Half of the year he resides in this Winter Palace, and the other half - in Akihabara. The town expands and becomes a bustling trade hub with China. The Emperor renames the city to Konata, after the first Empress. Unfortunately, Akihabarans are soundly annoyed, seeing that the move will lessen the importance of the city.
-Another wave of missionaries is sent to China with the New Great Book of Moe, provided with financial support. They bribe, cajole, blackmail, or otherwise convince some of the Chinese lords to allow construction of Waifuist temples and monasteries. Interestingly enough, the Chinese end up assimilating the new religion and integrate it with their existing belief systems. Back home, the religion begins to slowly lose state backing as the Emperor decentralizes power. Many priests are at the mercy of the lords.
-Expansion westwards continues, especially as the Emperor seems not to bother much about centralization. He doesn’t even collect tax much of the time. The standing army diminishes in quality, and eventually the daimyo s begin to build up their own private armies and end up fighting each other over many matters. Since joining the Empire allows ones economy to be integrated into that of the Empire and to find many allies within it, most daimyo are doing so for pragmatic reasons instead of the traditional system. Eventually, the Samurai rise to become a dominant class, and begin to compete actively with the merchants and religious leaders. All want various policies, and few wish to give ground on them.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-New methods of animal domestication and breeding have come about. Due to a lucky fuckup some many years ago, the Collared Peccary is possible to domesticate, and so they are by the people of Xerxes. Keeping mixed genders inside pens and castrating the aggressive or small males, they were selectively bred to become more docile and fatter. The peccary performs a role somewhere between that of the pig and the goat of the Old World, eating waste in the villages and fruits and nuts in the forest like a pig, but also exploiting grass seeds and soft-bodied plants like a goat. The ability of the peccary to exploit plants that are useless to humans and tolerate heat and arid conditions meant that they are somewhat more efficient to raise than the Old World’s pigs, despite their smaller size and slower reproductive rate. A vital source of protein can fill in the vitamin deficiency from manioc, and they are the only domesticated animals save for dogs.
-Leading bands of warriors around villages, raids can snowball into small invasions when many young men young in with the parades, with the result that an opposing tribe can be quickly taken over. Of course, the same holds true for the other tribes, and many wars break out. The low population density and primitive nature of the peoples here means that they are often brutal wars, but with this new agricultural system, the more nourished Xerxes often have more people and resources at their disposal for wars.
-A religion organically grows, based on honour and service to the country. People who do good service to the country earn passage to the Court of Titus as a servant. Those who go above and beyond as to affect the country in a substantial way become nobles of Titus's kingdom. Of course, this mostly means warriors and noblemen. The farmers who domesticated the new and tasty animals got the short stick!
-Farms do begin expansion however, with land being cleared to plant manioc (along with other secondary plants). Domestic animals are also being kept on these farms, and provide a valuable source of protein which manioc failed to provide. The Moscovy Duck and Guinea pigs are also domesticated, and reared for their meat (or eggs in case of the former). The collared peccary rules supreme though, and where they go, so do can farmers. Fishing also begins to gradually expand as well, although the biggest problem is preserving food or finding a source of food which keeps for long periods of time.
-One way of helping to integrate tribes is not to attack them, but to present them with a large gift of fresh meat and eggs. Well received, clearly one way to get loyalty is to through the stomach with a grand feast.
Chevelle – Kingdom of Portugal
Capital: Lisbon
Culture: Portuguese (Iberian)
State Religion: Iberian Pantheon
-A long type of spear is invented by the Portuguese. Called the “Sarissa”, it is a pike that is 6 metres long and has an iron point, plus a bronze butt-spike. When used in large formations, the pikemen are not only presenting an impenetrable defence, they can also be used for the offense. Subsequently, many battles are won by well drilled pikemen. The elite soldiers advance on the right hand side, aiming for the weakest part of the enemy lines.
-Spain and Portugal seem to be getting along. The rulers of both countries eliminate border tariffs, effectively integrating their economies and allowing people to operate businesses in each other’s respective countries. The ebb and flow of trade sometimes annoys their own citizens who see foreign competition as bad, but overall it does more good than harm. Iberian paganism is also spreading throughout Spain more rapidly, especially as the old religion is losing state support. The King of Portugal also wishes for cordial relations to improve to become a military alliance as well.
-Using the new pike, along with income from trade, the Portuguese notice the expansions of the Spanish and seek not to be outdone. They expand southwards, destroying enemy armies with the new techniques and weaponry, plus raiding villages of towns that refuse to surrender. An arms race eventually occurs, with the result that many towns in the last independent corner are now drilling their own armies of pikemen, supporting them with skirmishers, and using cavalry to charge the side and rear of opposing armies.
-A more militaristic society begins to gradually emerge, where children and young men are expected to be ready for war, and practice frequently with their weapons. There is a strong promotion of honour and service to the state.
Kamikaze470 – Tefullmorostan dol el Wizterbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-An improved form of potter’s wheel is invented. Whereas early versions were slow and clumsy, the new device has a crankshaft and a pedal powered by the feet. The wheel spins at considerable speed, and allows the potter to quickly shape pottery of uniform shape and size in short periods of time. New kilns and potteries have also been built to store and fire vast quantities of pottery as well. With this, prices crash and many small craftworkers are forced into other occupations or to join a large pottery works. Ships are also exporting pottery across the Mediterranean, with prices steadily dropping. Demand is always high though, as many amphorae are needed for wine and olive oil.
-Seeking to annoy people, raiding parties are often sent out to attack random villages. They respond by raiding trading routes and preying on trade. Merchants start to go by sea instead. Towers are later built as watchposts to try and protect the routes, although the guards are often murdered.
-Annual archery contests are held to find out who is the best at archery, naturally these men are given good positions in the army and become an elite force as well. Some men are even practicing by doing it atop camels, and so groups of mounted archers are also appearing. During peace, many of them make their living by being paid mercenaries for traders and to protect trade routes. Others raid the inland villages.
-Maggaqarist priests are prohibited from crossing over into Phoenician territory and preaching the forever damned, helpless lost souls. Very few of them are annoyed at it, and mostly because they see it as a prime place to draw money from to pay for temples and their dinners.
-The King patronizes the clergy in order to create an official alphabet, formerly called "Senexises Toholzeron", borrowing words from Latin and Phoenician. Oddly enough is the decision to take words from the language of a minor city state in Italy.
-Ecekdorisim is seen as a minority religion in danger. Priests try to convert people to its slightly different beliefs, but the Maggaqarists are afraid of the imbalance in power as the former grows stronger. Strategic murders, bribes, and a great deal of political intrigue go on behind closed doors. This has yet to spill out onto the streets.
-Roads are cleared and resurfaced along the major trade routes on land. Stones and scrub are removed, bumps dug away and holes filled in. Ditches are also dug to try and improve draining, with low bridges built over streams.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian League
Capital: Athens
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Greek Pantheon
-Uniremes, biremes, triremes, and quadriremes are developed, and gradually multiple rowers are issued to the same oars. The ships become faster, although diminishing returns are noted with increasing size and banks of rowers. However, as they can now grow to considerable sizes, it permits the building of artillery platforms (such as ballistae) and allows a great deal of soldiers to be carried onboard. Used in naval battles, they become the capital ships of the ancient world, and often can be used to crush the smaller sorts of vessels by directly ramming them.
-Key Delian league city-states, most prominently Athens, reache out to Sparta and asks that it join the league and bring its Allies with it. To ease Spartan trepidation, Athens offers to share the leadership with Sparta, giving up control of the land forces and keeping control of the navy. The Spartans and their allies agree to a nominal alliance, but not to join the league outright, wishing to retain their own independence and viewing Athens with a measure of distrust. Athens assembles the united navy of the league and begins widespread naval warfare against the Persians, attempting to destroy and scatter as many ships as possible. Indirect assistance on land, the weakening Persian economy, and financial and naval assistance from Phoenicia helps to wear down the Persian navy, until eventually heavy blockades and wholesale destruction of their navy begins a spiral of economic collapse.
-The league divides its military resources in two, sending hoplites from its southern city-states across the Adriatic to bolster Greek colonies and also help the Phoenicians fight off the Persians. The northern states send their hoplites up the coast to defend the Northern-most city-states from incursions. The Spartans also assist in these wars, if only to ward off the Persian menace. They even start to build a significant naval force and at times contest Athenian naval supremacy. This is especially so due to the growing power of Athens once it makes itself the leader and centre of the Delian League.
-However, the system is run very much similarly to that of the Phoenicians. The Delian league allows autonomy to all city-states involved, only requesting military assistance and integration into the Delian economy. For easier organization, the league divides itself into several sections, with each section having a regional power-house city-state that oversees the league's decrees in the area.
-Each part of the League is also given a number of representatives to send to the Athenian congress based on their military contributions to the League. This invariably results in an arms race, and constantly changing numbers of delegates, many of whom are often bribed. To handle this increasingly complicated system, a new academy springs up in the heart of Athens, training young men in managing this new complex mess. Ictinus and Callicrates also finish construction of the Parthenon, located on Athens' Acropolis.
-Trade tariffs are dropped on Phoenician traders in return for military and financial assistance in fighting the war. The Phoenicians gladly agree, and help them in the wars against Persia. Of course, Persia begins to fall apart in the late 4th century BCE, and when the Spartans prepare for war again, seeing Athens as a target, the Macedonians begin to attack their holdings. The Spartans later go into considerable decline after losing much of their citizens during several intense battles, and by the end of this period the traditional education system and Spartan society have begun to fall apart.
BananaFoam – Ibolozi Tribe
Capital: Ibbus Sieciwiz
Culture: Siberian (Uralic)
State Religion: East Medith Pantheon
-The Ibolozi are a migratory people originally from Siberia. Legends hail that Yujek, a great Chieftain, was exiled from his lands. He followed a star to found their new home. The star, since named Yujek's Star, can be found on the people's sigil, contained in the "basin of the universe" that contains our world. Above the valley one can find the God of winter Utol, who represents the divinity of the Great Valley. It is the fabled land that all Ibolozi will supposedly enter and, with the help of the Gods, conquer under their own name. Since Yujek's Crossing, the Ibolozi have distinguished themselves by being the first in the region to use copper tools (but have yet to use iron or alloys like Bronze). They frequently trade in furs, shells, excess fish, and pottery in exchange for the better weaponry and tools of more southern peoples. They then use these weapons to conquer tribes to the North, allowing them to forge powerful allies in the South and take the sparse but open terrain of the North and only offending one side.
-Archaeologists and anthropologists along with historians are still trying to pin down the origins of these people. The evidence points to the development of large sailing rafts around this time in Siberia, possibly an inheritance from the Japonic and Korean peoples to their south. The advent of this raft does show that it was possible to sail across the Bering straits into the Northwest of the Americas, grounding the oral tales in some basis of reality. Of course, tribes also use it for hit and run raids, trade, and fishing. The tribe manages to control much of the western coast, although only loosely and it is difficult to proceed inland further.
-After Jutleg dies of fever, the Elders convene and elect the young man Uglik as the new Chieftain. Uglik, being young and ambitious, sees a bright future of conquest for his people. One night, he supposedly witnesses a vision of his tribe, far into the future, waging wars in massive scale with dark skinned people of the South. Seeing this vision, he knows his destiny is to lead his people to great military conquest. However, some of his fellow tribesmen consider his vision false and believe his ambition will only hasten the tribe’s destruction. Now, under the threat of civil strife, Uglik finds a way to rally his people. He stages an attack by killing a small village of his own tribe and blaming the Ghuyiks of the North. This rallies the people's support for him and spurs them into war. One member of the tribe goes insane, wearing a special fur hat “so that the chief does not access my thoughts”. He calls the attack on the village a false one, but is ignored.
-Uglik leads raids and attacks on the Ghuyik peoples. The natives have not seen these light skinned sea raiders and immediately believe they are a threat from the gods. Eventually, however, they are subdued by Uglik. Many of his people want swift retribution for the "wanton slaughter" of their village, but Uglik shows mercy, knowing such acts can only lead to more strife, and he must prepare for more conquest.
-Obviously, the small conflict between the Ibolozi and the Ghuyiks rages on. Finally, the fires are quenched and the Ibolozi turn a mind towards more peaceful methods of expansion. The lands to their East have not yet seen human settlers, so the Ibolozi Elders lead expeditions to penetrate the dark forest. Some are successful and other disappears without a trace, but enough villages are settled for the Ibolozi to claim the lands. Elder Pitic takes it upon himself to repair the relations between the Ibolozi and neighboring tribes. He leads trade caravans filled with livestock, pottery, and any food surplus, in exchange for weapons, tools, and ropes. These pieces of pottery are very crude but they get the job done.
Turn 10: 250 BCE to 1 CE
Rome Total War Music "Romantic Battle"
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Political map of Turn 10
Cultural map of Turn 10
Religious map of Turn 10
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41883433&posted=1#post41883433
Events of the years 250 BCE to 1 CE:
-Two new small civilizations sprout up in the New World, located in Mesoamerica and the Mississippi respectively. They are the first to engage in significant volumes of trade, with trade routes stretching from the Honduras to the Bay of Fundy. Maize farming is also spreading out of Mesoamerica on a large scale, and the collared Peccary has spread northwest into Mesoamerica. Increasing sophistication is also now evident with the rise of bronze/copper trading routes over long distances and increasing adoption of agriculture. They both possess knowledge of basic metalworking, agriculture, and writing.
-The annual worldwide output of iron has hit 100,000 metric tonnes for the first time in human his-tory. 80% of this figure is produced by the Romans and Chinese respectively.
-A great coalition of disparate countries, tribes, cities, and Empires combine to invade the Roman Republic and destroy the threat that they pose to the Mediterranean order. It is not lead by any particular state, and is even composed of countries hostile to one another. However, they all intervene with the Roman Republic at various stages in order to arrest its expansionary vision.
-A counter coalition is created to combat this. Composed of the Romans themselves, the Mrvian Empire, the Kingdom of Laubergia, Macedonia and several Greek cities including Sparta, they are incredibly lacking in naval forces, but have significant land forces. Attempts to build a large navy are thwarted consistently, meaning that until the collapse of the war effort from Spain, Portugal, and Dagger, there is little gain made in the wars.
-During the first war, the forces opposed to Rome quickly win naval supremacy, blockading their ports. Laubergia, Mrvia, and parts of Greece are blockaded, with trade coming to an end for much of the war, or heading overland instead. One of the biggest losers was the Phoenicians, crippled so much by the cost of the war and decline in trade that it allowed Egypt to take Byblos without much of a fight.
-The war of the first coalition had 3 broad theatres. In the Iberian theatre, Spanish and Portuguese vessels destroyed the Roman navy and prevented them from moving overseas, but religious turmoil at home combined with the exhaustion of war brought the campaign to a stalemate.
-In Italy, the Phoenicians and Arhonians invaded Italy, forming the Kingdom of Tuscany as a client state before trying to take on the Roman armies. Denied battle, they were worn down by attrition until the arrival of the Mrvian and Laubergian armies forced them to retreat. Promised reinforce-ments from the Empire of Dagger were delayed and eventually had to retreat as the Mrvian Empire and Macedonia burned the great city of Istanbul to the ground. Hannibal, realizing that his men are demoralized and that the Romans are closing in, makes a hasty retreat.
The Romans and Mrvians managed to copy their riverboat design, and quickly mass produce them for a quick and cheap crossing into Sicily, where they established a foothold. After a gruelling cam-paign of 10 years, they brought the island under Roman rule, and also reconquered the Kingdom of Tuscany. Tuscany survives as a rump state in Corsica.
-In the Greek theatre, the Greek city states are embroiled in effective civil war, spilling over into the Roman wars as a whole. The Spartans are destroyed with the help of the Empire of Dagger and the Phoenicians, whilst the King of Epirus manages to invade Italy once more, but he is forced to retreat when the Macedonians return.
-As the period later continues, Rome manages to extend their possessions in Northern Italy and Gaul. They invade Epirus and Dalmatia, plus expand into Northeast Iberia. The Corsican rump state is eventually made a client state of the Roman Republic, and after a series of military reforms and campaigns puts control in the hands of the army, generals fight for control of Rome itself. The win-ner declares himself an Emperor, ruling over a considerably sized Roman Empire.
-The Maurya Empire in India falls apart, with the arrival of the Indo-Scythians. Former rump states and new dynasties and kingdoms carving out new lands pop up throughout southern India in a bid for power.
-The three kingdoms of Korea form, but because I can’t be arsed to fiddle around with extra colours and the constantly shifting borders between the Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla, they are represented as a unified Korean polity. It is at least unified enough to prevent outright conquest by Han China or Wapan.
-The Qin dynasty falls, and the replacement Han dynasty expands the borders of the Chinese Empire significantly, along with building a great wall to deter the Xiongnu nomads. The Xiongnu later develop into a considerably powerful empire, sitting on top of the Han. However, given their societal structure, these empires often collapse within a few years of the death of a powerful ruler, waiting until another competent and ruthless warlord emerges.
-Kingdoms and polities on the Arabian and Somalian coasts are appearing with the rise of trade there. Profiting well by it, they develop into wealthy and stable kingdoms, with a great deal of cul-tural influence from India and Egypt, and by extension from the Hellenic world as well.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Iberian)
State Religion: Four elements (De facto Iberian Pantheon)
-With large scale engineering works being by the state for civilian and military use, there is a rising demand for trained engineers capable of designing and building these feats of engineering. The first professional academies are established in Spain, using geometry and specialized tools along with drawn plans. There must be order when building, for mislaid bricks are home to nothing but strife. Roads are cut to be well drained, smooth, and to efficiently move people from one location to another. This period sees an exponential increase in the number of bridges built, with many old designs little changed since the Neolithic replaced with fine carpentry or masonry work. This knowledge can also be applied to city walls, with many extensions being made during this period. Towers are now also built large enough to fit siege weaponry or cauldrons of boiling water, a sure deterrent for an attacking force!
-Construction of a large navy is now underway, as the Spanish state realizes it is horrifically vulnerable to maritime powers. A great deal of land is allocated to forestry, much to the annoyance of the peasantry who go into them to collect firewood. The cut planks are then stored in large warehouses and seasoned before being built into a fleet of impressive galley ships. Filled with many Spanish soldiers and many convicts or slaves to row them, the Spanish manage to rectify their naval weakness. Unfortunately, this doesn’t keep cheap, and compensating the owners of the land for the new forestry was troublesome as well. Another problem is that populations and by extension navies and armies tend to inflate over time, necessitating more land to be used for forestry or attempts to grow trees closer together. The price of timber also begins to rise, and whenever fires happen, it’s a huge disaster.
-The Spanish state forms a military alliance with the Portuguese on the condition that the Portuguese assist the Spanish in the training and use of the Sarissa. Soon enough, the Spanish army quickly adopts the pike, and soon the fighting style of the Portuguese as well. Stalemates are grisly to observe.
-Before the famous battle of Formentero, the King of Spain makes a stirring speech:
“You all know the mission, and what is at stake.
I have come to trust each of you with my life -- but I have also heard murmurs of discontent. I share your concerns.
We are trained for expansion; we would be legends, but the records are sealed. Glory in battle is not our way.
Think of our heroes; the Silent Step, who defeated a fortress with a single arrow shot.
Or the Ever Alert, who kept armies at bay with hidden facts.
These giants do not seem to give us solace here, but they are not all that we are.
Before the coalition, there was the fleet. Before diplomacy, there were soldiers!
Our influence stopped the barbarians, but before that we held the line!
Our influence stopped the Celts, but before that, we held the line!
Our influence will stop Rome; in the battle today, we will hold the line!”
-At the battle of Formentero, the entirety of the Spanish navy from the western Mediterranean assembles to beat off the Roman forces and to assert naval supremacy. A long and bloody battle ensues with the Portuguese using scores of longbowmen to rain arrows upon the Romans. The Roman navy itself is well organized, but the ships are poorly built, with many of them rammed or set ablaze during the battle. The Romans are eventually crushed, and the joint Spanish, Portuguese, and Phoenician navies start to blockade Roman ports.
-Wine begins to be made in increasing quantities in Iberia. Vineyards are steadily increasing in number, and require large numbers of slaves to tend and pick the grapes. Once pressed and fermented into alcohol, it is sold for domestic use or exported north. The inhabitants of the Isle of Man are particularly keen on importing it, with many Mannish men sailing over to load up on cheap wine, so termed a “Booze cruise”.
-The proliferation of Iberian pagans throughout Spain, along with their annoying tendency to convert people to their religion, has finally reached breaking point. Riots are frequent in the streets, and the use of Mannish tongues (the language in which the liturgy is written) is another cause for concern. Rival sects frequently fight with one another, and the old four elements religion begins to show fanatics and extremists turning to violent methods as they feel that their gods are threatened. Many nobles are also divided over the issue, and the inability of the King to control the situation or even favour one party is leading to more factionalism.
-A civil war breaks out, when a nobleman following the old ways attempts to visit the king in person. He brings soldiers with him, fearing attacks by Iberian pagans. A guard sees this as an attempted coup and raises the alarm. A Iberian pagan mob assembles and begins to attack the old believers, burning down and looting their temples. It spills out into general violence, and the country fractures. The Portuguese manage to help restore order for much of the south and the west, with many Iberian pagan nobles flocking to join their Kingdom. The old believers flee north and settle the homeland, seeing the King as too favourable towards the Iberian pagans.
-The navy and army of the Spanish begin to collapse when news back home arrives, and it is forced to retreat. The Portuguese are also forced to pull back to defend their homelands as religious strife spills over. It is revealed that the policy of impressing children rapidly spread and mutated as a rumour, until it was viewed as an attempt to kill children and drain their blood for Iberian pagan rituals. This makes defusing tensions considerably more difficult.
-A rival Spanish Kingdom now exists in northern Iberia. It has rejected a great deal of the Hellenising influences to the east, and the paganizing influences from Mann and Portugal. It declares itself the true Kingdom, and calls the other to be corrupted. They then proceed to violently chase out or kill many Iberian pagans in the north, before trying to emulate their forefathers.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-As extracting metals is becoming more difficult, shafts often have to be sunk deep underground to reach the sources of mineral being extracted. To help, water pumps, horses, drainage channels, platforms, ladders, cranes, pulleys, wagons, and doors to regulate airflow are introduced into mines, so as to make it possible to mine deep underground and move the ore to the surface. Trying to regulate airflow also makes it slightly safer, although not much any more pleasant. Large smelters and blacksmith shops are built on site to process the ores into ingots or finished goods.
-Laubergian traders and farmers continue to spread north and east, mostly following the rivers and trade routes leading towards the Mrvian Empire. The land between them is becoming increasingly valuable, as trade and populations grow in the as of yet unclaimed land.
-Many priests, having lost a lot of former state support, are encouraged to travel east to spread the good word. Seeing that there is little else to lose, they eventually do so, covering much of the lands between them and the Mrvian Empire.
-The guild of goldsmiths is given increasing favour and protectionist measures for their trade and some of them begin to put in harsh currency controls. Good news for them, as they can profit by speculating on metal prices, but bad news for somebody who may find one day that the buying power of their money has dropped significantly. Many poor people are hit the worst as their wages often lag when prices change.
-Laubergian warriors posted at the borders disperse gradually, as Rome is less of a threat now that an alliance and trading treaty has been signed with them. The Roman senate is not composed of fools, and sees the aid of Laubergia will be useful in the upcoming wars. Over the next few years, the Romans and Laubergians slowly partition the Estrucan Laubergians between themselves, adding cities their respective countries every so often. They are stopped with the advent of the war of the first coalition.
-In this war, Laubergia mostly participates with the invasion of Tuscany, executing most of the major instigators and rebel leaders, before re-establishing control of their lands and then sending their armies south to force the Phoenicians to retreat. Later on in the campaign, they assisted in the invasion of Sicily and later the conquest of the rest of Tuscany, helped considerably by Mrvian reinforcements.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Istanbul (burned lol)
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-A type of crossbow introduced from Greece is redesigned and improved upon. A trigger mechanism is attached, and the wooden bow is made short, but sturdy and powerful. Wooden bolts with iron tips are used. This is perhaps the first weapon that can be mass produced for common soldiers without requiring very much training. Whilst it has a shorter range than longbows or composite bows and a slower rate of fire, it can pierce most armour and is cheaper to field. The Empire of Dagger takes to them more readily than the Greeks, mass producing them for military use.
-Dagger goes to war with the Pontic Empire, hoping to capitalize on their weakened state. However, given that they also sent their navy to fight Rome and her allies, it leaves them vulnerable to a sneak attack by the Mrvian Empire. The Mrvians sail to Istanbul, push their riverboats over the banks blocked by the reserve navy, and then raid the city. Much of it is looted and then carried off back in the very same boats, and large sections of the city burn down.
-The Pontic Empire gives a good fight, but eventually, incursions by the Armenians and Parthians, followed by the Kingdom of Egypt, eventually bring the aged Pontic Empire down. The Empire of Dagger is exhausted however, and is unable to offer much resistance when a joint Macedonian-Mrvian force burn and loot the capital again before capturing many of their European holdings. Forced to sue for peace, the Empire is embarrassed and erupts into civil strife again. Their Anatolian holdings rebel and the armies are soon overstretched. The army sent to attack Rome is brought back to the capital to mount a desperate attack on Macedon, but the Mrvians and Macedonians burn down the entire city when meeting their enemy on the field. With the clouds of smoke billowing over the Daggerian army, their morale breaks at seeing the city aflame, and they are soundly routed. The Emperor dies in the battle and his family is reduced to holding Crete and the Balearic isles.
-In the power vacuum, a new Empire rises after the Macedonians (who conquered much of the old Pontic and Daggerian Empires) split apart. The Seleucid Empire is formed by the family of a rogue Macedonian general, taking power in Syria when Macedon was embroiled in a war with Epirus. It remains reasonably tolerant of foreign ways, allowing their cultures and religions to exist with one another. Zoroastrianism begins to go into heavy decline anyways, with people switching to favour the Hellenic pantheon instead, mostly for political advantage.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-As woodblock printing is ever more popular, somebody comes up with the idea of cutting individual letters onto tiny blocks of wood or making small lead versions. These are then arranged on a board, fitted into a frame, and then has a piece of paper lain on top. A press then presses the paper onto the negative to reproduce a perfect copy every time. Of course, this also necessitates a standardized type being used, so a new version of the alphabet is also introduced. Finally, the first printer’s workshop is established in Byblos, slowly printing books and maps. Costs are still high due to the low production of paper itself, but the price of a book has now dropped down to a year’s wages for a clerk.
-Cotton seeds are imported from the Indus, and the first cotton plants are introduced. Spinning them is difficult, along with growing the cotton in the first place, as few places are suitable for the task. Since the work is menial, slaves are used to grow and pick the cotton.
-Hannibal is made general of the Phoenician armies. At around the same time, imported elephants from Syria or North Africa are tamed and used in the army. Of course, the Romans want to expand their influence at around the same time, prompting growth in the army.
-Working together with Spain, the Sicilian Greeks, Portugal, and Dagger, the Phoenician navy blockades Roman ports and tries to prevent their invasion of Sicily. The Romans respond by building a large fleet, but the fleet is crushed at the battle of Fermentero. The Phoenicians are unable to aid in the west however, due to the arrival of opposing Greek and Macedonian fleets. Large battles and skirmishing actions happen along the southern coast of Italy and Sicily, aided by the naval superiority of the Phoenicians and support from the Empire of Dagger. Greek fire is introduced, and some ships are braced with iron and bronze. These are the main capital ships, designed more to destroy ships outright instead of capturing them.
-The Spartan/Macedonian fleet is eventually destroyed, leaving naval supremacy to Phoenicians. They blockade the Spartan and Macedonian ports, followed by the Roman ones. This is later essential to the later outcome of the war, mostly involving the unification of the Greek peninsula.
-The capital is moved to Malta, with the island being rebuilt and a large senate constructed. The senate is now given control over all cities in the federation, with the power to raise taxes and soldiers without consent of the cities. The appointment of independently minded people to the Iberian cities was a bit of a mistake as well, as they declare independence after the senate moves to the city of Mdina in Malta. With the Phoenicians unwilling or unable to reassert control over them, and the collapse of the Spanish state during the religious wars, they end up developing into their own state, with the capital city of Barkeno. The senate begins to steadily raise taxes and trade duties, in order to pay for the costly military campaigns of the Republic.
-A vast army is assembled, and marches through Gaul and then the Alps, collecting many barbarian tribes along the way including the Arhonians. High attrition rates are a menace however, and then the army manages to march straight into Estrucan Laubergia. Many of the people there, recently conquered but still angry at betrayal by the Romans and Laubergians, take up arms and murder the Laubergians or Roman. A state erupts into existence named the Kingdom of Tuscan, which also sends significant armies to aid in the invasion of Rome.
-The Roman general Fabian is called on to lead the Romans against the invasion. He invents a strategy called the Fabian strategy. In it, direct attacks on the enemy force are discouraged, and instead their smaller skirmishing units are attacked and wiped out. Food is removed and bridges destroyed to slow down and starve the enemy. The avoidance of pitched battles by both sides, save for the siege of Rome itself is crucial in this strategy. When Hannibal arrives, his promised Daggerian reinforcements never arrive, and naval support begins to wither away.
-The Laubergians and Mrvians manage to collect reinforcements, and march into northern Italy before conquering the Tuscan state. They cut off the supply lines to the Phoenicians and then eventually, with supplies and troops dwindling, the Phoenicians are forced to make a hasty retreat with the Laubergian, Mrvian, and Roman armies slowly battering them down. They retreat by sea, leaving Italy in ruins in the process. The Romans spend the next few centuries going to war on and off again. The Phoenicians are never able to launch such an invasion ever again due to the increasing power of the Roman coalition and relative decline of the Phoenicians. Eventually the combined forces of the Romans manage to not only invade Sicily, but to conquer it in its entirety as well. The Romans and Laubergians also manage to expand into the rest of Italy, and Rome ends up adding southern Gaul to their conquests.
-Having lost the war, they also lose the ancestral capital to a resurgent Egypt. Egypt profits from the demise of Byblos, and manage to conquer much of the Levant. When Hannibal returns to Malta, he sells off his lands and titles in shame in order to help raise money to pay the war indemnities of the Phoenician. The Phoenician state goes bankrupt soon after, and it takes some years for the finances to be back in order.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-Improved architectural design is now spreading in the Empire. With Hellenic influences brought over by traders, the Emperor has commissioned the construction of new large walls around the cities of the empire, and the construction of more isolated forts garrisoned by professional armies. Granaries are also constructed for the storage of food during sieges, and large towers are built into the already significantly tall and thick walls. Nobody but a madman would dare to assault them.
-A settlement policy is declared, whereby the banks of the Danube River are to be settled so as to bring the river in its entirety under control of the Empire. The Phoenician city remains mostly to itself, but immigrants often tend to come into it and then sail up the river, looking for a place to settle. A great deal of land is already owned by existing peoples, but military force along with forest clearing, marsh draining, terraforming, and new farming methods manage to stretch out and increase the amount of land under cultivation, along with improving yields.
-The nobility are pressuring the Emperor to close the gap between themselves and Laubergia. The increasing value of that land is becoming too tempting, and many see the establishment of control over them as paramount to the success of the Empire. Trade is very much indeed prospering in that area, along with agricultural output. Some areas are even building urban settlements and becoming more protective of their independence as well.
-Merchants, traders, ambassadors, travellers, and varied other sorts are increasingly bringing back innovations from the south, and with them, Hellenizing influences. Wine drinking, the wearing of Greek and Roman clothing, their varied philosophical musings, and architecture along with machinery and metallurgy are spreading into the Empire. Latin and Greek texts are being translated into Mrvian for posterity.
-Diplomats are sent to Rome and Macedonia to negotiate trade treaties. They also establish military alliances, with Rome and Macedonia spurred on by the Mrvians to ally with one another. The Spartans later join in the coalition with several Greek cities.
-In 12 BCE, the emperor, Alkse IV Otradovec, announced that he, together with his son, a cartographer who is also skilled in geography, his military captain and two other soldiers, would attempt to find the source of the great Danube river. And so, they spent years searching for it, while the cartographer maps it, before in 6 BCE they found it. However, while making their way back to the Empire, the group was attacked by an unknown amount of animals. Only the emperor's son and the cartographer survived, barely. When the two came back 6 years after discovering the source, they showed evidence of where the source is. Everyone was amazed that the mystery of the source was over. This event was so important that it is year 0 in the Mrvian calendar.
-The Mrvians become crucial in the war of the first coalition. Joining Rome, two armies are formed. One is to head to Greece, and another to Italy. In the Italian campaign they make good progress, recapturing Laubergian/Roman lands and then assisting in the ousting of Hannibal from the peninsula. Their attacks on the Empire of Dagger are also crucial in shifting the balance, especially with the sack of Istanbul. A second siege with Macedonian assistance destroys the city entirely, and their combined forces manage to rout the Daggerian army.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With copper working spreading throughout North America, rising populations, and increasing demand for improved materials, somebody has the bright idea of melting copper and mixing it with arsenic to create a type of bronze. Whilst making it is dangerous, it is useful for weapons and armour. The nobility and warriors start to frequently carry bronze weaponry when going to war, and sometimes people carry bronze or copper axes for use when out and about. Of course they require sharpening a lot of the time, and many native deposits of copper lying around are being exploited to their full potential. Eventually, the first shafts and pit mines are dug to extract copper. Trade routes to the south eventually introduce tin, which helps to improve the strength again, although it is still a costly material. The bronze trade route (heading from Mexico to the Mississippi, then up to the great lakes, travelling east down the Hudson) is especially critical.
-With the development of trade routes and increasing wealth, some regional administrators have been trying to run their regions like petty kingdoms with the erroneous idea that they can assert political independence. A series of informal and often shady laws allows these bureaucrats to be booted out of office whenever they step out of line, often violently. Understandably, this does not please them, and many simply line their pockets instead and start to build rather luxurious villas for themselves. Living comfortably, they see no reason to rebel, although tax revenue is down.
-With trade routes to the south opening up, more plant varieties are being introduced from the south. Among them are maize, and a type of cereal recently domesticated, the so called “little barley”. Whilst maize is very popular, it does not displace rice farming or barley, and is instead grown alongside them. Agricultural production continues to steadily rise during this time, with the risk of famine reduced somewhat by the use of multiple crop types. Eventually, alcohols start to be brewed, with rice wine and a type of weak barley beer being favoured.
-Vines began to be deliberately grown for their grapes now, with the juice crushed and then fermented to create a strange new beverage called wine. Raisins are also made from the dried up skins, and are a treat amongst the people of the eastern seaboard. It is around this time that the population begins to seriously grow, with the number of inhabitants in Valittu exceeding one million. Ceramics are improving in quality, becoming thinner and stronger, partly due to the pottery wheel.
-The rising population begins to slowly settle the Great Lakes area, pushing out the old hunters and foragers. The forests are cleared, fields tilled, large wooden houses built, waterways diverted or dammed, and the landscape tailored to fit the needs of the farmers. Fights often break out, but the agriculturists win out in the end.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-The King of the Zulu, sitting on his throne, is discovered one day that he wasn’t sleeping, but was actually dead. It is unknown how this turn of events came about, but for his subjects who peacefully farm and smelt metals and trade, they care little.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-With fortified houses being a staple of the nobility (it isn’t as safe anymore to own a mere fancy house), there is a great demand for competent engineers who can design and build fortifications capable of withstanding long term sieges. Granaries are added to allow for extra storage, armouries for weaponry and armour, thick and tall walls to prevent use of rams or making it difficult to climb, ledges, battlements (which require a license to build), massive gates , even drawbridges and ditches. A class of professional engineers appear as a result, all offering their services to the highest bidder and establishing guilds.
-With much Wapanese culture and technology having been imported from China (although some may deny this), they are very quick to adopt something new if the Chinese already had it first. The Chinese crossbow is introduced. However, making the more intricate parts requires careful work, and mass production capabilities are limited by the little availability of extractable iron and generally low population and industrial capabilities relative to mainland China. However, it is eventually integrated into most private armies and that of the Emperor within a few centuries, although replacing lost or damaged ones is costly. Much larger versions are built to be used in sieges, but again they are so costly that the private and varied craftsmen whom must be used to build one means that the price tag is rather large. As of now, no large scale or integrated production facilities exist.
-After centuries of being killed by tribals and being pushed around by the Chinese, the Nice Guy missionaries invent martial art styles that use either a wooden staff or bare hands. This is considered both a martial and spiritual practice, and many people from all walks of life are eager to learn it, though few people outside of nobility, soldiers and the Nice Guys themselves get anywhere far in their training. On a side note, missionaries tend to die a lot less now.
-Emperor Gendo II Moefaggu does away with the double capital concept, leaving Akihabara as capital, and installing a loyal daimyo as the lord of Konata and the surrounding areas with the gift of the Winter Palace. Very quickly, this office becomes the most prized in the whole of Wapan, and whichever dynasty happens to be pulling the strings at the time tends to reside inside the Winter Palace.
-With missionaries and traders going back and forth to China, many new innovations and inventions are introduced. Among them are mathematics, the calender (with Wapanese religious festivals now marked on them), a grammar system, a table for the language (based upon Chinese calligraphy), the wheelbarrow, paper, crossbows, bells, forks, lacquer, silk, cast iron, pig iron, wrought iron, chain drives, simple chemical warfare, chopsticks, canals, hand operated looms, the mouth organ, drilling, heavy iron ploughs, ink, kites, the seed drill, natural gas as a fuel, pinhole cameras, pontoon bridges, the rudder, tea, tofu, trebuchets and nail polish.
-There is a rumour that the Emperor has secretly built hidden training grounds for an order of spies and assassins called “Shinigami”. These are supposed to be so secret and inaccessible, that finding one is in itself part of the initiation trials. Existence of these was not confirmed for quite a long time. It is said that the bulk of the organization consists of master thieves that were finally caught and spared by the Emperor if they agreed to serve him with utmost loyalty. It is rumoured that the organization encourages snitching and its members are rewarded for finding traitors.
-Quickly, a lot of daimyos begins dying for unknown reasons, although the people of Wapan all know who’s responsible. The families lose some power over the Emperor himself, but they still fight over the prestigious political offices.
-An embassy is established with the Han Dynasty, but the new Emperor declares that the Wapanese religion is undermining Chinese society, and thus he bans missionaries from preaching in China.
-Cats, brought from China are instantly an overwhelming success. People can’t stop repeating how “kawaii” they are, and many nobles start adding “~nyaa” at the end of their sentences. Cat ears made out of silk are now a popular accessory among richer women. Waifus with slight cat-like features first appear in art and literature around this time. Some samurai are even adding cat ears to their helmets. Cats are rare and expensive though, and so many people, particularly the poorer ones, resort to domesticating foxes for their slight resemblance to cats and similar ear shape.
-As the daimyos continue to expand their holdings to the west, there is increasing pressure to expand north nearby the capital. The Emperor declares war against the Ainu tribes, and with the use of cavalry and crossbowmen, plus fortified houses and towers to establish control, the Wapanese push north, establishing villages, clearing forests, and removing the tribes. The Wapanese have also managed to adapt to the cooler weather to the north, and slowly but surely the Ainu are pushed to the northernmost point of the island of Honshu. The farmers are still unwilling to settle further north for the time being however. Meanwhile, many captured Ainu are forced to work as slave labour to build rice paddies, houses, and fortifications.
-Expeditions to the islands north of Wapan reveal several with extensive iron ore deposits. They also find hostile tribes that know how to work native metals and have sailing rafts. The Wapanese send several thousand people to these islands over the course of a few centuries, wiping out the tribe and colonizing the islands. They set up extensive iron mines and a fishing industry. They are mostly dependent on importing their staple foods from Wapan, given that the climate here is too poor for traditional agriculture. These islands are also tenuously held, with the residents often surviving on the edge. Ainu raids are also a constant menace, along with rebellions by enslaved ones.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-Preserving food is a real challenge, especially when wishing to build stockpiles of it. Unless one has stockpiles of food that can be kept in storage without rotting, it is difficult to build a civilization. Three main techniques emerge during this time period, applied to as many foods as possible. First there is smoking, in which meat or fish is immersed in smoke so as to prevent attack by microbes. Drying is another method, in which the food is dehydrated and kept in a dry location. Finally, is to salt the food. Collecting salt is difficult, but with sea access, pots, and a fire, one can collect enough to preserve meat. These methods are often used in conjunction, and peccary jerky becomes popular. Manioc meanwhile is pulped and separated into two parts whilst also being dried, and then kept in longterm storage. This also goes a significant way towards solving the problem, and the first tapioca pudding is eaten. It is nicknamed frogspawn by children. With food processing now in place, and the protein issue resolved along with preservation, food surpluses are being traded for other important goods and services. Free time can also be spent working on projects of significant size.
-A new ideal in the religion begins to spread. Having one person in your family out of all of the children to serve honourably will be able to bring honour to your family. Therefore, when that person dies in service of Titus, it will help to bring the rest of the family up in his eyes, and allow them to enjoy the afterlife. Consequently, many families start to prepare their selected soldier for war, giving him weaponry and enough food that he can spend more time fighting than farming. Soldiers now begin to be trained specifically for the purpose of warfare. They tend to be the younger sons of people, where they are taught how to maintain themselves on long marches or wars. They must know how to salt and preserve their own food, and often hunt or forage along the way to add to their existing ration.
-Expansion is now undertaken by these new soldiers. Well trained and able to live off the land much of the time, they can go on lengthy campaigns with little logistical support. They can even surround a village, and if it refuses to surrender, do hit and run attacks or sneak in and murder key people. They also tend to capture peccary livestock or drive them away. Many of these domestic peccaries begin to migrate northwest towards Mesoamerica as a result. The soldiers also manage to bring these villages under rule of the Xerxes, and some even begin to put themselves in as petty rulers. Tributes begin to evolve into taxes, and the flow of wealth to the capital means that the first permanent buildings are now steadily rising, with markets being established as well.
-As the soldiers tend to conquer the wealthier villages, made so due to the number of Peccaries they keep and development of trade, they are also simultaneously following trade routes or introducing new ones. Salt is incredibly valuable, and one way of producing it is to dig large salt “pans”. Separated by small dykes (named for somebodies sister), they allow the large scale extraction of salt from the sea. Finding enough suitable locations to do it however, is a problem, and often it tends to be exported as well.
-Maize is introduced to Xerxes from the west. In some ways a superior staple plant, it is readily adopted and farms begin to grow it. Surplus food and labour can now be employed for an increasing number of uses, and villages begin to quickly expand during this time. This is the decline and fall of the hunter-gatherer, as trees are cleared to make way for tilled fields.
Chevelle – Kingdom of Portugal
Capital: Lisbon
Culture: Portuguese (Iberian)
State Religion: Iberian Pantheon
-Paper is either introduced or independently invented in Portugal during this time. Whatever the origin, it does not diminish the importance of this invention, as now a whole manner of records can be kept and stories written down for posterity. Rags are bought up in considerable volume and then pulped in paper mills throughout Portugal, before the book is tirelessly copied out by hand. Only really the rich can afford them however, whilst wax tablets tend to be used by everyone else. Merchants sometimes buy the paper on its own, often to write contracts on.
-The Portuguese state forms a military alliance with the Spanish on the condition that the Portuguese assist the Spanish in the training and use of the Sarissa. Soon enough, the Spanish army quickly adopts the pike, and soon the fighting style of the Portuguese as well. Stalemates are grisly to observe.
-When the Spanish go to war with the Romans, the Portuguese send significant numbers of men to help with their campaign, along with some ships. After the breakup of the Spanish state and the civil war however, the Portuguese also manage to take some cities and nobles under their wing during the confusion. Most nobles joined out of wishing to place security as a high measure, given the chaotic situation in the rest of the country. Religious homogeneity and proximity were also other key factors.
-As for the rest of the Portuguese, they expand southwards towards the Pillars of Hercules, crushing the unfortified or smaller settlements whilst besieging the larger towns and cities. The use of the Phalanx and longbows makes them devastating on the field, although much less is to be said for their prowess in sieges. As long as one can break up the Phalanx formation, their army is slaughtered. This happened in a town where the soldiers marched down a street and were pelted with rocks and javelins. A cavalry charge from the garrison down the street managed to scatter them.
-With the southern coast now strongly under their control, the Portuguese are in a suitable position to profit from trade heading in and out of the Mediterranean. Of course, the lack of developed civilization in northern Europe means that most of this trade is small scale and not very profitable, although trade from Gaul and Britain is steadily rising.
Kamikaze470 – Tefullmorostan dol el Wizterbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-New mining and quarrying techniques are introduced as demand for minerals rise and the economy diversifies. Clay, lime, flint, and many other types of rock are extracted and then used to make bricks, mortars, and concretes so as to allow for stronger buildings, although the mortar sets slowly. Meanwhile, the mines begin to extract considerable volumes of the usual metals such as iron and copper, smelting them, and then casting them into ingots before being used domestically or for export. Mining or quarrying by-products also have a place in the pottery industry, which helps with marketing the product.
-The Tefullmorostanis stop raiding villages, instead doing full scale conquests. The former leader is removed and a soldier or noble is made ruler of the village. The raids start to die down, and as expansion gets underway, raids penetrate less deeply and become more of a distant memory. Outposts are gradually fortified so that they can stand prolonged attacks until reinforcements can arrive.
-Prisoners from these wars are sold into slavery, many of them going to the Greek cities or Rome. Some of them are able to assist with the taming of elephants, and although their numbers are low and they are difficult to train and breed in numbers, a sizable force of elephants is created. Small wooden platforms are built on their backs for archers and skirmishers to use as a firing platform. Many of these elephants are bought from Numidia, and a breeding program is underway to maintain stable populations.
-With the expansion of trade, especially with the Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans, the Tozholleronese profit well from being well suited for a middleman role. However, with the coalition wars breaking out every few years, they suspend trade with Rome for the duration of the war. Whenever it was due to hostility towards Rome or fear of foreign retribution is a matter still argued over by historians.
-The clergy is reeled in to prevent them from preaching in countries with considerable military or political leverage. Instead, the clergy are redirected to the new conquests to the south, where towns and villages captured by Tefullmorostan are converted. To show that control is complete, a temple is constructed in every new town, along with a money lender. They introduce the new currency, which can only be minted in the central mint, with denominations in tin and gold. Tin is dropped due to its fragility and alloyed with copper, whilst silver eventually comes into use as well. No matter their metallic composition however, the people now must use those currencies, printed with the image of the Kings head.
-Very often, when it comes to subduing a raiding force or capturing a village, even a single elephant can terrify their enemy into surrendering. Since they tend to travel in groups with infantry and cavalry support, they become all the more terrifying.
-The economy often goes into severe depression whenever a war is on, since the market effectively dries up for their fancy pottery. Only Egypt and Phoenicia are willing to buy their pots, which have to travel overland on the backs of camels.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian League
Capital: Athens
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Greek Pantheon
-With siege weaponry becoming ever more important, somebody takes a crossbow and makes it significantly bigger, putting it on a stand and using it as a heavy piece of artillery. They are made to support both armies in the field and can be used on ships during naval battles. Firing large darts that can skewer multiple men and smash through a ship’s hull, they become an essential addition to any armies’ arsenal. This comes just in time too, for the wars of the first coalition have begun.
-The army is re-assembled at Athens and bolstered with mercenary units from across the known world. It is sent to Sparta to destroy its army. Of course, since Sparta is allied to Rome and wishing to use the war as a pretext to re-establish control of Greece, they come out in force, bolstered by some Macedonians.
-To prepare for the war, the phalanx is adapted under the teachings of Epaminondas, with the hoplites receiving heavier armour, smaller shields, and longer pikes. They are also professionalized and wage earning soldiers, to spend their time in the military instead of farming or crafting whenever wars are not ongoing. Young noblemen are selected for new heavy cavalry regiments, being the only people with the money to afford the horses and materials. They are gathered from across the League and trained together to fight as the heavy cavalry of the Delian league. Their low numbers make them of limited effectiveness however, especially as imported horses rise in price due to trade blockades.
-The Delian League takes steps to implement a universal coinage, starting with the major city-states and slowly branching out to the smaller ones. The other cities, which would normally be hostile to such a subtle attempt to bring monetary control under Athens, are forced to agree in order to protect themselves from the Spartans. Realizing this, the Athenians move the bureaucracy and congress to the island of Delos, helping to defuse tensions somewhat. Once established, the first census is recorded, revealing Athens to have a population of 300,000 (including slaves, foreigners, and women). The congress also becomes more involved in economic matters, fixing trade prices and maintaining the flow of goods throughout the League. The merchants are very happy at this state of affairs along with the nobility, who profit from this and support the state. The bog standard freeman farmer or slave is still at the bottom of the heap however.
-As the army moves on Sparta, the League dispatches diplomats to Argos and Corinth to convince them to leave the weak Spartans and join the Delian League. They agree to do so only after hearing of the army of Hannibal crossing the Alps. They collect their arms and march on Sparta. The King of Epirus is also willing, sending an ambassador to the Delian league to announce their intentions and their plans to invade Italy and Macedonia.
-When the Athenian army sends a diplomat to the Spartans, saying that if the Spartans do not wish to lose their independence, then they best lay down their arms. The Spartan king replies “You are in the wrong court”.
-Sending their armies out to meet each other, the Delian Greeks, supported by some Daggerians and Phoenicians, manage to defeat Sparta with the clever use of siege artillery. A group of men with large staff slings, crossbows, and ballistae rain down heavy bolts and lead balls upon the enemy forces. The Spartan lines are broken, and then the offensive based Delians break the Spartan lines. Cavalry is used to cut down the survivors, although their strategic usefulness has been exaggerated.
-The naval battles proceed just as fruitfully. With extensive support from Dagger and Phoenicia, they manage to destroy the Spartan and Macedonian navies, before blockading their ports. The Spartans continue to fight on, and when the Delians arrive at their city, siege weaponry is used to light the city ablaze. Amazingly, the Spartans force slaves to put out the fires whilst they defend the city. Prolonged skirmishes eventually whittle them down and their families are forced into the centre. Only after their wives and children are hit by artillery fire and their great city has burned to the ground do they surrender. They are sold into slavery and the city falls into ruin, becoming abandoned by about 20 BCE. At the congress in Delos, the Republic is announced as having triumphed in uniting the Greek peninsula for the first time.
-The wars against Macedonia are more difficult, due to their support from the Romans and Mrvians. Only the timely arrival of the King of Epirus (who had been preparing his army for some years) manages to split their forces and to deny them entry. The Roman coalition instead marches on the lightly defended Istanbul whilst the Daggerian forces retreat. The city is burned and the Empire lost, but the Macedonians are unable to progress any further south. The King of Epirus meanwhile, manages to launch a successful invasion of Southern Italy, but is forced to retreat when the Macedonians return.
BananaFoam – Ibolozi Tribe
Capital: Ibbus Sieciwiz
Culture: Siberian (Uralic)
State Religion: East Medith Pantheon
-Throughout the American Northwest, the first sources of native copper and iron from meteorites are extracted. Cold worked and used mainly as a replacement for flint, it increases the efficacy of most weaponry and tools. Finding enough of the materials is difficult however, and most sources tend to be extracted from over long periods of time as opposed to being deliberately mined.
-Uglik's people continue their fierce conquest of the North. Some tribes, hearing tales of their exploits, surrender. They are forced to pay tribute and commit to military actions against the Ibolozi's enemies. Using their sailing ships from their heritage, the Ibolozi forcefully annex the sparsely populated islands, such as the Aleutians, in the region. However, Uglik does not stop there. He puts his people to work finding ways to producing new weaponry. The newly annexed Northern tribes, surprisingly benefiting from the increased trade and expansion under Ibolozi rule, teach them the secrets of armour. They know very little, but they show that bones can be strung together to make coverings that protect the wearer from weak wooden and stone weapons. Most armour is costly in terms of the amount of time it takes to make, plus it tends to be more ceremonial than actually useful. When bone cannot be used, some people substitute it with wood.
-Uglik's conquest brings increased revenue from which to buy from the tribes of the south. Though many people are content, some still oppose his warlike nature, particularly the oldest of the Elders. They believe that Uglik leads them on a path of doom. They claim to have seen a vision in a great seance together, where the Ibolozi fight a war against enemies with vastly superior weapons of meteoric iron in great formations and by the thousands. Eager to prove that the Ibolozi can defend themselves and procure superior weapons, Uglik leads and expedition to the Northlands to find the fabled Snow Beasts. He finds a fully grown Snow Beast and after a great deal of hardship, some wounds, and one expedition member's death, he tames the beast. He then finds a clutch of its offspring and takes them to train them as well. He leads them south, back to his home. He shows the Elders that their land is filled with many resources from which war can be waged. However, 2 weeks later the captured Beast kills one of its caretakers and it is sentenced to death. For the first time in tribe history, Uglik overrides the Elder's decision to kill the offspring and allows them to stay and be trained, 2 by his children, and the other four by village caretakers.
-Although this is the official reason given by the oral tales, we do find increasing evidence of polar bear skeletons and humans buried together at this time. Whilst taming them is one thing, domestication is much more difficult. Dogs already existed and were fairly competent enough at hunting already, plus they competed with polar bears over meat. We see that the number of dog and polar bear reminds often fluxed over this period, and that the polar bear became “semi-domesticated”. Tame ones would be kept separate from each other, and the ones less aggressive towards humans were selected for, until eventually the breed could walk around settlements and interact with humans without causing alarm. They would go into the nearby waters to catch seals with human assistance. Unfortunately, they cannot travel much further south, for it is too warm for them and another bear is already occupying the area, which has the subtle difference of being coloured brown.
-One of the Elders, Orcemun, proposes that, since better weapons and tools come from the south, they must have greater resources of copper and other material. An expedition is sent south on the new sailing ships. Not only do they find some meagre amounts of copper, but they find that the land is warmer and far more varied in plant and animal life. After returning with the news, the Elders decide to send colonists to expand into the territory and build permanent settlements. The largest, over the course of years, becomes nearly a full-fledged settlement (about as much of a city as the Ibolozi can make) called Ula Borgium. However, the Native Tuca tribes, those that trade weapons with the Ibolozi, don't like the settlements being placed in their lands. Small skirmishes erupt between the tribes but it hasn't reached the level of full scale war. Though war can net the Ibolozi valuable weapons, tools, territory, and copper, but there is always a chance that this will disrupt trade with other southern peoples, or that the Ibolozi could lose the war. In the meantime, traders from lands even farther south arrive bringing shiny items that look very appeasing, along with bags of a “yellow seed”. It takes much negotiating, a dog, and several seal pelts to "seal" the deal, but one of the governors of the region gets his hands on large amounts of the stuff, spurring Uglik's interest in the southlands.
-Maize is introduced in small quantities to the Northwest at this time, mostly by traders plying the coasts and keeping in contact with Mesoamerica. With the development of the bronze trade spurred on by people to the Far East, trade routes are also heading up the west coast when it is found that people there are also interested in trade. We find the first evidence of maize cultivation throughout California and the Pacific coast in general during this time. As far north as their homelands however, growing maize is impossible, and can only really be done in the warmer lands to the south. The lack of knowledge about agriculture makes it worse, with the maize crop failing often and only improving after decades of experimentation. However, as fishing is rather rich, most of these settlements can treat a river itself like a farm or land, even splitting up parts of it for ownership and the fish being smoked or bathed in a seawater solution to keep it from spoiling.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-The Baltic Entente came about as the idea that if the peoples of the Baltic Sea stood together under one flag that they would be able to stand up to raiders menacing the region and protect themselves from foreign armies. As time went on, this idea began to appeal to the Latvians in particular, who sought to turn Riga into a trading hub. Jiri, leader of the Latvians, sent envoys promoting unification to the Lithuanians, fellow Balts, and to the Finnic Livonians, who spoke another language, yet shared close ties with the other two peoples. As a show of his commitment to the cause, Jiri led a mixed force of Lats and Liths to victory over foreign pillagers at the Battle of Tallinn, driving the invaders from the Estonian hub. Shortly after this, the three peoples united, placing their hopes and dreams of prosperity on the chance that the Entente would succeed. Jiri appeared to have made his point, and the people put their faith in him as king.
-Deism emerges as a fusion of native pagan ideas and Germanic mythology, and is adopted as the state religion.
-The use of ironworking technology has spread from southern and central Europe well into the Baltic now. The Baltic peoples add their own refinements, such as building small bloomeries to smelt iron in, along with training professional blacksmiths to work iron into tools, weaponry, and armour. A type of nail is invented in the process, allowing for the advent of timber framed buildings. Using planks and logs, a stronger house with more room inside can be built. Stone is also used in construction, and turf roofs are popular as well, for one can graze sheep on them. Eventually, iron mines are dug and a domestic ironworking industry is born.
-Looking to strengthen their position in the region, the entente sends troops to seize the island of Saaremaa at the mouth of the Gulf of Riga, in order to make a statement to the Germanic peoples of the southwest. Small wharves and docks pop up throughout lands held by the Entente, which are just as much used to resupply patrolling longboats as trading ones. During this time, the first stages of Riga castle are built, with the king seeing it as vital for controlling trade routes in the area and to help protect the town. Scouts also travel into central Europe with the intention of announcing the establishment of the Entente, to which the many varied chiefs and lords of Europe say that the event little concerns them.
-The integration of the Baltic and Finnic people in the region is going well, taking in Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, as well as Finns and a tiny number of Northern Germans looking to abandon the raiding life. With King Jiri in charge, the country begins to take shape, and early laws guaranteeing basic freedoms in all lands under the crown are declared. The Entente also fans inland from Riga in all directions, the idea of a stable kingdom appealing to many in the region who have long felt threatened by frontier raiders and wild animals.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-The Arhonics were an ethnic group native to Sweden originally, but have since made the journey to the Rhine River and settled down. Their name now reflects their new homeland, as the river is now named "The Arhone".
-Their religious beliefs, Hutonism, believes in the worship of a god known as Huton, who is responsible for all fortune and good in the world, as well as the creation of the human race. Another god exists in Hutonism, Hutons brother, Ruton, who causes all misfortune and bad. Prophecy states that Ruton and Huton will have a battle to end all battles, it will end with Rutons destruction and the end of pain, suffering, and misery.
-The Arhonians begin massing grand raiding parties and raid small and weak neighbouring Celtic villages for loot. Their proudest and bravest warriors tend to go on these raids, with them boasting of their bravery as they cut down defenceless women and children.
-As the Arhonians settle the banks of the Arhone and push out the old inhabitants, they are mutually supported or meet varied other Germanic tribes, who moved south from Scandinavia to settle Germania over the past few centuries. One notably curious invention of the Arhonians is a heavy iron plough, with wheels attached to help guide it. Pulled by oxen (horses are a rarity), the new invention helps to break up the heavier soils of northern Europe and plough deeply to bring forth rich nutrients for the crop. This invention allows for improved agricultural output, more land to be put under the plough, and the increased speed also saves time for other jobs. They quickly displace the Celtic tribes and settle the flat low lying lands and peat lands. The latter is gradually shrinking in size due to human activities, forcing a movement every few decades as the sea claims the sinking land. The innovation is also spreading to their neighbours, helping to make their arrival distinctive. They trade frequently with their neighbours, and also tend to be as decentralized as them. Raids on each other are common.
-When the coalition declares war on Rome, a large army led by the king links up with the Phoenician army near the Alps, from then on, following and supporting the Phoenician army on the path to Rome. Supplied with heavy clothing and as much food as possible, they cross the Alps. Many Gallic and Germanic tribes and mercenaries join them on the way, crossing over the Alps and marching south into Italy. They recruit from neighbouring barbarian villages, promising them gold and riches once they loot the city of Rome.
-Due to the Fabian strategy of the Romans, the barbarians are quickly thinned out, and the Arhonians start to desert. When the news of Hannibals departure arrived, the Arhonians tried to flee as the advancing Mrvian and Laubergian armies came towards them. Many soldiers were captured as slaves, and the King himself had to hide in a dung cart in order to travel north back to his Kingdom. On the arrival home, he and many other soldiers managed to loot the bodies of many dead people and loot a great deal of villages on the way back. They end up bullshitting to their families that they burned Rome to the ground and stole all of its gold.
Turn 11: 1 to 250 CE
Ancient Roman Music - Musica Romana - Pugnate IV
Turn music
Political map of Turn 11
Cultural map of Turn 11
Religious map of Turn 11
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=41930437&viewfull=1#post41930437
Turn quote: Them’s Romans think they’re minted, but they ain’t rich like me
Events of the years 1 CE to 250:
-Note to all: Christianity is spreading and is forming many different sects. All players who intend on replacing their religion with Christianity will have the option to intervene in the early councils to see the religion unified, along with trying to establish if several cities share the religion or a single one dominates. The location of these cities is also important, so for Christian nations, it’s a chance to get the heart of Christendom put in your country or share the power between your Christian allies. If the city is established in your country and you possess control of it, you will wield significant power over this new religion. Several such cities will appear depending on the actions a country takes to establish Christianity and their branch of it.
-The wheel, rice farming, and Bronzeworking has spread down the Mississippi river, with many societies along it abandoning their former lifestyles and committing to agriculture and metalwork. Dog chariots are a grand novelty, although wheeled light carts and travois are becoming increasingly widespread. The lack of large mammals (minus humans and teams of dogs) to pull them is still a considerable problem however.
-The Parthian Empire collapses, and is duly replaced by the Sassanid dynasty. They engage in several wars with the Selecuid Empire and Egypt, along with Armenia, taking vast stretches of land.
-Whilst a religion similar to Christianity has existed for a long time, particularly in England before migrating into Iberia, it was largely unorganized. Several Jewish people in the Seleucid Empire inde-pendently came up with a near identical version but with organized rituals and liturgy. They travel around preaching before discovering the existence of such people in Iberia already. On arrival they insert themselves quietly into those societies and compile religious texts, one of which is the bible, written in Greek. However, as many writings from before this time are often dubious, most historians are of the opinion that the Iberians practiced a similar enough faith that Christian missionaries were able to establish a church there and to rapidly convert people.
-Christianity becomes widely popular in the Seleucid and then Sassanian Empires, although fights and tensions with the Zoroastrians is a problem. It also spreads to Rome, where followers are persecuted by the authorities there. It is also becoming more widespread throughout Greece and Macedon, and is a widely popular eastern religion. Bizarrely it somehow holds strongly in Iberia, where it has strong state support. Bishops are prominent here as well, and the church is considerably powerful in Iberia, if disorganized.
-The actual founding myth itself involves a Seleucid official hearing that a troublesome Jewish man by the name of Brian had been found collaborating with the Judean Peoples Front. After proclaiming he was not the messiah, he is later executed.
-The Neoclassical period begins in Egypt. It is marked by a rediscovery of old Egyptian treasures and findings, along with many philosophers writing on the Egyptian past. The current ruling pharaohs are hostile towards Christianity, using executions to try and make an example of these dissidents. Many pharaohs also try to prove they are descended from the earliest rulers over 40 dynasties ago, but such efforts go poorly. Christianity eventually leaks into the country, and becomes popular. Cotton growing is becoming popular in Egypt as well, although textile production is fairly low. It is mainly exported as raw cotton to the Phoenicians, at least until they introduced mercantile restrictions on foreign trade. The Egyptians invaded the Seleucid Empire during this time and took much of the Levant, leading to a Jewish and Christian diaspora, given their hostility to the religion. The Sassanid’s eventually went to war with Egypt and exhausted it before taking most Egyptian gains made in the war with the Seleucids. The dynasty collapsed and Egypt entered another period of instability and civil infighting.
-The phalanx formation is becoming increasingly inadequate in this day and age. Victories by the Greeks are not permanent, with the Macedonians abandoning the Phalanx in favour of more flexible soldier, drill, and tactics. Such reforms are adopted in wake of failures against the Delian league. The Roman army also adopts new drill and dress, using segmented armour and pioneering formations such as the “testudo”.
-The Roman Empire adds several new holdings to their lands. They conquer Corsica, more of Southern Gaul and Eastern Iberia, alongside with Dalmatia. They however lose much of Epirus to the Greeks in several wars with them, although the adoption of new military reforms significantly shifted the balance of power and warned the Greeks of further expansion. The Empire is also seeing significant numbers of Christian converts, mostly among the plebeians and slaves.
-With the victory in the wars of the prior centuries (or so assumed), the Mrvian Emperor suggested a name for the Mrvian-Roman-Macedonian-Laubergian alliance. Asking the ruler of Rome to decide the name of the alliance, he gave it the name "Magnum quattuor" (The Big Four, in Latin). A treaty is signed where they split up the land inbetween each other, although nobody is truly happy with the results, most especially the native inhabitants of Dalmatia, Illyria, Thrace, and Pannonia. Eventually, the alliance between Macedon and Rome breaks down, followed by that between Rome and Laubergia. Small scale skirmishes and wars eventually break out between Laubergia and Rome.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Iberian)
State Religion: Christianity (Generic)
-Christians from Judea discover a society where they practice an almost identical religion to themselves, with the exception that it is unorganized. Quietly inserting themselves in and reforming it slightly, they announce to people they should be eating bread and drinking wine in a strange ceremony and must not succumb to worldly temptations.
-With travel difficult overland, a professional group of engineers, masons, and other assorted weirdoes with a strange and almost fetishistic fascination with roads decide to work towards the improvement of existing roads and expansion of new ones to cities and towns throughout the Iberian Peninsula. They match Roman roads in quality, with good drainage, wide enough for the biggest of carts, with low gradients and straight, often cutting through hills or rising over rivers.
-The new Spanish state, after much reorganization and reincorporation of lands that left to seek protection of the Portuguese, assemble a vast army and march north. Arriving in the motherland, they fight bitterly to wipe out those adhering to the old ways. Many towns and cities are sieged and burned to the ground. The old idols are pulled down and destroyed, with many temples turned to rubble and used to build new churches. The word of Christ has been brought in force, and crosses now adorn the central plaza of every town and city. A church is later built around each cross, with splinters from them often being mistaken for the one that Brian was crucified on.
-The navy is reformed again and rebuilt, with most of the improvement coming from the better quality of recruits. Beforehand, the cream of the Spanish navy tended to be press ganged drunks. Of course, protecting these trade routes in conjunction with improving roads has yielded great results for trade, as many goods travel from the east towards the gradually civilizing north of Europe, which is developing monetary economies and urban civilization.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Worship of the Great Eagle
-A new type of siege weapon has come into use. As staff slings became common throughout the ancient world, somebody took a good look at one and then wondered “why not make it bigger?” He proceeds to build a large frame for a swinging arm with a sling, complete with ropes for men at the front to pull down on. It can be used to hurl large rocks considerable distances and if enough are employed, it can even batter down a building.
-With the victory in the wars of the prior centuries (or so assumed), the Mrvian Emperor suggested a name for the Mrvian-Roman-Macedonian-Laubergian alliance. Asking the ruler of Rome to decide the name of the alliance, he gave it the name "Magnum quattuor" (The Big Four, in Latin). A treaty is signed where they split up the land inbetween each other, although nobody is truly happy with the results, most especially the native inhabitants of Dalmatia, Illyria, Thrace, and Pannonia. Eventually, the alliance between Macedon and Rome breaks down, followed by that between Rome and Laubergia. Small scale skirmishes and wars eventually break out between Laubergia and Rome.
-The amber and precious metals tribe with peoples to the north expand with the acquisition of several new trade routes and waterways crucial to the trade. Gold and silver are being mined and sent off for export (or minted into coins), whilst trading ships travel as far away as Spain and the Near East. It is along these trade routes that Christianity arrives in Laubergia as a small underground religious movement.
-It is unknown how precisely the war began, but a group of Roman officers hailing from Iberia visit a Laubergian brothel over the border and a problem arises over the issue of payment. Even worse, they are found to be practicing Christians, and are arrested by the local magistrate. The Romans demand that the soldiers be returned in one piece, but the priests are insistent they be branded. Eventually the Romans send in an army to retrieve the offices, but a group of priests with stupid sounding accents sneak in to the prison and murder the officers. It escalates into a war, using the pretext that a badly drawn map by the Mrvian Emperor poorly divided up land between the respective countries. Very little land actually changes hands, and it was mostly pushed through to try and prevent the war from escalating and to appease the Romans. It does not do a very good job, as now the Romans believe they can get involved in the internal politics of the Kingdom. Several priests are even found collaborating with the Romans, and are duly executed.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Chandax
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-Grinding grain is a time consuming endeavour, and somebody notices that streams possess a lot of untapped power. Putting a wheel with planks nailed to it into the steam and adding an axle, it spins around to turn a grindstone for the grinding of grain. They are extremely productive, but of course why do that when one has slaves to work for you? Well, the Emperor had something to say about that.
-The Emperor bans slavery, but to tide over the nobility, replaces it with a slightly different system. Your slave still has to work for you, but he only is obligated to spend several days of the week doing so. He keeps his own land which he farms, and the noble is entitled to rule over his subjects much like a petty king. He can no longer arbitrarily kill slaves, and some modicum of legal proceedings must take place before punishments are meted out. The nobility quickly realizes that the newly invented watermill is a considerable boon as they can build one on the local stream and charge people to use it. Whilst the serfs grumble, it does save them time to do other things, and nobles also begin to maintain private armies. Since they were given that land by the king, they often have to fight in his wars. Thus a new system has come about. Many freemen also exist of course, and they provide military service or payment in kind for renting the land from a noble. Since this is an island society, the navy is where all the nobles and soldiers end up going. Merchants opt out with a so called “cowards tax”, used to pay for soldiers to fight in lieu of the merchant. Some nobles and freemen are interested in such a tax as well if it means dodging military duty.
-Canals begin to be constructed, mostly inbetween farming estates and various towns. They are used for controlling the flow of water for watermills, although people also enjoy riding boats in them. Sometime later, somebody has the bright idea of putting a barge in the canal and having it dragged around by horses, although they cannot easily go up or down elevations.
-Some serfs manage to scrape enough money or influence to buy their freedom, travelling to the towns in search of a better life. Disease and the already large number of paupers there mean that chances are pretty low however. Many of them join the royal navy.
-A large fortified palace with multiple walls is built on Crete to protect it from invasion. The same happens on the Balearic Islands. Academies are also set up inside these palaces to educate men on the art of warfare and naval business. Of course, given the rarity of war, they usually buy or build a fast but swift galley ship to raid trading vessels before bringing the loot home. Such boats also sail to Northern Europe and up the rivers of Scythia to raid villages, before returning home with the treasure.
-Merchants from Crete establish a trading guild, and then set up offices in Phoenician and Greek towns. They have a cunning trick whereby using a network of collaborating merchants using fast ships to relay information, they can aggressively expand into new markets and outcompete the native merchants. Another thing they do is try to become the main owners of ships, and attempt to steer trade in their favour. The wealth begins to flow to Crete. The Phoenicians quickly catch onto it, and place heavy restrictions on Daggeran merchants so as to restrict their abilities. Much later, Christians arrive on Crete, trying to convince people that Brian had the right idea.
-Using this money, a colonial expedition by a group of freed serfs led by several nobles travel to the Isle of Mann, following the tin trading route. They establish a town in Cornwall which quickly buys up all of the local production intended for export, and then re-export it themselves with monopolistic control of it.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Iron is difficult to produce in mass quantities, along with giving it strength. However, various techniques reveal that an alloy of iron named “steel” can be reliably produced for a whole manner of applications, but mostly for weaponry and armour. Cast iron is also introduced, where a furnace can heat the iron until it melts into a liquid, before pouring it into a mold. Whilst brittle, it is a quick and inexpensive way to mass produce iron. Unfortunately, supplies of charcoal are always limited, and thus put an upper limit on iron production.
-The army is reformed extensively, it now being a citizen's army. Several units will make up the bulk of the army, taking tactics and weapons mostly from the Romans and Greeks. These units are:
--The Poeni. These are pikemen armed with Portuguese pikes. They employ phalanx tactics and are intended to screen the flanks of the heavy infantry. They quickly fall out of favour as they are inflexible and slow moving on the field. Missile support can only go so far, and so are side-lined by…
--The Darak. These are heavy infantry derived from Roman legions. They more or less use the same equipment, and are relentlessly drilled until they're extremely disciplined, but are more intended to hold a line and grind down the enemy, supported by…
--The Longbows. Troops equipped with Portuguese-style longbows, trained from the age of 14 to fire accurately and in volleys. They are intended to stay behind the lines and provide supporting fire.
--The Seher-Seher. Essentially like the old Seher'Seher but with the addition of a Hyphen and Melee cavalry. They're intended to harass the enemy supply lines, and also to screen the far flanks of the main force.
-All this tied together by a system of horseback riders delivering messages to increase quality of communications and professional Non-commissioned officers.
-Non-citizens and some slaves are granted citizenship and pensions after they finish several years of service, thus giving a strong impetus to sign up for many of the poor and disposed. Many foreigners sign up as well, bringing their strange languages and customs with them.
-A colony is established in Morocco, and the Phoenicians begin to slowly adopt mercantile policies after aggressive competition from Daggeran merchants begins to cause problems for their merchants. Attempts to grow cotton, to produce cheese, and paper don’t get very far. Cotton cannot grow very well in Phoenicia, and often competes with food on prime agricultural land. The Egyptians however, are much better suited to growing cotton, and out-compete the Phoenician farmers until mercantile policies were introduced. Even then, most farmers are not much bothered to grow cotton anyways.
-A war with Numidia goes militarily successfully, but in terms of economic and social policy it is a failure. The war drains the treasury of the state and having to deal with foreign competition along with funding the navy is a problem. The Numidians are driven west and east, with several areas falling to Phoenician forces, having governors appointed to rule over them. At least they don’t try to convert the people’s religion or cultures, and they do bring aqueducts. Meanwhile, in order to control the weakened league of cities further, the government centralizes all powers on the island of Malta, assuming control of the army and taxation. The other cities are not in much of a position to complain, and any annoyed citizens tend to immigrate to the Moroccan colony anyways. A second one is established at the Pillars of Hercules to try and control some of the trade going by the straits.
-The Phoenicians also find a way to deal with elephants. They throw large metal tripods with spikes on them around, and wait for elephants to walk on them whereupon they go insane in pain and flee from the plain.
-Christianity arrives in Phoenicia, but is mostly the religion of the lowly, sometimes bordering on the underground.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Apatheism (Unofficially Pržk)
-The Empire has begun to see a shift in military warfare. With the stirrup, horseshoe, saddle and heavy lance now in existence, a cavalryman can wear heavy armour and do rather powerful charges on his opponents. He can run off and regroup with his fellows for another charge, repeatedly battering the enemy lines into submission. This tactic is not new, but the improvements to riding gear means that a cavalryman could stand up in his stirrups and attack somebody below, plus the saddle and horseshoe prevents a great deal of discomfort to the horse and allows it travel greater distances. The composition of the army is gradually changing over this period to make use of combined arms, although heavy cavalry is favoured.
-Watchposts, gates, and towers are built at the borders of the empire along roads, waterways, and other passes of interest. Whilst intended to give warning of future invasion, in practice they mostly collect tolls and act as watchmen and a policing force. Still, the income is helpful, even if the merchants and peasantry don’t like paying tolls.
-With the victory in the wars of the prior centuries (or so assumed), the Mrvian Emperor suggested a name for the Mrvian-Roman-Macedonian-Laubergian alliance. Asking the ruler of Rome to decide the name of the alliance, he gave it the name "Magnum quattuor" (The Big Four, in Latin). A treaty is signed where they split up the land inbetween each other, although nobody is truly happy with the results, most especially the native inhabitants of Dalmatia, Illyria, Thrace, and Pannonia. Eventually, the alliance between Macedon and Rome breaks down, followed by that between Rome and Laubergia. Small scale skirmishes and wars eventually break out between Laubergia and Rome.
-The Emperor also asks Macedon to Hellenize Thrace extensively, so as to help solidify control over the area. The Macedonians do not do very much however, and continue with existing policies where they live in the towns and cities and leave the rest of the Thracians and Daggerians to live on their farms scratching a living from the soil.
-Because of the considerable tolerance of foreign faiths here, Christianity makes significant inroads among the poor and enslaved. Arianism is a very popular branch of the religion here, but some bishops belonging to other branches call it a heresy. A significantly minority within the country adhere to the teachings of Brian.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With the rising volume of trade, movement of goods, increasing size and complexity of architecture, and need to accurately measure and calculate quantities, the formal study of mathematics is starting to become seriously respected. One chap decides that he will try to work out the exact value of the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle. He gets a wheel and then spins it around; measuring the distance it travels in a single rotation. After doing this with many wheels, he confidently places the figure at 22/7, claiming that he has worked out the exact value of this strange constant. Soon afterwards, a lot of buildings are built with this constant worked into it somehow, under the belief that it holds religious significance. Somebody also later realizes that this 22/7 figure seems somehow wrong after he starts drawing polygons. He eventually founds a school of philosophical thought that holds that this constant cannot ever be obtained. It comes into conflict with the older which holds that the exact value of pi has already been computed. Members of each school are often beaten up and scribble increasingly longer figures of pi on each other’s school buildings as a form of graffiti.
-Maize, and later, the turkey, are introduced to these people are around this time. Increasing diversification of agriculture has also come about with the result that whole manners of dishes can be prepared and served for every occasion. There is a significant lack of meats however (dogs and turkeys are not yet exploited on a significant scale), eggs are a luxury, and fishing makes up the bulk of peoples source for protein. Diets have declined ever since the adoption of agriculture, especially now that hunting is very difficult. Forests are starting to be managed for the purpose of extracting timber or to act as hunting grounds for the nobility.
-Expansion begins to gradually slow down however. Expanding further north is much a bother due to the cold weather restricting agriculture. The limited abilities of fishing and the small size of boats mean that coastal expansion is also slow. Finally, to the south and the Appalachians the land is either too hilly or boggy. Beavers and the people to the south are responsible. The beavers dam up the streams and flood the land, with saline water being allowed to penetrate deeply and make much of the land unsuitable for habitation. The original inhabitants live there comfortably however, if not without the comforts of civilized people to the north.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-Seeing that recording events of the past and present can be a useful tool for any politician to have access to, a system of writing is adopted after hearing from traders of a way of keeping information by putting scribbles down on various items. These scribbles initially are used to represent concepts and items more than anything else, and it takes long before somebody decides to start using a sound for each letter in their alphabet.
-Taxes on beards are introduced, and almost instantly the entirety of the Kingdom becomes clean shaven. A few grumbles and complaints are heard, but nothing too large. Nobles meanwhile take to wearing beards as a sign of showing off their wealth.
-The King, in his infinite wisdom, makes this announcement to his nobles:
“The zulus are fucking angry”.
-A little while later, the Zulu begin another series of military campaigns, looting and pillaging villages before bringing them under their control. Ironworking has begun to slowly spread south into this part of the world, or is otherwise being independently developed. Whatever the case, the old bronze trade routes are falling apart and people are starting to switch to iron. The disruption is often an excuse for war and expansion along trade routes.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-Given that Wapan is an island nation, good ships capable of long voyages are essential. Taking influences from China, a type of ship named the Junk is introduced, along with other innovations such as anchors and rudders. These ships are capable of sailing as far as Vietnam and back, along with all the goods that could be bought from such a voyage. The merchants are keen to build such ships in great numbers, sending them overseas to trade with China and Southeast Asia. The ports begin to swell considerably and the wealth of the mercantile classes grows, putting the nobility at considerable unease.
-Iron begins to be imported, along with being mined. Sufficient quantities now exist to permit the construction of crossbows and various other weapons and armours introduced from China. These weapons are used en masse in the later “war on the Ainu”. In the war, the Shinigami sneaked around murdering leaders and setting houses on fire. Sometime later, the army arrives and begins to kill off the Ainu. This is taking a considerable deal of time though, and many of them are hiding in the wilds before launching ambushes on them. The savage Ainu has yet to be tamed. Crops are burned and Wapanese are murdered as the conflict escalates into generations spanning feuds.
-The Emperor establishes a formalized legal system that implies punishment for most basic crimes, sets the age of consent (and marriage) to 14, infers death penalty for murder, paedophilia and spreading religions other than Waifuism and strengthens the abilities of the Emperor to pass and enforce laws, along with settling disputes. The most common way of death penalty is the so called “feeding the earth”: the perpetrator is burnt alive, with the remains being used as fertilizer. The process of the execution is often referred to as “cooking the Earth a meal.” Along with this, the first Wapanese courts of law and prisons appear, run by magistrates appointed by the Emperor or his governors.
-The restrictions on Ainus are loosened, making them more serfs than slaves. At the same time however, the state introduces a single-child law for the Ainus: they are only allowed to have a single child in the family. Breaking the law is punishable by having your entire family fed to the Earth. But you will not be punished if one of the parents is of Wapanese ethnicity. At the same time, the Wapanese are encouraged to reproduce by subsidies to families that have 3 or more children and are entirely of Wapanese ethnicity. Of course this is very costly since most families have 3 or more children. In practice, the subsidies are given to people settling the north.
-The Ainu become target of a new policy by regional governors and the state to ensure their complete removal. Cold resistant crops and methods are introduced to Hokkaido so as to allow settlement of the island by the Wapanese. The Ainu who flee into the wild are to be chased out and starved, with them rounded up and put into serfdom or executed. A great deal of rebellions happen, but after more than two centuries of this, the Ainu have been exterminated from the face of the earth. Settlements on the island itself remain limited however.
-Settlements are begun on Sakhalin and other parts of northern Wapan. These people take to the seas where they find that whales are in relative abundance, and hunt them. The processed goods from their carcasses are exported to China, Korea, and Indonesia, where dipping food in whale oil is considered a delicacy. A Japanese whaling boat later becomes lost in a storm as whalers move out into the North Pacific. It lands in an odd land inhabited by fishermen and hunter-gatherers, who speak no language common to them. They meet with one of the groups and give them an iron axe in return for food, before sailing home and recounting the tale.
-Waifuism goes underground in China, trying to convert the young so as to gain toeholds. The Chinese realize what is happening, and seize all the priests they can find. Some commit suicide, but the rest are executed. A ban is declared on Wapan, applicable to all Wapanese within the country. Many go into hiding or are forced to leave the country, and the ports are shut down to Wapanese traders.
-The Wapanese merchants suffer considerably, and gradually relocate to Korea, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Whilst the clergymen and merchants are tolerated there, they won’t be forever. A religious tithe is then introduced, the proceeds of which are used for the upkeep of the church and some basic forms of social security and welfare. Many of these tithes go to supporting foreign missionaries.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-As populations rise and crowd on the existing land, somebody realizes that better ways to make use of this limited resource might be wise. Houses begin to be built into each other, and then the walls start to slowly become straight and meet at right angles. Soon thereafter, the first streets appear and houses begin to have ladders and multiple rooms built on top. The first urban area appears, called Ulysses, although the name was given to that area for many years before. It is during the first few centuries of the Common Era that we find evidence of urban planning and sophisticated architecture in common use. The layers above show increasing sophistication and beauty over time as well, along with the establishment of architecture as something to study.
-A large expansion of conquest starts southwards, seeking to subjugate the inland villages. The army does something rather interesting when they arrive. They end inter-tribal conflict to the best of their ability and try to reduce violence under their own rule. These villages eventually come to see the benefits of being under such rule, as they can trade and farm freely without worrying about being killed. The King helps extensively with this. He enters each village and organizes the clearing of land for roads, the introduction of plants and animals (collared peccaries and maize being the two main ones), the repairing of people’s houses, and recruitment of their bloodthirsty young men into the army to serve abroad.
-A shrine to Titus is built in every new village, helping to solidify control and to spread the word of Titus. A centralized network eventually develops, reliant on the roads for good communications and transportation. With these, any rebellions can be easily located, isolated, and crushed.
-Traders and various travellers are commissioned by the King to travel throughout Mesoamerica to open trade routes and to bring back items of cultural worth. They succeed in helping to pioneer many routes, along with introducing the various backward peoples in-between them and Mexico to their collared peccaries and agriculture. In return, the people of Xerxes eventually master maize farming and even have access to copper and cacao beans. There is also news of new novelties the traders have seen but have yet to bring back, such as wheels, turkeys, and rice.
Chevelle – Kingdom of Portugal
Capital: Lisbon
Culture: Portuguese (Iberian)
State Religion: Christianity (Generic)
-Concrete is invented for the purpose of making big buildings that don’t fall down easily. Limestone is taken and heated in a furnace to draw off the impurities. It is then mixed with water to create lime, and then mixed with sand and volcanic ash to make concrete. Not only is it strong, but it can even set underwater! It is used for all types of constructions, including roads. The Spanish are keen to send over roadbuilders, who help to expand the network throughout Portugal.
-Christians from Judea discover a society where they practice an almost identical religion to themselves, with the exception that it is unorganized. Quietly inserting themselves in and reforming it slightly, they announce to people they should be eating bread and drinking wine in a strange ceremony and must not succumb to worldly temptations.
-The lands held by nobles who fled to Portugal during the civil war is returned to Spain in a formal ceremony, and an alliance is reaffirmed where they will assist in the war against the pagans to the north. They do so, although the casualties are considerably high. A chronicler writes that “[They] had the flesh hanging off the bones”.
-In a nod to the Church, a great Cathedral named “Catedral de Lisboa” is constructed in the capital city. It is the largest Christian building on earth, complete with a carved image of Brian at the end of the hall on the cross. A massive dome made of concrete graces the building. For the establishment of the headquarters of Christianity, Lisbon is starting to look like a good choice.
Kamikaze470 – Tefullmorostan dol el Wizterbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-The longbow is introduced to the people of this country. Making it is considerably difficult, along with training to use to weapon itself and to manufacture enough arrows to keep the archer supplied. It becomes a weapon of an elite group of soldiers trained from childhood to use it, although replacing these men is difficult. They do perform excellently in battle though, giving volleys of accurate arrow showers from great distance. A well placed cavalry charge could easily destroy them however, and so they are of limited effectiveness in battle.
-Expansion into hostile or neutral villages continues, with the army and navy steadily growing into large and organized entities. The sale of slaves is profitable, and also helps to get rid of Christian troublemakers within the country. The money from sales can be spent to expand the scope and scale of wars, meaning more slaves, and in turn, more money for more wars and slaves. Many villages, having seen what happens, often surrender instead, declaring fealty to the King and keeping many of their old traditions intact. Taxes are always a starting point for rebellions, of which there is a considerable number. The slave supply remains considerably strong.
-A grand university begins construction in the capital, intended to give the nobility a good education and a veneer of civilization on top to prove to the world that this country is forwards looking, civilized, and modern. Various magistrates and rulers suggest to potters to change their industry in case of depression, but as it is merely advice they are often ignored, with large potteries having booms and busts over the years. Instead, officials spend money on the building and expansion of road networks throughout the country, mostly as a means of getting to rebellious areas quickly so as to put down a revolt before it becomes a real problem.
-Mehdi Ziad Edgar Fareed Wissergoel VIII, better known in history as Fareed Witzergoel VIII, Gurjiyahh (king) of Wizterbien, dies in 67 CE at the age of thirty-five. His sudden death caused a crisis among the nobility, since he had not sired any children and most of his immediate relatives eligible for rule were dead. With his untimely death, the great House of Witzergoel, whom had provided a consecutive line of Gurjiyahhs' to rule the Tozholleronese since the late 800s' BCE, has effectively gone extinct. Although, a noble from its Hursmans-Witzergoel cadet branch, Gabir Ghalib Heike Talib Wissergoel (or simply Heblib Wissergoel I), was a potential for the throne, he was a known Maggaqarist. Fervent Ecekdorisist clerics and nobles scoffed at the idea of bending the knee to a Maggaqarist Gurjiyahh. Moreover, according to ancient customs, a Maggaqarist was ineligible to rule.
-In the following year, over thirty hundred attendees would convene for what would be known as the Council of Sbia. The council would determine who would rule over the Tefullmorostan, lasting for several weeks before the council would finally come to a solid agreement. The next Gurjiyahh who would succed Fareed Witzergoel III would be a popular noble, Joël Franz Izz-ud-Din Cassius Snidus (Joël Snidus I), a pro-Ecekdorisist and a seasoned captain in the Shariyyah. In order to avoid upsetting the other sect, a compromise was made; Heblib Wissergoel I would be crowned as Luniarsa-Gurjiyahh (Junior King), and had marginally less powers than Joël has, although the ability to veto actions was still retained.
-After the death of Heblib in 92 CE, the diarchy was in danger of being abolished, but that particular issue ended up being averted by his heir Heblib II anyway. Later in 164 CE however, the second Council of Sbia would finally come to the verdict of abolishing the dual rule, where it was done so in 166 CE following the death of Luniarsa-Gurjiyahh Octavius Wissergoel IV, leaving the Gurjiyahh (then Mihammad Snidus III) the sole ruler once more. In the century following the council, Christianity makes several inroads into the country but only really manages to convert recent conquered people and slaves. Missionaries tend to stay away from this country.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian League
Capital: Athens
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Greek Pantheon
-One of the hallmarks of civilization is the distance one puts between himself and his excrement, or so once said a famous man. The Greeks, whilst having usually built basic sanitation, are taking it to Roman heights. They lay lead or clay pipes, have flushing toilets constructed, fountains built, aqueducts and lakes dammed to provide fresh and reliable water sources to the cities. Whilst the poor do not have plumbing in their own housing, it does keep the streets remarkably clean and reduces the likelihood of disease spreading. Unfortunately, public bathes and toilets remove any advantage gained, as sick people tend to go to these places as doctors hang out there and the waters are often purported to have medical properties.
-Refreshed by the soldiers from city-states new to the league, the army sets out on the warpath against the Romans in Epirus. After several intense battles, the Roman legions are splintered and sent running back to Rome, this being a key drive behind the reform of the Roman army. The Delians then turn to the Macedonians, defeating them in the field and pushing hard on their possessions throughout the countryside, although unable to expand a great deal northwards. The Kingdom of Macedonia itself is busy colonizing and subjugating the Thracians, and so have little interest in the conflict besides holding onto existing possessions. The Macedonians later break their alliance with Rome and drift off to run their own affairs. They sue for peace with the Delians to maintain borders as they are now. Rome also sues for peace, giving the Delians control of Epirus.
-While these campaigns are going on, Greek strategy begins incorporating the legion style into their tactics, using them as flanking units on the edge of central phalanx lines. With the capture of Epirus, famed for its horses, the armoured cavalry becomes more prominent, with both more horses and trained men to ride them. The league also tries to recruit Cretan archers, but the Empire of Dagger has put them all to work in the navy. The Greeks themselves eventually end the war with Rome and Macedon, but often raid Mrvian trading ships.
-After the fall of Epirus to the Romans, the League shelters the King of Epirus. Convincing him to join the League, they send their armies in with a call to return the King to his throne. After the reconquest, Epirus settles into the League. As the League begins shouldering more of the costs of the wars, a tax begins to be collected from each city-state in the League, with the cost being proportional to the citizens within the city. Census data is taken by the bureaucracy for the newly joining city-states to allow this tax.
-The School of Athens emerges at the start of the first century, educating young students and offering a place for people to study the natural world. In an effort to spread the newly found knowledge to the people, the School of Athens begins sending students on large tours of the League where they travel and hold special events; at these events they educate the citizens on the newest findings and philosophies of the day. Whilst people often enjoy coming to these events, it does not leave too great an impression on them. They do begin to turn away from the old pantheon (as hoped for originally), but for unrelated reasons. Christians have arrived, and are spreading the good word of Brian.
BananaFoam – Ibolozi Confederation
Capital: Ibbus Sieciwiz
Culture: Siberian (Uralic)
State Religion: East Medith Pantheon
-Increasing output of food leaves time to people to do other important things like intercourse and making things. During this time, the discovery of agriculture and the ability to store food long term means that people can build up food surpluses and use it to create other items. People begin to slowly divide themselves into doing different tasks based on their skills at those tasks. Burial evidence shows graves diversifying and people being buried with the tools of their trade. The need to travel great distances also necessitates professional boat builders and sailors along with traders and the well informed who gather information from other people and the land, then use it for the common good.
-As the work of translating the old oral stories and then committing them to written word, let alone retranslate them again is time consuming, much of the following, whilst purported to be an account of this period, is best treated with some scepticism and awareness that some information may have been lost in translation.
-The skirmishes between the Tuca erupt into a full scale tribal war. The Ibolozi win the war, but at great cost. Many warriors lay dead, but many still are saved by the bone and wood armour, although the casualty rate is not much improved. Aralic, the War Leader of the tribe, begins to see value in such technology. Not only that, but it gives him an idea on how to improve it. For weeks he toils with various different materials, finding which is the most effective. Stone is effective at blocking weapons but is far too heavy. Wood and bone, while effective against sharp edges and weak attacks, is weak against axes or clubs. Wood also fractures violently, lodging splinters in the wearer. However, wood is durable, abundant, and conifers from the north have wood that is lightweight enough to be worn as armour. Woven armour fails to block proper attacks but can stall wood or stone arrows from a range, but not completely negate them. Hides and furs are the same. Inevitably he comes to the conclusion that several types of armour, overlaid, will offer more protection. He teaches this armour working to craftsmen and villagers. The new basic equipment of the Ibolozi is wooden plate covered in hide or woven reeds, and some padded furs on top for warmth, comfort, and to further help stall blows. While it won't block a determined enemy, it is effective at stopping severe damage from wooden arrows and other wooden weapons.
-Strange men in a boat arrive on the northern shores of the confederacy. They wear cloths made of a thin material and appear slightly different. They practice a religion where they worship the “Wahphuu” and give the people of the village an iron axe in return for food. The men sail home never to return.
-Local craftsmen and craftswomen later add on to his invention by creating rudimentary wooden shields to be traded with the armour set. Such shields can also be used to push an enemy over or bust his nose.
-Uglik's rule comes into question. Now an aged man, Uglik is slowly realizing his dream of conquering the Great Valley. He becomes ashamed and hides in his lodgings in grief for many days. Finally, he is approached by the Elders. They propose Uglik make the journey north, to the Whitelands, to bring his chapter as chieftain to an end. Defiant to the end, Uglik strikes one of the Elders and boasts that he will never go north, that even death is afraid of him and that he will live and rule forever. Elder Lozid suggests that, since they are too weak to fight any wars, Uglik should instead go in search of new lands either to settle or to trade with. Uglik, still enraged, demands the Elders leave. Hours later, Uglik is seen departing into the snow with two scouts, Luez and Clirk. They venture along trade routes to the Southeast. Though none of the trio is seen in their homelands again, tales of their exploits occasional flow back home on the mouths of traders. Supposedly Uglik, after years of adventuring, succumbs to wounds he sustains fighting a buffalo. A statue is commissioned in a far off land at a village the trio once saved from raiders, or so say the merchants. Meanwhile, the Elders convene again but come to disagreement over who the new Chieftain must be. Elder Isum suggests that there should be no Chieftain, as the Elders already govern the tribe as a whole just fine and far off settlements usually handle themselves. Eventually it is agreed that they will form what the historians call a Confederacy, though it technically doesn't match an actual confederacy.
-The story of a statue matches the information gained from the excavation of a statue in a small town in the Midwest of the continent. The statue is curiously enough adorned with early bronze trinkets and even has a dogcart buried with it along with several dogs.
-Uglik's "journey" is actually a big farce to lure him away for a huge project. Traders from Ula Borgium sailed south to an island they named Vancuuver and found natives there successfully growing a large harvest of vegetables and berries. Seeing this as a great opportunity to learn the secrets of agriculture, Elder Orcemun sets out to found a colony of his own on the Northern part of the isle. After distracting Uglik (for fear that he would wage war on the people of the island) though he finds that his scouts were correct, he also finds that there are several native tribes dominating the island by force. Orcemun finds the Native Katyuks, who are peaceful enough to approach. He strikes a deal. Rather than pay the traditional tribute that foreign tribes pay when entering the Confederacy, he instead will give them protection from the marauding tribes in exchange for the secrets of agriculture. The Katyuks agree, and before long the Ibolozi colony is growing crops. They strike back against the raiding Natives, forcing them off the island, allowing more settlements to be set up and flourish. However, Orcemun dies peacefully of old age before he gets to see the island come under their complete control. In other parts, the lands east of the traditional Ibolozi settlements, having long been exposed to the Ibolozi culture and actually being inhabited by some Ibolozi people, are annexed by the tribe. The sparse settlements hold little of value that the Ibolozi don't already have, but annexing them has enabled them to control valuable hunting grounds. The actual population density is exceedingly low, and any sort of settled life there is practically impossible.
-Life on the island is not much better either. The crops can only grow during certain times of the year and are largely undomesticated. No staple crop exists either, so even then people are often dependent on fishing, foraging, and hunting. Maize itself has only gotten as far as California, although the residents there do not sell the crop due to lack of demand for it up north.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-Ships of significant sizes are being developed. Unlike their Mediterranean cousins they are sailing in something more akin to a big lake than the sea. They have flatter bottoms and rowers, but are also lightweight and possible to carry. The great galleys to the south are too heavy and bulk y for up here, and so lightweight rowing ships that can go up and down rivers are used instead. They employ a single large sail and rarely have towers built on them. A merchant version named the Knarr does not have rowers, but is useful for the large scale transportation of goods over water.
-The news of Rome's shenanigans reaches as far north as The Entente, and the King says that the army shall have to be made stronger so as to repel such a thread to their people. The army then promptly proceeds to attack villages and towns around the island of Osel before taking them over. They begin to gradually bring the Balts under control, along with the highly lucrative amber road. With duties on trade and expansion of roads, ports, and shipbuilding, there is a lot of money to be made. Traders are starting to sail west as well towards the Germans in Scandinavia and Germania, establishing trade routes and subtly moving the sphere of trade in the process.
-Fishing and lumber are two highly supported industries. This is the great age of food production, whereby many old forests untouched since the Palaeolithic are cleared and tilled. Crops are planted and the timber is exported for sale or used for construction. Forestry management eventually arises as somebody realizes one day there is a shortage of timber for fuel and building. Iron production is also limited by charcoal production, a considerable problem.
-News of the aftermath of War of The First Coalition reaches The Entente by means of scouts reporting back from the central European region near Velkij Donaljea, and public opinion is mixed. A large portion of the population seeks isolationism from the rest of the known world, but the current monarch insists that the best thing to do in these times is to go forth and instructs the soldiers pushing the frontier, citing this as leverage when negotiating more communities into assimilation under the crown, promising protection from conflicts that the country has no say in. This strategy works quite effectively and saves some bloodshed in expansion, although most people are annoyed at the idea of being taken over by a foreigner and being told what to do. Wars last a while but are ultimately in favour of the Entente.
-One of the many lessons learned from the conflict is one of military strategy. The king, unhappy with the current state of the military as ragtag farmers and other labourers, sets in motion decrees for the reform of the armies, starting with the establishment of a full-time professional army under his control and manufactories owned and operated by the crown to supply weapons, armour, and supplies for his men. Iron age logistics and industrial production is low however, especially in a predominantly agricultural society, so this army resembles a bodyguard more than an actual army.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-Boats begin to change in design, developing into a style quite unlike of the ships to the far south. With flat bottoms, being long and thin, along with banks of oars and a sail, a flexible type of sailing boat is made which can cross the high seas and goes upriver, and is even light enough for the crew to drag overland. The rising population means that more warriors are heading out to raid now, and raiders sometimes meet each other on the Rhine. Of course, the Celts and Germans they are raiding aren’t too happy about this, and begin to form larger confederations of tribes to fight off these threats. Some wealthy people respond by building fortifications or hiding their money elsewhere.
-The raiders also kidnap young children from conquered Celt villages and send them back home, where they will be adopted by Germanic families to learn the German language and culture, as well as indoctrinate them to the religion of Hutonism. After this, they are strongly disciplined and trained into becoming an elite fighting unit, and can take no other occupation besides a warrior. These convert soldiers will become known as the Huutunkundaruug
-An elective monarchy is established, whereby a group of arhonian nobles will choose a appropriate heir from the King's dynasty after he has died, in contrast to the throne being passed down to the oldest son , and all of his lands divided up equally amongst his children.
-The Kingdom expands along the Rhine and Frisian coast. Whilst clearing forests and draining marshes take years, it is much easier to kill somebody and move into his house, a process which takes about twenty five minutes.
Turn 12: 250 to 500 CE
Te Deum - 5th Century Monastic Chant (Solemn)
Turn music
Political map of Turn 12
Cultural map of Turn 12
Religious map of Turn 12
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=42012437&posted=1#post42012437
Turn quote: Land shortages rising in Europe, solution found by killing people living on it.
Events of the years 250 to 500:
-Around this time in Central Asia, climate change coupled with population expansion has led to Thomas Malthus and his warnings gaining weight. With too many people and too little food, they begin to migrate westwards in search of better land. The Huns, Bulgars, Avars, and other assorted peoples migrate initially to the Pontic steppes before heading into Europe. They force many Germanic and Slavic peoples to pick up and move, with the Germans roughly migrating into former Celtic lands (with the major exception of parts of the Mannish isles), and the Slavs migrating to the Pontic steppe before spreading throughout Eastern Europe at the tail end of this period. A great deal of wars, invasions, bloody battles, and other nasty things happen. Most notably this period sees a transition from Paganism to Christianity, and the collapse of Latin civilization outside of Italy.
-The Franks, Saxons, Burgundinians, Vandals, and other Germans migrate into Gaul, setting up new Kingdoms and displacing the Romans already there. The Romans themselves are badly shaken, with the Emperor losing power in favour of the generals and the papacy. The great cities begin to decline slowly as well, although Latin is still the common tongue and the people call themselves Romans.
-The Chinese invent coke-making, by piling coal and coal dust into a great pile, and setting it on fire. It is not only cheaper than charcoal, but can be produced endlessly. Trees are in short supply, but there is what seems to be an inexhaustible supply of coal underground. Of course, this allows the Chinese to increase iron production massively, although state control of industries and Confucian discouragement of business is a massive brake on this nascent industrial revolution. The Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian meanwhile sails through the Indian Ocean and travels throughout Sri Lanka and India to gather Buddhist scriptures.
-Several meetings are held by leading Christians over this period. They are all unable to agree to establish a uniform church however, and thus several divisions now exist in Christianity. The main branches are Iberian Christianity (based in Iberia), using a Portuguese-Spanish hybrid for church liturgy and Aquinian Christianity (with a tessarchy of four cities), using Greek for church liturgy. A third group of the remaining Christians is unorganized and mostly occupies the Eastern Mediterranean. They are known as the “Eastern Church”.
-The printing press is now common in most Mediterranean countries, and some of those further afield. They are understandably controlled by the state in most places (so as to prevent distasteful news disseminating) whilst low paper production helps to keep down the number of available texts.
-Armenia adopts Christianity as the state religion, followed by the Kingdom of Aksum. Aksum itself invades the Kushite Kingdom and conquers it.
-The Huns invade the Sassanid Empire, and later on, the Europeans. They sweep down through Mrvia and Laubergia, before ransacking Rome. A campaign against Macedon is also conducted. They continue to march throughout Gaul, ransacking it before dissipating after the death of their leaders. They return to the steppes in much the same way. The successor states of the Huns evolve into the Hunno-Bulgars, occupying the eastern part of the Mrvian Empire and Macedon.
-A large earthquake happens in Crete, causing significant damage on the island and to Mediterranean societies, mostly through tsunamis inundating towns, damaging irrigation systems and ports. It is mostly known for the destruction of the Empire of Daggers Cretan holdings.
-The Ilopango volcano erupts, devastating the Maya civilization and disrupting a lot of trade. Chichen Itza is later founded during this time. As for other events, the adoption of bronze is accelerating in Mesoamerica, gradually fanning out along trading routes. Movement of goods is still heavily restricted, but carts and boats are finally starting to gradually improve, even if only dogs and humans can pull them around. A disease later breaks out, spread by the collared peccary. It devastates Mesoamerica and South America, before spreading north to decimate the North Americans.
-Waifuism and Buddhism establish themselves as religious faiths in Indonesia and the Philippines. Some Indonesians travel on canoes to Madagascar and colonize the island, although they do not bring the new religions or much else with them. Of course, the Zulu Kingdom to the west on the mainland has developed to the extent that people from there can sail to the island to conduct trade, allowing for the settlement and colonization of Madagascar by two quite different peoples.
-The horse collar is invented in China; the heavy plow is now widespread throughout the European steppes, the horseshoe is now common throughout Europe itself, with cavalry becoming increasingly favoured by military leaders.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Iberian)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-A treatise on natural philosophy is written. Inside, it covers (with great detail) observations on physics. The writer observes that an object, when in motion, will eventually come to a stop due to external agents. If these are removed, the object could continue to move indefinitely. He states that were one to place an object in the aether and to push it, it would continue moving in the same direction until it collided with something. He goes on to declare that the heavenly bodies are affected by this same law, and hence rejects a great deal of Aristotle’s old work.
-The Spanish assemble a vast army in the latter part of this period, bulked up considerably by the efforts of the Phoenicians and Portuguese. They march on Roman Iberia, whilst the legions are too concerned with assisting their allies in fighting the Huns. Tarraco is besieged, and when the Romans come to face the Spanish, they are assailed by longbow fire before being smashed by heavy cavalry charges. The Romans had no effective defence, for the arrows can pierce their shields. Dropping the Phalanx formation allows the Spanish to become mobile as well, meaning they can more easily react to the Roman counterattacks. The Spanish also adopt catapults for the first time as well, using them to pepper the Roman formations and to weaken towers and walls of a city before the assault.
-After sieging many Roman cities and taking control of Iberia, the Spanish march north to the Pyrennes to meet a large Vandal army, seeking new lands. They are unsuccessful at stopping all of them, but prevent them from establishing a Vandal state in Iberia. The Vandals instead establish themselves in the Basque country, putting many of the inhabitants there to the sword and taking control for themselves.
-The Spanish agree to submit their church to the Portuguese papacy, and are now formally part of the Iberian church, headquartered in Lisbon. As churches grow ever more opulent and powerful, they begin to acquire lands and start to set up monasteries, indirectly aiding internal colonization. Rising populations needing new land is also a constant problem, so one such way of alleviating it is by moving into the Spanish interior. Monasteries are essential in getting rid of one’s unwanted children.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Experience of fighting with and against the Romans and civilized peoples to the south has given the Laubergians a great deal of knowledge on military technology and tactics. There is a general decline however, mostly brought on by agriculture reaching its limit and marginal lands being cultivated. The population has gone into some decline, especially due to the collapse of long distance trade (much of it severed by political instability and war). Shield design is somewhat different, so round or oval shaped ones are used in favour of the old Roman shields. They retain and develop a different tactic however, where all the men group up in a line and put their shields together to make a shieldwall. It is impenetrable and presents a strong defence, especially if ones army is situated on top of a hill.
-After the conversion of the Mrvian Emperor to Christianity, the chronicles tell of the Great Eagle of Laubergian fame appearing to him, telling him that he had been given the offer to become the Great Eagle of Christianity, sitting on God's shoulder. He tells him that he accepts God's offer to become an angel. He proceeds to tell the Monarch of Laubergia what had happened, and soon afterwards the King of Laubergia converts to Christianity. He changes his standard as well, throwing off the ancient design and introducing something suitable to fly above armies. A basilica is built in the Laubergian city of Salza, and a bishop is appointed to become one of the patriarchs of the Aquinist Church. The Church is of course exempt from taxes, allowing it to begin accumulating land from donations and to start collecting tithes used to build churches. They convert many of the incoming refugees.
-Walls and watchtowers are built along the borders due to increasing raids. One of the big problems comes with the migrations. Germanic tribes wish to migrate into Laubergia in the search of new homes and land. The Laubergians, on account of shared culture and language, decide to allow them to settle within the Kingdom, whilst the Laubergians expand north to take control of wayward kings who agree that joining Laubergia is better than being killed by the Huns. Of course, the extra population causes significant problems in terms of feeding them all, and many people are reduced to pledging vassalage to a wealthy farmer in return for security. One may lose their freedom, but they will not starve and they are protected by the lord.
-The Huns invade Laubergia shortly after devastating the Mrvian Empire, and despite a few hard fights, they loot and pillage many of the cities of Laubergia. Some have yet to recover, if at all. Salz itself is spared (apparently) when the bishop convinced the Huns to not attack, and for this act he is later canonized. A basilica was built in the city to show that it is one under the protection of god.
KingArcher – The Empire of Dagger
Capital: Chandax
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Turkish Pantheon
-The staff sling is growing larger now that the physics behind it is understood. Large wooden frames are built with huge wooden throwing arms and counterweights and/or ropes to pull it down with. Throwing stones, carcasses, or even pots of Greek fire, they are surprisingly accurate and powerful. They can also fire over walls on top of towers or groups of men, from considerable range as well. Built in flatpack kits, they are brought aboard ships, stored in forts, or brought on military campaigns. In conjunction with slingers, they are terrifying to face, as they are the most advanced siege machinery in the world. Only the Chinese can match these weapons.
-Other military reforms and inventions are introduced. Among them are caltrops, segmented armour, Romanesque army tactics, longbows, and pike squares, although the squares are horribly inflexible and have little in the way of support. A subsidy is granted by the Mrvian Empire, which the Daggerans use to not only make or import all this fancy new equipment, but to train a great number of men in its use.
-The cream of the Daggeran Empire supported with many Mrvian nobles and officers, lands in Lygos with the intention of marching on the Turks. However, at the battle, they are suddenly trapped in a large valley and their Greek “allies” desert them before attacking them from the back. The Daggerans suddenly realize that there is no escape, and use their stone throwing trebuchets to keep away the enemy forces. At once stage, the Greek general is directly hit by a boulder. He doesn’t recover. Eventually, the Daggeran forces run out of boulders and water, and worn down by attrition, many of them surrender or desert. A tiny few fight on to the end, and the Emperor is killed. The nobility including Mrvians are captured by the Greeks and then ransomed or executed.
-The aged Empire cannot deal with these problems. Trade is often blockaded by the Greeks, leading to many smuggling runs becoming common. Poverty is rife on the island of Crete. The earthquake is the coup de grace to the whole fiasco, destroying large parts of the urban areas and ruining the internal economy. The raids end much later, if only because there is nothing left to steal. Eventually, large numbers of the poor and desperate immigrate to Cornwall or other overseas lands, where it is said that life is much better. By the end of this period, the population of Crete halved, and many towns were abandoned. The Royal family itself has begun to move to Cornwall due to the considerable wealth to be gained by mining.
-Cornwall itself, which is steadily growing, is becoming swamped by the arrival of these Turks. The local inhabitants are understandably annoyed, with raids and wars happening, but many nobles are keen to join the Daggerans given their access to civilized delights and knowledge of far off markets. There is a general expansion of mines, especially tin and iron, although the lack of charcoal is a limiting factor in metal production. They do manage to find a lot of loopholes among Phoenician trade as well, although the Phoenician monopoly of trade is starting to decline. Neutral powers such as the Germanic states in Western Europe, along with the Romans and Mrvians, begin to see Cornish imports steadily increase, mostly going overland or along the Danube.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-The existence of iron lodestones have been known for quite some time now. However, it is only really now that investigation into their unique properties is underway. When a small needle is struck on such a stone, it gains some of the attractive powers. Most curiously, when pushed through the top of a large cork and floated on top of a small oil dish, it spins around to always face south and north. It is initially used for religious purposes and for novelty, until somebody realizes it can be used for navigation; these compasses are then subsequently brought aboard ships and with armies.
-The Phoenicians send a large army as a form of military support to the Spanish during the barbarian invasions of this period. Ships are sent as well to assist in the endeavour, and their exploits are told of in the Spanish turn. Generally however, they are successful. Meanwhile, they go to war with the Numidians once more, and finally manage to bring them to an end after the capital is ransacked. The Numidians quickly dissipate afterwards, leaving the loosely ruled lands to the Phoenicians. The Phoenicians cannot expand any further south, for the land is inhospitable to human life.
-With an open borders policy strictly enforced, a lot of Romans are moving into the Phoenician lands, mainly to escape from wars in Europe. Mercantile policies are also dropped, much to the detriment of national industries (although over 250 years they eventually are replaced with new industries). The great merchant Sacero is appointed to oversee needed economic reforms. Tariffs are mostly retained, whilst tax reform legislates that 10% of every transaction by a merchant goes to the state. Naturally, this leads to merchants going to ships offshore and conducting business in floating banks, or even foreign ones once the bailiffs try to stamp that out. It’s not exactly effective at drawing revenue.
-Base prices are also made for various basic goods, among them cotton. Subsidized by the state, it leads to an increase in cloth and paper production, along with agriculture. Sometimes it is even imported to try and keep prices low, and as always this is a constant drain on government revenue once prices and wages refuse to stay in sync. To placate the growing Christian masses, a policy of tolerance is announced, allowing bishops to emerge and to build their fancy churches. Some are demanding state support, and others debate on if they should join one of the two official churches or even work to make a new one.
-The Phoenicians also continue to colonize new lands throughout North Africa. Colonizing is harder now that more people are running around, so most of these new colonial attempts are in increasingly marginal lands. It becomes obvious that taking over existing towns might be a wiser course of action in the long run, although in one interesting case an entire ship of Phoenicians landed at a village and built a fort in return for tribute to be paid. Over two centuries passed and they still haven’t left.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-The grindstone is invented. A most curious invention, it consists of a large stone wheel on a frame powered by a foot pedal. If spun, it can be used to sharpen blades extremely quickly. Over the course of several decades, it is rapidly adopted throughout the Mrvian Empire, allowing for the peasantry to have slightly sharper tools when out working in the fields and the soldiers to retain a cutting edge on their weapons for longer.
-The military tactics of the Romans and Macedonians are adopted, with an increasing preference for heavy infantry. When preparing to go to war with the Delian Greeks, they are dismayed to discover that all that time spent preparing for a war was in vain. In the following period of peace, a new territorial administration is brought into the Empire. It is similar to the province system that Rome uses. On the territory the Empire owns and claims, the provinces are named: Belhomia, Mrvia, Sislelia, Poznony, Prišiv, Trinsdonaljea, Higirska, Velvedina, Driculadia, Vlachovska and Maldav (OTL Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Bratislava, Prešov, Transdanubia, Hungary, Vojvodina, Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia).
-The Emperor sees the influx of the new religion of Christianity, and quickly grasps the potential of establishing such a religion as the state one. As he walked back to his throne, light comes out of it. He sees the gods of Pržk come before him. They tell him this is his last time the emperor's dynasty will see them. They proceed to tell him that Pržk is all but gone, and that they have received a message from the Christian god, offering them a home, as they become his angels. They tell him that they have accepted his offer and that he must influence this religion by the name of God. Their clothing changes from their old pagan clothing to the clothing of Christian angels. They disappear as they say goodbye. The Emperor, having been given a sacred task, goes to work. He tells his people of what has happened as his people accept the teaching of Brian, the ways of God and the task of the holy Pržkian angels.
-He then requests Rome and Macedonia to convert to the new religion, offering elevated bishopric positions for their clergy and to bring stability. Rome quickly agrees, whilst Macedonia initially refuses. Oddly enough, a few short months later, a power struggle emerges among the Macedonian royal family. The King is deposed and replaced with the Pro-Aquinian family of Constantine. He converts Macedonia and crushes many huge rebellions against his cruel rule. Many of the common folk say he is an imposter put in by the Laubergians and Mrvians.
-After he sends his messengers to Rome and Macedon, the Great Eagle of Laubergian fame appears to him, telling him that he had been given the offer to become the Great Eagle of Christianity, sitting on God's shoulder, telling him that he accepts God's offer. He then proceeds to tell the King of Laubergia what had happened, and builds a basilica in the city of Aquina.
-The Emperor then tries to contact the Bosphoran Kingdom, but it is destroyed by raiders from the east before he has a chance to establish an embassy. These raiders are revealed to be called the “Huns”. The Huns sweep through the Pontic steppe, displacing many Germans and Slavs and setting off a domino effect where all the peoples of Europe are now on the move. The Huns themselves ransack Mrvia and wrest control of most of its lands, with the Emperor forced to flee. When the Huns arrive in Aquina, they are greeted by a monk preaching to them and asking them not to attack the city. He is shot with an arrow and dies. The city itself is burned to the ground.
-The Huns are temporary however. After conquering half of the Mrvian Empire and Macedonia, along with ransacking Greece, their great leader is badly hurt when he injures himself whilst drunk during intercourse. The wound becomes septic and he dies. The Hunnic Empire collapses as quickly as it appeared, with many Huns and Bulgars splitting up and going their separate ways. One coherent group moves to Eastern Macedonia and Mrvia, where they wrest control of the lands there and establish a Khanate.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-As the population steadily climbs and trade diversifies, there is a lot more wealth to spend and trained people who know how to construct buildings on an epic scale. Engineers are starting to gain a lot of respect in their own right, building large theatres or ballgame courts. They are also employed to design sewers, fresh water aqueducts, bridges, canals, and the general improvement and layout of cities. This period sees some of the wealthier cities widen their streets and replace more buildings with stone, although the poor still tend to cram into hovels further away from these opulent areas. The poor do at least have another job opportunity, where they can collect faeces from humans or other animals along with other rubbish, and sell it to farmers to use as manure.
-The state announces a beaver hunting programme, where they will subsidize the killing of beavers. A lot of people quickly jump onto it, and begin to hunt excessive numbers of beavers throughout the American east. Soon enough, the beaver starts becoming dangerously close to extinction, especially as dams are deliberately damaged by people as well looking for the artificially valuable beaver pelts. There are so many beaver pelts that they are now even worn by the aspiring poor.
-The long term effect is a disaster. Trees along the banks recover, but the decline of dams means that what were formerly networks of silted ponds are now turning into fast flowing streams and rivers. Many farms and villages of the existing inhabitants are washed away, and soil erosion rapidly eats away and fills up rivers downstream, silting them up and creating islands downstream. When settlers from the north come southwards, they find a great deal of difficulty as the people and landscape are both hostile, at least until the rivers are controlled in the northern style and the people killed. Famines often break out in this part of the world. Trade and shipping is also becoming more difficult, as the small boats which formerly carried the bulk of trade are unable to cover increasing distances and have enough room left for both provisions and goods.
-The King establishes so called “animal reserves”. In them, animals such as turkeys and deer are kept for hunting purposes are being reared in large numbers. It catches on with the nobility, who requisition the land of the peasantry and plant forests there, although the poor peasants are never above some poaching and collecting firewood. Eventually the lord manages to convince most of his tenants to stop poaching by granting them the right to collect a little firewood from the forest.
-A most mysterious disease is brought by foreign traders, killing a great deal of many people in the kingdom. Symptoms include nasty sores on the limbs, vomiting, and shortness of breath along with lethargy. Many people die in heaps, and the remaining number immune to the disease takes a considerable deal of time before it grows back to roughly what it was before the disease.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-In order to help move goods move quickly in bulk along the coastline, boats begin to gradually grow in size, especially as its somewhat safer at sea than on the plains where a bunch of soldiers can stop you thirty times and demand you pay tolls to pass. These ships are rowed and also have large sails, plying the eastern coast of Africa. They manage to discover several small islands and sail north to meet some people who have knowledge of agriculture and metalworking.
-In order to fund military expansion, taxes are raised even higher, which does a lot for the peasants already lying in penury. The zebra cavalry are assembled in another meeting whereupon the king invents a new word. He declares that all of Africa must be conquered. At the moment, Africa only seems to refer to the area of the northern part of the continent settled by Phoenicians and Berbers, also called Africans. No knowledge of this land exists, so instead the zebra cavalry follow the coastlines to take over towns and villages discovered by traders.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-In another classic case of being unable to determine whenever something was independently invented or brought by traders, the idea of block printing comes about. Using a piece of wood with a picture or letters carved into it, one can reliably reproduce pages in a short period of time. The setup is very costly, and one needs to keep many such blocks for printing books, but it does contribute to a great number of popular and new titles. One story is about a boy who, if he wrote the name of somebody on a wax tablet meant for note keeping, whilst imagining the face of that person, would result in the death of that person. It explodes into a huge and detailed epic of over 100 various books, paintings, and other such media. It is somewhat politically subversive as well, with Yagami Moefaggu calling for its suppression as the tale implies that even the most powerful and wise wishing to do good are unable to truly pass judgement on what is righteous and what is evil.
-Modern historians found out, that sometime in the 4th century CE Empress Kagami I Moefaggu decided to reward loyal shinigami that managed to live up until old age in the dog eat dog world of skilled, snitching assassins. Shinigami too old to continue doing their job live out their twilight years in the luxury of the Imperial Palace, acting as advisors to the Emperor. Their experience is rather valuable, and the fact that they survived this long means that they are too dangerous to be set free.
-Yagami IV Moefaggu, son of Kagami I Moefaggu, one day proclaims that he will transfer Imperial authority to his advisor (and as historians later found out, former shinigami) Gendo III Desunoto. Gendo, an old and paraplegic man, is however a person of superior intellect and cunning. It was theorized that Gendo intimidated Yagami into submitting by threatening to prove everyone that Yagami has shit taste in illustrated Waifu stories, a great shame at the time. Gendo III is also credited with the invention of the wheelchair.
-The Moefaggu, being of the great prophets bloodline, still remain formal heads of the waifuist religion and hold the title of Saiko Oniichan/Oneechan (Supreme Brother/Sister), a hereditary position, but otherwise plenty similar to that of a great Christian bishop. A great temple, called Katawa Shoujo Ofisharu Tredu (Temple Of The Broken Goddess) is constructed, and becomes the residence of the Moefaggu. The Shimapan Guard is reformed, increased in numbers and becomes Supreme Oniichan’s personal guard. Gendo III, though still being a devout waifuist, is a more secular source of power, able to spend more time on the matters of the state without being bothered by matters of religion. Some civil resistance starts, of course, but is quickly dealt with a few strategic assassinations and show executions. After Gendo’s death, his son Shinji II Desunoto, a legitimized bastard, becomes Emperor, securing the Desunoto dynasty on the throne.
-Relations are re-established with China (or at least some of the states making it up), with the conditions more suitable for diplomatic rusing. Missionaries do not come, but at least diplomats can come over to find out about the state of affairs in China and even translate or somehow acquire interesting books. Trade on a limited scale begins soon after, although the Chinese are always very strict on missionaries coming in to destabilize the country. Buddhists come in the other direction, and the first Buddhist communities emerge in Wapan.
-Expansion continues into the southwest of Wapan. Whilst the Yayoi people have started to adopt more modern methods of governance and are slowly showing the first signs of forming a state, the encroachment of the Wapanese is a cause for concern. Wars break out between both states, with the one on Kyushu claiming to have an Emperor descended from the sun. He is defeated in war and his state is scattered. During the wars, the nobility gradually builds a code of ethics, with one saying that if you lose in battle, you must commit suicide. The official term for this is “Sudoku”.
-Religious missions are now heading to Indonesia, although some people are blown off course along the way and discover a small island off the coast of China. The island is dotted with several missions and trading posts, seeking to convert the island. They succeed as they use reciprocal tactics such as pretending to be friends and giving gifts of clothing or food at strategically important times (such as winter). The island is eventually won over and converted. Missions are also established to the further south using Taiwan as a model for the future. The Philippines are also discovered, but mostly by accident. Initial mission attempts fail when most of the missionaries starve to death or fight with the locals and it takes decades before a single plucky one manages to stay intact without the missionaries dying.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-With improving agricultural yields with the ability to support large bureaucracies and state apparatus, somebody thinks that keeping track of who owns what might be a good idea. They begin by drawing pictures of various goods in store with numbers alongside them, before a written language gradually evolves. Most early writings are boasts of the great kings and nobles, with nothing on the common peasantry who make up about ninety percent of the population.
-In order to help control these new lands, these written stone records are a useful tool for rewriting history to remind people that they were actually in fact under the rule of the Xerxes people. Expansion is of course slow due to the time it takes to send messages by foot, and moving food is also considerably difficult, with armies having to loot food from nearby villages and to bring peccaries with them as an emergency meat source. The King also realizes that trying to rule over such a vast Empire is a difficult challenge in the best of times. He orders that soldiers settle in newly conquered villages, so as to help integrate it into their lands.
-The existing shrines to Titus in most villages are improved upon extensively, with many of the crude earlier designs standardized and increased in size so as to provide protection from the elements. In the capital itself, a large statue of Titus is raised, with a large circular wall and roof enclosing it. It is perhaps the first attempt at a dome in the New World, and it can’t have worked very well, because it kept collapsing multiple times until the shape was refined into something more sensible.
-Trade continues to expand with the Maya overland, but there is a growing preference for sea-based trade instead. Most boats are small and oar powered, carry little in the way of provisions and goods, but are more economical than carrying heavy goods overland. The innovations to the far north have yet to reach this part of the world, and so trade is still mostly composed of small scale coastal operations. Military campaigns are difficult when most food is too heavy to carry along with you, so military expansion throughout this period is generally limited to the coastlines, abundant in food resources and a short hop away from an allied village.
-Although extremely costly in terms of manpower and resources, some masonry takes place outside of the capital. Initially starting with defensive walls and boundaries, masonry extends to the construction of temples, fine houses, plazas, and varied public works projects.
-Bronze is introduced from Mesoamerica. Unfortunately, the collared peccary has managed to catch a nasty disease transmissible to humans. It spread rapidly, devastating populations in urban areas and culling a significant deal of the population. Recovery begins much later on in this period, but the population has barely recovered to what it was three centuries prior.
Chevelle – Kingdom of Portugal
Capital: Lisbon
Culture: Portuguese (Iberian)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-With improvements in metalworking technology, somebody comes up with the smart idea of refining iron with a tiny amount of carbon added to it. Worked for a great deal of time it makes high quality fine steel used for weapons making and armour. Of course, there is no practical way to reduce the carbon content of pig iron, and so purer iron must be imported and have carbon added in an expensive process. Iron production itself along with making charcoal is considerably costly, so if there is to be any way to produce iron on a large scale, there should be a way to produce a smokeless fuel cheaply without relying on forests.
-The old military tactics of the past are abandoned. Inflexible pike formations are being discarded in favour of heavy infantry. Heavy infantry using swords and armour are able to hold a line in battle whilst the cavalry and missile skirmishers whittle away or batter the opposing forces. The newly reformed army is sent along with the Spanish to assist in their various wars, the full details of which are mentioned in the Spanish turn. Overall, they make good work of themselves and assist in the many Spanish campaigns at home and overseas.
-The Portuguese state, in conjunction with the Spanish, holds a central meeting of all Christian representatives in Iberia. They meet in the Cathedral in Lisbon, easily the grandest such building on all earth. Representatives from further abroad (Egypt, Italy, The Near East, etc) also attend. It becomes painfully obvious that the new rites and reforms are distinctly pro-Iberian in nature. The New Testament is codified and bishops appointed for the major towns and cities of the peninsula. A head bishop, based in Lisbon, is now head of the Iberian church. He assumes the newly created post of Pope, and gradually centralizes the religion on Lisbon.
Kamikaze470 – Tefullmorostan dol el Wizterbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-Engineering and ironworking go hand in hand. The arrival of several new technologies improves on existing iron weaponry and building techniques. Large wooden cranes are used to raise logs or stones, and somebody finds out how to make steel weaponry using charcoal and a forge with some iron. The age of great construction begins, with many magnificent temples and theatres or palaces built to show the splendour of the country. Of course these are only for the centres of towns and cities. The common people still live in hovels and plough their fields using two pieces of wood hammered together. Gradually however, iron ploughshares are fitted to the front of them, and wheels added. Peasants can even rent out such tools for use.
-A series of military reforms are made, mostly to facilities such as buildings. Old forts are rebuilt and have barracks built in them. Soldiers must be kept separate from the civilian population, where problems such as STDs and drunkenness are prevalent. They are instead put into a barracks in a fort, where much of the same happens before, albeit on a more subtle and smaller scale. One soldier is whipped to death after a Sufganiyot is discovered inside his chest. A military academy is founded for officers to learn how to put more anger into their speeches, and sailors are given a strange new invention. This invention consists of a piece of swinging cloth in a ship. A wine ration is also given to sailors, along with some salted meat, cheese, and hard bread.
-Relay messenger stations are constructed through the Kingdom. Using a post with several horses and riders in reserve, they can transfer messages exceedingly quickly as when exhausted, a rider can stop and let somebody else take the message. Each station tells the previous one it has received the message safely with either a red flag or a torch. Roads are also built up along these relay stations, with many of the common rabble and traders now using them. Inns and shops pop up like mushrooms along these roads.
-With Christian heresy on the rise, the question of how to deal with it remained a question among the cleric body for decades. Finally, in the summer of 300 CE, Gurjiyahh Yaqub Snidus II convoked the Third Council of Sbia, where over sixty-six hundred attendees would convene in the holy temple of Mers in Al-Cido Monts. It would be the first effort to deal with the Christian heresy. There were several accomplishments of the Council; notably, one of which being the Dictum dol Christianos (Edict of Christianity). Issued by Yaqub, it proclaimed the banning of preaching Christianity within Wizterbien, and the expulsion or punishment of Christians thereof.
-Due to the ban on Christianity now in force, the movement moves quickly underground or is otherwise rooted out. People in outlying towns are converted (mostly due to soldiers being around to suppress revolts instead of wars of conquest), whilst good relations are established with the Berbers to the west (who have gradually replaced the Numidian state). Relations are cordial with Rome, but understandably take a hit after their missionaries are arrested by the authorities.
-Another one of the Council's achievements is the creation of the first holy order inquisition; Sflaplazeolo Gurjoinqusitios dol el Frizr (romanticized as the Holy Order of the Friars). Founded in the autumn of 300, it would operate temporarily until it's disbandment in 307. It would later be replaced permanently by the Slflaplazeolo Guroinquisitios dol el Reinzta (Holy Order of the Reinsta). Operating from its headquarters in Al-Cido Monts, the inquisition is tasked with one mission: Rooting out suspected heresies such as Christians, interrogation and finally handling them over to secular authorities for proper punishment. Of course, I’m not going to make a Monty Python joke about it. What? You were expecting one? Well piss off; I’m not here to make you laugh. This isn’t even a proper piece of witty writing. It doesn’t have a punchline and ends most sentences with an insult you vacuous, shallow, arse. I’m going to have dinner and then return to writing this because obviously you toffee-nosed bollocks-sniffers lap up my writing. Of course I can’t write more for this paragraph, because it’s getting too long and if I don’t finish this soon the Scottish Bad Joke Writing Police (submarine division) are going to arres
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian League
Capital: Athens
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Unofficially Eastern Church and Aquinism)
-The Greeks, realizing that their farmland is poor and its partly why they have to import so much food and send off so many children overseas, finally have the solution to their problem. By making a large metal version of the common plough, one can drag it through the soil and bring up nutrients from deep below, depositing it on the surface and making the land good for growing crops. This also makes the job of ploughing easier, so food surpluses grow and a larger population can thus be supported.
-An army is sent with the Empire of Dagger to invade Anatolia. However, when the Imperial army finds the Turks lying in wait, the Greeks turn on their "allies" and essentially sandwich the army of the Empire of Dagger between the Turks and themselves. Although the Daggerans put up an incredibly brutal fight, they eventually lost to the Greeks in the most crushing military defeat in the history of Dagger. A lot of Mrvians accompanying the army are also captured and ransomed or executed. Dagger is completely incapable of defending its own waters, with large scale blockades and raids happening continually on the island of Crete. They end after the great earthquake, which ruins the island so much it is not worth bothering to raid anymore.
-Seeking to take advantage of the war on Dagger, men are now paid to report on the news to the common folk, often boasting of the success of the Delians in war. They also report on the latest military reforms. For instance, the phalanx is discarded entirely for the faster and superior legion style units. They are divided into two main classes, a smaller group of frontline units wielding spears to repulse initial attacks, and a larger group of units using javelins and swords to fight. A lot of effort is spent in unlocking the secret success of Cretan archers, eventually leading to new training techniques emerging as archer units are added to the army composition. Most important of all, the new abundance of horses allows cavalry to be diversified into three main techniques: the standard heavily armoured cavalry used for attacking in general, the new heavily armoured cavalry armed with spears designed for skirmishing enemy cavalry, and finally the mounted horse archers. Unfortunately, the heavily armoured cavalry intended for skirmishing is too slow to act in a proper skirmishing role, and fall into disuse. The original armoured cavalry is heavily based upon the cataphracts of the East, using powerful shock charges to break up formations.
-Peace is signed with Macedon and maintained with Rome, even allowing for the growth of trade to get underway. Unfortunately, the migrations of the Germans cause a lot of problems and a Hunnic army even invades Greece itself. They march throughout Northern Greece and Macedon, looting the country and burning down several cities. The Delian league is unable to stop them, especially after an infantry army was crushed by them. It is said that this is what prompted the reforms to include heavy cavalry.
-Christianity is adopted by the League, owing to its popularity in the country. However, the Delians do not wish to join either the Iberian or Aquinist church as of yet (if at all). Churchbuilding gets underway in the meantime, with many old Greek temples being pulled down and the ruins used to construct the new churches. The statues are smashed and have crosses carved where they once stood. The metal fittings, jewellery, and other such rich extravagance is quietly taken away. God does not appreciate the proliferation of excess wealth, so it’s best to quietly slip some gold into your purse when gods looking away.
-Trade tariffs are reformed, mostly in order to draw revenue off the still fairly strong trade routes in the East, although the disruption in the west has a knock-on effect anyways, damaging the coffers of the government. The revenue thus raised is then used to help subsidize the Turks in their war with the Sassanid’s, as now the Turks are in a strong alliance with the Greeks. They also enter an alliance with the Egyptians.
BananaFoam – Ibolozi Confederation
Capital: Ibbus Sieciwiz
Culture: Siberian (Uralic)
State Religion: East Medith Pantheon
-Very little goes on during this period, with most people living in this part of the world living their lives as they always did. The only change that seems to come is slightly increased awareness of the peoples to the south, population growth, growing trade, and tiny piecemeal technological, social, linguistic, political, and philosophical changes.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-Ironworking and cheesemaking are both common industries in the Entente already, helping to make a great deal of wealth. A type of salted cheese is swapped for a special bow during trade, and it is a most curious bow. Meant to be the same height as the user, it is very powerful and accurate with a good range, although training to use it takes time. The merchant opens a bowyer’s workshop which makes these in considerable numbers, selling it to the army for a tidy sum. Eventually, longbows disseminate, although the training of longbowmen takes a long time.
-Long pikes are also given to soldiers, with them told to assemble into squares so as to hold a position on a battlefield. This makes them incredibly vulnerable to missile fire and inflexible as well. Archers help to fill the gap, but for all intents and purposes the pikemen isn’t very useful on the field. They hold formations well, but their opponents enjoy skirmishing and whittling down the men before charging at the broken formation.
-With better ships becoming available, The Entente turns its attention to the Baltic Sea at large. Seeking to protect the amber coast and expand fishing territory, Saaremaa is used as a springboard to launch an aggressive campaign is to bring the islands of Aland and Gotland into possession of the kingdom. Some coastal expansion in Livonia happens as well.
-Being somewhat isolated from the rest of the known world, the Entente have not yet mastered the horse for large scale military use, and more focus is put on forming larger ranks of infantry and mass archer volleys.
-The mass quantities of amber that have been washing up on the shores of the Baltic (or appearing naturally in mines) are being harvested and traded at fetching prices, earning the region the nickname "The Amber Coast". The act of collecting the amber itself has become quite the enterprise, and the king, seeking to make as much as the kingdom can off of this, sets limits on the amount of amber that can be harvested per season to drive up demand for the golden sap and avoid market saturation.
-In several villages along the amber coast, a game by the name of karš (war) has become a common pastime amongst the people. The came consists of two players moving crude amber carvings each having a specific role assigned to them around an oak board with an 8 by 8 square grid etched into it. The game eventually spreads to Riga, and even the king partakes in this game that, while the while the rules and pieces are different, is quite similar to chess.
-In the days leading up to new year’s day of 251, a shooting star was seen flying over the capital, the people and even the king himself, being deists, they view this as a good omen and a sign for the nation to continue its drive onwards and to be the masters of The Baltic. Their neighbours next door are utterly unable to do anything about it, and they take a hit to the stability of their society as they fear what the omen will show.
-Lacking iron, and hearing of the large cavalry armies of other nations, someone eventually gets the idea that if you give a man a large wooden stick with a sharp iron point on the end and stick him with a bunch of other similarly armed men, you can repel and even attack cavalry quite effectively! Most units form into formations and groupings of a hundred and fifty men, with training to be incredibly vigorous.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-Somebody comes up with a rather nifty idea. Taking iron ore and heating it in a furnace, before blasting it with air from a bellows, can make it so hot so as to induce the iron to turn into a liquid. Once collected up, it can be poured into moulds to make a whole variety of iron items, although they are weak initially. Further working with the iron is required to add strength to it however, for cast iron by itself is weak.
-In order to hold off the migrations of the Germans, a large number of fortifications are built throughout the Kingdom. The extensive presence of boggy land and rivers means that the land is unattractive to hordes of people looking for a new home anyways. A few battles do occur, but by and large the other Germans move west into Gaul, displacing the existing Celtic tribes. Refugees come to the Kingdom to take up jobs as mercenaries or to become landless labourers.
-Piecemeal expansion happens throughout the Low Countries. Some tribes are understandably threatened by the new Germans coming in, whilst some losers are seeking to establish new homes. These wars of conquest mostly snowball, with many of the old Germans joining Arhonia and conquering a great deal of land which they formerly ruled. Unfortunately, it is mostly boggy and poor for agriculture.
-Trade with the Mannish isles is interrupted by the migrations, but they are re-established later on in the 5th century after the Saxons conquer much of the Mannish east coast. They are keen to trade and their placement on the Rhine is well suited to profit by this trade. In fact some ambitious lords are building forts along the river and levying tolls off unlucky merchants, much to the detriment of trade but boding well for their money purses.
Daysbefore – Kingdom of Eoferwic
Capital: Eoferwic
Culture: Angle (Germanic)
State Religion: Anglo-Saxon Paganism
-A new type of saddle, along with stirrups and horseshoes, has been introduced. When all brought together, it helps to reduce strain on the horses back, gives extra stability to the rider, increases the flexibility of cavalry, and for a non-military use, allows horses to travel vast distances without their hooves wearing away or breaking. The Saxon nobility tended to prefer fighting on foot, but horses are useful when the time calls for it. Pulling wagons of food and other goods overland is also important for feeding armies, and the better treated the horses, the more reliable your supply trains.
-Angles following the great King Osfric of Anglia land along the mouth of the mighty river Humber. Many Angles previously worked as sellswords for local Manns in their wars with the Picts, and were charmed by the fertile land of Mann, compared to the sand and rock of the Jutland peninsula. Osfric gathered all his people and set sail. Battered by storms and the rare pirate, he landed around modern Hull and built his first hall, driving the handful of Mannish fisherfolk away or into the ground. For ten years Angles pour into Mann to the rapidly growing town of Wyke, claiming large tracts of land. Thousands of Britons die or are taken into slavery by the Angles, unsuccessfully rebelling at one point.
-Over the course of several centuries, mostly due to population pressures at home, followed by the Hunnic and Germanic incursions, the Saxons sail overseas to invade the Isle of Mann. The inhabitants, developing early feudal institutions and beginning to form Kingdoms, are driven out of the East of England. The Saxons sail up and down the major rivers of England, initially ransacking before taking over many towns and villages and placing themselves as the new rulers of this land. The largest Kingdom, called Eoferwic, is established by a large army which sailed up the river Humber and more or less took it over. They extend from the capital (Eoferwic) in the north to Thunrsrealm in the south. The old inhabitants are often dispossessed and made into landless labourers for their new rulers, with the lands being redistributed to warriors who partook in the invasion. Their families arrive soon after, although many intermarry with the local population.
-On Osfric's death his brother and son war for the crown, but a Mannish invasion kills his son and leaves his brother Osferth as undisputed king. He reigns peacefully for forty years. As time continues Eoferwic grows into the chief town of the Kingdom. Wyke continues to function as a great port, but overland trade with the Picts and British brings great wealth to Eoferwic. Eventually sea trade begins to die off in Eoferwic. By 480, raiders and pirates are the only regular guests to the port of Wyke, which becomes a den of vice and scum. In response, King Aelfred the Fat puts the town to the torch and resettles it with farmers left homeless after a recent war with the Mannish. Wyke prospers again and becomes a chief port of northern Europe, often functioning as a intermediary between the Cornish towns, the Arhonian Kingdom, and the Baltic Entente.
Kreigsmar1ne – Picts
Capital: Cait
Culture: Pictish (Celtic)
State Religion: Celtic Polytheism
-The heavy iron plough is introduced (or invented, it is unsure) in Pictland. The Picts live in terrible conditions, with heavy soils, large forests, acidic soil unsuitable for agriculture, poor fertility, rocky landscape, and little in the way of natural resources. This new plough is used to help alleviate some of those problems, allowing for the population to steadily grow over this period as the Iron Age comes to an end.
-A warrior band is created, where the finest warriors from each tribe are collected together to form a standing and permanent force of professional soldiers. They are painted in plant dyes to allow them to blend in with their surroundings. The bravest and most honourable men of Pictland, their strategy consists of hiding in the forest and then running away once the enemy forces organize.
-Scouts travel down throughout Southern Mann. They report on the movements of the Daggerans and Saxons, along with the declining native population. The scouts also try to keep good relations with other tribes, so as to help towards keeping Pictland united against foreign invaders. Some tribes to the south are less than willing to join, and so the Picts conquer southwards. A boggy island with a trading outpost on it in the middle of the Firth of Forth is the only place possible to cross from the Lowlands to the Highlands, and is considered to be strategically important. It is held by a tribe hostile to the Picts.
-Whaling begins for the first time, with many Pictish men having to sail far out to sea to hunt whales, wintering on the uninhabited islands to the north. Fishing is also a popular activity, used to supplement food stocks wherever possible. Their reliance on fishing goes a long way to helping produce a class of men who know how to sail considerable distances. Hunting is also another popular pastime, but is mostly reserved for the wealthy, as by now big game are much rarer to find.
Burinn – Unified Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Ankara
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Christianity (Unofficially Eastern Church)
-A new legal reform is passed after a great deal of time and effort spent trying to tackle the issue of how to divide up land among people. The law has technically freed everybody in the country, so slavery of the old age is now gone for good. The law is also reformed so as to technically allow people to leave the land, although in practice this rarely happens. Farmers have now been split into two classes. Firstly, those that own the land and either farm it themselves or rent out the land (most of this consists of the nobility), and that of those who rent the land from the landowners. There is little money available, so sharecropping is used instead whenever possible. This is a considerable improvement over the old systems, as now farmers have an incentive to increase yields as they keep a portion of them. Of course, the lack of capital and tenancies means that long term investment into the land is rare, with food production normally increased by expanding onto marginal lands.
-The Selecuids are overthrown by a revolt of Daggeran nobles and peasants in the west of the country. Most interestingly, they convert to Christianity and declare themselves to be an independent polity to the Empire of Dagger. They receive extensive help from some malcontent noblemen who seek to put themselves into power, and eventually establish a whole new state, ruled by Turks. Ironically, they later assist the Greeks with crushing an army marching under Dagger, seeking to reclaim their former capital city.
-Using money given by the Delian League, the Turkish army in the east is rearmed with new technology and tactics to ward off the Sassanid’s. Most of the new military reforms are modelled on the Greek model. Realizing transportation across the harsh Turkish mountains slows the movement of troops as well; a group of artisans are hired to construct a series of roads to greatly increase the rate of transportation of goods and men throughout the land. The roads are based off Greek designs as well, with many observers during this time commenting that the Turks are becoming much like the Greeks in all manners, including clothing.
-Emissaries are sent to Egypt and Greece, establishing good relations and the start of which might be seen as the “Eastern Alliance”. The Turks promise to help the Egyptians reclaim lands lost to the evil Sassanid’s, who took the land from the Parthians. With the combined forces of the Turks and Egyptians, the Ptolemaic Empire can go on the offensive and attack Arabia. They capture a good deal of the Levant and split it between themselves, but the Sassanid Empire (initially) is incredibly powerful and fresh, holding back these invasions and controlling most of the wealthy land to themselves. It would take a protracted and lengthy war to defeat this massive Asian Empire.
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Christianity (Unofficially Eastern Church)
-Cataphracts are introduced into Egypt. Wearing heavy armour not only on the rider but the horse as well, in large numbers they are an exceedingly deadly cavalry force, used more for powerful charges than to skirmish. The new Pharaoh also made an assessment of the military and it was determined that there needed to be changes to the leadership and the strategies used by the soldiers. Reforms included a redesign of the ranking system, their powers, and how ranks were obtained. Generally, there is a lot of clearing out of corrupt military officials and replacement with some meritocratic systems introduced so as to prevent the really thick children of nobles from entering.
-In the midst of the civil unrest, documentation was found from the past which implied that the current Pharaoh and his dynasty were illegitimate. Along with this, the scholars that studied the information were able to locate the true and rightful Pharaoh. When this news became public, the general population was disgusted to learn this and demanded the Pharaoh to be removed. With the entire nation stirred and rioting, the military performed a coup and successfully ousted the false Pharaoh and his advisors, instating the new Pharaoh. Modern historians now recognize the document as a forgery by a Christian bishop, who used the Christian element within the army to organize a coup whilst the country was stricken by religious strife.
-Reforms are introduced that establish an organized bureaucracy after the old one collapsed during the war (with administrative districts based on dioceses of churches), and a system of government, which included a council that created laws requiring royal assent by the Pharaoh. If the Pharaoh disapproves a law, and the entire council agrees said law should be passed, the council can select seventeen random citizens to assess the law and decided whether or not it should be implemented. In practice, because the council requires all members to agree on the law, many of the existing ones within it are the Pharaohs cronies, helping to block legislation unfavourable to him. In other words, the council is more or less powerless except as an advisory body and to introduce laws hoping they will be passed.
-New military strategy included the implementation of Romanesque tactics, utilizing flexible units. One formation used was a group of a hundred men in a square pattern, in ten rows wide and deep of swordsmen and spearmen, two rows of archers in front of the main group, and two rows of heavy cavalry behind the main group. The first three rows consisted of spearmen and every other row behind them consisted of swordsmen. Before the armies are in conflict, the archers in front of the other soldiers would fire a barrage of arrows toward the enemy several times, and then quickly fall back behind the group and fire from a distance. The small rectangle of heavy cavalry that remained behind the group of soldiers waited until the enemy drew closer and just before the two armies engage, the cavalry would split in half and go around the group and attack the oncoming soldiers from the side while the main group attacks from the front. It is the masterpiece of Egyptian military strategy and the Pharaoh is commended as a genius. A general points out that most armies in recorded history have done this by default, and for this he is demoted.
-Swordsmen in the military used standardized military iron swords that were approximately three quarters of a meter long. Spearmen used a long, two meter long spear with the shaft made of wood and the head made of iron or bronze. The armour for the swordsmen and the spearmen usually consisted of leather with iron plating in critical areas. Archers wore little to no armour and fired iron or bronze arrows with their bows. The heavy cavalry rode horses which had iron armour equipped and they used spears similar to that of the spearmen or bows using iron arrows.
-With the strength of the army, the Ptolemaic Empire goes on the offensive and attacks from the Sinai Peninsula into the Arabian mainland, working in conjunction with the Unified Turkish Kingdom who is attacking from the North. They capture a good deal of the Levant and split it between themselves, but the Sassanid Empire (initially) is incredibly powerful and fresh, holding back these invasions and controlling most of the wealthy land to themselves. A protracted war might exhaust them, for due to the size of the Sassanid Empire they have vast resources to call upon.
-In order to combat the problem of irrigation and transport, a bold series of projects are undertaken. Firstly, old canals are to be dredged and new ones dug for irrigation and transport, including the varied canals linking the Suez to the Nile The other goal, involves the construction of watermills with pumps in them long with aqueducts. Using these mechanical wonders to pump water and transport it long distances, the amount of land it is possible to grow food upon increases, whilst several boats can navigate the hellish network of canals in operation. The canal network is too small, piecemeal, and primitive to really stimulate trade in the Red Sea however.
-An alliance is created with the Turks and Greeks, whilst envoys travel down the Red Sea to establish contact with Aksum, the Arabians, and other peoples engaged in Indian trade. They also travel west to Europe for much of the same purposes, although mostly to conduct diplomatic missions. The Egyptians already know of these nations, just that diplomacy is somewhat limited with them.
Turn 13: 500 to 625 CE
Political map of Turn 13
Cultural map of Turn 13
Religious map of Turn 13
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=42158754&posted=1#post42158754
Turn quote: Last Roman Emperor declares: It’s the end of an era.
Events of the years 500 to 625:
Europe
-During the late 530s, there is a great calamity around the world. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia leads to a lot of harvest failures, poor plant growth (as evidenced by tree rings), and later starvation and political instability.
-The Celts of the Greater isle of Mann begin to settle in the now named Lesser isle of Mann, whilst the Scots tribe in Ireland begin to settle Pictland. Christian missionaries have begun to spread to this part of the world, and as such, the first monasteries have begun to appear in Mann. The Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy emerges during this time as well, spreading extensively over England.
-A great plague arises in central Asia. It spreads along trade routes into China, India, and Egypt, before devastating much of the Mediterranean world.
-The breast-strap horse harness is now common throughout Western Europe. Books have also become common and cheap enough that most families now can obtain secondhand copies. Usually it is more for prestige than actual reading, as about half of the urban population is illiterate, and 90% of the rural population illiterate as well. These figures invariably change depending on the location, and most villages usually have a literate man willing to read books out loud to people in return for a small fee.
-The last Roman Emperor is deposed, and his successor decides to call himself the King of Italy instead, seeing that he is not much an Emperor or wishing to take on the responsibilities of such a role. Language and cultural shift has also gradually taken part, so Late Latin is starting to evolve into an Italian language. The new King moves his court to Naples, and tries to control his gradually decentralizing country. The North is particularly unruly, which is partly Germanized by the number of migrants to it.
-The Germanic peoples begin to form Kingdoms in Europe, with some converting to Christianity. The Kingdom of the Franks forms from the Franks, the Kingdom of Aquitania from the Vandals, the Kingdom of Bavaria from the Bavarians, and the Kingdom of Burgundy from the Burgundinians.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Adobrica
Culture: Spanish (Iberian)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-Slavery is starting to become less common within the Spanish Kingdom. People are naturally lazy and wanting to find ways to reduce their workload. Waterwheels and mills are already common, but now they are starting to expand in scope. No longer used to merely grind grain, saws are being used to cut timber automatically, animals are used in lieu of fast flowing streams, hammers for blacksmiths, bellows for furnaces, grindstones and cranes are now all being powered by water. Of course, many fast flowing streams are exploited by the nobility and merchants for this purpose, where they hold local monopolies and charge the peasantry for the privilege of using these mills. In either case, it’s a big money-maker, and even monks are building watermills.
-The Spanish King, for some reason, decides to invade the Basque country held by the Vandals, getting involved in a long war for a small sliver of land. He eventually wins, mostly due to having more resources at his disposable, although the Basque inhabitants are as unhappy as ever, and asks when they can have slightly more regional autonomy. The Spanish duke replies that he can’t understand their language, before chopping the hands off a peasant who threw an apple at him.
-The clergy are aggressive like the Spanish King as well, sending out missionaries into Northern Africa, the east (to assist the Eastern Alliance in conversion of their populace), and deep into the Germanic Kingdoms of the north. The Portuguese also support the appointment of a Spanish Pope this time, John III. With only really the Portuguese and Spanish in the election (and holding most dioceses), they easily see the election of John III go uncontested. The Basque people also begrudgingly accept the new religion, especially after several more hands are cut off. Eventually, the King of Aquitania and some Berbers convert to Christianity. The King of Aquitania, although hating the Spanish, sees distinct political advantages, and could use it to influence the papal elections.
-The Spanish King, assisting his Greek ally, invades Laubergia with Phoenician and Portuguese assistance. When they land, they find a desolate country with not so much as a scrap of bread to eat. Demoralized, they march on Salzburg to besiege the city. On the way, they are attacked by raiding parties and thinned down. The lack of food is especially problematic, along with fording rivers because all of the bridges have been destroyed. When they besiege the city itself, the inhabitants are discovered to possess a great deal of food in reserve. They taunt the besieging army by roasting pork and beef, allowing the smell to waft into the opposing camp.
-Eventually, a Laubergian army heads south and meets the besieging army. Caught in-between the city and the Laubergians, the soldiers fight poorly and break quickly. The Spanish, Portuguese, and Phoenician armies melt away into the countryside, with many reports of soldiers boiling tree bark and even resorting to cannibalism for food. Eventually, the Laubergians wipe them out and capture a great deal of prisoners, whom they ransom or execute. Some go into slavery.
-The navies, angry at the Laubergians, raid every coastal settlement they can find and burn it to the ground, looting whatever they can carry and attacking every Laubergian ship they can find. Eventually, they are forced to pull back due to supply shortages and the arrival of the Laubergian army. When the fleet sails away, a great lightning storm appears, with the Laubergians saying it was an act of god against the Iberian heretics. The Spanish return, bankrupted and taking years to recover.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-As financing wars is a constant issue for the Laubergian state, many Kings end up falling into heavy debt and being forced to either sell off a great deal of royal holdings, raise taxes, or otherwise quietly kill the merchants or offer to pay them back later. The latest King wishes to break out of this, and convenes a group of Jewish merchants in the capital to discuss how to best manage debt. They all come to an interesting new agreement and idea. By having the state itself, rather than the King take on debt, and passing management of finances to a separate group of people dedicated to the task as opposed to being managed by the King and his advisors, they can help find cash. Interest rates are lowered massively, and because the King is now barred from seizing assets and the overall stability of the state has improved, the Laubergian state can borrow money from its own people who essentially invest into the country. Initially, it is mostly borrowing from the merchants and nobility, but even some more petty merchants and tradesmen are able to lend money or even goods in kind.
-Raising vast amounts of money, the Laubergians hire a great number of mercenaries from the Romans, Huns, Bulgars, and Germans. Marching their army down the coastline, the King rallies a great number of people and calls for holy war against the heretics. He arrives in Croatia, seizes all of the food supplies, and has people try to flee from the area. He also pulls down a great number of bridges, flips signposts around, slaughters or seizes livestock, and splits up his army into raiding parties. The main bulk of the army then marches back up north towards Tirol. He is unable to enter Dalmatia, for the Italian King is now rather hostile to the Laubergians.
-The Spanish King, assisting his Greek ally, invades Laubergia with Phoenician and Portuguese assistance. When they land, they find a desolate country with not so much as a scrap of bread to eat. Demoralized, they march on Salzburg to besiege the city. On the way, they are attacked by raiding parties and thinned down. The lack of food is especially problematic, along with fording rivers because all of the bridges have been destroyed. When they besiege the city itself, the inhabitants are discovered to possess a great deal of food in reserve. They taunt the besieging army by roasting pork and beef, allowing the smell to waft into the opposing camp.
-Eventually, the Laubergian army heads south and meets the besieging army. Caught in-between the city and the Laubergians, the soldiers fight poorly and break quickly. The Spanish, Portuguese, and Phoenician armies melt away into the countryside, with many reports of soldiers boiling tree bark and even resorting to cannibalism for food. Eventually, the Laubergians wipe them out and capture a great deal of prisoners, whom they ransom or execute. Some go into slavery.
-The navies, angry at the Laubergians, raid every coastal settlement they can find and burn it to the ground, looting whatever they can carry and attacking every Laubergian ship they can find. Eventually, they are forced to pull back due to supply shortages and the arrival of the Laubergian army. When the fleet sails away, a great lightning storm appears, with the Laubergians saying it was an act of god against the Iberian heretics. The Spanish return, bankrupted and taking years to recover.
-Laubergia itself does not escape the ravages of war so easily. The great amount of destruction wrought on the land and people, plus decline in agricultural production and trade is especially hard hitting. The lack of money forces the King to give up some of his power to the civil service to manage finances, whilst famines wreak ruin upon on the land. Many towns remain depopulated in Croatia for decades. Civil unrest in the form of bread riots and religious conflict is also common. The luck that the north of the Kingdom remained relatively intact allowed a base from which to rebuild.
KingArcher – Empire of Misiryaban
Capital: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Islam
-Due to settlement and cultural change, Cornwall gradually becomes known as Misirduvar by its occupants. Of course, they do not stay in Misirduvar all the time, and often travel further afield to trade and fight. Some coal mines are exploited to provide fuel but it is so smoky and burns at a low temperature that it is practically useless for ironworking. However, somebody comes up with the bright idea of baking coal the same way you bake wood to make charcoal. By heating it up, one can draw out the impurities to make a piece of relatively pure carbon. It not only burns cleaner, but hotter as well. Mined in Southern Wales and Misirduvar, this “coke” is found to be excellent for mass producing cheap iron. The iron still needs processing into steel by hand, plus sulphur impurities are a problem. However, iron is much cheaper and more plentiful (if of low quality until production methods improve). However, this does mean it can be used to make all sorts of items, provided somebody had the ability to cast molten iron. Many iron ingots are exported or used to create a whole manner of tools, weaponry, and armour. Arhonia and Portugal are keen buyers.
-The Empire of Dagger renames itself after the first city located in the province of Mann that they colonized. They name it Misiryaban, and proceed to continue evacuating noblemen and various other peoples to the area, where it is said there is a lot of land. Unfortunately, it is of poor quality, and only really good for mining. Tin, coal, iron, and other minerals are abundant though. The nobility proceed to raise armies and then go on wars of conquest, usually displacing a neighbouring Mannish chiefdom. Interactions with the Saxons grow over time, and their shared hatred of the Mannish is one thing that helps keep relations at least cordial.
-A group of sailors decide to embark on a journey of exploration, trade, and other such activities. They sail to the Canaries with the intent of colonizing them, but are dismayed to find that the Phoenicians had already beaten them to it. Instead, they sail to Egypt and then travel overland into Arabia to the city of Mecca. There, they warn Muhammad that the Meccan authorities and the Egyptians are going to attack him, and escort him to Medina where he forms a state roughly along the lines of the Islamic faith. After attempting to sail home, they are blown off course and land on the island of Madeira. They winter there before sailing home. Much later, a group of settlers colonize the island, which is conductive to agriculture.
-Returning from Arabia, one sailor heads to Misiryaban to see the monarch, as so to preach Muhammad's preaching to him. The monarch notices the similarities Islam has with Turkish paganism. With limited knowledge of the Qu'ran, Islam is adopted as the state religion.
-However, even the home islands are not invulnerable. The old defences of Crete and the Baleares have fallen into disrepair and the population much reduced. When a Phoenician naval force arrived, the island fell, with Misiryaban no longer possessing the resources to defend them. A cadet branch of the royal family survives in Mann, declaring itself the Empire of Misiryaban. The language and culture has continued to shift, so many people, whilst proudly saying they are descendants of the Empire of Dagger, are merely a tiny kingdom on the periphery of an island, living as miners for a living.
Damian0358 – Velkij Donaljea
Capital: Velehrad
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-The problem of fertility in the soil is endemic to agriculture, and since the Neolithic, a system has existed where one year you grew your crops, and left it fallow next year. A new system, having appeared ad hoc over the course of several decades, is one whereby you plant corn the first year, grow legumes (such as peas and beans) or vegetables in the field the second year, and leave it fallow the third year to be used as pasture. This allows roughly a fifth more land to be utilized than before, and helps to vary the diet. Agricultural production, nutrition, and life overall improves, with many villages being lifted out of subsistence and finally being able to afford some consumer goods. Archaeologists show that stone flagstones start to be laid in hovels and the presence of broken pottery from Tefullmorostan shows that these peasants had enough spare to allow for the importation of pottery from distant overseas.
-After countless attempts of trying to sign peace with the Delian League, they refused and decided war was the only option, declaring war on Macedonia (or so the Mrvian records say). The Emperor, after speaking with multiple kings, is joined by the Laubergians and some mercenaries from further afield, most of them from Italy and Germany. The Emperor asks the Bulgars to join him in the war, and they refuse, instead declaring war on him. He then hurries to raise an army to help the Macedonians. He suggests to the Macedonians to move their capital to Lygos after the war, but they refuse.
-Seeking to influence the Germanic Kings, missionaries are sent to help convert them to Christianity, particularly the Aquinist branch. Burgundy and Bavaria convert willingly, each now possessing a patriarch and a national church. Both Kingdoms do so after seeing the amount of control they can gain over their lands by introducing a national organized religion, plus they will gain access to capable Greek scholars for administration of their lands.
-The Mrvians also carry out a similar strategy as their Laubergian neighbours. Their main forces retreat and burn parts of the countryside to deny them to the foreign invaders. They also send the main bulk of their forces back home and leave small groups to try and slow down foreign invaders. The Bulgars, who obviously are quite annoyed by this, decide to move ahead anyways. Unlike the Spanish in Laubergia, the Bulgars raze every single town they can find and pick the countryside clean for supplies. The Greeks slowly advance along the Danube, whilst the Bulgars ransack the Mrvian Empire. The Greeks finally arrive at Aquincum where the Patriarch is holed up. It is besieged, and over the course of many months the city is unable to get help, for the countryside has been completely devastated and the Mrvians cannot supply enough food to their men. The rapid movement of the Bulgars over the plains of Pannonia is essential to their success, allowing them to outpace the clumsy and slow Mrvians. Eventually, the city is taken and ransacked.
-The Mrvian Emperor is left with a pathetic rump state in the north, which the Bulgars have little interest in conquering. More worryingly, the Bulgar Khan has himself named Emperor of Bulgaria.
Chevelle – Kingdom of Portugal
Capital: Lisbon
Culture: Portuguese (Iberian)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-An old invention, but improved and ready for new uses, now exists. Stone aqueducts, used for carrying water, are being built in the densely populated areas. Whilst useful for carrying drinking water to townspeople, they are more often used by people in agricultural estates. The warm weather of Portugal, combined with the need for irrigation, means that a lot of water must be collected, held in reserve, and distributed out to fields whenever they start to become too dry. This allows for massive improvements in agricultural output. One most curious invention is a giant waterwheel. Placed on the side of an aqueduct, it scoops water into buckets and pours them into the aqueduct, allowing for automatic collection of water and an easy way to transport it vertically.
-The Portuguese military, which is suffering from a lack of iron, has hit upon a metaphorical goldmine when they meet traders from the isle of Mann and Arhonia, bringing cheap iron ingots, weaponry, and armour for all kinds of uses. This allows the Portuguese to more heavily arm and armour their men than most other countries would reasonably be able to do, and gives a slight advantage in war. The Portuguese then send a large portion of their military forces and navy to assist the Spanish and Greeks in their lengthy war with the Mrvian and Laubergian monarchs.
-The clergy are just as aggressive, sending out missionaries into Northern Africa, the east (to assist the Eastern Alliance in conversion of their populace), and deep into the Germanic Kingdoms of the north. The Portuguese also support the appointment of a Spanish Pope this time, John III. With only really the Portuguese and Spanish in the election (and holding most dioceses), they easily see the election of John III go uncontested. Eventually, the King of Aquitania and the Berbers convert to Christianity.
-The Pope is starting to gradually grow in power, and is asking the Portuguese King for lands for the church to administrate by itself. As nobles give it land, the wealthy money, and the landless their crops, it is starting to become a rather wealthy institution. In fact, the church is starting to richly decorate their religious buildings, and to form a complex hierarchy where it runs itself almost like a state. There are several outright complaints about this behaviour, and some movements form in opposition, these movements ranging from monastic orders to the stylites (who stand on top of pillars. The stylites live in a small platform on top of a pillar, accepting bread and milk from bystanders as they try to worship god in peace.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian League
Capital: Athens
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-During this time, an interesting new discovery has made an appearance. It is known that by boiling seawater you can remove salt from it, and that the purified water can collect on the rim of a lid. Some people take the process further to build intricate and curious designs where the same principles can be applied to alcohol. The alcohol within a drink will boil at a different temperature than water, so by carefully maintaining the heat, you can purify the alcohol into a stronger form. The first and and most popular use of this invention is to create whisky, which quickly becomes a popular drink among the Greeks, who call it” Νερό της ζωής.”
-The military is reformed again, this time with the skirmishing cavalry being phased out. Heavy cavalry is replaced with cataphracts. With the recent adoption of the longbow, footsoldiers now wield the weapon, being extensively drilled in its usage by the Portuguese. The old style of bow is still used by horse archers however, given the longbows prohibitive size.
-The Delian League prepares for new conquests by adjusting its system and outlying a process through which newly conquered territories can slowly be entered into the Delian Congress. An executive office is also created, voted on by all members of the Congress. Exercising direct power and authority, the title of executive is empowered to direct wars started by the Delian Congress.
-The Congress officially adopts the Iberian Christian religion as their primary religion and orders it disseminated amongst all the city-states. Temples are "reclaimed" for Christianity. The best example being the Temple of Zeus, where Zeus is torn down and replaced with Brian.
-The School of Athens also grows larger, branching itself into different schools that specialize in various subjects. Including both practical and philosophical studies, the School begins training people in specific topics. It is at this time the liberal arts emerges as a distinct subject to be studied.
-Diplomats approach the Bulgar Khanate and offer all of the Mrvian Empire in exchange for a conversion to Iberian Christianity and aid in taking the land from Mrvia. They also include a promise to help the Bulgars expand to more pastoral lands should they need it. Whilst the Bulgars refuse to convert to Christianity, they do readily take up the invasion offer. The Delians also try to convince the Kings neighbouring the Mrvian Empire to invade and convert to their branch of Christianity, but they refuse outright, as they have already converted to the Aquinist variant.
-With the help of the Bulgars, Turks, and Egyptians, a massive army is assembled and heads up the Danube River. However, the crafty Mrvians had stolen all the food and destroyed the bridges. The Bulgars, who obviously are quite annoyed by this, decide to move ahead anyways. Unlike the Spanish in Laubergia, the Bulgars raze every single town they can find and pick the countryside clean for supplies. The Greeks are forced to slowly advance along the Danube, supported by supply ships and baggage trains whilst the Bulgars destroy the Mrvian Empire. The Greeks finally arrive at Aquincum where the Patriarch is holed up. It is besieged, and over the course of many months the city is unable to get help, for the countryside has been completely devastated and the Mrvians cannot supply enough food to their men. The rapid movement of the Bulgars over the plains of Pannonia is essential to their success, allowing them to outpace the clumsy and slow Mrvians. Eventually, the city is taken and ransacked.
-The Mrvian Emperor is left with a pathetic rump state in the north, which the Bulgars have little interest in conquering. The Greeks and Bulgars march down south to Macedonia, which is destroyed in a similar fashion and carved up between them. The Turks manage to get a part of Thrace during peace talks, and they set about rebuilding the city of Lygos. The Bulgar Khan then declares himself an Emperor, creating the Bulgarian Empire. As for the naval war, the opposing forces are utterly crushed.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-Amber trade causes demand in calculating expenses and counting profits, and eventually it blossomed into a formal study of mathematics. A scholar named Ludvigs Freimanis formulates a sequence of numbers, which he called after himself. By definition, the first two numbers in the Freimanis sequence are 0 and 1, and each subsequent number is the sum of the previous two. This is widely used in many fields such as architecture, where it describes certain shapes and repeating patterns. However, when Freimanis himself was asked about the purpose of his discovery, he replied “because I can, that’s why!” He then jumped onto a horse and rode off into the sunset.
-In this age of war, the Entente seeks to secure its own lands and isolate itself further by taking the strategic islands of Zealand from Germanic hands and putting them under the crown. This is an ambitious notion, as control of this strait grants the Entente control of sea trade in and out of the Baltic, meaning that taking the islands would mean a lot to the people of the kingdom. As such, the King orders construction of forts and outposts on Danish isles of Zealand, Møn, Falster and Lolland, near the straits. They violently subjugate the locals, and the Danes are not all too happy about this invasion. They begin small-scale raids, but the Livonians were prepared for this and repel them, though not without considerable effort. The failure of individual chiefs to repel the invaders had resulted in some of them starting to gradually form confederations, for there is always strength in numbers.
-Control of trade has yielded something interesting. According to merchants, iron of the highest quality is to be found in the land of the Norse, where the purity is exceptional and the quality of products made from it superb. However, these mines are mostly small scale family operations, and the problem of charcoal supplies, transport, and economies of scale, means that very little of this iron is on the move. Mannish iron still rules supreme in trade.
-Naturally, some military preparations took place before the invasion. Units of heavily-armoured infantry are organized, along with wider implementation of pikes and longbows. Pikemen proved relatively useless against the Danes, who preferred skirmishers on foot and hit-and-run tactics. Armoured infantry and longbowmen turned out more useful, though, with the first being able to withstand more punishment and the second picking off the skirmishers before they get to “hit-“in “hit-and-run”. Both sides also lack cavalry, with the little numbers of cavalry in existence being used to scout or to chase down routers.
-Livonian miners come up with the idea of putting support beams in tunnels to prevent cave-ins. Some people even start calculating the tensile strength of the beams, giving a crude start to the study of structural performance of materials. This enabled them to get to deeper, richer mineral deposits. There is a story about one miner, who entered a cavern full of volatile gas. The candle he brought with him ignited the gas, and after a brief hissing noise, he vanished in an explosion. A few witnesses of the event associated his death with some weird, hissing underground creatures. When asked to describe them, the miners could only say that the creatures were “creepy”.
-The King seeks to spread the growing knowledge of science, craft, and trade to the people more effectively. To accomplish this, he sets in motion the construction of guild halls in villages throughout the kingdom, staffed with scholars and emissaries from Riga. The people of the land, being far away from the rampage of the Hunnic-Bulgars, are relatively well-off, and this in conjunction with the guilds generates plenty of buying power and consumer demand on various everyday goods. This attracts refugees from war-torn lands to the south, much to the dismay of the settled locals. Honeyed peaches, woollen jackets, umbrellas, boots, and jewellery are all popular during bumper years.
-The King encourages Latvian and Estonian peoples from surrounding lands to join his country, based on the nationalistic idea of unity of the Baltic peoples. Many chiefs agree, but mostly due to pragmatic reasons rather than wide-eyed idealism: the Entente is rich and able to protect them from raids of the more aggressive neighbours. They bring their old faith and beliefs with them, for they are not impressed by the complex religious customs of the city folk and nobility.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-With the spread of metalworking technologies throughout Europe, some people in Arhonia are experimenting with new ways to produce iron tools and weaponry. By heating iron until it has become like a fluid, it can be poured into a mould to quickly make a whole variety of tools and weapons to the same standard. Cast iron is very weak initially though, and so in order to rectify that, it must be heated, hammered, and then tempered. Despite that shortcoming, this method allows for the wider use of more iron objects among all classes of people, plus allows for the quick production of iron products for export. With the advent of coke by the Misiryaban Turks, the Arhonians can import a lot of cheap low quality pig iron, and then process it into many cast iron goods. One chap even makes a bell, and sells it to a passing Christian trader who takes it to his hometown and installs it inside a church.
-The King of Arhonia is greeted by an Irish chieftain. He claims that he was removed from his lands and stripped of his holdings because of suspicions about his Turkish heritage (his father came from Cornwall), and he would be grateful if he had support to retake it. The King agrees to do so, mobilizing a large force of nobles and mercenaries to invade. They then proceed to give the land back to its rightful owner. Of course, they blackmail him heavily, and then continue to conquer the lands around, creating an exclave in Ireland. Sending back manpower or money in return for lordship, the Arhonian King helps to solidify control by having the young sons of people and the landless travel there to set up a new home. The Irish are then booted out of the way to make way for the immigrants. The Celts proceed to form a force in order to fight off the foreigners, but then it collapses after a leadership dispute and ends up fighting among itself. Fifteen hundred years later, they are still fighting amongst themselves.
-Due to improvements in ironworking, along with navigation, many Arhonians can put on nice chainmail hauberks and set sail to go raid foreigners with a lot of gold and other precious goodies. They travel to the Mediterranean to raid enemies of the Phoenician merchants. They also adopt heavy infantry tactics eerily similar to those of the old Roman legions.
-A treaty promising not to raid the Saxons is signed with the King of the Eoferwic, and the nearby Germanic kings, all of whom don’t take kindly to being raided. War is also declared on the Delian Greeks and their allies, although it mostly takes the form of small-scale coastal raids. To defend against raids on Arhonia itself, forts and dykes are built up and down the Arhone and along the borders of the kingdom itself. When ordering the placement of a dyke along the southern border, somebody suggested that they use the Kings sister instead. The king does not take kindly to this remark.
Daysbefore – Kingdom of Eoferwic
Capital: Eoferwic
Culture: Saxon (Germanic)
State Religion: Reformed Anglo-Saxon Paganism
-Being a warlike people, the Saxons are eager to adopt new ways to kill people and take their land. Hearing of the powerful siege weapons they use on the continent, they come up with their own design, which combines structural elements of a bow with the continental “giant slingshot” design. It is light and small, plus possible to transport on wheels without the need of assembly before firing. These would prove very useful against the small hill-forts of the petty kings of the island. They are nicknamed “egþwirf” for their powerful kick.
-In 523 a representative from Arhonia arrives in Wyke with a royal delegation. King Alfred the Winesodden agrees to marry the eldest daughter of the Arhonian King. The Arhonians exchange the building of their longships for the production of the new saddles with stirrups as a dowry.
-King Edward Snowbeard and his council of Earldormen and thegns bring in new military reforms. The fyrd is now comprised of all free men between fifteen and sixty, and each fyrdman is expected to supply a spear or a bow with a score or arrows, an axe, a shield, a padded cloth or boiled leather jacket, and some sort of head protection. Royal reeves seize sheep pasture and iron mines to produce surplus padded jackets and iron caps for the fyrd. Clans would now go on extensive raids, claiming anything they can carry for themselves. Eoferwician raiders plunder distant lands such as Occitania or the Jutland peninsula, annoying their distant cousins greatly. Occitania in particular provides the royal treasury with a great deal of silver which is reminted to Eoferwician standards. 240 silver pennies weigh a pound, and this is now used as the basis for the new currency system.
-King Edward Snowbeard establishes a mint in Eoferwic in 557, utilizing the small silver deposits found in the extreme southwest. Copper and iron coinage is also introduced, valued at a very low amount but available in much greater quantity. This does not eliminate natural exchange entirely, as some people find exchanging goods for tiny bits of metal inconvenient. King Edward also institutes a tax for every tree felled in royal land to prevent overeager deforestation, along with a new general tax of crops, plunder, and coin. Many of the clans are disgruntled about the fact that they have to share their loot with the king “who doesn’t even do anything”, and some few even outright refuse to pay. A few beheadings see some heads rolling, and they stop refusing to pay up.
-On royal orders from King Aethelstan the Builder, who began his rule in 615 at the age of fourteen, raiders capture slaves from the lands of the Vandals in Occitania. When assembled in Wyke, stone masons are selected from among them and instructed to teach their craft to Eoferwician youth, who in turn become teachers to other youth. Stone masonry is spread thusly throughout the Kingdom at King Aethelstan’s orders, and Eoferwic itself has its walls rebuilt, the lower half of rough-cut stone, the upper half of wood. Of course, there are very few stone masons, but they are happy to work when they find that a king is offering good gold in return for fine building. The expense of building these stone buildings is considerable, but they are well built enough that many continued use (with modification) well into the middle ages.
-Wool becomes the main export traded by sea in Eoferwic, mainly going to Arhonian markets and Frankish coastal towns. Royal grants are given to shepherds in the form of large moorlands and pasture. It is a difficult life, but wool is a good moneymaker, and thus the royal monopoly gives the Kingdom a nice income boost. Iron is eventually exported as well, particularly to the south, where iron is in high demand for making tools and weapons with. Of course, the highest quality iron is to be found in Scandinavia, but that hasn’t been exploited yet. The Saxons of course are well invested into silviculture, seeing good supplies of timber and by extension charcoal as essential to the mass production of iron.
-Royal delegations are sent to the Picts, Franks, Spain, the Cornish Turks, and Arhonia, bearing offers of favourable trade and cooperation. Usually it is those nearby, not raided by the Saxons, which are willing to trade. Further afield, there is little demand for their woollen clothing, and some recognize traders who participated in raids many years before. The Saxons are chased out of Occitania, and their representative merchant, Aaron Goldstein, is beheaded by a Burgundian lord.
-In 599, a delegation from Spain arrives in Wyke to treat with King Alfred the Crippled, and a treaty is agreed to in which traders from Spain are offered the same bonuses as traders from Arhonia, and vice versa. Eoferwician iron and wool is traded for Spanish silver and other goods. Trade is slightly hindered, however, as people of Gaul often attack Saxon traders and not much military ships are there to protect them, as most of them are off raiding.
-While raiding in 617, a ship from Wyke is caught in a storm and blown far to the north. Frozen and starving, the crewmen land upon a previously unknown island cluster (Shetland), naming it Broadhithe for the stretch of beach they initially land on. King Aethelstan orders a settling party sent, and a town is established. Fed by fish and sheep, the few trees fall under royal protection and are rarely touched, instead timber is shipped north from the rest of the Kingdom, albeit at considerable expense. Tools and iron is also imported to conserve precious timber stands.
-In 622, on his deathbed, King Aethelstan does three things; first, he reforms the written language in the form of runes co-opted from Saxons back in Germania, and reveals a secluded body of wise men who have mastered this feat. Next, he sends those wise, and now holy, men to each village in the Kingdom, to preach of the gods of Eoferwicscir and nowhere else. Third, he appoints a singular head of Eoferwician worship, the Heafelahaligmann, the Head holy man, who acts as a messenger from the gods. The Heafelahaligmann is always succeeded by a royally appointed holy man, and can be replaced at any time, so as to prevent royal and holy feuding. The realm is sent into civil war upon Aethelstan's death, a war that lasts for six years before a hard-earned royal victory. His young death at the tender age of 21, along with lead deposits in his thigh bone discovered by archaeologists suggests he contracted a form of lead poisoning.
Kreigsmar1ne – Picts
Capital: Cait
Culture: Pictish (Celtic)
State Religion: Celtic Polytheism
-Not much happens, save for the King getting deposed, and raids by the Scoti.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-A philosopher is busy sitting in his house being very bored. He is always musing over the problem of how to sort out nonsense from what is truth. He knows that by observing nature, he can make statements that ought to explain what he is seeing. Through some basic reasoning not reliant on mythology, he can come up with reasonable conclusions as many have done before him. However, he decides to take his work further, in particular, his theory that a rainbow is caused by light bending. He verifies his theory by experiment, and thus with empirical evidence to show that this is truly the case (and not Yahweh making the rainbow), he now is confident his methodology will aid him in unlocking the secrets of the universe. His books spread and become popular among academia, and now the central government, a patron of scientific affairs, can more reliably discard people that obviously don’t wish to test their theories and simply siphon up valuable resources. This allows philosophers to narrow down their fields of research to two, giving the government more control over what they can research. (In practical terms, you now choose 2 technologies, thus having a 50/50 chance of getting a technology you want).
-The military prepares for war again, mainly to help the Iberian alliance in their long war with Laubergia and Mrvia. However, a large number is retained and sent to the Balearic Islands and Crete. There they easily force the noblemen to surrender, and then besiege the few rotting towns left. The Balearic Islands are harder to reduce, especially as it is more isolated from the devastation that hit Crete. However, with little financial resources to pay for mercenaries or adequate allied support, the Islands fall to the Phoenician merchants. The Daggerans have been wiped out from the Mediterranean and only an enclave ruled by a branch of the royal family remains in Cornwall.
-After this, the Phoenicians celebrate by gobbling up any remaining lands not held by their neighbours in Africa. Tefullmorostan is also expanding at the same time, so there is some arguing over who really got what land. These feuds cause problems on the borders, especially after forts and watchtowers slowly mushroom along the borders.
-Mercantilism is reintroduced. It is reasonably successful at boosting economic growth, for the state is now actively involved in investment and projects. Of course, this merely results in a gradual increase of rent seeking activities as the merchants guilds grow. They set up outposts overseas and attempt to control the flow of trade, mostly by setting prices in order to maximize revenue. Of course, this never fully works, and they are unable to prevent a gradual decline in the price of luxury goods (particularly cotton). Pottery is one market they can never break into, for their neighbours are masters at mass production and selling of high quality pottery.
-The Phoenician state, realizing that merchants need a good education, begins to establish state run schools and universities, partly paid for by taxes and donations. However, the schools are not very noteworthy or extensive. Of the subjects taught, it offers very little, and is as much a propaganda building to tell people that life under the Phoenicians is good as it is to educate the people. Due to the lack of content in the curriculum, they are nicknamed “Shekel counting colleges”. Universities fare better, and are usually more independent, with the only real change being subsidies given to them. Libraries begin to expand in them as the price of cotton and other fabrics gradually declines. By the end of this period, some students can even hope to buy a book or two, at least secondhand.
-A purported descendant (or at least a man who wants the prestige of the original to rub off on him) of Hanno the Navigator is commissioned to explore the west coast of Africa. He calls himself Hanno and takes several ships full of people through the Pillars of Hercules to the Canaries, which had been known for centuries, but little attempt, had been made to settle permanently on. He finds it is actually inhabited by a group of people who hunt animals and forage food for a living, and speak a strange language and are wishing to be left in peace. Wanting some land, he sets up a fort and a small port anyways as a base for further exploration. He sails south but is driven back by some storms, forcing him to return. When he returns, he discovers that the natives had besieged the fort and killed half of the inhabitants. He quickly visits a coastal town to the east to hire mercenary slingers, before returning to the island to drive off the natives. Later, he is killed in a confrontation with them. The natives eventually begin to diminish in numbers anyways (with some captured as slaves) as the Phoenician population grows. After a century, the natives are forced to eke out a living in the hinterlands.
Afro-Asia
-During the late 530s, there is a great calamity around the world. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia leads to a lot of harvest failures, poor plant growth (as evidenced by tree rings), and later starvation and political instability.
-A great plague arises in central Asia. It spreads along trade routes into China, India, and Egypt, before devastating much of the Mediterranean world. Coincidentally, silk cultivation is now widespread throughout Asia, having been brought by traders from all over, some of who are infected with this horrible disease. Egypt is also badly hit by the disease as well. This isn’t the only disease becoming widespread, for smallpox has reached India via Europe now.
-Christianity spreads down the African East coast, and to the east in Central Asia and even China. Of course, this variant was until recently Nestorian or Manichean, but with the three eastern empires having declared their allegiance to the pope, these Christians are either converting or following their own sects. Given the lack of authority in the east, the heresies still tend to exist much as they did before, settling India and Persia in large numbers. Traders are also managing to spread significant distances as well, with Arab traders now having discovered Lake Chad in Africa.
-Year one of the Islamic calendar begins, after 12 years of the persecution of Muslims by the Meccans and the Meccan boycott of the Hashemites, Muhammads relatives, Muhammad and the Muslims performed the Hijra ("emigration") to the city of Medina (formerly known as Yathrib) in 622. There, with the Medinan converts (Ansar) and the Meccan migrants (Muhajirun), Muhammad in Medina established his political and religious authority. The city of Mecca attempts to crush this state of religious loonies, but is destroyed by an invading Egyptian force. A group of Misiryaban sailors also help to drive off opponents to Muhammad and assist him in converting people in Arabia.
-The Buddhist monk Jnanagupta translates 39 sutras from Sanskrit to Chinese. China is reunified under the Sui, although it is short-lived. The Tang then takes over and become the new rulers of China. Zen Buddhism enters Vietnam from China during this period as well.
-Backgammon (nard) invented in Persia by Burzoe. Chess is also introduced into Persia and modified to suit local tastes. Stirrups also make an appearance in Persia as well. Books have also become common and cheap enough that most families now can obtain secondhand copies. Usually it is more for prestige than actual reading, as about half of the urban population is illiterate, and 90% of the rural population illiterate as well. These figures invariably change depending on the location, and most villages usually have a literate man willing to read books out loud to people in return for a small fee.
-The Chinese scholar-official Yan Zhitui makes the first reference to the use of toilet paper in history. Meanwhile, the Chinese author Jia Sixia wrote the treatise Qi Min Yao Shu in 535, and although it quotes 160 previous Chinese agronomy books, it is the oldest existent Chinese agriculture treatise. In over one hundred thousand written Chinese characters, the book covered land preparation, seeding, cultivation, orchard management, forestry, animal husbandry, trade, and culinary uses for crops.
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-In a strange turn of events, a shipwright decides on a rather unorthodox ship design. He scales down to build a flat bottomed boat, powered by a single bank of oarsmen. The ship has no ram, and possesses only a single sail. The intention is that by sacrificing weight and manpower, it is more mobile and can even be carried overland. Of course, traders and merchants find it an incredibly useful design as well, and readily take to it.
-A force under command of the Egyptians travels down the Red sea to the small town of Mecca. There the town is undergoing religious strife. It is quickly conquered, and all of the religious dissenters are thrown out. Many of them travel to Medina where there is already a group of religious dissenters. A power struggle eventually results in a man named Muhammad becoming leader of the outcasts, and he makes frequent raids on caravans and outlying villages and towns, much to the annoyance of the Egyptian occupied Mecca. After the conquest, some soldiers are sent to assist the Delians in the Great War with the Mrvians and Laubergians, although a fair number are retained to protect strategic cities such as Jerusalem and Antioch. This war is covered in more detail in the Greek accounts.
-The road network is resurfaced and repaved, along with being dug or raised depending on the area. Many old roads were washed away or slowly became waterlogged as streams and rivers changed over time. Simple roadwork to make the roads fit for use again is enough to sort out most problems regarding wet feet or dust.
-The Iberian Church is established within Egypt. As it has a fair number of other local Christian variants to compete with, it has a very hard time initially, especially as the Pope lives on the other side of the Mediterranean. It takes a good century before the infrastructure and clergy has been established and organized, and it will take longer yet to root out regional heresies. Missionaries also travel outwards to help convert people to this new religion. Of course, this new religion has inspired many destitute men to take up arms to fight for god and country, as a good afterlife is promised if one fights in this war.
-Cordial relations have been firmly established with the states along the Northeast African coast (down into Somalia) and as far east as India.
Kamikaze470 – Tefullmorostan dol el Wizterbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-Professional architecture is now becoming respected in the country. In fact, the first classes on it are being taught in academies. One such new skill is urban-planning, used to plan out cities in the most efficient manner possible. Grid patterns are adopted, whilst religious, industrial, entertainment, housing, and other necessary districts are built and organized into clearly delineated areas on maps. When reconstruction begins, there are a lot of angry people annoyed that their house has to be demolished to make way for a grand plaza or merchants shop. However, as the cities and towns are gradually rebuilt, they take on an appearance of opulence and majesty. Drains are placed under roads and rubbish regularly cleared from the streets. The capital is one of the most beautiful in the world, but the wide streets also hold a crucial importance in that it allows soldiers to march quickly – aesthetic concerns are secondary!
-Going along these fancy roads, the army conquers any of the last lands nearby not held by a recognized state (although there are disputes with Phoenicia), and then expands eastwards into what they call Tripoli. The prisoners are sold into slavery, and sent to the homeland to integrate into Tozhollleron society. Migrants from the homeland are also sent to the newly conquered areas, as a means of helping to integrate them. Stone forts that double up as housing for nobles begin to be built. They are called “castles”, defined as being a fortified private residence. These castles are helpful in integrating lands, and many new temples and roads are built (to the same style and standard as in the capital) to complete the process. Some rather annoyed Christians and Jews end up migrating due to the work of the unexpected inquisition (see I made it, are you bastards happy now?)
-A most curious law is passed. In this law, it stipulates that a standardized set of weights, lengths, and volumes shall be used by blacksmiths, and that they ought to keep to a standard for the manufacture of weaponry. Whilst this sacrifices the quality and quirks of each weapon, it does aid in the mass production of them. Some blacksmiths, realizing that quality hardly matters anymore, hire beggars to do each step of the process by themselves for pennies. This is the first instance of any form of a production line in the world. Of course, they are limited by the supply of iron.
-In order to help secure supplies of needed goods, along with finding ever more markets for their famous pottery, traders and diplomats travel to Rome, Burgundy, the Vandals, and to the east to flog off their many goods. Iron ingots are then imported in bulk to be processed into tools and weaponry. Meanwhile, pottery factories are now becoming major enterprises, especially as markets slowly expand. The Baltic and the Arhone are two new markets that have been recently opened, aided by the proliferation of trading knarrs.
-Foraging units are now regular attachments to the army. They are a curious lot, composed of the poor and destitute who are skilled at foraging food from the land and finding water where it may not be obvious. Officers are now trained in military academies to incorporate the latest in strategic and tactical thought, plus on how to manage a foraging corps. Some are even educated in some of the more clandestine arts, which go a long way towards helping them to winning battles and wars. The last and most interesting new idea is a pole with a basket on top. Inside is some flammable straw and sticks, which can be lit in case of an emergency. Whilst it is a crude form of communication, it is also incredibly fast and very helpful in the case of giving a single message, roughly translating to “HELP”.
Burinn – Unified Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Ankara
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-A rather nasty new weapon has been invented by the Turks. It is a long metal tube attached to a container of inflammable goo, which can be pumped out and sprayed onto people and objects. This goo is then set on fire, and worst of all it sticks to surfaces and even floats. These firethrowers are put inside siege towers and in ships, with some very limited applications in open battle. It is a terrifying weapon to face, and many men prefer not to go near it. Of course, mass production of this liquid is difficult, especially as the recipe is a closely guarded secret, and the flimsy and unreliable nature of the weaponry (which uses leather to seal joints) makes it as dangerous for the user as the target.
-Cataphracts are expanded throughout the Turkish army, although their armour and weaponry is starting to look outdated, they are still a serious force to be reckoned with on the field. Lighter cavalry using mail hauberks and lances are much more flexible, and their armour is superior to that of the scaled one. The cataphracts, along with the rest of the army, are sent to assist the Greeks in their wars with the Aquinist Christian Kingdoms and Empires. This war is covered in detail in the accounts regarding the Greeks, Spanish, Laubergians, and Mrvians. Lygos is captured during the war however, from the Macedonians. It is rebuilt and begins to slowly grow under the wise leadership of the Turks. Many Turkish people are elated to hear that the settlement is under their control again.
-The Kingdom declares allegiance to the pope, summarily rooting out heretical religions and establishing infrastructure in their Kingdom for the church. Many small churches are rebuilt or remodelled during this time, and many works translated or quietly hidden to prevent them falling into impressionable hands. Missionaries also spread throughout the Kingdom, converting the wayward to their faith. Some missionaries are even heading into the Caucasians and the Sassanid Empire, although they are coldly received in the latter by people who don’t like being called heretics.
-In continuance of the old ways under the Seleucids, the ruling class (along with some of the lower classes) are adopting Greek customs, and assimilating into the already high numbers of Greeks in Anatolia. Chief among them are indoor plumbing, Greek writing, and feta cheese.
-A number of monks travel to China and India, where they study silk-weaving in order to gleam secrets about its production. It is realized that by keeping silkworms on mulberry trees and boiling the cocoons, you can draw out a long and fine thread, perfect for weaving decadent clothing. They smuggle out silkworms and mulberry seeds in their canes and travel back home, establishing mulberry tree plantations and growing silkworms. They are a great success, and soon Turkish silk is able to start being sold at fetching prices, much to the annoyance of the Chinese.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-Using Chinese shipbuilding technology, home designs from Wapanese whalers, the Siberians met on their journeys, and any wayward Polynesians who happened to get lost, the Wapanese finally are building ships capable of long overseas voyages. They are small and carry little, but are reliable and can catch the winds and currents of the Pacific and Indian oceans that allow them to sail as far afield as India or even the Eastern Continent. It is with these ships that give the seafaring Wapanese an edge in exploration and trade. When on a visit to China, an official of the Sui is so impressed by one ship he gives them copies of all his books, including maps, along with a glassworker. When the glassworker arrives in Wapan, he tells them of a way to manufacture glass to make imitation jade, and that one can use coal to produce it. When asked how, he demonstrates by heating coal inside an oven and then burning it, the coal giving off heat comparable to charcoal. Thirty years later, coke ovens are being built over Wapan. Wapanese and Chinese glass are of horrifically bad quality though, and costly imports from Italy are much more preferred.
-The remaining Yayoi are conquered, and a particularly nasty form of psychological warfare is used. Macaque monkeys are brought to the battle and made to give off a horrific screeching sound, distressing the opposing side. The islands are finally unified before the century is out, and the Wapanese celebrate by sending missionaries out into Indonesia and Taiwan to convert the inhabitants to Waifuism. Of course, expansion is still desired, and so colonization of the north begins in earnest. Sakhalin and the Kurils begin to see more settlement, whilst the northern part of Honshu and Hokkaido see a general increase in population. A famine during this period results in many of these gains being reversed, and some people are reduced to eating straw and animal bones before better weather returns.
-Records of the first visit to the Ibolozi are dug up, and the Emperor sends a proper expedition to them. In a hilarious turn of events the first expedition to the Ibolozi goes awry, when the captain, Hitachi Carufonu, misreads the map, does a 360 near Hokkaido and starts sailing right across the Pacific Ocean. He soon realizes his mistake, but decides to continue, having “a hunch” that this will lead to something great. They ran out of food, the ship was badly damaged, but when the crew was almost ready to cannibalize each other, they finally saw land, seemingly uninhabited and full of delicious things growing and living there. They eat, restock, repair their ship and Carufonu claims this bay for the Weeaboo Empire, by erecting a flagpole there. They sail back and recount their adventures to the emperor. The emperor punishes Carufonu for his oafishness and disobedience by cutting off his pinky finger, but then rewards him by giving him a daimyo title and lordship over the land he discovered. Carufonu sails back to his new holdings with a flotilla of adventure-seekers, priests, and political or religious dissidents. This time they sail through Ibolozi waters, and most travel is conducted through the north, where they buy food in Ibolozi settlements. A small fort appears around the flagpole Hitachi Carufonu installed. He names the land Carufonia, after himself, and the fort is called Hanayaka.
-Another expedition is sent to the Ibolozi, this time successful, and the Emperor establishes trade and friendly relations with them. Supreme Oniichan studies these people and their beliefs, and decides not to actively proselyte them, claiming that “they probably won’t understand.” Much later however, the fort is abandoned after a mysterious attack, and colonization efforts fall back to uninhabited coastal islands, where they cannot be easily attacked. Farming is poor, and it will take some time before enough people can settle an area at once and support it until it can survive of its own accord. They seize several islands from the Ibolozi.
-Buddhism is incorporated into native Wapanese religion, or at least made to peacefully co-exist. The reformed Buddhism becomes popular, often mixing with the local faiths, supplementing instead of displacing it.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-The Zulu have come up with a devilish new weapon. Much like an ordinary bow, it is actually carefully constructed out of strips of wood or bone to make a layered composite bow. It is significantly more powerful, and able to put arrows deeper into targets. Being shot with an arrow is exceptionally painful, and so people who refuse to submit to the rule of the Zulu will find that Zebra mounted archers will soon be filling them with arrows and setting fire to their house. It is through this cunning invention that the Zulu are permitted to continue their expansion over the Southeast of the continent. Of course, one such area is the large island to the east. On the mainland, expansion proceeds as normal with the usual looting and pillaging. Colonizing the island to the east requires more subtlety.
-Various people in small boats (often finding it difficult to move Zebras and cattle) begin to sail back and forth to a large island sparsely populated. The inhabitants say they only recently settled on the island, within living memory. Both groups of people are able to settle the island for now, although later the Zulu King makes his authority known by appointing a lesser noble to run affairs on the island. The waters between the island and the mainland are named Monkey Channel, whilst the island itself is named Monkey Island. Small ports and wharves are also built in fishing villages, along with boat sheds. Whilst shipbuilding is in its infancy and coastal trade is weak, the King has laid the groundwork for the establishment of trade routes to extend further than his kingdom. Some traders even travel as far north as Somalia, where they can meet with various other merchants heading to and from India and Egypt. An emissary eventually arrives to tell people that the Zulu king wants to find other big empires so he can play checkers with other kings. The Christians in Somalia however, mistakenly believe the Zulu King to be a man called “Prester John”, and ask if he is a Christian.
New World
-During the late 530s, there is a great calamity around the world. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia leads to a lot of harvest failures, poor plant growth (as evidenced by tree rings), and later starvation and political instability. Those in or near the Yucatan peninsula are hard particularly badly, with some cities being abandoned during this time and migrations to other parts being undertaken.
-Hunter-Gathering lifestyles are all but rapidly vanishing in the New World. Most prominent during this period is the spread of new agricultural innovations throughout the North American continent (particularly to the west and north), and south into the Andes and parts of Amazonia. These are marked by the introduction and/or spread of turkeys, rice, maize, and other less well known crops to the Northern continent. In the south, it is the collared peccary, manioc, and maize. The peccary itself has also migrated north into the Pueblo, whilst the Turkey has travelled south into the Mayan held lands. Webs of trade routes are now spreading throughout the lands on and east of the Mississippi river, helping to tie the region together and to spread knowledge, items, and people around. Nascent states are forming, either by profiting from the trade enough that forming armies is necessary to protect their routes, or by having enough people in one place due to the adoption of farming that some kind of organizational group is required to manage resources and people.
-Collared peccaries are introduced to the Andes, whilst the llama’s native to the Andes have spread beyond them, although they are rare due to the hot or humid weather causing constant problems for them.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-As mining expands and some metalworkers come into contact with new ways of producing metal, a particular orange-red ore is found to have a curious metal drawn out of it at a hot enough temperature. Heated in hot charcoal, one can take this metal and shape it into everything one can already fashion out of bronze, and even more. If tempered in water it is much stronger than bronze, and given the availability of iron ore it means that making iron tools is feasible now as well. Over the course of a hundred years, flint and bronze tools are replaced with iron, with the former two only being used in outlying or isolated parts where the people tend to be behind the times. These tools are immensely useful for clearing trees, tilling the soil, digging, and all sorts of other tasks including killing. A lot of forests are cleared to make charcoal and farmland. Old slash and burn agriculture is dying out as well, which is especially problematic for old fire-loving species as they are replaced by ones which humans deem useful. The economy, population, and iron production by tons is now steadily increasing, although high demand for timber means iron production is capped.
-The Kingdom is starting to run into some serious administrative problems. The population has doubled over the past three centuries, with the result that many are being forced to move outwards in search of new land. Administrating these new lands is incredibly difficult however, mainly due to the problem of transport and communications. The canals and rivers are clogged with silt or rafts unsuited to carrying increasing loads of goods. The roads are poor and dog carts can only alleviate so much. Boats also tend to badly scale in size, meaning that moving goods is increasingly frustrating. Only the adoption of new agricultural technologies (such as iron tools) has resulted in the outlying farms becoming productive enough to feed all these extra people. Wars with Indians on the borders are particularly troubling as well. Some members in the government (particularly landowners) propose a way to kill two birds with one stone. In return for administering the lands on the borders and expanding into new areas (whilst also dealing with the Indians), some power and land will be delegated down to them, ruling it as a petty kingdom. Some early attempts happen, whilst in other parts there is restraint, but nobody has a clear idea of whenever or not to take that path. A famine later pushes people outwards, with a great deal of depopulation and abandoning of some of the older densely populated homeland.
-The growth of cities begins to stagnate due to the problems with supplying them with food. As a result, people simply build new towns and cities along rivers, coastlines, and further inland. Trade routes are created almost out of thin air, connecting these towns to each other. Webs of trade routes are now spreading throughout the lands on and east of the Mississippi river, helping to tie the region together and to spread knowledge, items, and people around.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-With increasing dependence on the sea to move large bulk goods, the need for ever larger vessels needs to be realized. A man hits upon a brilliant invention where he builds a large wooden boat out of interlocking planks, tied together and with wooden pegs to fasten it together. Large sails are put on top, and sometimes the crew can use long poles and oars for faster navigation up rivers. As the first shipyard of any kind in the New World (on orders of the King), it quickly develops the capacity to build truly immense ships, or speedy ones intended to skirt the coasts for local trade and fishing. Over the next century, several more such shipyards are built, although at considerable expense. They manage to solve the problem of shipping bulk agricultural products over long distances, with ships now travelling throughout much of the Caribbean area. By the 610s, the first shipwrecks are discovered in Maya waters, indicating spread of the technology.
-A ruling senate is established, whereby a number of varied aristocrats and important people convene to talk about matters of the state. Most importantly, all of the armed forces of this country are not subject to the authority of the senate. Ten officers are selected to represent the warriors of the country. As a distinct class however, warriors are starting to vanish, with increasing numbers of common footsoldiers taking up the bulk of the army, whilst prestigious families of warriors begin to act as officers and generals. They live in on the families of the nobility, who now command the army.
-In order to begin administrating the Kingdom more effectively, all the known lands are divided up, administered by the nobility, warriors, and various other important people who happen to own a lot of land or are adept at killing people. Taxes are levied and crude political factions emerge. At the moment, three parties have formed; the warrior-nobles, in favour of military conquest, expansion, and general warfare; the clergy-nobility, who favour land consolidation, peace, stability, and natural conservatism. Finally is the Kings faction, often composed of both factions depending on the times. He traditionally becomes the moderating influence in this political system. Everybody in the Kingdom can technically vote, but often the local nobility or barracks will help keep the peasants in line and tell them who to vote for. This is slightly more difficult in the larger trading towns to pull off, but for now they stay under dominion of the nobles and warriors. As for everybody else, they are stuck on the bottom rung, trading, building, or farming for a living.
-This centralized pseudo-noble republic continues to expand, although unwilling to expand to the west and north. Instead attention is given to the coastlines, particularly snaking eastwards to follow the slowly growing trading villages. These villages seem ripe for taxing or conquering, and some of them even specialize in making certain goods. Some are weakened by famine, allowing them to be conquered without much of a fight. That’s not to say that the famine was particularly hard hitting at home as well, which could explain all of the young men joining up to loot enemy villages for food and livestock.
-The capital city begins to grow more opulent, eventually the ring of rocks which was built around the city soon after founding, has been built on top of. The walls gradually improve into proper masonry work, but often they are cannibalized and rebuilt at a further distance as the city expands. Eventually all of the villages and hamlets which used to be within the wall are swallowed up by the city.
BananaFoam – Ibolozi Confederation
Capital: Ibbus Sieciwiz
Culture: Siberian (Uralic)
State Religion: East Medith Pantheon
-Poor agricultural output, competition with Wapanese fisherman and whalers, plus political problems at home leads to the Confederation shrinking and eventually losing or abandoning several islands, along with some of the interior.
Turn 14: 625 to 750 CE
Saltarello as performed by Joculatores Upsalienses
Turn music
Political map of Turn 14
Cultural map of Turn 14
Religious map of Turn 14
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=42327420&posted=1#post42327420
Turn quote: Silent and watchful,
The great mountain knows much
And sees more.
Events of the years 625 to 750:
Europe
-Beowulf is composed in Anglo-Saxon England. Islam has also made inroads into the Mannish isles. For those of a musical bent, the harp is introduced in Pictland. In Pictland itself, the Picts are united under a new King from Ireland, an émigré who narrowly avoided execution by the Emir there. He founds the Kingdom of Alban, which is later corrupted to become the Kingdom of Albania.
-The heavy horse plough and the heavy horse collar spread throughout the Rhine valley, before disseminating along trading routes and haphazardly throughout the rest of Europe. Papermaking is also now widespread. Finally, the horseshoe is common as well.
-The Kingdom of Italy suffers from problems of stability and maintaining overseas Romania. A civil war results in the loss of Romania, the Romanian usurper declares himself to be the King of Romania. Both entities still retain close linguistic ties, although Romania has begun to drift away under neighbouring influence from Greece and Laubergia.
-Ireland is converted by Imans from Misiryaban, selling the chiefs there iron in bulk along with other metals with aid of the Caliph and merchants. This leads to an Irish arms race, and the victorious chief forms an emirate in Ireland, and then converts much of the island, save for the Arhonian holdings. As for the Isle of Mann, most of it is gradually being annexed into increasingly larger states fighting for control of the whole landmass.
-Georgia, under some pressure by their neighbours, abandons the Eastern Church to pledge allegiance to the Pope.
Zillamaster55 – The Kingdom of Laubergia
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-The Laubergian army is more or less disbanded in the wake of pitiful military expeditions and conquests. The remaining armies are more or less tied up in personal feudal levies, used to protect the borders from raiders. Many men are broken and have lost their sense of military pride. Many weapons are melted down to make tools, and archaeologists note the widespread abandonment of many military structures during this time. However, there has been an advance in terms of agricultural equipment. The new-fangled heavy horse plough was recently made popular by the Royal family, is now widely used throughout Laubergia.
-Giving in to foreign pressure, Greek merchants begin to travel into the Kingdom, setting up trade offices and investing. Many trade deals are unfortunately in favour of the Greeks. Many Laubergians are angry whenever prices rise and recessions hit. The blame is put on the speculators who made impotent the country.
-All expansion of the Kingdom has come to an end, with borders becoming more solid on the maps. With a long period of peace and little investment into the army, agriculture has a golden age. The population booms, with many marshlands drained, watermills and windmills erected, bridges put over rivers, toll-roads built, and land put under the plough. Growing intensification of the land and lack of places to expand has resulted in a lot of old laws tying people to the land breaking down, for there is a massive surplus of labour available. Many peasants immigrate to the urban areas to try their luck there.
-The new Queen of Laubergia, declares that taxes over the kingdom are to be lowered, partially to keep the nobility happy. One of the big problems is that ever since the army was disbanded, the nobility are keen to press for benefits. One such is a flat tax, which reduces the amount of taxes that everybody pays overall. Of course, this shifts the burden onto the poor, whilst the wealthy are left content. Much later on however, the nobles are demanding the creation of a council, elected by landowners, mostly to change laws in their favour.
-With the nobility now no longer necessary for warfare, a series of reforms sees them spending more and more time in the cities and feasting halls, trying to entertain guests, seduce women, or otherwise compete for positions in government. These costly lifestyles are a menace however, for the nobility is accruing debts, seeing reduced income from their estates (especially since craftworking moved into the urban areas), and otherwise becoming slaves to the usurers. Laws are passed to try and prevent this, but by the end of this period, titles of nobility are being bought by the mercantile class, gradually growing in power and becoming more common within government.
-There is a massive focus into the improvement of agriculture by the royal authorities themselves, and begin by introducing truly massive ploughs pulled by teams of horses. Cutting up the earth, their own big problem is that most peasants’ fields are too small to allow these contraptions on. The landowners solve this problem by simply appropriating bits of land to make bigger fields. The peasantry are very displeased, and as the money economy comes into existence, peasant rebellions are all too common. Targets include nobles, clergymen, and the Greek merchants. There is a race between the farmers and population growth, each seeking to outgrow the other. For a while, one is leading in the race, but their struggle is such that they are chained together, doomed to cross the finish line in a deadly embrace, neither able to break the others will to win.
KingArcher – Misiryaban Caliphate
Capital: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Islam (Sunni)
-As industry expands throughout the Caliphate, there is a nagging problem of how to refine the rather sulphurous pig iron. Cast iron is introduced from Arhonia, which, whilst useful to mass produce iron products with, is quite brittle. Wrought iron and steel is still processed using bloomeries, for it is difficult to remove carbon from iron. However, a recent advent is a furnace which burns so hot and brightly that iron flows from the ore as though it were liquid. Whilst it does not solve the wrought iron problem, it does make pig and cast iron extremely cheap (relative to the past), and allow for the creation of a whole variety of common iron products. Pots, pans, kettles, ploughs, and inexpensive tools for the peasantry are produced here. If they break, a blacksmith can easily repair them, and for a small free even work it to be stronger. These innovations are allowing for huge increases in agricultural and industrial output. The Arhonians meanwhile, are still leading producers of processed iron goods.
-In order to help improve industrial development, mercantile policies are introduced to protect trade at home. Foreign manufactured iron is taxed, and as prices quickly rise in Misiryaban further, more foundries are built, mines expanded, and blast furnaces built. Iron manufacturing is growing faster, and even without tariffs it can do very comfortably, for Arhonian iron (the only real competitor) is not being produced on the same scale. In order to help move iron ore, coal and processed iron, simple wooden roads are being constructed. Consisting of planks laid parallel to each other, one can drag a cart over them with ease, especially on flat land. A horse can now pull twice as much as before, allowing for “trains” of carts to be connected to each other and to be built to large sizes. There are still problems however with the concept, for the planks wear down and snap under too heavy loads, the problem of friction could be reduced if the planks were made thinner and smoother, plus the carts themselves have a tendency to break as wood by itself is not strong enough. These roads are also only useful over short distances between rivers, but there are suggestions of remaking canals like those in Crete, or even making the rails out of iron.
-As increasing coke production takes pressure off the forests, there is a massive revival in hunting and forestry. Many nobles enjoy going on long hunting trips in them, and to show their gratitude to the Caliph, they make up part of their taxes with deer, so he can have a fine meal. Timber production is also steadily increasing, with much of it for export as semi-processed beams or use domestically in construction. The increasing wealth of most people sees them gradually switching to using more stone and brick in construction as well.
-After some limited knowledge of the goings on of Arabia, most notably Muhammad's defeat by the Egyptian government, it was decided by the monarch to establish a caliphate and continue to preach Muhammad's preachings.
-With massive amounts of money generated from iron exports and rising revenue from land rents of tenant farmers, an ambitious fortifications project is now underway, along with religious building improvements. Large walls are built around towns and cities, whilst large mosques are raised in city centres. Coastal forts (including old Celtic ones) are reoccupied and repaired or built on top of in order to deter foreign invaders. The navy is also being rapidly expanded, based off local knarrs. Of course, these versions tend to be bigger and better built, with some having small artillery pieces and towers in them so as to rain projectiles upon the enemy.
-Diplomats travel out to meet representatives of the Kingdom of Eoferwic and the Baltic Entente. They all agree to a treaty between all members, with the following conditions:
- Mutual alliance between all members.
- Conquest of the Saxon Kingdoms in Mann and the Baltic.
- Eoferwic will permit Imans from Misiryaban.
- Tolls put on merchant shipping, along with tariffs, are abolished for members of the alliance accessing the Baltic Ententes ports.
-With the treaty signed the Misiryabani army marches out to conquer effectively the Thames valley and the southern kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxons. The conquest is conducted in stages, where the Baltic Entente and Eoferwic send ships to sail up the Thames to siege London and other important settlements along the south coast. Eventually these sieges reduce the fortifications and force a surrender to come about. Field battles are devastating on the Saxon heavy infantry, for the Misiryabani tactic of using massed slingers is particularly devastating. Lead mining has of course increased massively, allowing for the casting of thousands of lead bullets for slingers to use.
-With the aggressive expansion of the iron industry, merchants are setting up offices in the Mediterranean once more, selling masses of iron, lead, copper, and other metal products at low prices. Their ability to bring in shipments from the homeland quickly (by using knarrs) using small crews makes them quite economical. Archaeologists in the year 1982 discovered once such sunken ship off the coast of Gibraltar, filled with the remains of agricultural tools. Coke is exported as well, although mainly over short distances. Once the Arhonians begin production of coke, most trade is domestic.
-On these knarrs, traders are continually searching for new markets and people or land to exploit. On such trips around the North Sea, a strange island has been stumbled into. Unlike the Shetlands, this island has not been visited by any member of the species Homo sapiens in the entire history of the world. The first traders to visit however, whilst not realizing this, are very annoyed to find nobody to trade with. Shepards, fishermen, and whalers eventually establish themselves on the island, even though it takes a century for the first regular merchant shipping missions to become common. Much further to the south, merchants from Madeira have set up trading posts along the West African coast. They have found that labour is in constant shortage on Madeira for the sugar plantations there (a new crop having been recently introduced by merchants travelling through the Mediterranean), and so the answer arrives when a rather fat African merchant, rubbing his hands and tapping his nose, offers to sell prisoners of war to the Misiryabanis. Within a century, Madeira is full of slaves working to produce sugar, with sugar cones being common in the homes of the wealthy now.
-Due to extensive trade and movement of people and ideas between Arhonia and Misiryaban, despite the best efforts of the Moslems to keep the secret of pig iron production, 125 years of contact eventually leaks the secret to the Arhonians (which admittedly is incredibly simple) of coke production by heating coal in an airless oven. The Misiryabani foundries still rule supreme, but if they wish to keep on top, more improvements are necessary. Madeira is a major port where merchants can stop off at on their travels, and they have a good deal of success breaking into markets that even the Phoenicians cannot fully control. Most Misiryabani merchants sell iron to middlemen or smugglers, as within Phoenician cities, the profit margins are too big to ignore.
-Finally, with the Imans able to spread their faith, they travel throughout Mann. Besides converting most of the former Saxon kingdoms, they also manage to become wildly successful in Ireland, where a minor arms race begins. Imans are able to negotiate the sales of cheap iron weaponry and favourable trading deals with the homeland. Many Irish chieftains get in on it, precipitating a temporary collapse into total war as entire parts of the country are mobilized in increasingly larger armies, armed with mass produced iron weapons and armour. Subtle influences from the Misiryabani Caliphs eventually result in one petty king declaring himself “Emir of Ireland”, forming the first unified Irish state. He celebrates by ordering the execution of all pagans refusing to convert throughout his lands and setting up a civil service to administer the country.
Damian0358 – Kingdom of Bohemia
Capital: Praha
Culture: Mrvian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-In the Mrvian homeland, there is the problem of leprosy. A horrible disease, it effectively kills nerves in your body and damages the skin, allowing for infection to spread. Left untreated, it progressively spreads throughout the body, gradually, and painfully destroying it. Whilst no cure or treatment exists, the church has taken it upon itself to bring an end to this problem and to treat those with leprosy. Firstly, they issue every victim with a card and a yellow cloak, signifying they possess the disease. Next, they are taken to separate monastic institutions in the countryside where they can be tended for in hospitals there. They are to wear bells as well to warn people of their presence when on travel. Most treatments are ineffective at best, including taking disgusting oils and herbal mixtures. However, with their quarantine from the population, it eventually results in the eradication of the disease by the end of the century. To prevent further outbreaks, foreigners are often checked for signs of the disease, and people from areas with suspected outbreaks are barred entry to towns for 40 days whilst their goods are fumigated.
-Annoyed at the loss of the old lands to the Bulgars, the Bohemians build a new basilica in the city of Titshin (OTL Děčín). They still don’t get over it, and when they hear of the Greek invasion of the Bulgarians, the Bohemians mobilize to take advantage of this, and reclaim most of their lands in the west from the Bulgars as it crumbles under the Greek invasion. They do not reform the Empire however, preferring to remain as the Kingdom of Bohemia.
-Missionaries are sent into the Kingdom of Lombardy and into the recently reconquered Bulgarian lands to convert them to Aquinism. Given the recent recovery of the Kingdom and support from allies, the Kingdom of Lombardy also sees it as wise to convert if they wish to hold a stake in Christianity and form their own organized state church. The pope was incapable of convincing the Lombardians to join the Iberian church, for it was gripped by power struggles within the church as the Portuguese and Spanish slid into economic stagnation and struggled with the Frankish Kingdoms wanting control of the Curia.
-The Bohemian King decides to claim the Vistula basin and most of the lands around it for his Kingdom. Areas such as Lusatia, Silesia, Subcarpathia, Pomerania and Poland are all named and claimed, usually after a tribe living there. Poland is a curious one, for it was named after a recent group of Slavs to arrive, this group naming themselves “Polans”. The king sends emissaries to contact these tribes, mostly the White Serbs, Ślężanie, Pomeranians, Milceni, Sorbs, Slovaks, Vistulans and Polans.
-The king also discovers an interesting tribe living in the area amongst the other tribes, the Slavo-Germanic Lugiis. The king asks them to go into feudal bondage with Bohemia and for their conversion to Aquinism, which the leader of the Lugii tribe accepts. The king proceeds to grant the Lugiis a new homeland in OTL Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, forming the Duchy of Lugii. Of course, the Slavs and Germans already living there aren’t too happy with the arrangement, but a few battles and sieges see to it that this issue is resolved. The Duchy remains as a practically autonomous vassal.
-During the period in which the Kingdom and the Slavic tribes interact with eachother, the Mrvians amalgamate with the Moravians, which results in them turning into Bohemians. The Mrvian people in the former Velkij Donaljea territory in Bulgaria stay Mrvian however. When the war against the Delians ended in disaster (including the loss of the capital, Velehrad), the Emperor decided that the Empire was lost. He headed to Belhomia, where he found the wealthy Hostiv noble family, living in Praga (OTL Prague). He told them the Danube had been lost with the Empire. He gave the crown to the 23 year old Vojen before leaving Belhomia. Some say the Emperor died in modern day Schwerin, due to starvation. He seemed incapable of feeding himself or refused to.
-The new ruler declared that the Empire was a kingdom, becoming King Vojen I Hostiv. The kingdom is renamed Bohemia, renaming the region of Belhomia aswell. He also moved the capital from the fallen Velehrad to the city of Praga, renaming it Praha and changing the flag as well. He also adopts some secular policies to try and put a dividing line between the work of the church and that of the state, eventually declaring that the state ought to be neutral on religion. He still remains loyal to Aquinism in private however, and allows the church a great deal of autonomy in social organization and economic activities.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian League
Capital: Athens
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-The School of Athens sends a delegation of scholars to Ceylon to partake in a cultural exchange with the Wapanese. They return with improved coke ovens and sailing ship designs after giving the Wapanese movable block type printing presses and other various technologies. These scholars also travel through the rest of India, bringing back many new interesting discoveries and inventions. In particular, they are interested in alchemy, and now possess the capabilities to produce acids, nitrates, and salts. Antimony is also isolated for the first time along with Bismuth. With all this in mind, the first separate school for alchemical pursuits has been established. They adhere to the theory that all elements decay into a more stable form, and that the most stable and perfect form of element is Gold. They assume that there is a way to catalyse the reaction, saying that iron tools left in copper mines gradually turn into copper. (In actual fact, this is due to ions in the Iron being leached out and replaced with copper). These alchemists also discover that by taking some copper and putting it in a vinegar and salt solution; they can dip a nail in and coat the surface with copper, which they view as success. It won’t be long till they can produce gold.
-The Greeks also manage to negotiate the introduction of Phoenician research methodology, where the Phoenicians send papers and philosophers who inform the Greeks of their new method of understanding the world. It is incredibly useful, and allows the Greeks to slim their academic institutions to get rid of non-scientists researching astrology and other magic nonsense.
-With the advent of Wapanese ship designs and the adoption of Greek firethrowers, the Greek navy is one of the most formidable in the ancient world. Their height and bulk allows them to loom over smaller ships and to spray fire onto the hapless sailors below.
-The Greeks decide that an invasion of those treacherous Bulgars who took over much of their rightful lands is in order. A third of the invading army pushes into Macedon from the Delian border, moving through the mountains to avoid the Bulgars outflanking their supply lines. The rest of the army lands at the mouth of the Danube after a naval attack burns the harbour and ships, along with their crews and some innocent bystanders. The army uses the Danube as its primary method of transportation, shipping men and supplies up the river deep into enemy territory. The Bulgars are unable to assail these ships, and getting close risks being set on fire. Specific interest is made in besieging the Bulgarian capital quickly, where upon capture they execute the commander of the garrison. The main reason for the success in the war was ready and secure control of supply lines and unwillingness to give open battle, instead besieging urban areas and forts and gradually taking more land. Bohemian opportunism also plays a key role in distracting and weakening the Bulgars.
-With the conquest of “Inner Bulgaria” (essentially all land south of the Danube) the Delians take a rest for some years to build fortifications along the river and to subjugate the people living there, most of who are annoyed about the rapid change of rulers. One man complains “I only just memorized the Khans name and then these Greeks had to show up” as he shovelled the bodies of his extended family into a cart. Fort construction also happens throughout the northwest to tame the lands far from the river and to prevent the Bulgarians flanking, although the opportunistic Bohemians decided to invade Bulgaria upon hearing of the success of the Greeks. The Bulgars are eventually crushed, or flee north into the steppes whence they came.
-With all this new land having been conquered (and the people who used to own it suddenly not owning it anymore), there is now ample room for merchants and their recently invented concept of “companies” to establish farms for the sole purpose of producing whiskey. By making grain alcohol and then distilling it to make a potent drink, they can make a great deal of money from the enterprise. By concentrating it further, they can also cut on storage and transport costs, helping to reduce prices and make it a readily available and cheap drink for the masses. The government reducing taxes on it and investing into infrastructure contributes further. Whiskey becomes so popular that many taverns start to specialize in it and it becomes a national drink, although public drunkenness is now extremely common. The church calls for banning or control of the beverage (whilst monks subtly make it) and many people view it as a moral disaster. Soldiers in the army also happen to drink it often, causing many discipline problems.
-Matters aren’t helped by the adoption of iron casting and the expansion of foundries, watermills, and the declining price of clothing brought about by the invention of the spinning wheel. Prices for cheap ironware continue to deflate along with clothing, although food prices hardly decline. With more money in people’s pockets, they can actually afford a lot of cheap whiskey and cotton clothing. At least the cotton farmers are happy, for Greece has a lot of land suitable for cotton cultivation. One philosopher becomes so drunk that he says “What is rational is real and what is real is rational.”
-After several discussions with their Turkish and Egyptian allies, a new binding agreement is made between members of the alliance:
- All members will adopt the Greek Drachma as their national currency. As for where the mints are established and who controls monetary policy, is poorly defined.
- Thracian lands held by the Turks are ceded to Greece.
- All alliance members will form a multi-national company composed of merchants whose task is to make a massive profit from trade and industry, with each country holding stake in the company and sharing profits.
-The Greek capital is formally moved to Lygos (annoying the Athenians) where the city can be built into a great city opposite Istanbul. A great deal of money is spent on the city being built up, with a grand cathedral being centrepiece and towering over Lygos.
-The Delian League charters the Eastern Trading Company. The Company is granted a virtual monopoly on all trade done by the Greeks and their allies, with all merchants required to have a writ from the Company to do business in alliance ports. The Company is given substantial capital from the three countries involved and quickly begins refitting and standardizing its merchant fleet, taking Wapanese innovations into account, creating a sailing ship looking a bit like a cross between traditional Greek and east Asian design for trade. They also create their own private navy and army to protect company assets, and very quickly (with wealth gained from luxury goods trade) become extremely powerful. They control many of the trade routes to the east, charging high dues and engaging in other rent seeking behaviour at the expense of non-alliance members. The company also sends surveyors down the Danube to establish factories, trading posts, and offices in newly conquered lands.
-The Trading Company expands and opens merchant houses in major ports across the Mediterranean world. They trade with the Phoenicians, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Saxons. They bring whiskey, silk, iron, steel, cotton, and many other materials that they trade. They have difficultly breaking into markets in Europe however, due to the Baltic Entente and Misiyaban possessing a stronghold on trade there. They encounter similar problems with pottery from Tefullmorostan, and Phoenician control of African trade.
-As per an agreement with the Arhonians, the Company sends surveyors down the Rhine who locate potential industrial development and purchase the land from the Arhonians. Like with the Danube, industrial complexes slowly grow, these run by locals, and the iron they smelt shipped out back to the Eastern Alliance.
-Using the new ships, the Company passes Gibraltar and heads South down the coast of Africa, establishing several trade posts and setting up a headquarters on Cape Verde. These trade posts gradually expand into fortified settlements where missionaries live and spread into the various villages and goods are exchanged for gold, ivory, and slaves. Sugar is found to grow well in Cape Verde, with many slaves being imported in order to cover labour shortages. Malaria is especially a huge problem for these explorers.
-In an effort to acquire new lands, the League sends explorers down the Dneiper River and lays claim to the territory around it. They then equip two merchants to found cities, granting them a charter to settle these lands, one on the coast and the other deeper into the wilderness. The cities are founded, and the land around them and along the river is practically given away to beggars and paupers. Of course, this results in many merchants simply expanding their holdings overseas instead of developing them at home, especially as the costs are lower. One of the problems with settlement is the frequent raiding by nomadic tribes however.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-Livonians, aware that wind is a powerful force, figure out a way to utilize that power. Windmills are constructed in high-altitude areas, using giant cloth sails pushed by wind to grind wheat into flour and for many other tasks. This eliminates the need for an animal or a person to work the mill all day. “As lazy as a miller” becomes a popular expression in the Livonian language.
-Training and deployment of the longbow increases profoundly in the Kingdom, with the king demanding rigorous standards of being able to make at least six shots in the general vicinity per minute mandatory amongst men who seek to be in or are assigned to the position. Quivers are generally not used, as this would only slow the process of firing down. Instead, the arrows are usually stored with the head in the ground, in front of the archer. Though it is not known at the time, the act of storing the head in the ground increases the possibility of infection after being struck by one of these arrows.
-Setting their sights on Fyn and its lesser isles in the Danish Strait, The Entente studies its missteps at Zealand and decides to cut loose a large portion of pikemen save for a handful of highly trained units in reserve, hoping they will become useful again sometime in the future. The excess pikes from the cut go to use in re-outfitting the former pikemen into newer infantry roles, with most pikes being converted into flails and morningstars of both one-handed and two-handed varieties. The one-handed varieties are complemented by hefty shields, creating a new class of heavy infantry to supplement the swordsmen. This works out better than the last time, with flails and morningstars being very effective at bashing in skulls, regardless of presence of any helmets in the way. Danes present on the islands still don’t give up easily, but are overwhelmed anyway.
-Danes on conquered islands often leave behind their longboats, which the Livonians take for themselves, study and use that knowledge to improve upon their own designs. Using these new ships, The Entente attacks the Saxons on the Jutland peninsula and the continent, seeing to “liberate” the local Danes from Saxon rule. They claim that since Estonians are a part of the Entente, and Estonians can be technically classified as Scandinavians, the Danes are their ethnic “brethren”, “oppressed” by the Saxons. This provides enough encouragement for Livonian troops, but the Danes on conquered lands tend to not share their sentiments. The rest of the Saxons put up a good fight, but after the King puts all possible resources into this war, they give up and some emigrate to the isle of Mann. Most of the ethnic Danes are left behind, with the Saxons claiming that “It’s all your fault”. The Danes are at first disgruntled by such a turn of events, but, seeing as they are treated fairly, eventually warm up to the new administration. The remaining Saxons are pushed out by the Duchy of Lugii.
-In part due to the high demand for weapons, charcoal, and building materials, the need for more and more wood is increasing in the Entente. Fearing rapid forest depletion, the king sets in motion new programs promoting sustainability, expansion in search of timber, and makes heavy replanting mandatory. Timber shortages are less of an issue for the Entente. Many towns have neat rows of trees growing outside them. However, this comes at the price of restricting growth and expansion. Many farms and forests compete for land, whilst ships, houses, and charcoal become more costly as the population rises. People begin to switch to building in stone during this time, given the rising cost of wood. Imports of iron products from Arhonia and Misiryaban also lessen the dependence on charcoal, although it is still a problem.
-The game of karš (war) has been played for several centuries now throughout the land of the Baltic Crown and rules have become standardized, resulting in several official leagues throughout the kingdom being subsidized by the monarchy. Karš has become something of an official pastime of the people, and due to its strategic nature, is favoured among military officials and commoners alike, as it promotes logical reasoning and sacrifice. Due to its turn-based nature, some nobles play it long distance, with couriers delivering letters with movements of the pieces on the boards back and forth much like military orders.
-The Entente Monarchy sees itself as legally entitled to Latvia and Estonia, believing that they are destined to settle across all those lands. The country is still weary after the Saxon war though, so not much actual expansion happens. The local tribes are aware of this, though, and are on high alert, anticipating an attack anytime.
-The Livonians come into contact with Germanic tribes on the coast of Sweden, and discover that they have plenty of high-quality iron available. Wishing to have that iron, but understanding that attacking people who own a lot of iron on their hands is a bad idea, they open up trade with them, trading amber, and other goods for it. Eventually they use it to make some iron goods of their own, noting that the quality is the best in Europe. To counter the timber shortage, coke is imported from overseas.
-The Entente sends diplomatic representatives to the Misiryaban Caliphate and the Kingdom of Eoferwic, and they sign a treaty to create an Alliance. Soon after, they send longboats full of troops to assist their allies in their military pursuits, mostly with regards to the wars in Mann with Misiryaban and Eoferwic undergoing substantial expansion.
-A man walking through Riga one day notices the large amount of acorns littering the streets in autumn. He had always been aware of the wild animals eating them, and being a somewhat poor fellow, decided to take some home with him for his own consumption. Toasting them over a fire in a similar manner to other nuts of the day, he ate most of them as is, but on a whim, decided to grind some others into a powder-like substance and put them into boiling water in an attempt to make soup. The resulting liquid, while by no means appetizing on its own, was found to be quite adequate with honey mixed, and soon the man refined the method by placing the acorn grinds into a ball of wool while the water boiled in an effort to prevent them from entering the drink. While there is no name for this drink yet, the man has been sharing it amongst his friends, whom regarding it as rather stiff, alerting stuff, quite unlike the alcohol many are accustomed to. They begin to wonder what would happen if they tried this with other roasted nuts or even beans.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-A new way of processing metal has come into existence. Whilst waterwheels have been used for centuries, only recently has somebody thought of attaching a hammer to one. When lifted up, it slams back down with tremendous force and flattens the piece of iron. This helps speed up the process of making iron objects, and soon, whole mills are built where hammers of varying sizes and speeds are put to work making items out of iron. With the recent introduction of cheap pig iron, it is now easy to mass produce iron tools, weapons, and armour using semi-automated machines, but the lack of large furnaces in which to melt iron into a liquid is still a problem. These are being processed and exported or sold domestically. However, the Misiryabanis still hold a key advantage in the production of pig and cast iron in semi-processed form.
-A great deal of land is leased to the Delian Greek merchants. These men seek to develop the land, establish mines and foundries, plus develop trade and industry along the Arhone River. It is initially well received, with ports growing, people being hired to mine or smith, and money being made. The rent for the land itself is good, although being at a set sum and not accounting for the increase in the value of land, means that more relative wealth is going to the Greeks over time, even if absolute wealth is increasing.
-Expansion into Ireland is also attempted, and conducted quite successfully on the petty kingdoms to their immediate borders. However, due to increasing trade with the iron foundries of the mainland and Mann, plus fears at home, the Irish begin going on total wars of conquest and arms races, eventually ending with the unification of the island itself. The Emir of Ireland himself is very annoyed by the intrusion of the Arhonians, and wishes to push them out of the island so as to unite all the Irish peoples under one ruler and one god.
-Part of the reason for so many advances in metalworking technology is due to close proximity and good relations with the Misiryaban caliphate. Whilst coke production was intended to be a secret, the massive permitted imports eventually led to the discovery of how to make it for oneself. Casting travels in the opposite direction, and soon the Misiryabni merchants are selling cast iron pots very cheaply, much more cheaply than the Arhonians in fact. At least the Arhonian merchants take pride in selling tools, weapons, and armour to the Misiryabanis.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-A momentous new event in the history of science occurred in Libya during this time. A merchant acting on recommendation of a philosopher friend of his was annoyed by the astronomical map that he was sold by a professional “astronomer”. As it turns out, the map bore no relation to reality at all. The mapmaker was successfully sued by an “Aaron Baron-Cohen”, and soon afterwards a new law was passed, punishing those who made false maps. Since this required professional astronomers and cartographers to work together for the state, a new building was constructed in Malta for the purpose of observing the stars. It held printing presses and plates for making books and prints of maps. Since paper and ink is continuing to decline in price, most merchants can now easily afford these new maps. Taken with them on ships, professional navigators are also employed, and the world is becoming mapped. One chap suggests that trigonometry could be used to make accurate maps, although his idea has found little support yet.
-The Phoenician army continues to change over time. The Seher'Seher gradually evolves into a force of lancers. Wearing armour designed to deflect blows instead of stopping them, and equipped with harnesses, stirrups and saddles. Hopefully they will be modern and effective. Even noseplugs are tried to prevent them from smelling camels, but it irritates the nostrils of the horse a great deal, and one bites a handler who goes “Wasn’t even worth the effort”.
-A curious new system of communications has arisen. Adopted from older Roman and Greek concepts, coloured flags can be used to send messages over fields, seas, and many other places. They do well to help speed up communications, although the messages are somewhat limited. The other obvious problem is that a spy or knowledgeable enemy officer can spot them and decode them, so keeping a watch out for those sorts of people is a necessity. Soldiers are also reorganized, so they now operate in a regimental system. This helps extensively with the raising of soldiers from across the seas of the Mediterranean.
-Noticing that Tefullmorostan has built a large number of forts and watchtowers in the border regions, the Phoenicians respond in kind by building forts and watchtowers of their own, complete with semaphore flags, and cupboards full of board games for bored guards. Guards often leave their posts to visit the Tefullmorostani guards and vice versa, where they play games and engage in gambling and drinking. Bawdyhouses also tend to thrive in these areas.
-The variety of courses taught at the Shekel counting colleges begins to expand now that the government has got off its backside. They include farming, natural philosophy, trading and military strategy. Agricultural and trade courses are very popular among the middle classes, whilst philosophy tends to be more favoured by the chattering classes. The increasing availability of books and rising incomes also means that libraries are starting to grow extensively, lending out books to greater numbers of the population. Of course, this means unfavourable ideas will start to spread. Many of the urban poor are annoyed with sanitation. One writer said “They do not readily drink it, because of what they call ‘Shite in the water’.” This is countered with the expansion and improvement of existing sewers, keeping the masses placated for now. It is obvious however, that this won’t work forever.
-As the merchants grow in power, using their money and education to influence the government, this has led to a mixture of good and bad things. Shockingly, they have managed to force down tariffs, allowing a lot of merchants to profit now that they don’t have to pay taxes on goods. Of course, the burden of taxation falls onto landowners as a result, driving tenant farmers out of business. Otherwise trade continues to expand. With these new navigational aids and establishment of trade routes with the polities of West Africa, ships sail to the south past the Canaries and eventually make contact with their associates there. Ivory, slaves, gold, cola nuts, salt, and other assorted goods are exported whilst manufactured goods and alcohols tend to be popular imports.
-However, the Phoenicians monopoly on iron has been broken. The Misiryabani merchants are able to sell iron products for rock bottom prices, whilst smuggling is growing as the disparity in prices becomes painfully obvious. Manufactured iron is even harder hitting, for the Phoenicians have neither large scale iron production facilities nor people to buy iron from, unless they begrudgingly accept Misiryabani iron.
-To help protect the interests of the merchants, the Phoenician India Company is founded. For the moment, it acts much like a nationalized merchant’s guild, amalgamating all of the loosely associated merchants and clubs within the Federation. The Phoenician state also cedes some lands to various nations nearby. Libya is ceded to Tefullmorostan and a defensive pact signed with them. Crete is ceded to Greece, and the Balearics to Spain.
cis. joshb – Polochans
Capital: Polotsk
Culture: Polochan (Slavic)
State Religion: Slavic
-During the 8th century, it is thought a group of people known as the Polochans formed in Eastern Europe, forming a rudimentary state. They worshipped the old Slavic gods, were ruled by chiefs, and engaged in agriculture, horsebreeding, trade, and war in their respective lands. We are unsure as to how they formed, but the first records of historical note (mostly from the Bohemians) are written during this time.
-A man, who had been tasked with watching the tribe’s horses for a decade, noticed that foals tend to resemble their parents a lot, and have slight variations in their traits, and that these can be improved through restricting who can breed with who. He soon figures out that this can be exploited to create horses specialized for particular lines of work, and runs with his idea to the High Chief. The Chief, though not completely understanding what the man has told him, allowed him to do whatever he deems necessary if that means getting better horses. Eventually, the Polochans had plenty of horses bred and trained for certain tasks. They were cheap, plentiful, reliable, and used for everything, from pulling carts and ploughs (replacing oxen in that function) to hunting and warfare. Horses become a common commodity for these people, and each family has at least one. Excavations from this time confirm this, showing an increase in the number of horse skeletons in tips whilst other animals faced relative decline. Horses are useful for ploughing fields, so the Polochans were one of the first people to adopt horse-team ploughing.
-The Polochan military itself consists of able bodied men and horses, levied from their usual jobs (most of them being farmers) in times of war. The High Chief makes an effort to send messengers to all settlements in his lands to notify them of the arrangement. They come into contact with lesser tribes surrounding their territory and take their land, chasing them away on horseback or sometimes chasing them down and pushing them into subservience. After they establish at least some semblance of settlement, they levy some men to repel early counterattacks. Most other tribes don’t have horses as good and plentiful as the Polochans yet, so they lose many skirmishes to them and have to hide in the forests, where travel on horseback is considerably harder. In open field, though, the Polochans were often seen running circles around retreating foes, taunting them and calling them names.
-A tribal council is set up where a representative from each small village or settlement is sent to Polotsk to speak with the High Chief. Issues discussed are provided by the representatives. No power is given to them, but the High Chief listens to their suggestions if there is enough support among the others. This crude form of republic, back by expedient communication by horseback couriers, works well at first, but some elders from larger settlements end up holding most power and supporters anyways, thus ensuring their interests come first and foremost. Smaller settlements end up having virtually no power, so they end up submitting to a more influential chief or not bothering at all.
-Scouts are sent out to try to make contact with other peoples to the East. They encounter some Slavic tribes that are willing to trade with them, and horse-pulled caravans travel back and forth considerable distances carrying goods such as timber, amber, iron, gold, and manufactured goods. Most trade goes along the great rivers of the east, flowing into the Baltic (via the Baltic Entente), into the lands held by Bohemians, and into the Black sea, towards the Greeks and Turks.
Afro-Asia
-Alopen, a Persian Christian priest introduces Nestorian Christianity into China. The Chinese Emperor then issues an edict which allows for all religions to be tolerated. He lifts the ban on Waifuism as well. This allows for a brief outburst of religious expression, before controls are tightened again near the end of this period. Buddhism also enjoys a brief stint as state religion.
-The first paper money is issued in China. It is not a great success however, since due to the poor understanding of monetary policy, there is often excessive printing, leading in turn to heavy inflation. To make matters worse, syphilis arrives, and then devastates the population of China. It is named the “Wapanese disease”. It later spreads into Korea and Indochina, where is it aptly named the “Chinese disease”. The bodies continue to pile up before the mutant variety evolves.
-Rice cultivation, urban settlement, and political entities begin to grow and flourish throughout Southeast Asia and Indonesia. By the end of this period, several powerful trading kingdom now exist throughout Indonesia, which are now becoming influenced by Waifuist missionaries and the Buddhists.
-Papermaking is now widespread along with the horseshoe. The Chinese Buddhist monk Yi Xing applies a clockwork escapement mechanism to operate and rotate his astronomical celestial globe.
-The Sassanid Empire collapses under severe strain from the Turks and Egyptians, with the Persian homeland being taken over by a Turkic tribe which declares itself a Khanate. They later convert to Zoroastrianism and gradually become a ruling dynasty.
-Coffee is probably invented around this time in northeast Africa.
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-For armies and people wanting to keep their food preserved, salting, drying, and smoking have been regularly tried with varying degrees of success. A breakthrough has recently come about however as pottery and glassware becomes more readily available and of higher quality. Salty brine water is known to help preserve food, but by then storing it in an acid solution (such as vinegar). Not only does it add new flavours, but assists with preserving boiled eggs, vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, shellfish, fish, and some meats. Pickled cabbage is particularly useful for armies on the move, for it helps provide vital nutrients. Of course, the problem is that nobody is really sure about how nutrition works, so food is more or less supplied depending on cost and ease of transport.
-The Egyptians invade the Sassanid Empire with unusually small armies. They mostly go around raiding villages and harassing larger settlements and trade caravans, but denying the enemy a good proper fight. This annoys a Sassanid general who exclaims “Why can’t they just stand still and die?” Of course, this was merely a ruse, for it diverted men from the north to deal with the Egyptians, allowing for the Turkish Kingdom and random Turkic tribes to sweep down into Persia and strike at the heart of the Empire. Eventually, the Sassanid armies dissolve and the Empire is divided up between the Egyptians, Turkish Kingdom, and smaller Indian and Turkic states. The Egyptians are later convinced by the Meccans to besiege Mecca and destroy it in order to subjugate the Muslims. 10,000 men march on the city held by 3000 Medinians. Interestingly, they dig a trench and deny the Egyptians battle, forcing them to return to Mecca. Mohammed later travels around Arabia rallying the tribes throughout the peninsula, He is ultimately unsuccessful. His successor declares himself a caliph and moves to the eastern end of the peninsula where he forms his own Caliphate, preying on some of the land scraps of the Sassanid Empire.
-With the introduction of spinning wheels from Turkey, and increasing demand for textiles, cotton has become a popular cash crop in Egypt. Turkey can import cotton from Egypt (which is better suited to growing the crop), meaning that most money is made from growing it. Some craft workshops do appear to cover the niches that Turkish merchants do not cover however. Of course, as prices have come down for textile and paper related products, the tiny middle class (which is growing slowly) finally can spend a fair deal of money on goods such as sugar. The Egyptians consequently expand production of this crop as well, although sugar from the Mediterranean and Atlantic isles eat into their profit margins.
-The Egyptians adopt the Greek drachma as their state currency, in order to squeeze out more of these new drachmas (conversion carried problems in that now the Egyptians have to collect old coinage and reissue them, for the silver purity is higher), they introduce a new tax for people who don’t see the pope as head of the church (which can be avoided by conversion). Over a few decades, this helps with the official suppression of the less desirable religions. Manichaeism, the Coptic Church, and Zoroastrianism all suffer during this time.
-After meeting the Wapanese in Ceylon, the Egyptians establish an embassy on the island and a trading office. Ship journeys during this time also later reveal the existence of the Maldives, beyond charting are not really explored much further. The inhabitants appear to be Dravidians from the mainland, who settled the island group within the past millennium.
Kamikaze470 – Imperija dol Witzerbien
Capital: Al-Cido Monts
Culture: Tozholleronese
State Religion: Sfplazoro Ecekdorisim
-An engineer comes up with an idea of a giant, sophisticated mechanical apparatus for moving large weights. He does the required calculations, builds a prototype and soon complex wooden cranes are introduced throughout the land in construction, allowing for the erection of larger and more magnificent structures. One notable use of a crane during this period was when a rich noble wanted the full name of the state be spelled on the roof of his mansion in giant marble letters. The sheer combined mass of all the letters was too much for the supports of the house, and it collapsed into fine rubble. Some speculate that this event was one of the reasons the country was renamed.
-The military undergoes substantial reforms. The government establishes a standing army, with its soldiers paid a decent salary and trained regularly. It also becomes somewhat smaller, but more competent. Mass production of longbows is also commissioned by the commanding staff, with many finding their way to the civilian population. They turn archery into a sport, and as such many people outside the military are competent in longbow usage. Archery ranges are now common in most towns and villages. The Shariyyah is also reorganized and renamed the Vieja guardia, composed of elite veterans of the previous Shariyahh (now reformed the Irpar imperjali).
-Landowners start using the three-field rotation system, in which the land is divided into three parts; one section to be planted in the autumn with winter wheat or rye, the second field planted with other crops such as peas, lentils, or beans, and the third field left fallow, in order to allow the soil of that field to regain its nutrients. With each rotation, the field would be used differently, so that a field would be planted for two out of the three years used, whilst one year it 'rested'.
-People who hire other people to work for them now have to pay them a wage that is equal to or higher to a certain amount, that the government deems fair. At the same time, craftsmen are allowed to pay less if their worker is also an apprentice taught by the craftsman. Landowners are upset about this, though, as they were used to mistreating peasants, but it is popular among the common folk. Major land redistributions due to reforms anger the landowners even more, and eventually the House of Snidus ends with Erdmann Snidus IV being overthrown in a coup by the nobility in 649. He is killed, and land is redistributed back to essential backers of the plot.
-The national treasury is established in the capital, handling the issues of expenditure, taxation, and also storing the riches of the state in massive underground vaults. For a brief period of time money stops slipping through the cracks, until the people working in the treasury start thinking that nobody will notice if a few coins go missing. But even with corruption financial matters are handled much better now as a centralized place to store money and to raise loans now exists.
-Wealthy merchants of the realm establish a system of collective investments to fund construction and operation of trade ships, receiving some of its profits if it’s doing well. Despite a few operations going to the bottom, both literally and figuratively, the initiative was a success and becomes used more commonly, sometimes for things other than ships. In other mercantile news, the Empire is now imposing tariffs on Greek merchants to discourage their activities in the country. Those that refuse have their goods confiscated, but this rarely happens.
-In the middle of the 660s', the Slflaplazeolo Guroinquisitios dol el Reinzta had begun to roll into a state of decline. As the causes are much disputed, many mainstream historians speculated it was because the Reinzta order finally achieved its goal of eliminating Catholic heresy for good, rendering the usefulness of the institution very much useless. Historians with more realistic views believe it was because the order later became victim to corruption and (alleged) unlawful interrogation methods, as well as the government fearing they were becoming too powerful beyond the scene politics and wealth. Whatever the reason, it would later fall into financial ruin and finally ceased to function sometime in 677. There would be no more attempts at reviving a holy order until much later in 703, with the creation of the Orden sagrada de los Weyzt (Holy Order of the Weyzt). Reflecting on the wrongdoings of the previous Orders, the position of Grand Master was established, acting as the formal and executive head of the Order.
-Three more dynasties would sit on the Witzerbien throne, the first of which was the House of Mücahit, beginning with Mehdi Iskandar Chukwuemeka Viola Mücahit (regally Mehdi Minücahit I) 650 and ending in 673 with Barthélémy Minücahit I. The second was the House of Halle with the crowning of Césaire Halle I in 673 and going defunct with Bassam Halle III in 709. And finally, the current House of Kunkel with the crowning of Florian Conrado Tiburtius Asad Kunkel (regally Conrad Kunkel I) in late 709.
-According to contemporary records, Conrad I proved to be widely unpopular with his subjects throughout his brief reign. He was tragically disposed of in a plot devised by his three sons and a close peer of his; Maxentius, Arend, Charpentier & Patricio in 712. His death immediately caused a rift within the group, as each one recognized themselves as a successor to Conrad, leading to the four vying for the throne. This erupted into a collective series of brief skirmishes and sieges categorized as the Primeiro tumulto (First turmoil, 712-713). Most of the conflict was a stalemate, save for a dramatic siege of Al-Cido Monts. The four reluctantly agreed to an uneasy peace, lasting only several months before war broke out again. During this period of peace, a council of nobles were elected as regents, but in reality held very little power given the stability of the state. The Segundo tumulto (Second turmoil, 713-715) began with Charpentier dishonouring the peace and laying siege to the capitol, then owned by Maxentius. Although he later broke off the siege after news of a relief army was on the march to lift it.
-Maxentius spent the next few weeks shadowing Charpentier's army. The two armies would finally meet in the Battle of Tozeur, resulting in a decisive victory for Charpentier. Maxemtius, having been injured during the battle, later died of his wounds (or assassinated, as some historians believe) a few days afterwards, leaving Charpentier with only the other two left to deal with. The reminder of 713 and early 714 saw largely indecisive offens-es for Chartpentier's faction, though. Dissatisfied, he sought to ally him-self with Patricio, and together the two laid siege to Arend's stronghold at Skhira, resulting in the fortress falling and Arend being killed. With another opponent eliminated, the duo agreed to a ceasefire for the remain-der of the year allowing time to absorb the remnants of Maxentius/Arend's factions.
-In April 715, the armies of Charpentier & Patricio fought in the ferocious Battle of Gafsa, resulting in a decisive victory for Charpentier. Patricio was captured after it ended and presented before Charpentier, pleading for his life. Charpentier responded he will let him go, reportedly stating " never set foot on the sacred soil of Wissbien never more, as you are a dis-grace before my very eyes and naught but a unkindly man." Patricio later fled to the courts of Europe, living and dying in exile as a poor, broken old man.
-With the end of the Turmoil wars, Charpentier did not crown himself gurji-yahh just yet. Instead, he quickly went to work on consolidating his hold-ings and eliminating potential rivals that might pose a future threat. As a showcase of his power, Charpentier hosted an elaborate ceremony proclaiming Witzerbien an empire, and crowning himself Urbenijar (emperor) "of Witzerbien and all of Africa." He manages to negotiate the acquisition of Libya from the Phoenicians and the creation of a defensive pact as well.
Burinn – Unitied Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Istanbul (Not Constantinople)
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-A most interesting new device has come into common usage. In the past, one had to spin thread by dropping a spindle and spinning it whilst feeding the material in. Now, a clever chap decided to put the spindle onto a wooden frame and use a wheel to spin it around. Whilst slightly cumbersome in that it requires one hand to spin the wheel and the other to manage the spindle, it is an immensely useful invention and makes spinning thread a faster process. Thread production increased by a factor of 5 over this period, contributing to deflation of cloth and rag prices, and making clothes cheaper as well. The other effect that it had was to make paper much cheaper. With this, the price of books begins to collapse further, and the first purpose built bookstores appear along with libraries. Literacy also finally begins to climb as now there are many things worth reading, starting of course, with the bible. There are many who fear this however, demanding control on the presses in case unpopular views spread into the open. Looms also begin to improve steadily to take advantage of increased thread production, whilst cotton farms and sheep pasture becomes much more profitable. Many noblemen are starting to encroach on common pasture lands for their own animals or crops.
-Coordinating with the Egyptians, the army is mobilized and invades the Sassanid Empire after the Egyptians lure the Sassanid armies south and push down the coast towards their Egyptian friends in Jerusalem. They push on the Fertile Crescent and eventually capture most of the major cities there, toppling the old regime. Invasions from India and Turkic raids also cause problems for the Sassanid’s, helping to lead to their demise. The Turkic tribes speak of a horde to the east who drove them here, and that their unquenchable thirst for land may soon bring them to Persia. One of these tribes establishes itself in Persia as a new dynasty there.
-Watermills begin to pop up everywhere in the Empire, mostly for the purposes of assisting with industry and agriculture. Cast iron is introduced from the west by the Greeks, and at the tail end of this period the first foundries with the ability to cast iron are constructed. Most machinery at the moment however, is being used to grind corn, saw wood and stone, or more rarely, to power cranes and silk machinery. Since a law recently passed bans production of silk outside of Antioch, there is a high demand for labour among competing artisans, with the result that some end up building mills for the weaving of silk. Of course, these specialized machines do not travel far or become widely adopted, especially as silkworms and cloth are transported under armed guard. This makes Antioch incredibly wealthy however, which eventually uses their power to control much of the silk trade throughout the Kingdom, making immense profits. The Kingdom profits immensely as well, charging high prices for high quality silk. Some merchants, rather annoyed by these restrictions, try to circumvent them by going north into the Eurasian steppes or to India to find other silk weavers. Of course, the Turkish Kingdom also has access to a great deal of coal, which in later years turned out to be roughly 2.3 billion tons of the stuff, or 0.3% of the world’s total reserves. Whilst this isn’t exactly small, most of these areas are spread throughout Anatolia. There is by contrast, a much smaller amount of iron ore for extraction as well. 86 million tons in total, again in isolated areas not near to readily available rivers or good roads. Even when both are processed, moving them overland is also somewhat difficult as well.
-The Turkish King sees to it that Thracian land is ceded to the Greeks, (despite protests by the nobility). Istanbul is also made the capital of the Kingdom, although oddly it sits on the western side on the ruins of the ancient and defunct Empire of Daggers capital, even adopting a new flag to signify the importance of the event. Istanbul begins to see some life brought back into it, and a busy medieval city grows. Opposite Istanbul is the recently ceded Delian city of Lygos, and given close ties with the Delians and the problem of converting money in such an important trading centre, they (along with Egypt) adopt the same as them, and now mint Drachmas.
-In order to squeeze out more of these new drachmas (conversion carried problems in that now the Turks have to collect old coinage and reissue them, for the silver purity is lower), they introduce a new tax for people who don’t see the pope as head of the church (which can be avoided by conversion). Over a few decades, this helps with the official suppression of the less desirable religions. Manichaeism, the Coptic Church, and Zoroastrianism all suffer during this time.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-With increased cross-cultural contact with China and increasing overseas trade and expansion, the compass had found ready use. A useful device that always points towards the poles; it can be used for navigation. Traders and whalers use it to aid in their travels throughout Asia and the Pacific. Eventually, most merchants in Asia from Japan to India are using it, and one even finds its way to the western edges of Hanajia into the grave of one of the (now named) Bakagajin.
-Hearing of the political crisis of the Ibolozi people, the Wapanese invade and subjugate them over a period of a hundred years. Many merchants and members of the Shinigami had explored the coastline beforehand, and assuming that these people were like the Ainu, decided to employ similar tactics. They set fire to homes, destroy food stocks, and otherwise cause problems. The conquest itself is long and difficult, and the Wapanese never truly succeed in wiping out the people or subjugating them. Part of the problem is food supply, for this far north; one cannot have an agrarian economy.
-Ibolozi on conquered territories are schooled in Wapanese and forced to convert to Waifuism. Many daymios claim Ibolozi land as colonies that live off whaling, fishing, hunting seals and forest wildlife for furs. Ibolozi themselves are (relatively) treated fairly, as long as they acknowledge Wapanese authority, follow Waifuism and don’t step out of line. Eventually, the island of Han-Nihon (the original name having been changed) has a castle built on the northern point. Control of the rest of the island is tenuous at best though.
-A university is built in Akihabara. The people of Konata build their own one shortly thereafter, possibly out of spite. The Akihabara University eventually becomes specialized in natural and medical sciences, while the Konata one specializes in economics and exact sciences. The Chinese language school now also teaches several other Asian languages, along with a small class dedicated to the Ibolozi language. The Great Book of Moe is translated into these languages as well. Preservation of the Ibolozi language is difficult however, due to the policy of teaching Waifuism and Wapanese.
-With increasing numbers of pilgrims now coming to the Pantsu Totem, many of which are from abroad, there are more frequent instances of Wai-fu occurring to people as a man. This sparks a major homosexuality debate, possibly the first in history. Major religious scholars and priests gathered in the Katawa Shoujo Ofisharu Tredu (KSOT) to discuss the issue, and split into two factions, both almost equally strong, with directly opposing views. The first one or the “Hasban-do faction” believes that Wai-fu in her omnipotence can choose to appear to people as a man and “we, mere mortals” are not the ones who should question her judgment. The other ones, the “conservative faction”, believe that this is a sign of Wai-fu’s displeasure and that such people are cursed and should be removed from society. The Moefaggu remain neutral on the question, praying to Wai-fu everyday asking for answer. Supreme Oneechan Utena I Moefaggu delivered a prophecy declaring that the answer would come in a hundred and one years. Meanwhile, Waifuists everywhere remain divided on the issue. In some provinces in Wapan homosexuals are treated as equals, while in others they are lynched, if not publicly and officially fed to the Earth.
-As a side effect, Waifuist women are now allowed to make the pilgrimage, with many lucky matches being found right there on the spot. The conservatives are not too happy about it, though.
-Another attempt at settlement at Carufonia is made, but without much success. The inhabitants are forced to leave after a bout of starvation and disease routs them, followed by native attack. Angered, the lord given this land goes there himself with a group of hardy monks, builds a shrine and fort, and then proceeds to capture one of the Bakagajin and holds him in front of their tribe. They sodomize him and then slit his throat, leaving his dead body as a warning. Eventually, settlers come to the fort and the Wapanese build a successful town, albeit plagued by all these calamities. Several more tiny forts and villages end up dotting the local area, although many people die. Most immigrants are the desperate and down on their luck types, and often young sons and orphans.
-The Wapanese also bring a great deal of animals and seeds with them. They bring pigs, horses, oxen, goats, sheep, rice, wheat, millet, along with a whole variety of other such plants and animals. However, due to the problems with tending the animals, it is discovered they tend to enjoy having sex and running away whenever they please. Due to the Wapanese colonists being completely inept, the Bakagajin end up catching or stealing loads of these animals and eating them. Eventually, they realize the potential of them, and end up domesticating them for their own purposes. Given that the people of Carufonia already practice agriculture and have access to bronze and some contact with trade routes, they eventually introduce most of these animals to Mexico. Unfortunately, the pigs fare poorly, and the Japanese end up adopting the collared peccary instead, alongside the pig. Horses meanwhile become popular, multiplying rapidly throughout the California valley. Diseases spread as well unfortunately, smallpox, measles, and influenza, to name a few. They devastate Mexico and spread north and south along trade routes.
-Missionaries continue to sail throughout Indonesia and Indochina, where they begin to finally have real success. The Taiwanese and Malays have both converted in large numbers, whilst the Srivijaya Empire officially adopts it as the state religion. Buddhism however, is a close second, and widely popular. The Mataram Kingdom also tolerates the presence of Waifuist missionaries, although it is hardly a major religion. Influence in the Chenla Kingdom is minimal. Some traders practice in India, but it does not readily take off. In order to solve this problem, the Wapanese arrange a royal marriage with the Kingdom of Anuradhapura in Ceylon. It is nominally successful; although it’s pretty clear the people of Ceylon don’t care about the religion.
-A disease returns, brought by the whalers (hence the name “The whalers disease”). It is horrifically nasty disease, spread by sexual contact. It devastates the Wapanese population, most badly afflicting the religious “celibates”. It kills a great number of people before it mutates into a less deadly form. Meanwhile it spreads into the rest of East Asia, killing millions.
-A natural philosopher from Akihabara travels to Ceylon to study the local wildlife. While in port, he encounters a Greek from the School of Athens studying Oriental culture. They meet and discuss various matters of science and philosophy and end up planning an exchange of knowledge between their respective academic institutions. They sail back home, gathering texts, trinkets, inventions, and other scholars to go with them back to Ceylon. They meet a few months later and trade this valuable information, with the Wapanese learning about recent Greek technologies (including printing presses), whilst the Greeks receive coking ovens and whaling ship designs.
Sincleric – Mongolian Khanate
Capital: Avarga
Culture: Mongol (Altaic)
State Religion: Tengrism
-In the 8th century, the Gokturks of central Asia were facing severe problems with the Tang Chinese invading their state and trying to stamp out the restless hordes plaguing their borders. In what is now called Mongolia, live the various Turkic and Mongolian tribes who have spent centuries fighting each other or being ruled by a particularly successful tribe (such as the Gokturks). The arrival of the Tang is not well received by one tribe of Mongols, who politely tell the emissary to go away. He is later found dead in a ditch with his throat slit, and many Chinese delegates travelling in the area tend to end up in similar ditches and with similar slits on their throats.
-The Mongol tribe then proceeds to refuse to give fight to the Chinese, moving around and having raiding parties on weak points. Eventually, the Chinese are forced to make a strategic retreat back home in order to prepare for another invasion. However, before they can do so, the Mongols begin to snowball across the shattered remains of the Gokturks, and oddly enough, treating their former enemies’ well if they surrender and even giving them positions in government. They promise protection for all subjects of the Khan, and that only those who refuse will be harshly treated. It takes an entire lifetime for Temuge to unite the disparate Mongol and Turkic tribes, filling the vacuum left behind by the Gokturks. After he dies, his son Hasar takes up the mantle of power. Whilst losing to the Chinese army in an initial engagement, Hasar denies them strategic victory by cutting off their supply lines and murdering their scouts, before meeting them again in battle and crushing them. After this, he expands rapidly westwards, snowballing in the process and effectively making a regional power comparable to the old Gokturks.
-Many tribes escaping the Mongols migrate west, where they press on the borders of the ailing Sassanid Empire and indirectly assist the Egyptians and Western Turks in the destruction of the Empire.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-Through influence from traders, combined with some home-based scholars, various traders heading towards Somalia have reported that the people to the far north keep records, stories, and songs written on thin pieces of a type of cloth or dried reed. By giving a symbol to a sound, you can now record words, stories, and by extension, ideas and knowledge. Initially used by merchants, the so called “Phoenician script” is now being used by the Zulu civil service to keep tax records and record great poems.
-These traders also brought back a curious plant. Growing like a weed, merchants tell that if the plant is prepared properly, it can be set on fire, turned to smoke, and the smoke inhaled. It is said to bring on feelings of euphoria, as it enlightens the user with their own intelligence. It is named the Herbal Merchant, as a nod to its origin. In the future, it would be a common ritual for Zulu Kings to smoke alot of cannabis before making important decisions. Whilst not perhaps the wisest way, it does make the Zulu monarchy less belligerent, and they begin to demand tribute in the form of food, for they begin to feel hungry after taking the Herbal Merchant.
-Of course, this means no end to military expansion. The Zulu expand southwards, looting disobedient towns and villages, and distributing the spoils of war as per usual. The Zulu King oddly enough, wishes to see more expansion on the seas. Viewing the sea as inexhaustible, he pays a great deal of money to aid in the development of coastal villages. Ports are built up, fishing boat designs are spread, and there is general improvement in fishing. Of course, while technological advance is slow and fragmentary, with a few leaks from the Somaliland trading centre, great effort is made to spread these innovations.
-Finally, to help solidify control of Monkey Island, the Zulu send emissaries bearing gifts of the Herbal Merchant, gold, ivory, and other trinkets. They are well received, and both peoples agree to settle the island in relative peace. The west becomes heavily peopled by the Zulu, whilst the eastern portion of the island is covered in a network of villages that may or may not pay some tribute to the Zulu king.
New World
-The Classical Maya civilizations are facing political, agricultural, and economic distress. Local shortages inland are difficult to alleviate, and eventually as civil strife takes its toll, large scale depopulation occurs. Some cities are still powerful throughout this period, and even grow, but on the whole, there is general decline. Many of these people travel north and to the south to more prosperous polities, usually following the trade routes. The arrival of disease brings the death blow, depopulating many cities in Mexico and the Yucatan peninsula. Trade routes collapse and there is now a sudden lack of bronze and other varied trade goods as people make a move towards self-sufficiency. The advent and spread of iron is crucial in this, as now people in Mexico and much of North America are now adopting iron as they learn how to smelt it. An irons race eventually occurs when one group of Mexicans decide to invest heavily into iron by mass producing weaponry and armour, plus buying it abroad from merchants. After many wars, they eventually unite much of central Mexico.
-Pigs, horses, oxen, goats, sheep, rice, wheat, millet, along with a whole variety of other such plants and animals have been introduced to California, and by the end of this period, have made inroads into Mexico. The Carufonians end up catching or stealing loads of these animals and eating them. Eventually, they realize the potential of them, and end up domesticating them for their own purposes. Given that the people of Carufonia already practice agriculture and have access to bronze and some contact with trade routes, they eventually introduce most of these animals to Mexico. Unfortunately, the pigs fare poorly, and the Japanese end up adopting the collared peccary instead, alongside the pig. Horses meanwhile become popular, multiplying rapidly throughout the California valley. Diseases spread as well unfortunately, smallpox, measles, and influenza, to name a few. They devastate Mexico and spread north and south along trade routes, before spreading to the east. However, with expanding trade and improving agriculture, several polities are popping into existence along trade routes and fertile areas in North Hinajia, along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
-Xerxes and Kauppsia are now aware of each other, mostly through merchants meeting each other through trade. Whilst each was mostly rumoured, it is now well known that both places exist, and have real people with mundane lives. Turkeys, Muscovy ducks, Dogs, collared peccaries, wheels, iron, and a great deal of other innovations. A historian famous for covering this time period in his monumental doorstopper "An impartial history of Hanajia: A thousand years of inbreds in charge” sums up the period by saying “The Merchants were very easy to spot as they were fat and had a monstrous laugh that could be heard whenever they were counting the profits they had made from using poor people as fuel.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-Philosophers have existed here for quite a long time. In fact, one of them did something quite interesting during this time. He took a straightedge and practiced some geometry on a graph, and began to think about the nature of light. He notices that when light passes through the tiny gaps in wicker baskets, that they seem to project a very distorted and upside down picture. He tests further by taking a thin sheet of black cloth and piercing a hole in the middle, before putting it in a darkened room. He then noticed an inverted picture of the outside world. Fascinated, he commissions an artist to trace it, resulting in a very neat and near prefect representation of the original. (However as it did not use light sensitive chemicals, it does not classify as a photograph). Continuing his studies and eventually founding a school, this event is placed as the beginning of the science of optics in Kauppisia.
-A great and horrific epidemic arrives from the south. It covers a person in red sores, makes them deathly ill, and kills them. Of course, this is no proper or dignified way to die, and the dead bodies are treated with a great deal of respect, despite their numbers. Many centuries later, one of these pits is discovered when a sewer became damaged and drained into it.
-As the cities depopulate and people flee urban areas to escape the disease, many of the busy trading towns and cities shut down for business. Many merchants find it a distressing time, although some manage to make money by selling bowls of urine to people with the promise that it promotes good health. At the very least, it promotes good wealth for the doctor involved. Eventually, the farms are overgrown with weeds and poor weather along with nobody being around to repair these farms and buildings means that much later, it becomes difficult to repair the damage caused by the disease. There is evidence of damaged parts of buildings simply being pulled down and the material used to repair holes. One provincial official declares war on the sea for bringing forth the disease from overseas, and orders the sea to be branded with red hot irons and to be stabbed with swords.
-With the chaos of disease and civil unrest, the local nobles are trying to grab power for themselves. To prevent this, the oligarchy of merchants dismantles the old infrastructure and reforms government so as to finally root out major problems of administration. They begin by introducing a set of rigorous exams for people intending to enter government. The civil service is called the ' Virjamiesten ', filled by an educated class of scholar-officials who help to administrate the Republic. The subjects taken in school are the following:
Scholastic arts: arithmetic, writing, and general knowledge.
Militaristic: Strategy & Organization.
After studying these subjects for several years, they take exams called “palvelija testi”, which assesses them on their knowledge and abilities. Afterwards, they are appointed to various settlements or rural areas to administrate, involving themselves with both local projects, and national ones. They are also empowered to hire their own petty civil servants (for law, taxation, conscription, state run industry, etc). Being in the position is prestigious and powerful, plus good for one’s wealth.
-Under the wise rule of the Virkamiesten, many areas abandoned due to disease are reclaimed or at least prevented from decaying further. Many land grants are handed out, usually by the scholar officials to their appointees. Of course, there is a perennial problem of labour shortages, and many laws are passed to tie people to the land. These are not always effective however, and economic growth is poor. In fact, some wars of conquest are made into rich lands afflicted by the plague, whereby children are kidnapped and raised back home as slaves or serfs. There is good money to be made, and the merchant in the sky is willing to rub his hands whenever he hears a fetching price for a child.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-The arrival of nasty foreign diseases, the collapse of long distance trade, and general reduction of population and access to materials is particularly troublesome for the people here. In fact, society has regressed massively in many aspects. Old buildings are no longer repaired, and cannibalized for building materials. Carefully tended irrigation channels and farms become silted up and overgrown with weeds. Even fancy bronze is no longer imported. To make up for this deficit, there is one crucial invention however, apparently from the far north. It is iron, and if smelted in a forge using charcoal, it can be shaped into a whole manner of tools, weapons and armour. With this, the former bronzesmiths set to work manufacturing iron tools and weapons. Of course, this demands a lot of charcoal, and thus begins a lot of deforestation and forestry management. Fields are tilled and even ploughed, marking a significant transition away from older methods of agriculture.
-With the mysterious plagues killing off their neighbours, the military decides that invading their rivals in such a weakened state would be a brilliant idea. Mobilizing the army, they are ready to march out. The deadly diseases strike however, decimating the population. The army suffers from a severe lack of manpower, resources begun scarce, farms shrink, and buildings fall down as society becomes less complex and less populated. The capital even temporarily reverts to a group of villages inside the great wall, before the arrival of young people later on in this period, who return with the intention of grabbing all of the unoccupied land.
-It takes years for the population to recover, but due to their access to trade routes and large reserves of material wealth, they have a head start over their crippled neighbours. The army sets out once more, taking boats into the Caribbean to raid and conquer the villages and towns scattered throughout them. Meanwhile, similar raids and wars of conquest go along the coastline as well. Much further to the east are uncivilized peoples who don’t even built walls around their villages (or do not possess the capabilities to do so). They are subdued and brought into the fold. To keep them in line, many prisoners have their teeth pulled out, and the dead ones have their bones made into flutes. Some boats are being made with reinforced prows as well, possibly in order to ram enemy vessels (although naval warfare doesn’t really exist as of yet).
-However, many people do surrender, especially the peaceful types. As a show of gratitude, they are given gifts in the form of copper knives (used as a type of money), peccaries, and various other trinkets. These people are also soon converted to Titus as well, with the new shrines being some of the most opulent and largest structures in each area. As the land is cleared and hoed, followed by being developed, the old way of life is dying out. One lord who dies has a lot of copper knives buried with him for the afterlife. There are also human sacrifices, although it later turns out that the copper knife deliveryman was accidentally sacrificed along with everybody else.
-Records (for whatever reason) are now being kept on clay tablets. Whilst people in the Yucatan Peninsula have moved forwards by using bark and cloth to write on, the residents of Xerxes seem to like using these cumbersome and long lasting records. Whatever the case, it’s a massive boon to archaeologists and historians in later years when it comes to reading records about life in those days. To help disseminate the knowledge of writing, the nobility are taught how to read and write. Whilst not especially important to them, it does put a veneer on top of this civilization to make it appear refined in contrast to their illiterate neighbours. To help keep it all together, prizes are given to people who manage to create or think about something quite interesting. For instance, one chap has made several important discoveries, including a new unit of measurement for ascertaining the distance jumped by a flea (a flea's foot, created from a minuscule imprint in wax), and the exact cause of the buzzing noise made by a gnat (its arse resembles a trumpet).
-Knowing that access to metals and other nice goods (such as tobacco, cocoa, chillies, and cotton) does well for paying off vassals, the King orders that trade routes with the Mexica and Maya to the north are to be re-established. Much later, when iron is slowly introduced, the king orders another route opened up, which follows the coastline up to the Mississippi, where at a large coastal town built on stilts and split logs is a major trading centre. Many buildings are owned by merchants from a land apparently composed entirely of merchants. After some talks, representatives of both peoples make a promise to trade for mutual benefit, with the town on the river as a meeting place and trading centre to conduct business. A type of new beer becomes popular, made by having women chew corn in their mouth and spitting the corn into a tank of water. Left to brew, it becomes a popular thirst quenching drink called “chicha”.
-With trade routes now re-established after the population begins to slowly recover, many new innovations, plants, and animals have been introduced or otherwise improved. Among them are the wheel, metalworking, currency, wild rice, writing, pottery manufacture, cotton, weaving, the turkey, sailing boats, plus a whole plethora of other lesser novelties. This period is dated to be the end of classical Xerxes civilization, and the start of their medium aevum (or middle age).
-In order to protect the growing concentrations of wealth, populations, and to cement power in far flung regions, copies of the capital wall begins to be built in other towns, usually troublesome or rich ones. Eventually, as living standards improve and more resources are available to use on public projects of lesser importance, walls, roads, the colloquially named “shit pits” and barracks are built. These are all to aid in long sieges, so large granaries and wells are also essential in helping a city to hold out until reinforcements arrive.
Turn 15: 750 to 875 CE
Political map of Turn 15
Cultural map of Turn 15
Religious map of Turn 15
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=42503574&viewfull=1#post42503574
Turn quote: Socialist Workers Party holds meeting on “Laubergian Reich: First crisis in capitalism?” Party members get a curry and see a Julia Roberts movie instead.
Events of the years 750 to 875:
Europe
-Classical Latin and Greek languages have fallen completely out of use among the common people, save for conservative phrases and words.
-Increasing silver deficits is a constant problem. People are always buying and selling goods; with one result being that trade imbalances are becoming pretty noticeable. The first theorists of economic thought have begun to speculate that changes in the value of currency may be related to positive or negative inflows of silver. Thus, they suggest that if a country wishes to have enough hard currency to pay for their armies and needed goods, a silver surplus is necessary. A silver deficit means that stocks of silver are in decline, and may cause problems when a King needs to raise an army and suddenly finds he’s out of pocket.
-During this period, the Franks engage in long wars with the people settling Lesser Mann and the Aquitanians, and eventually convert to Christianity. They also manage to grab a great deal of land from the Aquitanians and eventually form an alliance with the Kingdom of Lombardy. They successively reduce the Aquitanians down into a Duchy and force it to convert to their “correct” form of Christianity.
-Spain and Portugal (along with the Iberian Phoenicians) have begun to explore down the African coastline. The Iberian Phoenicians are also under increasing strain from neighbouring Christians to convert, but remain generally steadfast. Cracks are appearing however, and churches have begun to be raised inside the country.
Zillamaster55 – Laubergian Reich
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Adopting old ballista and bow technology, the Laubergians have managed to make the ballista smaller, yet still retain a powerful punch. Called a “crossbow”, it requires the user to pull on the string with both hands whilst holding down the other end with your foot in order to cock it. With a bolt in place, it is a formidable weapon. Not only is it powerful and accurate, but it requires very little training, and may be loaded in advance before a battle. It is rapidly adopted by people of all classes, although the church declares a ban on them (one which is ignored). Much later, some professional crossbowmen wear a large shield on their back to protect them whilst reloading, and many cities and fortifications have racks full of crossbows. Peasants can be trained to use them en masse, and the Laubergian military can take advantage of this to experiment with new tactics and much needed reforms.
-Taxes are slashed for people willing to be professional soldiers. These men prepare for war and initially make a living by protecting trade caravans, finding employment as watchmen and thief-takers, plus much later, mercenary service. Many young sons without ties to the land in the increasingly capitalist Kingdom are travelling out to make a living from professional warfare. Money is important, and they fight for all rulers, including opposing sides! Some of this money is sent back home to support their families, aiding in the establishment of a trade surplus in the Kingdom.
-The new Queen of Laubergia however, decides that reforms are necessary and that the old ways must be abandoned. She renames her lands “Lauberreich” and the Kingdom itself is known as “Laubergian Reich”. Inheritance laws have also been reformed so as to allow women to inherit on equal grounds with men, much to the annoyance of the slowly impoverished nobility. She also introduces more isolationist policies by cutting links with Romania and Italy, and only really engaging in the affairs of the Kingdom and that of trade and various philosophers and merchants who come to the Reich seeking a new life or money. Many of these merchants are from Phoenicia, and some become very influential, even intermarrying into the nobility and setting up banks.
-The Queen seeks to root out these usurers and money grubbers by breaking up the large banking institutions and removing the merchants from the Reich, embezzling their funds for herself. Unfortunately, she is still unable to prevent the decay of Feudalism and many old institutions in her lands. People are increasingly bewildered by these changes, seemingly unstoppable ones. The population continues to grow. To cover the shortage of silver, many new mines continue to be opened and the coinage is debased, although this starts to lead to modest inflation, forcing up prices. Understandably, people begin to spend their money more quickly, and to adopt money ever more as it becomes increasingly important.
-With agriculture becoming more competitive and a money maker, many old aristocratic families are falling into poverty as they are unable to maintain their expensive lifestyles with declining profits. They begin to borrow from the Queen, both parties fully knowing that they are unable to pay the other back. This does help prevent money falling into the merchants’ hands, but it is not possible to continue forever. The states revenues are slowly becoming unable to cover subsidizing the nobility. Eventually, they begin selling off their land to the lucky few nobles who figured out how to turn farming into a business, or their tenants. By this stage, all of the old feudal obligations have collapsed, and merchants are using their cash reserves to heavily intermarry with the nobility and to buy positions in government. Becoming bold enough, a petition is sent to the Queen of Laubergia, demanding the creation of a parliament. If she refuses, it is feared that the mercenaries will rise up, paid well by the merchants. The nobility meanwhile, are completely powerless to do anything, for their feudal levies have decayed away to nothing, and possess little wealth.
-A building boom is underway in Laubergia, and even aesthetics are changing. It is no longer the size of a house that is important, but the style of it, and what it contains. Banquets are no longer about the food, but how it is presented, how the table is laid. Books on table manners gradually shift from saying that spitting ones food out is acceptable, to gradually restricting the ways in which one could do that, until the practice is considered rude altogether. Money acquires a power in itself, and marriage begins to be done for money instead of land. Some merchants even begin dividing up tasks between unskilled workers, usually in order to take advantage of all the cheap labour. In this strange world borne in cosmopolitan centres, one can scarcely believe that these eccentric behaviours will result in the creation of a new world order.
KingArcher – Misiryaban Caliphate
Capital: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Islam (Sunni)
-During this time, a scholar is left deeply disappointed with the work of Aristotle, who claimed that vacuums in nature are impossible. Water pumps consistently fail at the height of 10.3 metres, which leads the man on to study if different materials can only go up so far. He makes a thin glass tube and fills it with mercury, before upending it in a bowl of mercury and letting it drain. It creates the first man made vacuum. Working further, he uses the principle to develop a metal cylinder which uses the pressure of steam to force water out a pipe. It is installed for a fountain in the palace of the Caliph, where it keeps the fountain running smoothly.
-With the success in the wars of the last century and the expansion of the Caliphate, especially in Ireland, the Caliph declares war on the last of the old Celtic kingdoms in the rest of England. The last Kingdom to fall is that of Strathclyde, and with that, the Mannish isles are now dominated by several large political entities instead of petty kingdoms. To help assist the Emir with his troubles on the border with Arhonia, the Caliph sends engineers and soldiers to the border, where they construct a huge dyke with thorns planted in the sides. Several forts are built as well, with toll roads set up and traffic funnelled so as to help control the movement of Irish-Arhonians.
-The Caliph introduces a most curious set of new laws, seeking to change several noteworthy institutions. He starts by enacting a law for primogeniture inheritance, which means only the eldest son inherits. As a result of this, land consolidation is slowly happening among middle and large landowners, able to take advantage of the new laws by reinvesting into the land as it is assured to be kept within the family over generations. Laws tying people to the land are also practically eliminated, much to the annoyance of the nobility. Many ironmasters and merchants supported the laws, for it allowed workers to migrate to the towns and foundries where labour is always needed. To retain people to work the fields, landowners are forced to treat their tenants more nicely, before eventually being forced to pay them in money, and then increase their wages. The money economy roots itself permanently, and much of the same changes happening in Laubergia are now underway here. To complete the process, tenancy rights are more or less ignored, allowing for the landowners to throw the troublesome peasants demanding higher wages off their land and replacing them with animals such as sheep or cattle.
-With increasing volumes of trade and masses of unemployed people scattered around the country, uprooted by clearances and seeking opportunities, canal digging seems an attractive choice. This period sees canals dug all over the Caliphate, connecting rivers, lakes, seas, and even isolated areas. Water is supplied with wind or water powered machinery and diverted or dammed streams, and to make moving goods over short distances where canals cannot be used easier, more plateway roads are built. Friction is a problem, which is mitigated by the introduction of cast iron rails, whilst the wheels are made of iron as well. Some canals and plateways are built in poor places however, and whilst they make little to no profit, they do help stimulate tiny amounts of trade and travel in those parts, even if only by a little.
-With new agricultural ideas coming in, the spread of canals and plateways, the adoption of money, and devotion to the will of god, local schools and parents are increasingly unable to cover basic educational needs in an ever changing world. To solve this problem, the Caliph introduces a law which says that all private institutions and religious ones seeking to educate children had 5 years to build schools and enrol children before the state was to step at. At the end of this period, slightly under half of the country was under such a system, requiring the state to cover the other half and provide a bare minimum to those unable to attend school. Subjects taught include the alphabet, religious and moral conduct in accordance with Islamic principles, basic mathematics, reading and writing, plus trades. Many of these schools fund themselves by arranging for children to be apprenticed to craftsmen in the cities and foundries.
-With a semi-literate populace now growing, the printing press is finally starting to come into its own. Large posters are usually placed in villages to tell people of the news and achievements throughout the nation, including the latest in agricultural techniques and foreign or religious affairs. Imans often control the press in each village, and are often the only people allowed to operate one. They are required by the state to print out favourable news and to ensure the people of the country remain contented. As literacy rises, most people can identify and write their own names (to identify on legal documents) and tend to read the posters put up around. Eventually, cheap knockoff copies are made for sale to people, sometimes on a weekly basis. People become more educated about the world at large, and begin to make better choices. Most fields in the country are carefully tended to achieve maximum output, and the barges on canals become more frequent as more must be moved along them.
-Several imams travel into Asia along the Silk Road, eventually meeting the Mongol Khan himself. He is pleased by the arrival of these well-mannered foreigners, granting them access to copies of Chinese alchemical texts and astronomical instruments and charts as a visiting gift. They spent some time translating the texts into Arabic and Greek, two of the main languages of the western world. They return home, and mix a powder described in the book as “An explosive finding”. The Imans also travel many times over throughout the world, collecting information on the goings on of the Indus and in Greece. They try to preach the word of Allah to many, and meet little success save in India and in the court of the Khan. When they meet the Greeks, several textbooks are swapped and a deal is signed, in which the Misiryabanis will sell iron at below market prices to the Greeks in return for the importation of professional mathematicians and geographers. These academics would later help form the basis for the network of canals, plateways, and roads throughout the Mannish isles, using exact surveys to find the best routes and doing much for the economic wellbeing of the country.
-An alliance and personal union of the royal families between Ireland and Misiryaban is signed, both hoping for many fruitful years of prosperity and cooperation. The Irish population is still somewhat unruly, many of them hiding old religious practices or paying extra taxes and then hiding their money. Nonetheless, they are a dying breed. The Irish later send some troublemakers to Misiryaban to help with their colonial efforts abroad. Colonies are established or expanded throughout Iceland and the Faroes, whilst plantations in West Africa are expanded to meet the demand for sugar. It is noticed that some African Kings and merchants sense a good business opportunity, and have begun to set up sugar plantations in their own kingdoms for the production of sugar to sell to the Arabs. Existing plantations offshore are still profitable, but prices are dropping slowly. Increased contact with Greek whisky also encourages them to expand markets, and soon enough a lot of cheap staples are being processed and sold back home.
-With better education, transport, a slightly higher wage, and cheaper food, people can now finally afford to buy nice things. Alcohol is one problem, in that not only is it looked down on religiously, but it also acts as a chemical depressant. When cones of sugar and bags of coffee (a new delicacy from the Baltic) arrive, they are readily taken up. Stimulating and giving a high, these commodities are enjoyed by the wealthy and growing middle class, seeing it as a suitable alternative for alcohol. One Iman denounces the drink until he is given a cup himself to try, at which point he declares it absolutely delicious and blesses it. In memory of him, a type of coffee is named “Qahwa” in which the beans are finely roasted, ground, mixed with sugar, boiled, and then served in a cup where they are allowed to settle. Of course, people can’t get enough of the stuff, demanding ever more sugar and coffee. To try and satisfy demand, the Misiryabanis set up more trading posts in West Africa, where they set up plantations and subcontract labour from the local rulers. These rulers also set up their own plantations to cover increasing demand.
-Imans also travel to Lesser Mann, where after having success converting some people, they assist the motherland in the vassalizing of some of the more cooperative kings. Close trade links make the job easier, and rebellious types are quickly isolated and forced to submit or flee. The Franks eventually begin blackmailing the remaining ones there as the independence of the peoples there gradually evaporates, and within a century the peninsula has been divided up and thoroughly converted to the culture or religion of their new rulers. Meanwhile, the islands lying off Normandy are taken over as well, causing an eyesore to the French who resent the fact they are incompetent at naval warfare.
Damian0358 – Kingdom of Bohemia
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-With the spread of discoveries from the far corners of the earth through the multi-ethnic and multi-religious Kingdom, quite a few alchemists have been able to capitalize on these discoveries. Soaps can be easily made by boiling wood ash and animal fats together, but such kitchen experiments have diversified in scope. Seeking to break everything down to the simplest possible form, a method of producing soaps from vegetable oils is made possible. Quite soon, rapeseed is incorporated into three field rotation, usually for the second crop. The advantage of it is that not only can it be used to make vegetable oil, but the meal of the plant is good for feeding animals with and limits nitrogen loss in the soil. Soap factories are appearing in the cities and the populace can now afford a great deal more soap. Most people keep their hands and face clean, and even men who use “their scent” in order to attract women are forced to begin using soap.
-A new basilica is built in the city of Velehrad and the basilicas in Titshin and Aquincum are rebuilt as cathedrals. The new buildings are built in a most impressive Gothic style, a recent innovation among architects. Utilizing high, pointed arches and making use of spacious interiors, the cathedrals and the basilica are among the tallest buildings in the world. Elated at this success, the King sends missionaries to the Franks to assist in their conversion to Aquinism. In the year 867, the King of the Franks was baptized and became a Christian, before then renaming his Kingdom “The Kingdom of France”.
-The king, one day, looked at his neighbours, seeing the Delian League with its extensive lands, as well as owning Mrvian territory. Whilst the King still holds bad feelings towards the Delians, due to ruining Velkij Donaljea, he knew he couldn't afford another war with them. He started to converse with their leader, in order to improve relations between the two nations. The king does, however, promises the Mrvian territories will come back under control of the Bohemian kingdom eventually through peaceful means. One such acquisition is that of a claypit on the border, more due to a cartographical error than anything else. Technologies are also swapped, where the Greeks are given medical textbooks and city administrators who know how to control the spread of disease and eventually eliminate them, whilst they receive coking ovens in return. The iron industry begins to quickly grow, although heavy competition from overseas limits most iron production for domestic use.
-News reaches the king as the Lugii say they have found the corpse of the last Velkij Donaljea Emperor, identified by his Imperial clothing. The corpse is brought to Bohemia and put in a mausoleum in Velehrad. However, his feet went missing, although it was later rediscovered by a monk who had been to Germany and claimed he had been given the feet by god. Another foot is found within the same time span, with one foot going to Titshin and two to Aquincum. The fact that he has four feet is claimed to be a miracle and evidence of the Emperors divine nature. Much later, pilgrims begin buying his toe bones, and several centuries later a researcher managed to catalogue all of the existing toe bones, discovering that about 2,958 such bones were accounted for in total.
-A large shipyard is built on the coast of Lugii and the village that grows around it is named “Lugiick” and later grows into a busy port that trades with the merchants of the Baltic Entente and the increasingly ambitious Norse. Expansion is also conducted by the Bohemians into the Vistula basin, where by setting up monasteries, blackmailing the Polish, using the army to put down rebellions, and promoting internal colonization, growth northwards is successfully conducted.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian Empire
Capital: Lygos
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-With increased contact from the Far East over the Silk Road, the Greeks have managed to get their hands on a most odd weapon. Called the “fire spear”, it consists of a metal tube attached to a spear, spitting fire and a small lead or stone shot. The purpose of such a device is to fire them in volleys shortly before a charge. The Greeks are most impressed, and decide to scale it up. This is achieved by wrapping pieces of wrought iron into a barrel shape, then hammering it together and using loops to keep the iron barrel intact. Stuffed with powder and an iron dart, it is a horrifically inaccurate and crude weapon, often the barrel becoming damaged when the dart becomes stuck and the gases escape out of a split in the barrel. Tiny improvements compound over the years to see the dart replaced with a stone or lead shot, the barrel made stronger and smaller, plus crude carriages built for them at the tail end of this period. They are still much too bulky to be used effectively on ships however, and are mostly relegated to being half buried in a fort or the ground and used to batter a section of wall with. These weak and crude weapons are the forerunners of the next generation of guns that would revolutionize the world.
-New military reforms are being introduced now that new ideas from the east are being brought over and gradual change in military tactics has resulted in the pressing need for a modern army. A new elite unit is formed, dubbed the Spartans; they are trained from a young age in all aspects of war. Half of them serve as the Republican Guard in Lygos, and the other half are separate units within the individual armies, acting as shock units (leading charges for instance). Another gradual change is the widespread adoption of heavy chainmail hauberks, which horses have also begun to wear.
-The Greeks decide that an invasion of Italy would be in their best interests, mostly in order to grab more land. They arrange for the armies of the league to be brought to Palermo and Syracuse in Sicily after prolonged bombardments of the cities is done using a large number of traditional siege weaponry (bombarbs damage the ships hulls). After securing Sicily, another army invades Naples and waits for reinforcements to assist in the campaign for the rest of the peninsula. They are aided and replenished by Turkish armies and continue pressing into Northern Italy, going for Rome, Florence, and Milan. Eventually after several lengthy campaigns, the Greeks add all of Italy to their Empire, although religious and cultural differences cause extensive tensions, and rebellions are common. Many clergymen refuse to submit to the pope, and when a new prayer book is introduced by the Greeks, an Italian woman screams that it is foreign filth. She picks up a stool and throws it at the priest, before being joined by a mob which later rampages through the city of Ravenna, smashing icons and other rich decoration, before grabbing the bishop and nailing his fancy hat to his head. The rebellion is brutally put down.
-All of Italy is conquered, save for a tiny rump state holding onto Corsica and Sardinia that formed when a Duke went rogue and declared independence from Italy. It declares itself the Kingdom of Corscia.
-In an effort to rebuild the once strong friendship with Spain, the Delians offer to marry the son of a prominent Greek statesman to the Kings daughter. The son is sent to live in Spain and is given lots of money and resources to spread his Republican views to the middle classes. Unsurprisingly this backfires when the King hears about this.
-The Delian congress decides to adopt a new flag and name for the state, renaming itself the Delian Empire. The old days of the Greek cities are long gone by now, as more power is being decentralized and the Empire has to take the whole hordes of foreigners they now rule over into account. To appease the Mrvians, Bulgarians, and Italians, separate administrative states are formed, with these areas sending representatives to the congress. Many delegates are angry at the Greeks taking land from nobles and peasants alike, and turning it over to the usurers and businessmen who take the grain and turn it into unwholesome things such as whiskey. This whiskey is claimed to be causing moral and social decay within their societies. The building of iron foundries staffed by rough men who spend much of their wages on whiskey does not help matters either. Many nobles are also starting to become increasingly unable to fund their rich lifestyles and manage their estate, with them falling into the hands of usurers and merchants as they are unable to pay back debts. They demand pensions and loans from the government.
-Many farms and industries are being taken control of either by the state, or by Greek run companies. These set up increasingly larger mines, foundries, distilleries, and consolidated farmlands, seeking to produce more goods for export. In return, they sell the workers whiskey and manufactured goods, caring little about the complaints of the former rulers of those countries. To counteract the influence of Aquinist church schools, the Delians set up their own schools with the goal of mass education, teaching the children in the Greek tongue and about Greek history and geography. Some schools even punish the use of native languages, and this does little to help calm tensions between the conquered and conquerors.
-In the search for ever more iron, the Delians send a team of their best surveyors to Misiryaban, assisting them in the development of infrastructure. In return, the Misiryabanis will sell them iron at reduced rates. Similar activities happen with the Arhonians, although the Arhonians sell the Greeks the bulk of the iron required. This is mostly because of closer ties and somewhat higher political and diplomatic dependence on the Eastern alliance, which they eventually join (much to the reluctance of their own subjects).
-The Delians also make contact with the Mongolians, and besides exchanging ideas and innovations such as gunpowder and other Chinese innovations, ideas, and writings, they agree to positive relations between the two Empires, sending regular embassies (although the last one had the unfortunate problem of catching the plague). They manage to inform the Mongolians about European shipbuilding techniques, whilst the Mongolians manage to educate the Greeks about military strategy. “The Art of War” is one book that is translated and sent back to Greece at this time, with the contents of the book being analysed and the lessons from it taught widely.
-Settlers continue to set up large farming estates in the Pontic steppes, although they seem to be rather annoyed. The land they were promise was of poor quality, and they usually must work for a company or nobleman in their spare time. In a kind of neo-feudalism, they suffer very poor prospects. The only thing attracting settlers is the cheap availability of land, a welcome tonic to those who lost their land to encroaching noblemen, merchants, and clergymen.
-The Kingdom of Romania is asked to join the Delian Empire in return for protection from Italy. The King of Romania then clearly points out that not only has Italy ceased to exist, but that it was in fact the Greeks who conquered Italy, leading the Romanian King to ask why the Greeks would do such a thing. He then quietly begins to order the construction of a ring of forts throughout his Kingdom and quietly makes arrangements to meet the Mongolians.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-A most terrifying weapon has been developed in the Baltic, mostly from the insights of modern engineers, ancient textbooks and diagrams, plus the need for effective siege artillery. Mostly modelled on the ancient polybolos, it can fire many shots per minute with a high degree of accuracy. Of course, due to the complexity of the device, it must usually be kept stationary and well protected during sieges and occasional battles. It is very effective at denying ground to one part of the enemy forces, and can quickly drive defending forces from the walls. Unfortunately, due to the bulky nature of the design and lack of metalworking techniques, it is difficult to shrink down. Talks with the merchants of Misiryaban however, shows that they are willing to sell standardized iron parts for the machinery, allowing for it to become mobile and much easier to use, for a good price of course.
-Norse iron begins to be increasingly adopted by blacksmiths for production of specialized weaponry. The high iron purity is particularly advantageous, although in order to produce steel, one must take the metal when hot and work carbon into it through a lengthy process. It does give a most excellent steel weapon however, and with the adoption of Danish warriors into their ranks, a group of shock infantry armed with heavy armour and swords comes into being.
-Windmills continue to develop during this time, often with their funding paid for by the combination of the sovereign, local noble, merchants, and from the peasantry as well. This is mostly to take advantage of two recent developments. Firstly, with growing populations and intensified use of the land, people are farming in areas further from existing watermills and mills are not only grinding more grain than before, but also powering all other sorts of machinery. Secondly, is the development of the “tower mill” This is a small wooden box on a rotating pole which houses the machinery of the mill. Whenever the wind changes, one can simply rotate the building to face the wind. As a result, hundreds of these little buildings have begun to dominate the countryside, helping to provide cheap and sustainable energy.
-In the Wake of the Saxon Expulsion, The current Queen of the Entente seeks to give the people of the lands more freedom, and decides to reform the monarchy a bit. She achieves this by first splitting up the current lands of the crown into the four administrative divisions of Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, and combines the Baltic Islands into a single region. Every five years, each of these areas sends two representatives (usually a noble’s son or a lawyer of some kind, often both) to the court of the monarch, where they advise them on matters of state and engage in political intrigue. Laws and acts applying to one specific region are voted on by the people in that region, and laws and acts applying to the entire country are voted on by the representatives, with the ruling monarch having the final say in a tie. The fact that the number of essentials (eight) is rather small means that the monarch more often than not, lavishes gifts on these representatives in order to ensure their loyalty. In turn, the nobles which they represent usually use these gifts (land, money, political offices) to buy loyalty from the landholders who vote for them. Despite the tiny and easily corruptible legislative of 8, they do manage to at least pass a few sensible laws during this time (even if diluted them or otherwise delayed and lost in bureaucratic red tape). These reforms mostly involve land, tenancy, and protecting the rights of the nobility. Very slowly over time, this legislative (under a long period of peace and economic prosperity) gradually grows as the requirements for land ownership drop with inflation, and some marginal lands begin to accrue value from the discovery of resources (like coal) on them, and also due to acquisition of new land and population growth. The number of representatives eventually grows to seventeen. They also have begun to shift increasing control of the budget to themselves and the growing civil service.
-The roasted acorn coffee (cepta dzēriens) begins to spread gradually outside of the Kingdom, although the popularity of it is somewhat limited. Its main disadvantage is the lack of caffeine, which gives Ethiopian coffee the kick that people are looking for. Nonetheless, the ease of making it means that it remains popular in areas where coffee merchants have yet to penetrate or where prices are favourable for the acorn coffee. The Germans despairingly name it “Ersatz”, viewing it as a cheap substitute to Ethiopian coffee.
-Homesteading acts are introduced, although mostly neutered by the nobility. One of the problems is that most land is already owned by someone already, and the local nobleman generally tends to be that person. Since the nobility also tends to be in power in government, most people really just end up settling marginal lands that nobody wants. Farming is quite poor, so these people turn to activities such as fishing and crafts, although they pay smaller dues due to the fact they own that plot of land. Much later, these peoples would end up becoming servants and groundskeepers for people in country homes, and tended to be slightly wealthier and slightly more socially respectable than ordinary freemen who rented land from their lords. This is due in part to their trade contacts, allowing them to get in luxuries such as sugar and whiskey from abroad and using it to buy social influence in their local communities. One new invention introduced from abroad is to burn coal in an oven to produce coke, and some peasants have discovered their coal deposits are now quite valuable. The hapless owners are mostly thrown off the land by local nobles who collude with the village to gain some share of the profits for themselves, although some do relatively well. Other times, a village or nobleman buys the land instead of using nastier methods, and the former owner is able to comfortably retire on the cash.
-With the Danes now being roughly half the total population of the Entente, the crown in Riga seeks to please the once tribal Danes with protection, wealth, and a good deal of autonomy within the Entente. The Danes "liberated" during the Saxon expulsion seem happy enough, so the Entente pushed to peacefully annex the northern tip of the Jutland peninsula to bring the Danish into a united homeland, and secure the Ententes control of the Baltic. The rising power of the Swedes and Norwegians has put a bit of a damper on this plan though, as they see the Entente as trying to push the Norse out and eventually subdue them. The Entente itself expands into Latvia and Estonia some more, often engaging in bloody wars of attrition and raids with the tribes living there. The Latts and Ests are resilient, but even they one day must give in. Many nobles begin to join peacefully in return for securing “safe” seats in the legislative assembly.
-In chemical advance, trade links have spread outwards to cover a great deal of land. The Entente manages to sneak out the recipe for gunpowder from the Silk Road trading routes, whilst also heavily stepping up the importation of Swedish iron. This iron is refined into steel weaponry and armour, and is perhaps that of the highest quality in the world. Only those with superior techniques to work the metal can do better, for their iron is of poorer quality.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-With increasing technical sophistication, more useful ways to work iron has come about. It is perhaps the last in the chain of developments, starting with increasing pig iron production, casting it, and now finally working it. Iron can be drawn out by putting it through rollers to flatten and stretch the metal, whilst at the same time improving the strength and reducing the brittleness. These rollers of course need to be rather large and heavy in order to work the iron, and so require driving by waterwheels as well. Unfortunately, there is a growing lack of sites suitable for waterwheels, meaning that windmills have begun to pop up in increasing numbers, dams built to make lakes and artificial rivers, plus the use of animal power. Large hammers are also being built to stamp iron ingots, where a giant press is lifted by a system of gears and pulleys. The rollers however are the most curious invention, as one can now manufacture long and thin but strong iron bars. Produced in that form, they can be transported with little difficulty and due to already being wrought, are often ready for use as soon as they arrive.
-Noticing the problems in the Irish part of Arhonia, the King decides to decentralize the area partially. He grants much of the border lands to nobles who are to spend most of their time training or otherwise ready for war. They are to support themselves with the land grants and kit themselves out in heavy armour, weaponry, and ride horses. They form an order and pledge allegiance to the king of Arhonia, promising to protect his Irish assets. No wars actually happen though, so most combat takes the form of small scale raids over the borders, nothing too serious although in one incident, a nobleman took refuge in his manor and refused to come out to fight. The knights do the sensible option of cutting off the hands and feet of his peasants. The noble remarks “I will have to get some new peasants, for these ones are broken”. The next raid sees his house set on fire, and strangely nobody in the village comes to help put out the fire.
-The navy undergoes reform, expanding during this time and introducing new ship types, mostly to deter piracy (although piracy is starting to die out anyways). Some expansion is made to the east along the rivers and wetlands of the Low Countries, mostly in order to acquire more land for coal, iron, and valuable land needed for agriculture and foundries. Unfortunately, all this drainage and land reclamation has led to the peaty soil shrinking as water is lost from it, causing the land to gradually depress over time. This process has only begun to accelerate as the demand for water has increased, with many areas now either lying close to sea level or even below it.
-The state also begins to heavily invest into the iron industry after nationalisation of it. It was not regarded to be in Greek national interests to own the foundries, so all of them were sold to the Arhonian government, in return for guaranteed low rates on iron and iron products. This investment, in combination with heavy demand from abroad (the Greeks and their allies tend to prefer buying from them, and due to economies of scale and pre-existing trade links, buy from them even if the Misiryabani merchants temporarily have lower prices).
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-A new type of sailing vessel has been introduced. Utilizing the longship prevalent in Northern Europe and closer to home designs, a new type of ship has come into common usage. Utilizing the same flat bottom, and light design, a cargo carrying version is developed. Shaped like a bowl and having small towers at each end, it is a large vessel that is not also incredibly economic, but versatile and simple to build and use, some requiring only 5 men to crew it. Named a cog, later models introduce decking and several “decks” built on top of one another, and as it grows larger, later developing into the “Holk”. Whilst useful for carrying large numbers of goods, it is restricted by the fact that it is squarely built and handles poorly in long distance sailing.
-In order to prevent semaphore messages being easily read by spies and people with unusually good eyesight, at pre-agreed times during the message, the meanings of the flags are to be swapped by an amount (Such as A becomes C). The message can shift meaning multiple times during the transmission, making the message much harder to decrypt. Of course, it makes it difficult to read as well, with some commands being difficult to interpret or make out. It takes a long time to teach the semaphore operators the new codes, and even longer to work out the bugs of the system and to change decryption codes. Many of these codes eventually end up leaking given enough years, requiring continual change.
-The Phoenician Coast Guard is founded as an extension of the navy. The service is funded by merchants who don't want to be cheated by smugglers. The mission of the coast guard is officially to conduct search and rescue operations, but it's mostly to capture smugglers. One of these ships is captured by the Turks during their war with the Romans, causing a great deal of annoyance and causing a diplomatic faux pas between the two states. The confiscated cargo on board is realized to be from a Turkish smuggler, and is given back to him, causing more problems.
-To continue with scientific endeavours, the Republican Scientific Society is founded, a place where scientists and philosophers can gather to discuss and publish their ideas. The place is to be as prestigious as possible, with scientists from initially within Phoenicia discussing and showing off their ideas, theories and experiments. Many new oddities such as thermometers, glasses, acids, phosphorous, calculus, theories of matter and motion, classifications of biological life, the establishment of botany and geology, plus many other fields of inquiry all have roots in the society. They also publish a scientific journal, although one of the early patrons blew all of the society’s money on a book about the history of trilobites. This in turn delayed the publishing of astronomers’ new theories, in which he claimed that the world went around the sun, and that all objects accelerate the same no matter the difference in mass.
-Funding the society heavily, the state commissions a geological and ordnance survey of all the lands owned by the Phoenicians. They travel around making detailed and careful measurements and records of the land and deposits of many interesting minerals. One oddity they find is several tar pits with a thick black fluid deposited in them. They find some tiny deposits of lead, gold, copper, coal, iron ore, and silver. There are plentiful amounts of limestone that can be utilized for cement production, and salt that can be used for food preservation and for use by alchemists. There is also some clay and sites suitable for quarrying as well.
-A famous explorer by the name of Paolo Cromstein goes on many travels throughout the world to the east, reaching Ethiopia and even visiting the Empire of the Mongolian Khans. He returns from his adventures with many new oddities, such as ice cream, pasta, gunpowder, and Ethiopian coffee. He is particularly fond of ice cream, but regrets that it can only be enjoyed if one has suitable access to an ice house. Gunpowder and coffee are both instant hits, with coffee plants being grown and the beans used to make a thick paste that is boiled into a type of soup. Gunpowder meanwhile is stuffed into tiny paper bags and put inside mines and cliffsides, where upon lighting it can fracture the rock and assist with excavation. Of course, gunpowder is highly dangerous to work with, and injuries are common, sometimes causing tunnels to cave in. Production is difficult as well, for saltpetre must be obtained by leaching the crystals from stale urine, a process which is lengthy, expensive, and smelly. Some people also weaponize it by using ballistas to throw pots full of the powder at enemy fortifications and lines, although the fuses used on them means they explode randomly and are unreliable.
-The Phoenician state sets up the Phoenician West India Company to utterly resemble the Greek’s eastern trading company in all but name, copying the surface details and business organization, then usually guessing or working out the rest. For all intents and purposes however, they are a business owned by the state in order to conduct trade and to produce goods for export. They begin with investment into mining, slavery, sugar, and shipbuilding, given that these give the highest returns. The introduction of cogs and holks has also meant that merchants can begin heavily competing with the Greeks again, taking advantage of lowered transport costs to begin undercutting competitors once more. They fail to dominate the sugar market however, as most European production is still handled in a limited number of places (typically islands) with the right climate and soil to permit sugar cane growing. Slaves are bought in some small numbers to provide labour, but due to the shortage of land, supplying demand is becoming more difficult.
-Finally, in order to acquire more land, the West India Company sends the Phoenician army to Morocco, where they conquer the country and quell the restless tribes and petty kings there. They begin to set up sugar plantations and much later, coffee plantations. Due to the presence of a lot of local people already, there is little need to buy many slaves in order to operate them, although the Christian Berbers are a troublesome lot and constantly demanding things like wages, land, bread, and for the recruits who went into service of the Phoenician army, to not be given 200 lashes for passing wind in presence of a superior.
cis. joshb – Polochans
Capital: Polotsk
Culture: Polochan (Slavic)
State Religion: Slavic
-Praising the breeding of horses to achieve a whole manner of new breeds, the King himself sets up a royal stable for his own collection of horses. He also collects some various animal breeders to discuss the best ways of improving other animals as well. Together they come up with a crude idea of how animals acquire traits, and that by breeding animals with favourable traits, they will increase the chances of creating offspring with those same traits. Spreading such information takes time, and experimentation is difficult, but the first trials are now underway with pigs, cattle, and sheep. Over roughly a century, the size of these animals gradually increases, and they become much more profitable to keep. Many farmers are converting their lands to feed and care for these animals, and can salt the meat for the winter or otherwise export wool. The animals of the Polochans are famed throughout Europe for their immense size.
-Villages are encouraged to send a few of their best horses and men in return for favour from the Chief; these are used to form a personal guard for him. They participate in battles as the rear-guard, using to prevent enemy penetration of the main battle line. Some enemy charges are particularly hard to resist, and once a defence is broken, they easily force apart the flanks. Horses are encouraged to be used extensively, and the Chief promises a large gift in the form of grain to any village which is most capable on horseback. Ranged weapons are preferred, but feeding and training such a number of men is difficult. Most soldiers tend to be young males without land or dependents, who can devote most of their time to war. These men eventually become a professional force and take the place of most of the levies, leaving those unsuited for a life of war to stay at home to farm.
-A man from the Chief's personal court is sent to most settlements (usually a relative or close friend of the Chief), to act as the local magistrate. If the subordinate chief is found to be corrupt or intimidating nearby smaller settlements, a trial is to be held in Polotsk. If found guilty, the subordinate chief is deposed and replaced with a man elected by the people of his village, and land on the borders of that tribe will be given to other tribes, ensuring their loyalty (especially if a tried Chief attempts a revolt). In practice, this results in many villages blackmailing the magistrate and making him almost powerless, by threatening him with a list of crimes (some invented). This in turn results in many villages and towns becoming almost self-ruling, and they end up electing their own assemblies to run matters, forcing the chief to accept propositions they pass. They still pay taxes and provide levies, but this period sees decentralization and most people running their own affairs. Trade and agricultural production is improving, if at the cost of some of the monarchs’ power, who is more or less left to tending his personal estates and managing wars. Gradually over time, the position of subordinate chief becomes one that represents the landowners throughout the country, with him expected to work on behalf of the landowners to press for favourable legal changes. However, this position brings power and money, for many chiefs are given money and land for pressing their issues with the King, whilst voters usually tend to blackmail each other during the “elections” when a chief is replaced. Most chiefs tend to be the sons of powerful landowners, often providing free beer from the local tavern and promising to do the diametric opposite of their contender.
-The Polochans spread slowly, preferring to stay put instead of settling new lands. Much like the Laubergians, this results in higher population densities and increased focus on land development.
Eastern Trading Company
Capital: Lygos/Istanbul
Culture: Broadly Eastern Mediterranean
State Religion: Irreligion
-The company begins to operate independently of their parent countries. It begins by commissioning a large number of ships and putting bombards on them, although this experiment goes awry when many of these bombards require maintenance and are horribly unreliable and generally are summed up with an admirals famous one last words before one exploded and killed him.
“These are shit”.
-Knowing that the nobility is starting to fall into debt due to the nascent industrialization on-going in Europe, the company hires a great deal of these hapless people and sends them on ships to explore the African coast. One group of them sails to the Maldives via Egypt, where they quickly take control of the island and set to work growing sugar, cotton, and coffee. To provide the necessary labour, a lot of Indians are brought from overseas and paid some very low wages to assist in the cultivation of these goods. The trading posts on the African mainland, oddly enough, are handed over to the Phoenicians, possibly to apologize for the loss of the coastguard ship.
-A central bank is established in Lygos/Instanbul to cover the finances of the company, along with a stock exchange for people to invest into it. Secondary branches are established throughout most of Europe, with the western base in Cape Verde to handle West African trade and an eastern one to cover Asian trade. With their surplus of money, the ETC then begins to invest in the infrastructure of other countries, establishing projects to build roads, ports, factories, and other important structures. Primary recipients of this investment are the Misirybans, Ahronians, Laubergians, and Zulus. Of course, many merchants in these countries claim that the company is an intrusive foreign force and damaging to domestic trade, but only in Laubergia does the company have significant difficulty.
-Contact with the Zulu is established, and whilst trading goes well (the herbal merchant is a popular commodity), missionaries are ill received. The merchants stick to trade and don’t try to convert the population. Nonetheless, with trade routes well established over the world, the Zulu (and many other people) finally have access to the first cases of whiskey, bolts of silk, iron bars, steel goods, and cotton cloth. In the far east, the company is buying wootz steel, spices, porcelain, more silk, and lacquer to be sold back home in Europe. It’s a considerably profitable enterprise, especially as they are being supported by 3 rather large empires and therefore do not pay any tolls on shipping for much of their journey.
-During a routine expedition to Ghana, a fleet is blown off course and sights land to the west. They land and notice the presence of Brazilwood, a most interesting tree. The wood from it can be used to make dyes with. Some samples are brought back home, and the noble theorizes that the scientific mainstream got it all wrong. The earth isn’t around 25,000 miles, but a mere 20,000. He establishes this by sailing around in the North Sea with an astrolabe and incorrectly using it. He returns home and claims that the Earth is actually shaped like a pear. He is sent back to Brazil to gather more wood and he discovers a very friendly people who have no concept of land ownership, eat a lot of fresh fruit, hunt peccaries (they are in the process of domesticating them), and otherwise engage in petty wars over matters of honour. The nobleman repays their gifts and hospitality by killing half of them, enslaving the rest, and setting up a Brazilwood plantation. Many years later, he still hasn’t left, and has to contend with frequent raids. Some of these raiders are growing slowly more sophisticated, and they have even begun to wield bronze and iron weapons. One of these weapons is stamped with (later translated to be) “I have made the merchants happy”. Eventually though, the toehold begins to spread, and some explorers chart the coastlines, noting that more primitive peoples lived to the south, whilst farmers and traders tended to be settled to the north.
Afro-Asia
-In Tang China, a Chinese general is given command of practically half of the country to administer and rule over. Being given so much power and responsibility, he does what any sane general would do: declare himself Emperor. His failure to successfully wrest power from the existing Emperor and his own mental instability results in a civil war lasting years, killing millions of people and being the most destructive war in human history to date, along with disintegration of the Tang state and its conquest by the Mongols. Thanks An Lushan.
-Southeast Asia and Indonesia continue on a steady path of development. With Buddhist and Waifuist influences passing through the area along with traders, a weird myriad mix of cultures and religions is now underway. Growing populations, increasing volumes of trade, and improving agricultural technologies, and the ability to build and maintain larger armies allows for empire building to take place as well. Ceylon converts to Waifuism, which has now spread beyond Asia and is starting to make inroads in Africa.
-The Ghana Empire forms in West Africa. The development of trade with the Mediterranean is most interesting, with the coastal ports receiving the bulk of trade. The fact that one can levy tolls on traders is too tempting for Emperors to ignore, and the Ghanaian Emperors become exceedingly wealthy, using their money on various wars of conquest throughout West Africa and ultimately making them truly deserving of the title “Emperor”. The Kola nut is popularized by this empire, and consumption of it spreads outside of West Africa, reaching into Iberia and the Mediterranean. The Misiryabanis also have begun to buy sacks of kola nuts, even though they stain the teeth.
-A breakaway branch of Islam comes to the fore in Arabia, where the Shia sects have managed to take control and have reformed the religion to suit their own needs. The Muslims of Mann are in little position to complain, due to their extreme geographic displacement. In Arabia itself, the Shia conquers Yemen and converts it by the sword.
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-Seeking to irrigate the fields of Egypt, new machinery for the pumping of water has been introduced. The only problem is that water can be pumped to a maximum height of 31 feet, and seemingly no further. This is mitigated by the introduction of many mechanical helpers, such as Archimedes screws, chain pumps, the giant waterwheel, canals, and aqueducts for the movement of water. Some are automated by wind and water power, plus the first tidal mills are constructed to take advantage of the untapped potential of the sea. All in all, many areas of desert have begun to be slowly reclaimed via careful land management. It eats up a lot of water though, requiring these networks to be extensively well maintained. Some oases are connected up to each other with canals as well, and the increases acreage of land allows for massive increases in agricultural production. Not only food, but cotton, silk, sugar, and even the first coffee plants outside of Ethiopia are grown.
-The Egyptian army is again reformed, adopting the new techniques of its allies, incorporating extremely heavy shock cavalry (mostly by armouring men and horses in chainmail armour and giving them heavy lances), and a more flexible heavy infantry (able to use spears and swords in equal measure). The Egyptians try to introduce the bombard onto their ships, but the primitive design of them means that they cause massive shock to the timber. Their tendency to burst and their abysmal range and accuracy means they are hardly used anyways. Existing siege weaponry can not only fire faster, but further, with more accuracy, and often with heavier shot.
-The Egyptians are little deterred however, and decide to add Axum to their Empire. This is achieved by extensive naval warfare, blockades, raids on shipping, and finally battering of the coastal defences using siege artillery onboard ships. The cities are taken through a long and bloody combination of sieges and brutal assaults. The interior takes a little more time, but eventually the Egyptians manage to conquer much of Aethiopia and put a governor in place to administer the land. This acquisition is particularly important, as it gives the Egyptians further control over much of the trade passing by Arabia, meaning extra opportunities to either tax it or get rid of the competition.
-A company is chartered to produce gunpowder for the Eastern Alliance. It sets itself up in villages and cities, collecting pots of urine, carts of dung, and other plant refuse. Put into giant pits to ferment into saltpetre, or the urine being poured into sand and then leached of the required minerals, the company has begun to mass produce nitrates on a large scale. Unfortunately, since gunpowder is hardly ever used, prices of the nitrate collapses, and it is mostly sold as a fertilizer. Near the end of this period, some early bombards have managed to shrink and become slightly stronger, allowing their increased deployment.
-Mills are being setup along the rivers and canals of Egypt to weave cotton into cloth. One of the big problems of course is that the demand for water is at an all-time high, restricting the areas where water powered mills can be built. Windmills are often used in lieu, but these are less reliable and not an adequate source of power either. To resolve this problem, most producers have set up large buildings where all the workers work together, trying to divide up tasks between workers and using a division of labour to achieve increased production. Whilst massively improving output, it unfortunately results in the workers becoming annoyed as it allows for the unskilled to be recruited en masse and trained to easily do the same jobs that a skilled worker could do. Some go on strikes but these are put down by the local police forces.
-Damascus smiths learn how to make steel weapons from wootz steel now being imported from India. These swords are produced solely in Damascus and then are exported, with their quality being among the best in the world. These swords are highly prized by noblemen, although barely any of them even make their way into the ownership of the common soldiery.
-The culture of the Egyptian Empire begins to take on a much more Hellenic character, and more Christian as well, although many minorities (especially Jews and Zoroastrians) are not too keen on assimilating as their rulers hope. Some missionaries are sent out to see if the good word of Brian can be spread further, and thus they travel on the ships of merchants into the Orient, trying to conduct missionary work in the Zulu and Indian kingdoms. They are met with some hostility in India, although a few groups of people do convert (mainly due to their earlier contact with Christians some centuries before). In the Zulu Kingdom, it is even worse. Most missionaries are crucified or even have Waifuist missionaries try to convert them. This backfires so much that a group of Waifuist scholars end up travelling to Egypt and set up a mission there, representing the first toehold of the Oriental religion in the western world.
-A survey is conducted to find the shortest distance between the Red and Mediterranean seas. The surveyors manage to not only chart this, but also the positions of the various lakes and low lying lands as well, along with existing ports and irrigation systems plus the availability of labour and resources.
Burinn – United Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-With wrought iron being heavily imported from overseas, the Turks now have many bars of wrought iron to mass produce into steel. Existing methods of production are slow however, but eventually they develop a new process to work it into steel. Called cementation, it works by stacking iron and charcoal in layers inside a giant brick oven, where it is heated and the iron gains carbon atoms, turning it into a form of steel. This steel would then be worked by hand to make weapons and armour of consistently high quality. They are among the best such weapons and armour in the world, famed as much as the products from India, China, and the Baltic.
-The army begins to rebuild forts along the eastern borders of the Empire, taking in the new invention of “bombards” introduced by the Greeks. These forts are among the first built to hold gunloops and slots for bombards, with heavy wooden and straw blocks built to prevent the bombard from flying backwards or shattering the floor. They are horribly crude devices, built in the same way that barrels are, and having a tendency to split along weak points. Their main advantage is the fact that they can shoot a kind of shrapnel out of the walls to deter people from scaling them. The army has also introduced logistical reforms, mostly out of necessity as managing large armies over such a vast and wealthy empire is difficult. They assist the Delians in the famed war with the Kingdom of Italy, although mostly in a reinforcing role. The only Turkish commanders to fight of their own accord are those in the navy, raiding Italian shipping vessels. However, they do capture a Phoenician anti-smuggling coastguard ship during this time after being unable to recognize the design, and release the captives after the Phoenicians complain (but not before they embezzle the goods and give them to a known Turkish smuggler after he arranges for their transit).
-With improving agricultural production and transport, some areas have begun to specialize even further into their respective industries. The Turkish have funded the widespread digging and expansion of canals throughout their country, allowing for cargoes of Arhonian wrought iron to be quickly and efficiently brought to the foundries and smithies where they are needed. The first “gunsmith” appears as a small workshop alongside a canal, where the smith was a former cooper. He slowly makes bombards in the same way as he did barrels, after having been introduced to some from the Greeks. He also possesses a Mongolian fire spear, but has yet to successfully reproduce it.
-The Turks manage peaceful contact with the Persian Turks and Armenians, often using montery concessions to maintain good relations. Of course, the tax on non-Christians isn’t well appreciated by the Zoroastrians, many of them having started to emigrate east into Persia and north into Armenia and Khazaria. The Jews and Muslims have begun similar tactics as well, and a small brain drain begins when many intellectuals hear of the great Khan and his need for scholars and missionaries for his court.
-In other economic spheres, silk production is increasing once more, aided by the spread of canals and improvement of existing sericulture practices. Coal is starting to become a problem though, because with the increased use of coal and coke by people both in industry and domestically, the polluting smoke tends to cause havoc for silk weavers, who ban the use of coal nearby silk weaving centres. Coke instead must be brought, although it is somewhat more expensive and the city of Antioch has problems with supplying enough coke for all its residents, resulting in the population growth slowing in favour of the growing industrial areas elsewhere.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-A new and most interesting method of keeping food preserved has come about. It is already known that pickling, salting, and other methods such as smoking work well, but make palatability difficult. Somebody has however, invented a way to keep fresh food itself a little fresher for longer. Snow is also already collected during winter and stored inside ice houses, and used to keep food cool. The latest innovation however, seems to be collecting ice from colder parts of the world and actually selling it. By using a saw to cut through ice in a lake, then by carrying huge cubes wrapped in straw, sawdust, and cloth, you can keep ice chilled for long enough to make transport feasible. The knowledge of the square cube law assists massively in this, and in order to make the best of it, ships are built increasingly larger in order to hold all of this frozen water. When sold in Wapan, it is initially treated with madness, plus the infrastructure does not exist to hold them. However, after many years of ice house construction, and establishment of ice house networks, fresh food is now an option available to many Wapanese people. The wealthy even have special stone cabinets with a slot for putting an ice cube into, helping to chill their food. On the return trip, these ships carry food and other supplies to the icemen collecting ice. The trade also begins to expand, but until ships grow, become faster and better ways of insulating ice made possible, the effective distance is rather limited.
-With Greek metalworking technologies having been recently introduced, the Wapanese invent various kinds of blades, naginatas, kanabo clubs, and other terrible maiming devices. The Shinigami come up with shuriken and blowing darts around the same time. Since indigenous Carufonians can’t stop being a nuisance, the Carufonu daimio asks the Emperor for help. He sends troops to round the locals up, killing and enslaving them, and using it as an excellent opportunity to test out all of the new fancy weaponry recently developed due to contact with the Greeks. The Carufonian colony also begins to slowly expand, using the rich agricultural land as a base for population growth. Very little external trade happens as of yet though, save for luxury good trading with the Mexicans. There are also demands for political concessions, for the Daimyo is understandably on another continent ruling over people with questionable loyalties and little ties to civilization.
-With syphilis being a major problem, the Emperor decrees that criminal’s dead bodies may be cut up for research purposes. Of course, finding fresh bodies is difficult, and some surgeons supplement their need for bodies by paying people to professionally rob graves or murder prostitutes in order to sell their bodies to further the cause of medical science. One such grave robber is sold after he dies, so that the effects of alcohol poisoning and liver damage can be closely studied.
-With many textiles being produced and imported, particularly felt, The Nice Guys now have proper fedoras. They can’t stop expressing how happy they are with their new hats, claiming that they make them feel “euphoric”. To secure supplies of luxury furs and felts, breeding programs are underway, with albino foxes being bred for their luxury fur. These are later exported, and the practice of wearing animal ears and tails begins to gradually shift as more realistic versions can be worn. It is a popular Wapanese fashion, eventually spreading throughout much of China, Indochina, and as far west as India.
-A peninsula north of Wapan is settled, and named “Kumato”, meaning “Bear Peninsula”. Understandably, whilst initially done so for whaling purposes, it is noticed that the ice lakes and bears are also of economic value, with bears being hunted for their furs and grease, whilst the ice is cut for domestic consumption.
-Coming into contact with the Zulu, the Wapanese try to spread Waifuism to them, but with a slightly different angle: seeing as they are warlike people they emphasize that Wai-fu likes good strong warriors and that a strong, honourable fighter is guaranteed an afterlife with his Wai-fu. Merchants seem to be mostly keen on this foreign religion, for it allows them to buy valuable Wapanese goods including silver (which the Zulu are short of) and they have a market for the Herbal merchant as well. The first cases of Herbal merchant arrive in Wapan several months later and are an instant hit, with demand for the herb rising. Zulu merchants demand payment in silver however.
-101 years after Supreme Oneechan Utena’s prophecy her great-great-grandson Bentam I Moefaggu was smoking Herbal Merchant in KSOT’s gardens. He was supposed to be the one who resolves the great question, which has divided the country for a century. This is, of course, a lot of pressure, so he resolved to herbal aids to ease the stress. In his state of altered psyche, he has seen two macaques copulating in the undergrowth. He recognized both of them, belonging to different High Priests, and knew that both of them were male. The sight mesmerized him so much, that he came to understand that pure love is beautiful, no matter the gender. After chilling out some more, he gathered a meeting, during which he, red-eyed and smiling, told them about the portent he saw and what it meant. This was an absolute victory for the Hasban-do faction. Some conservatives still remained stalwart in their convictions, and resettled to Rojin Island (OTL Kodiak Island), where they were allowed to continue their gay-bashing ways in an isolated environment. Homosexuals stop being persecuted and looked down upon, though some people outside of Kodiak are still disgusted by them. At least the dandy houses can be allowed to exist with some form of legal protection, and some homosexuals have enough power or power to maintain such a system within Wapan. They continue to push for some legislative change and reform within government for the tolerance of homosexuals.
Sincleric – Mongolian Khanate
Capital: Avarga
Culture: Mongol (Altaic)
State Religion: Tengrism
-A most interesting new invention has made an appearance from the Mongolians exploiting their contacts with the Chinese. The Chinese have recently invented a strange device called a “fire spear”, composed of a hollow piece of bamboo stuck on the end of a spear and stuffed with black powder. It makes a loud boom and spurts smoke, shards of ceramics, and stones. It is more of a morale damaging weapon and a cheap one shot device. The Chinese would normally light them whilst preparing to charge or receive one, using the weapon to complement the shock and sometimes blind enemy soldiers. The Mongolians, after several decades of experimentation and development, replace the bamboo with a hollow metal tube, with it now firing a lead bullet (adapted from slings) as a suitable shot. Again, whilst mainly used as a shock weapon, it can be reloaded and has a slightly higher range and stopping power.
-An Lushan, an ambitious Chinese general, attempts a coup d’état to become emperor. This degrades into a massive war lasting eight years, with the country destroyed by the actions of both sides, and the situation becoming increasingly desperate. The Chinese Emperor asks for assistance from the Mongolians to help oust the general. They agree to do so, quickly coming down south and helping to crush An Lushan forces in a major battle near Lanzhou. The Mongolian-Chinese forces march to the west to destroy the last rebel army. However, on the eve of the battle, the Mongolians desert their allies, forcing the Chinese to fight the rebels by themselves. The Chinese force is victorious, but after setting up camp, the Mongolians raid during the night and completely eradicate the Chinese army and manage to kill the Emperor in the process. The next decade is the story of the utter collapse of the Chinese state, with the Mongolians subduing the north initially, but taking some more years to consolidate control. It takes decades and several more Khans to complete the conquest of the rest of China, which learned from the tricks of the Mongolians and were generally competent in battle. Unfortunately, the south gradually collapsed into warlordism as no one man could successfully claim to be the rightful Emperor. This fact was exploited by the Mongols until by the year 768, the last city in China surrendered to the Mongolians.
-The Mongols, in stark contrast to the former Chinese Emperors, are actually quite benevolent (most of the time). They demand that each city or representative governor or ruler of that part of the country surrender to them. The terms are that the old rulers remain autonomous, but pay tribute to the Khans. Cities which refuse are burned to the ground, their inhabitants killed, and the earth salted. Unsurprisingly, most cities tend to surrender after the Mongols give this treatment to a number of initial cities. To further help keep the multi-ethnic and multi-religious Empire together, religious tolerance is declared throughout the entirety of the empire, paving the way for flocks of Waifuist, Christian, Buddhist, and even Islamic and Hindu missionaries and scholars to travel here. The Khans tend to surround themselves with foreigners to assist in the administration of such a vast empire. Many of these people are lavished with gifts and have access to Chinese learning, and when they leave, they often bring back many interesting things with them. Most notably, when one dignitary agreed to eat a marmot (A Mongolian delicacy), the cooks neglected to properly treat it and notice it had infact, been recently bitten by fleas. The dignitary catches a horrible disease where his lymph nodes swell up and he start vomiting blood. He dies, and unfortunately, many people travelling down the silk roads managed to catch it from him. By 875, it has left Mongolia.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-Increasing contact with the traders from India, Arabia, and Europe has led to the acquisition of new knowledge and resulted in the development of new technologies. One such curious innovation is use of the “Fibonacci” sequence of numbers. It is well known the sequence is created by adding one and zero, before adding the sum and previous number, repeating in the sequence (1+1, 2+1, 3+2, 5+3, etc). However, it is noticed that by also dividing the sum by the previous number (for instance, 144/89) one gradually gets closer to a constant value roughly around 1.6. This value is named the golden ratio, and is considered to be aesthetically pleasing. The ratio of 1:1.6 is incorporated into everything from architecture to calligraphy. It is also noticed that if one makes a rectangle with such a ratio, and then removes a square section from it, it leaves a rectangle with the same ratio as the previous one. Such removal can continue indefinitely.
-With their feared Zebra cavalry and the Impi, the armies of the Zulu push deeper into South Africa, pushing out the old people and establishing farming colonies intended to cultivate the land. More food and Zebra are needed for expansion; so understandably, linear expansion of the land is an obvious solution. The King gets wealthier and more powerful anyways, so it’s not that much big of an issue. However, there are only really a few coastal areas have been developed to the point where they can support large numbers of people.
-The resin from the Herbal merchant is extracted and pressed to form a strange smelling cube of greater potency. It is named spirit herb, and is soon being consumed by many people throughout the country. It is hypothesized that it was invented so that merchants could pack more of it into sacks for transport over long distances, thus reducing travel costs. On their way back, they carry strange crystals produced by a new method introduced by some Greek traders. By pouring stale urine over a mound of rotting plant matter and dung, then by leaching out crystals from it, one can produce saltpetre. This is an oxidizing chemical that can be used for fertilizers, and to help various items burn. The crystals themselves are exported overseas to presumably Greece, although a few stay at home. Some chaps came up with the idea of putting it in their herbal merchant blunts, hoping to maintain an even burn. Of course, accidents with regards to them burning the face happen, but it does not deter users. Investment into irrigation is also made, since dry weather can ruin a good harvest.
-The Malays of Monkey Island pledge vassalage to the Zulu King, on the condition they be left relatively autonomous. Cross-cultural contact has resulted in the Zulus being able to adopt the boat design of the Malays, and to skirt coastlines with it. Some explorers are using it to travel along the South African cape, and as far north as the Red sea and Persian Gulf. The Greeks contact the representatives of the Zulu Kung (reputed to be a rich man with a throne made of solid gold and ivory, with over 600 wives) after meeting his merchants, and offer to assist in the improvement of his soldiers and army at large, using rather outdated tactics and equipment. Of course, Christians are strictly controlled, and to prevent them spreading their religion among the Zulu, anybody found guilty of preaching the word is put to death, via crucifixion. Waifuism seems to be somewhat exempt, or at least not aware of yet, as several merchants convert to it. They cite improved relations with Wapanese traders, whom eagerly buy herbal merchant and pay with good silver. Such silver may be useful for the Zulu King, for hard currency is accepted by Greek merchants and can be used to purchase the latest in military equipment.
-A lot of inventions and cultural developments during this era can be credited to the use of the Herbal merchant and spread of writing. Zulu poets invent a new musical genre named “rapping” by rhyming over a beat made by drum instruments. Such songs are known as “Annoying the authorities”, “Armed combat with the powerful”, “Disregarding women and acquiring ivory”, “The beauty of large backsides”, and “Intertribal conflict.”
New World
-Biological mayhem continues in Hanajia. Whilst many countries have lost a great number of people, the decline has finally come to an end. The chaos has caused a lot of people to pack up and move around, or try to meet other countries to see if they have any ideas on how to fix these common problems. One result is the adoption of the potato, rice, and chickens. Goats, sheep, and horses are also spreading, although as late as the 840s they have yet to penetrate into Mexico or east of the Mississippi. Horses are wildly successful in the Great Plains, rapidly multiplying in number. They are adopted by many tribes and traders begin to tame them, before they work out how to breed them. The Mexicans begin to see use of the horse seeping into their society, along with widespread adoption of wheeled vehicles. Chariots are introduced as well, and a transport revolution is now underway as it is economically feasible to construct roads now.
-The Wapanese colony in Carufonia, whilst suffering many setbacks and difficulties, is now practically irremovable. The introduction of many new plants and animals has allowed them to shape the world around them to their needs. Of course, their neighbours are unable to adapt to such a rapidly new world so easily, and whilst many have died, the rest usually leave. A new political order is now rising to take advantage of this, using iron, animals, and other Wapanese innovations to build their own powerful society.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-Although diseases such as smallpox are a perennial problem, the population decline comes to a stop during this time as resistant people appear and the disease mutates to prevent killing off all of its hosts. Exchanging wealth is difficult, but with massive price deflation and with the former owners of precious metals now dead, exchanging things using solid pieces of gold and silver is more common. The state notices this behaviour and decides to mint their own coins, complete with a picture of the sovereign on the front. This is perhaps the first civilization in Hanajia to adopt metal coins as a means of exchange, and it goes a long way towards aiding economic development.
-With the population reduced, it’s difficult to keep people tied to the land. Higher wages are being offered in other parts of the Empire, and many lords keep raising wages to retain workers as they inevitably abandon the land to seek better opportunities elsewhere. Punitive laws to tie people to the land were initially tried, but during this time, they are finally abandoned. From this point on, workers owe no obligations to their lords, meaning they can travel to wherever they like. Inevitably this leads to inflation, increased demand for goods as the workers have more money to spend, with farms and manufactories being forced to increase output to cover this. The old system is dead, and in this uncertain world, the quest for money is becoming nearly as important, if not more important than gaining land.
-Old ideals and institutions of the Empire have decayed slowly. So slowly in fact, that many contemporaries are unable to see them taking place. Timekeeping and records are ever more important, with vast water clocks being built and calendars being written for merchants. Trade is increasingly taking on an international and long distance character as well, with crude and bulky ships crawling down the coasts, although rarely straying far from the coastlines. Several trading posts and fortifications are built down the coastline, whilst much the same happens along the Ohio River. The recovery of plant life comes to an end in the late 9th century once the population begins to steadily grow once more, stimulated by the availability of cheap food, land, and credit.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-Facing heavy population decline and problems maintaining sanitation, it is noticed that fields with refuse dumped in their side ditches tend to have better crops. The idea is taken further by the state forming a national shit collection service, where they collect refuse and then spread it over fields. Of course, new ones are always being looked at for use. Guano deposits in the rest of South America, plus crystals formed from pee kept stale in heaps of earth are found to be useful. Along with lime used to treat acidity in the soil, the general wellbeing of plants is massively improved, and along with it, output of staples. During this time the first chickens, rice, potatoes, and tomatoes are introduced or otherwise cultivated in sufficient numbers. Chickens are a most curious import, having been one of the few animals introduced by the Wapanese to prosper in Mesoamerica.
-With expansion of overseas trade and expansion into the Caribbean islands, the navy has begun to steadily grow in size, adopting shipbuilding techniques from the merchants of the north and setting up many ports along the coasts or in Caribbean islands. These islands, whilst gradually trending towards centralized kingdoms with a strong agricultural base, are still much incapable of driving off foreigners. Xerxes adds even more land, clearcutting the forests and tilling the soil. Even if they are temporarily driven off, by changing the local environment they make it impossible for the old inhabitants to recover. Naval battles are also becoming more intense, as the strategy now is to row a ship with a sharp prow into the side of another, causing damage and possibly causing the vessel to take on water and sink.
-With the adoption of iron, it is lucky that the Northern end of the continent has access to a great deal of iron ore. Tiny amounts of coal are found as well, although it isn’t very well suited for the production of iron. Smelting the ore is difficult however, and so a great deal of forest must be cleared and turned into charcoal for their production. Gradually, with increasing pressure on the land, silviculture comes into use as a means of maintaining adequate supplies for iron production. Even then, more timber must be imported from abroad, and some people are starting to adopt mud brick or stone housing more. Some make bricks from baked clay as well, using coal in dirty brickmakers on the edges of towns.
-Seeing the problems in the Maya city states, Xerxes gives them an offer they can’t refuse. Offering good wages for workers to rebuild infrastructure and to redevelop farmland, they prevent the complete collapse of the Maya civilization. Whilst a great majority of the population has vanished due to disease and general decline, this trend is not only reversed, but the urban centres are maintained throughout this period and never go into abandonment. Chichen Itza, with significant help from Xerxes, maintains itself as a diverse city, helping to keep the trade routes open. Eventually, under political pressure from Xerxes, these cities end up gradually amalgamating into a single political union.
-With growing power, the King declares he wishes to have an ambassador from every noteworthy country come for a meeting so they have full knowledge of the world to them. The Zapotec, Maya, Tairona, Muisca, Sican, Huari, and Tiwanaku all sent representatives of some kind for the general meeting. All are discussing matters such as the recent diseases and arrival of a strange yellow people from the far west. They are hypothesized to have brought the disease. They have also brought a multitude of strange plants and animals, the most popular in adoption being the chicken, goats, sheep, and horses. All excepting the chicken have yet to leave “Carufonia” and much of the surrounding lands however. The delegates agree to open up trade routes and to send military help in the instance that these foreigners bring harm to their respective countries. One interesting thing to come about as a result is the potato. Some plants are brought as a gift, and when brought back by delegates, are planted and quickly become a staple crop.
Turn 16: 875 to 950 CE
J. S. Bach - The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 - T. Koopman and T. Mathot
Turn music
Political map of Turn 16
Cultural map of Turn 16
Religious map of Turn 16
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=42664237&viewfull=1#post42664237
Turn quote: Plague, and fire: Religious zealots look smug.
Events of the years 875 to 950:
Europe
-A new and horrible disease spreads throughout the whole world, afflicting all of the great civilizations, culling roughly 30% of the total population and overall causing a great deal of pain, suffering, and misery. Out of the bodies would rise a new world full of uncertainty, as many old institutions have either died or been shocked thoroughly by this calamity. Named the Black Death, many historians have argued that the aftermath of this pandemic can be seen as the birth of the modern world. However, nobody at the time realized it, and an Italian diarist summed it up much like this:
“There appeared certain swellings in the groin and under the armpit, the victims spat blood, and in three days they were dead. The Lombards attribute this to the Mrvians, the Italians to the Phoenicians, the Germans to the Greeks, and everybody blames the Jews.”
-The Spanish and Portuguese begin to get involved with overseas trade and exploration much more, even exploring the coasts of the New World and setting up trading posts in Africa. This is exceedingly annoying to the Greeks, wishing to possess a monopoly on this sort of trade.
-Waifuism spreads into Europe via Egypt, and while it makes few inroads, it does most successfully in Bohemia, due to the state not actively seeking to supress foreign religions.
-Finland forms in Scandinavia as an independent country, having good relations with the Baltic Entente through trade and being one of the few places to survive the plague.
Zillamaster55 – Laubergian Reich
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-A biologist has a tough old time in Laubergia. He attends university where the bodies of criminals are cut up to learn about anatomy initially, but he finds it disgusting and leaves later. He dropped out and decided to join the merchant marine, becoming the botanist for the Greek survey ship “Seagull” which sails to South Hanajia to survey the coastline. He catalogues many different plants and animals, and had a great deal of fun riding the llamas when he was in the Andes. However, the most important discovery was that made when he travelled to Misiryaban. He noticed that the moths there were a distinctive black colour, whereas in other countries, they tended to be white. He postulated that these black moths stood a better chance of surviving natural predation. He went throughout books and then discovered that in the past, Misiryaban moths used to be white until quite recently. Somehow, they changed colour. Over time, he gradually develops a theory in his book “Entstehung der Arten”, which theorized that these moths, once on a black surface, stuck out and were easily eaten by predators. The moths which were of a darker colour were more likely to survive, and thus the number of dark moths would increase over time relative to lighter moths. He then began to extrapolate this theory to all life on earth, a rather dangerous contention, as some religious and political leaders hate the theory for it implies that humans could have gradually evolved from other forms of life.
-Unfortunately, just as the theory begins to spread out of Laubergia, the excited discussion on it is interrupted by the plague, scything through the land and killing many in its path. The army (which by this point is backwards, underfunded, and decrepit) is told to go home. Practically the entire army deserts and were it not for the plague, the country would be utterly defenceless. Even after the plague clears, it’s hardly competent, for most drills have been banned by nearby towns due to the noise it makes. Horse races are common between noblemen in the army along with gamblers betting in the barracks and parade grounds. Meanwhile, homeless people sleep in the prisons, and one prison guard says “anybody who doesn’t escape from the prison is lazy”, as he lies back before smoking a pipe and playing chess with one of the prisoners.
-A most curious doctor set himself up in Viikuru, and soon developed a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is take a red hot poker and burst the buboes in the armpits, before cutting a pigeon in half and tying it to the wound.
-To cover the severe depopulation and to boost agricultural production, the Queen borrows a lot of money to try and pay workers to farm the land. Unfortunately, this does not prevent land being abandoned, so the state is now legally entitled to seize land from plague victims and to join up the plots. These plots are then worked on by state paid farmers. Normally, this would produce a lot of problems but for now agricultural production does not decline too much. A lot of plots are joined together and large ploughs are used to work the land, whilst vast fields and pastures are used for crop rotation. Unfortunately, the treasurer reports a large deficit, and so they are forced to convert a lot of former cropland to pasture (such as sheep and cattle) to reduce labour costs. The experiment is a success, but transporting live animals is costly (along with their meat). Wool is popular though, and part of the economic revival is marked by the growth of villages spinning and weaving wool.
-The Laubergians open up their ports to trade indefinitely (save for plague), and abolish tariffs on trade. This has the impact of boosting coastal trade, albeit at the cost of massively reducing income for the state. Whilst in the long run this massively improves trade and industry in the Reich, initially it’s a great way for the Greeks and other foreigners to buy goods at low prices and sell their own goods here. Many manufactured goods flow into Laubergia and many farmers can be seen with fancy new steel tools, new animal breeds, and a lot of money in their pockets. They spend much of this cash on the improvement and construction of toll roads along with some of the first canals in Laubergia (built by Misiryabani engineers).
KingArcher – Misiryaban Caliphate
Capital: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Islam (Sunni)
-Engineers are still intrigued by the steam pump and the ability of steam to do work. One engineer is given a model to repair, and realizes that in actual fact, it’s pretty shit. He decides to create a separate chamber for steam to condense in and then scales up the model. Continual improvements along with patents eventually result in a large beam engine powered by low pressure steam. Initially, very few people are interested in it, save for mine owners. To try and make it more popular, he spends a great deal of time and money inventing a crankshaft mechanism in order to turn a wheel, so as to drive various machines. This enterprise fails as well, until an unexpected visitor arrives. The plague kills so many labourers that many factories and mines are desperate for an automated source of energy which only requires two men and a lad (there’s always a lad). The inventor did not live to reap his rewards however, as he died due to complications arising from taking a plague cure. His steam engines however, are the first spark in a revolution that will sweep away the old order and introduce the age of machine. For now however, very few of his engines see widespread use until the mid-10th century, at which point increasing labour costs brings about their advent.
-On a plateway, one mad engineer comes up with a brilliantly strange idea. He suggests that by laying iron pipes sealed with leather, then using steam pumps to create vacuums in the tubes, one could cause wagons to move under their own power along them. The idea is excitingly funded by the Misiryabani state, despite high costs and a large number of initial setbacks. Firstly, the pipes crack under the pressure, so new casting methods and leather must be used to seal the gap. Several engines explode or are too weak or ill placed, resulting in more modification. The rats tend to enjoy eating the leather, but eventually, an 800 metre stretch of track is completed to move goods from a foundry to a port. It continues with such problems throughout its life, leading the company to operate at a near loss. However, a ship from the far west brings back a new material that could be the answer to the solution. Called “rubber”, if heated with sulphur, it can produce a strong and durable material for the atmospheric railway that is not only suitable to replace leather with, but is not very tasty for rats to eat. Rubber imports grow, and soon the company manages to reduce operating costs. Some other people are interested in the enterprise, building atmospheric railways in low numbers over the country, usually upgrading the most heavily used plateways. The Misiryaban state however, regulates that barring geographic considerations, that 7 foot wide railways are to be used in all cases. This allows for large wheels to be fixed to the sides of wagons, reducing the height, air friction, and exploiting the square cube law in order to hold more cargo. By the mid-10th century, several of these railways exist, but changing the rolling stock and upgrading, building, and maintaining lines is difficult due to the inherent problems with using pressurized pipes. Some collieries and individual industrial areas adopt these on a smaller scale, or even use stationary engines to pulls wagons with chains instead. On a test run, the land speed record is set at 46kmph.
-The plague arrives in Misiryaban, and unfortunately, it hits just as hard as everywhere else. Whilst they did have some information from the Bohemians about the incoming disease, little could prepare them for the actual thing. Arriving via shipborne trade, it initially spreads throughout the urban areas before spreading out into the countryside. The authorities are terrified and have little idea of how to react to something so devastatingly awful, attempting punitive attempts at quarantine that took several years to isolate the disease in its entirety. For the already infected there is hope with the doctors prowling the streets and preaching their cures, for a most curious doctor set himself up in Misiryaban, and soon developed a burgeoning business. He promised that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is take sulphur powder and grain flour, before mixing it with goat droppings and rosemary before applying the mixture to the wound. Three million people die.
-An attempt was also made to utilize steam power for ships, firstly with the construction of the smallest yet most powerful steam engine made to date. It is fitted into a rather weird wooden ship, which is not only incredibly unstable and must be heavily reinforced with thick wood, but is slow and unwieldy. Large modified waterwheel paddles are fixed to the sides of the ship, and most curiously, can be operated independently of each other, meaning it is possible for the ship to spin in place. The first launch goes horrifically wrong when the ship capsizes at launch. It requires salvaging the costly engine and improvement of the ship body to make it stable, if difficult to steer. The first test run goes well in the North Sea, and the ship makes its way to Arhonia to dock at their main port. Unfortunately, due to an inability to steer it, the ship crashed into the main pier and completely shattered it, along with destroying several warehouses. The ship is so utterly beset by failure that it takes up new life as a mobile artillery platform for siege engines, and even then, requires towing by smaller sailing boats or to use masts most of the time.
-The Misiryabanis (with assistance from their Irish allies) invade Wales, subjugating the area considerably quickly. Cross cultural influence was already pretty strong, with many Imans operating in the country. Politically however, it wished to retain independence, and when the Misiryabanis tried to buy land for mining, it became a problem when the local nobility tried to oust the foreigners due to their influence. War is declared, and the new steamship is towed to the Welsh coast to act as an artillery battery for the polybolos. Many of them fire multiple (and cheaply mass produced) iron bolts at the Welsh capital, until eventually they surrendered after an extensive bombardment. Guerrilla actions continue for much longer, requiring the building of smaller forts throughout the countryside to pacify the Welsh. The general in charge is pleased with his success, and asks the Caliph permission to invade the troublesome Scots, who have been raiding their Irish allies. He agrees. This war was the first in which the polybolos was used, a siege weapon with a high rate of fire. In order to make it smaller and easier to mass produce, most of the components were replaced with iron so that could be manufactured in foundries. The additional fact that they fire iron bolts means that these weapons can fire a bolt every 3 seconds.
-In the war with Scotland, the steamship is moored outside the port of Leith, where unfortunately, despite being a good artillery platform, is captured and when brought towards Stirling as a prize of war, gets stuck in the shallow river after a paddle wheel snaps off and it veers into the bank. The Scots suddenly realize this is a problem because they just blocked the river to the city of Stirling. They try to shift it out of the way first, but the heavy engine and wood helps it to sink into the mud. Next they try burning it, but the sheer bulk of the wet timber burns poorly. They attempt to have an army of workers try to rip it apart, but much of the debris (including the heavy engine) sinks into the mud and causes sediment and other river rubbish (including that which the city throws out) to build up there. Eventually, it completely blocks the river and floods much of the lower parts of the town and docks. Most historians believe this is the point where Stirling began to decline in favour of deepwater ports further out.
-Scotland and Wales are eventually conquered, but much of the countryside remains only loosely under their control. In fact, north of Stirling, the Caliph has practically no power over the petty tribes. So, the Caliph comes with a brilliant new policy. The laws on land inheritance are changed so that non-Muslims must split up land equally upon death. This has the effect of breaking up the larger estates and making many Clan leaders up north convert if only to escape taxes and losing their land. Of course, with the plague causing a labour shortage and the Scottish lowlands and Wales starting to industrialize (along with heavy demand for wool), wages are going up and sheep look profitable. With this, many landlords throw tenants off the land and force them to go to the growing cities to work in foundries, mines, early factories, canals, and sometimes on the railways. Ethnic and religious tension are at an all-time high, with many groups fighting between one another in the cities, crime being rife, and many cultures, ideas, languages, and fists being exchanged. Some members of the intellectual class begin to paint and write poetry or novels on this new system, selling it to concerned rich and middle class people despairing at the lot of the poor. One Scottish Chieftain, after publishing his new book satirizing rich people who cleared the peasantry off their lands, decides to use the royalties to fund the removal of a nearby village to make way for sheep pasture.
-Farm labourers make higher wages nearer to cities and industrial areas, so even farmers have to begin moving of their own accord, and now all sorts of classes and peoples are rubbing shoulders and starting to cause problems. The Misiryabani state, realizing that growing industrialization is going to cause civil unrest, decides to implement a base minimum wage to. Of course, these wages are quickly put into jeopardy when a third of the country decided to drop dead, so for the first seventy years it’s a practically meaningless law. The Misiryabani state then decided to introduce a national health service, where each administrative region is responsible for the health of their inhabitants. The state uses taxes to fund it, and most services are usually public sanitation projects. The rich, seeing the potential gains, decide to clear their conscience and find a good investment opportunity by building sewers, which the NHS is more or less responsible for. It is thought that bad smells cause disease, so by clearing the streets of debris, and providing access to fresh water in the booming cities, one can reduce disease. It doesn’t stop plague, but many middle and upper class people are happy to invest into the sewers and pay for the extension of them to their own private houses, whilst the municipal companies managing them charge fees for their usage. The poor meanwhile still have to visit the street pipe and street shit pit. Hospitals meanwhile, whilst they used to be managed by religious institutions, have been supplemented by state run ones, where at the very least; people can die in a well-ventilated and clean environment. Most notable, is the improvement in childbirth, for women are given maternity leave (paid for by the state). Unfortunately, all of this costs quite a lot of money, and Misiryaban is rather short on cash now, especially given the collapse of trade with the plague and the Greeks having an economic crisis.
-Some ships sail west from Iceland to a large uninhabited island called Greenland, which they named because it was full of green pastures. It is a good place to fish, whale, and rear sheep, so a colony is established to do exactly just that. Sometime later, cod fishermen began to slowly inch down the coast southwards, eventually wintering over there and trading with the natives. Eventually, after about thirty years of this, they meet traders from a vast empire to the south, apparently packed full of commodities and being rich beyond their wildest dreams. A fisherman gets backing from a wealthy merchant to sail here, where they stock up on furs, jewellery, rubber, rice seeds, maize, other seeds, plus bring back live turkeys and peccaries as curiosities. The musk ox is meanwhile discovered by fishermen who explored north and met the Dorset culture, and it is thought these can be potentially utilized on the pastures of Greenland and Iceland. Of the goods flowing across the sea, rubber and iron are the most prized. Near the end of this period, the first barrels of coca and tobacco arrive in Misiryaban and the wealthy go wild over it. It seems as though the little trade that exists over the north Atlantic is just about to grow explosively.
-An alliance is formed with Spain, mostly after tariffs for weapons, armour, and iron were slashed and the new polybolos was exported. Other dignitaries travelled to Mongolia to share information about the west in great detail. When the Khan asked for a new alphabet for the Mongolian language, the Misiryabanis delegates suggest the Arabic script. He is so pleased that he orders everyone in his vast empire to begin the long and arduous task of translating everything into this new script, assisted heavily by the Misiryabanis. They end up eventually introducing a few new words into Mongolian, and also take many copies back home where they are easily translated into Turkish (given the script is the same). The Art of War by Sun Tzu becomes a bestseller in Misiryaban. As for the Silk Road, many surveyors from Misiryaban begin to survey the route between Mongolia and Europe, discovering new places that roads can be built in to facilitate trade, bridges to be built for crossing certain areas, along with milestones and watchposts. Unfortunately, a lot of labourers die during construction, but given that they are conscripted Chinese workers, nobody really cares. One Misiryaban surveyor (at great expense) even builds a model atmospheric railway to show the Mongolian Khan, much to his amusement.
-A trading company is established to conduct trade with India and along the Silk Road. They are mostly responsible for the surveying and improvement of the Silk Road, and also to conduct trade with the Indies. For some reason, they even manage to establish an embassy in Korea before it was invaded. Unfortunately, many of their ships are raided by privateers, some of them using terrifying new weapons that emit fire and smoke that throw stone balls with great force at them. Patrol ships are later set up using the polybolos, which can clear enemy decks quite quickly. In response, the privateers move their cannons below decks or raid isolated and unarmed merchant vessels. These privateers are blamed for the rising price of iron outside Arhonia and Misiryaban, especially in Greece where rising iron prices are causing shortages in armaments factories.
Damian0358 – Kingdom of Bohemia
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-A delegation from Misiryaban visits Bohemia, bringing back a most curious invention the Bohemians are excited to see. It is a metal cylinder with tubes and pipes coming out of it, and when heated and given a good supply of water, it can be used to pump water. Several are installed in the Palace to pump water in the fountains, later spreading into the homes of the nobility and much later (after the plague hit), to pump water out of mines due to rising labour costs. Of course, one chap goes in an entirely different direction when reading over translated Misiryabani texts, where it explains that the machine operates on the principle that air has weight. If air has weight, surely items lighter than air should be able to float within the air? He conducts experiments by holding pieces of paper over an open flame and watching the paper float upwards, concluding that if he heated the air directly underneath the paper, the air would become light and push the paper upwards. Experimenting with larger and larger models, he eventually becomes confident enough to build a full scale version of what we may now call a parachute. He jumps off a bell tower and aims for a bonfire lit below, and whilst he does float upwards in his parachute, an ember sets his trousers on fire. He lost his grip and flew into the side of a building, setting it on fire. The resulting fire causes much of Medieval Aquincum to burn down, for most of the city was abandoned during the plague and little could be done with a tiny fire fighting force. Very few people actually died in the fire since most of the city was already heavily depopulated. At least it’s an excuse to rebuild it.
-The Kingdom of Bavaria is asked to give up Lusatia to the Kingdom of Bohemia. They refuse. This somewhat embarrasses the Bohemians, who quietly decide to expand into the Vistula basin instead. The many tribes here (one of which is led by a man rumoured to be the son of a wheelwright) continue to gradually submit to the rule of the Bohemians, although wars are more frequent. These people actively resist the arrival of the Bohemians and their missionaries, often crucifying them and saying that the gods will strike down the Bohemians eventually. They are eventually struck down, but then so are the Pagans. It is a most horrible disease, causing the lymph nodes to swell and the victim to spit blood. Arriving with foreign ambassadors from the Mongolian Empire, it spreads along trade routes and is initially mistaken for flu. Despite the fact that many people wash themselves often with soap and have a quarantine system in place; this is little protection from fleas biting people. The large populations crammed into cities with dogs, rats, cats, and mice make it a perfect area for fleas to spread rapidly. By the time the authorities have realized the extent of the pandemic, it is too late to protect the major cities. People flee to the countryside and the monasteries, often overwhelming existing infrastructure in the panic. Many towns, manors, and smaller settlements do successfully set up quarantines, but without knowledge of how to treat the disease, there is little to alleviate it. 20% of the population of Praha dies, and many more are lost due to emigration, hunger, and succumbing to other diseases due to weakened immune systems. Whilst the Kingdom overall does better than their neighbours, it is still hit extremely badly, losing at least a quarter of the population.
-A most curious doctor sets himself up in Praha, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to swallow the semen of a horse and/or an ox, the fresher the better. Some doctors merely invite clients to a shadowy place to meet the animal, whilst others simply keep vials of the stuff slightly warm for sale, promising their costumers that it is indeed fresh. Municipal regulations later force doctors found to be selling old semen to have the product dried and burned under their nose.
-The Kievan Rus convert to Aquinism, with Vladimir I's baptism in 988. A military agreement is signed between Bohemians and Rus, giving the king of Bohemia six thousand Varangian warriors, whilst shipping over large numbers of cheap weaponry (most of which had been bought from abroad) and promising to subsidize the regimes military. Knowing the loyalty of the Varangians, the King of Bohemia decided to form the Varangian Guard, employing the Varangian warriors as his personal retinue.
-The Aquinist Church is reorganized, with the churches split up into two categories, Autocephalous Churches and Autonomous churches. Autocephalous churches are further divided into 3 categories, Pentarchal Patriarchates, Junior Patriarchates and Autocephalous Archbishoprics. The Pentarchal Patriarchates are the patriarchs of Velehrad, Salza, Lygos, Jerusalem and Antioch (Bohemia, Laubergia, Delia, Ptolemaic and Turks). The Junior Patriarchates are the patriarchs of France, Lombardy, Burgundy, Bavaria and Kievan Rus'. The Autocephalous Archbishoprics are those of Lugii and Romania. The Autonomous Aquinist churches are currently: the archbishop of Rome (under Lygos) and the metropolitan bishop of Aquitania (under the French patriarch).
-After the reform of the church to incorporate the Greeks, facing a severe budget crisis, the Greeks sell much of the old Mrvian Empire back to the Bohemians, and many citizens cheer from within their houses at the news (they are reluctant to go into the streets due to plague).
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian Empire
Capital: Lygos
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Seeking to improve on the crude and rather crap bombard, Delian engineers have begun experimenting with alloys and metal casting techniques. By casting the artillery piece as a single entity, one reduces production costs and the time taken for manufacture, whilst also making them of a more uniform standard. Unfortunately, the process makes it difficult to make breech loading mechanisms (which are quickly abandoned), in favour of smoothbore muzzle loading cannon. These pieces tend to be cast from bronze or iron alloys, and gradually there is a reduction in the overall weight and cumbersome nature of these pieces. They are light enough to be mounted onto heavy wooden carriages with two wheels, and are often dragged to battle by a team of horses and then set up. More mobile and flexible (and therefore practical) than before, these new cannons can be used to devastating effect in battle, and when arranged in a battery, will annihilate anything. Unfortunately, their reloading speed, accuracy, and poor mobility limit their effectiveness.
-Using their deep pockets with money from questionable sources, money is spent on the navy with the goal of making it the largest force in the world. Practically all old ship designs are made obsolete with the introduction of cannon and caravels. Caravels are being mass produced in shipyards with crude assembly lines along with galleys for both military and trade uses, being outfitted with several heavy guns and thick hulls that can withstand the shock of firing. The naval academy in Crete inevitably has to be expanded and reformed to take these new advances into account, with many instructors telling their students to be wary of broadsides, as these can cause a ship to capsize.
-The Delians pledge support to Lombardy in a war with France, which they gratefully accept and receive large numbers of naval vessels, soldiers, and cannon to assist in the war. The war goes rather quickly on the coasts, with the French ports being shelled heavily into submission and the castles throughout the countryside being gradually reduced in sieges (aided by cannon). The extensive subsidies are a drain on Delian finances however as they are funding the conquest of a powerful kingdom whilst the plague ravishes their Empire. After several campaigns, France is finally conquered, and to celebrate, the King of Lombardy moves his capital to Ile-de-France, and declares himself Emperor of Francia. He then begins the task of suppressing regional dialects and promoting the use of the Lombard language, which forms the basis of the modern French language. He also suppresses the Basque, Breton, and German minorities, and pisses off the northern French. The word for “yes” gradually evolves from “oui” to “si”.
-Understandably, the Pope is rather annoyed by the fact that the Delian Greeks have supported a Kingdom which frequently wars with Spain and also kicked out Iberian bishops. The Delians ignore the pope, who then excommunicates the Congress. The Delians respond by telling bishops to defy the pope and encouraging churches to teach in Greek, allowing priests to marry, and many other views opposing the Iberian church. Following the excommunication, they talk with the Bohemians and the Congress establishes a Patriarchate in Lygos and officially changes the state religion to Aquinism.
-Italy still deeply resents rule by the Greeks, whom gradually introduce Hellenizing influences. Their adoption of Aquinism did please the Italians, if only at the extreme anger of the Greeks, who claim to follow the original church for Brian, whilst Muslim and Jewish minorities are as unhappy as ever. To add more problems, a new religion called Waifuism has appeared, although the numbers of worshippers are tiny. Industrialization in Italy is underway with mines and factories being established, whilst land clearances gradually take place under landlords, mirroring similar activities in the homeland. To try and mitigate this, the Greeks finally cave in and allow wealthy Italians to attend the Delian congress, which has begun to bloat and has ancient electoral districts. Seeing the sewer systems of the old Romans, massive efforts are made to improve sanitation in the cities of the Empire, which degraded in more recent centuries. A garbage collection system is set up with poor people to clean the streets, along with a fine for dumping trash in the street. Dumps are established outside of the town where carts take collected trash and throw it out. Sewer systems are retiled and strengthened, and given additional water flow to help prevent blockages. The cities pay people to find and kill homeless cats and dogs’ as well as rats and other rodents. Regular bathing is actively encouraged, although costly. To do this, public baths are subsidized and rebuilt. Unfortunately, this would all be of little help when the plague arrived.
-The plague arrives in these clean, well-drained, cities free of pests. That is, excepting for horses, which shit everywhere and are in massive numbers along with farm animals brought in from the countryside to be slaughtered and eaten by city people. The plague instead spread from farms into the cities, infecting farmers markets and spreading outwards, made worse by the fact that butchers work in unsanitary conditions with live and dead animals. People die in heaps, and soon there are few left to repair most sanitation and infrastructure, especially given that grave diggers have high death rates. After the disease clears, matters get even worse. Heavy investment into the MTC is ruined by the surprise attack on the colonies in Hanajia, and the collapse in share prices starts a financial panic that results in the meltdown of the Greek financial system. The plague was of course largely to blame for this, but the colony raid destroyed what confidence remained. Credit dries up and merchants are unable to borrow money along with the state. There is no feasible way to find money, so the Greeks debase their currency and seize gold and silver assets from plague victims to try and maintain essential infrastructure. Agriculture also effectively collapses, and many people migrate elsewhere, and by the end of this period, the Greeks have a trade deficit with Laubergia due to the Reich’s well developed export-based agricultural economy.
-Economy calamity continues when iron imports from Arhonia and Misiryaban sharply rise, despite those metals being still rather cheap there. Many factories choose to shut down or lay off workers in face of rising prices, and industrial action by workers is becoming increasingly common. Speculation, hoarding, tariffs, and Jews are all blamed for economic woe and plague, and some people listen to the vitriolic words of one most curious doctor, who lives in Lygos. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different, and involves simply killing Jewish people and foreigners. This is readily taken up by the rural population (especially those who lost their lands after being thrown off it by landlords), who murder or chase away all Hebrews they can find, despite protestations of the authorities to control the riots.
-Facing a severe deficit, the Greek Empire sells vast areas of former Bohemian land to the Bohemians, much of it rich agricultural or industrial land, and using the money to maintain the bloated infrastructure left behind after the plague killed off most taxpayers supporting it. The Greeks have been severely weakened by the long wars, collapse of their colonies, trade deficits, industrial action, plague, and constant money shortages. A large debt has been built up over time, and there are fears of default at this rate if the Greeks are unable to bring their finances under control. For the time being however, they still have allies in Francia and much of Europe, and have managed to settle more land in Ruthenia (as it is becoming known).
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-With increasing knowledge of optics, the properties of light are being better understood. For instance, certain mediums can influence the bending of light beams, and one glassblower decides to test this out for himself. Using a darkened room with a slit in the window, he has a straight beam of light come in above a table, on which he can put glass shapes. Most interesting is when he puts down a glass triangle, which splits the light into different colours (like that of a rainbow) and the fact that beyond the red beam, it feels warm despite the absence of light (later to be called infrared). He also begins to look through glass shapes themselves to see how they influence sight, noticing that his vision can become blurred or oddly further away or closer objects become sharper and easier to see. He makes one for each eye and gives them to a man with poor sight, who remarks “my eyesight is shite, but tis less shite than before”. He spent the rest of his days grinding these “lenses” for people with poor sight, putting them into metal frames to be worn on the nose. Some scholars are worried about these “eyeglasses” however, saying that wearers are often shunned or teased.
-With some assistance from their friends in Misiryaban, the new polybolos is reduced in size and modified with replaceable parts made from iron. Given the ability of Misiryaban to mass produce cheap iron, these machines are not only easily replaceable, but cheap to manufacture, small enough to be mounted on a wheeled carriage to be moved quickly around a battlefield by horse, and can be mounted on walls and operated by a one or two man team with ease. The ammunition (iron bolts) are also easy to mass produce, another bonus for such a weapon. Horses are used to drag them to the field, although some time later a 6 horse team used to pull ones with lighter carriages are introduced, allowing for greater flexibility on the field. Polybolos machines are also mounted on ships, and are particularly effective at clearing the decks of ships before boarding. The Baltic entente sends several ships and such machines to Misiryaban in order to assist in the conquest of Scotland and Wales. Closer to home, they conquer Skane and continue to consolidate their lands in the Baltic, expanding rapidly into Estonia and Latvia. Finally, in order to improve siege artillery, academies and engineers workshops are established in Tallinn for artillery crews to train with the polybolos and to learn how to maintain and repair the machines, along with knowing how to quickly replace broken parts during battle. A good knowledge of mathematics is required as well in order to work out where projectiles will land.
-Deism is further defined as the belief that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to determine the existence of Gods, accompanied with the rejection of revelation and authority as a source of religious knowledge, although elements of Slavic and Norse pagan religions have clearly leaked in. Of course, quite a few people have begun to look for evidence of the goods in the natural world and in mathematics, with one mathematician who (after inventing a numerical system which uses only two values) says that if one assumes the gods exist, you will profit in the afterlife. However, if you assume they don’t, you do badly in the afterlife. If the afterlife did not exist however, then as an atheist will have spent their life well (with the religious having wasted time during their life), the atheist would be clearly the better off. However, as being an atheist gives either little gain or infinite misery, whilst being religious gives either a little problem or infinite gain, it is rational to be religious. The man later writes a manifesto detailing several characteristics of a "Deist" lifestyle. Despite the "rejection of religious authority" the followers of the religion often find they like to practice together in groups. The religion takes a shift towards greater organization, with churches appearing in some villages, and the Baltic double cross as their symbol.
-Serfdom is finally outlawed, with peasants now finally freed from the land to work in subsistence agriculture. In reality, serfdom was never really practiced that much in the entente, and is mostly a political signal more than anything else. The monarchy continues to reform politically however, with a parliament gradually growing and taking control of the budget. The monarch then appoints several MPs to sit in the executive to carry out policy for him, although the most senior title is nicknamed “Kings pet”. As to be expected, most people in parliament are either members of the aristocracy or wealthy friends and relatives of powerful merchants. Electoral districts are skewed and ancient, whilst many people literally buy votes or hold large parties and give everybody in town a free beer on the day of the elections. Of course, all votes are done in public.
-In science and education, there have also been significant improvements and changes. Shipyards are being built throughout the entente (such as in Copenhagen and in western Jutland) to permit expansion of the fleets, whilst public schools are being set up (usually by the state where religious and charitable organizations have failed) to assist in the education of the growing numbers of workers. Till now, such skills were not very useful, but as reading, writing, managing money, travel, trade, and working as minor clerks along with being potential army recruits is now important, giving them a modicum of education is now considered prudent, something once left to the nobility and wealthy. The famous Guild and Apprenticeship system for children and adolescents is also established within these schools. Their task is to take orphans and the poor into the care of the state, and set them towards learning productive and useful jobs such as in carpentry, baking, weaving, shipbuilding, construction, masonry, pottery, ironworking, roadbuilding, engineering, etc. Whilst initially costly, it pays itself back over the long run as many of these people go to work and pay much needed taxes needed by the state, or if they emigrate, they do usually send money back home to their families (which again, can be taxed!). For the people who cannot find work or do not enter the apprenticeship system, the government sets them to work on building dams, sewers, wells, aqueducts, and other publics works projects, mostly in order to clean refuse from the streets. It is thought that the old “shit brook”, which was where everything the residents of Tallinn didn’t want went (including unpopular politicians) may have been to blame for this, so by building a vast sewer network one can keep the air and streets clean.
-The plague hits the Baltic just as hard as any other country. Hundreds of thousands die, villages are abandoned, agricultural land is converted into pasture or forestry, and of course, quack doctors are aplenty. A most curious doctor however sets up in Tallinn, and eventually has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different and has also been adopted by religious sects calling themselves flagellants. The patient must walk around, having another person whip them whilst wearing very little clothing that is also very uncomfortable, a bizarre practice which can be still seen today on certain specialist websites.
-Seeking to finally domesticate the moose for domestic and military purposes, several of them are captured and brought to an experimental milk farm in the entente. It is largely inspired by (and based on) existing methods used by the Lapps with reindeer and pastoralists on the plains and tundras. Moose go through the forest during the year freely, but always return to the farm because it has food available and is a safe place to give birth. (Plus the fact that the ones which return have a greater likelihood of their offspring becoming more common in the population). By separating the moose and their calf and feeding them, both animals become attached to people, so when released into the wild, they return often for milking or training with their carergivers. Over a period of 70 years, the domesticated form of moose becomes gradually more prevalent around the farm, and their spread allows for several such farms to be set up in chains throughout the managed forests. Unfortunately, it has led to the wild moose being gradually driven out of their old habitats as the domestic one out-competes the wild moose. Famously, research here would contribute towards the theory of evolution.
-Finally, the Ethiopian (and Egyptian) coffee begins to be imported, gradually replacing the old acorn coffee. It is incredibly popular, and with good reason, given that acorn coffee is fucking terrible.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-A new method of navigation has come about. Whilst the compass has been in use for some time, determining latitude and longitude at sea is still quite difficult. However, the mariners’ astrolabe and portolan charts have come into common usage by sailors in Arhonia. The portolan chart, is simply a map with lines drawn on them (based on compass directions), and the distances estimated by navigators at sea. Their name comes from the fact that many points of reference were ports. The astrolabe meanwhile, is an instrument used for measuring angles with relation to the stars and planets. By holding it at the top and aligning the plane of the astrolabe to the object of interest (such as a star), one can easily measure the angle. It is also designed to permit looking at the sun safely. Unfortunately, the lunar distance method has yet to be developed, and the instrument is still limited in the accuracy of the readings it can give. Astronomers are as busy as ever, trying to find out how to pinpoint your exact location on earth with the utmost accuracy. People designing satellites centuries later would be doing the same thing in order to allow people to create a satellite map of the world so they could look at naked people in their back gardens, or see that all your neighbours have swimming pools and you don’t and so you feel a bit pathetic.
-With trade expanding and the Greeks wanting to buy a lot of things and store these things in warehouses for long periods of time, several merchants go to a large farmland and begin coughing awkwardly about the people who happen to be in the way. After the plague kills all of the farmers, they begin making plans to establish giant warehouses and a port there complete with massive cranes, canals, and crude plateways to move wagons of goods along to the port. Iron mines continue to sink deeper into the earth, although draining them is considerably problematic now. Foundries and new prospectors appear as well to assist with the mining industry, but of course the inevitable economic recessions brought on by plague dampened things a bit. A lot of iron is left lying around in warehouses and development ceased for a while, that is, until they found new buyers by lowering prices and selling it overseas to glad merchants, willing to take iron products and process them for export elsewhere.
-Like many other places in the world, the plague is pretty fucking hard hitting, killing so many people that not enough are left to maintain dykes that prevent flooding. Whilst these are not a type of lesbian and are actually large earth embankments, they are certainly similarly sized and shaped. Unfortunately, these floods happen at the world possible times, flooding great areas of farmland and depositing a lot of seawater that ruins crops. The survivors cram into the cities or try to salvage remaining farmland, and due to the complete collapse of the peat bogs, there are fears that whole areas of Arhonia could be lost to the sea at this rate. In the cities, disease is made all the more common due to the fact that floods allow for dead dogs and sewage to flow through the streets, which is considered unhygienic. A most curious doctor set himself up in Kraskai, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to take a small toad and dry it out before stuffing grain seeds inside it and putting it in a bag to wear around the neck. This later becomes the basis for a folk tale where a goddess is put out of a job by a new type of agricultural machine, but she must stay near some special grains at all times. To keep them safe, she stores them inside a toad and wears them in a bag around her neck. She is later burned at the stake because she had animal ears.
-A letter is sent to the King of Bavaria asking him if he would like to join Arhonia in a confederation with him. He receives a letter back explaining to him that they are from completely different religions and that the only reason they haven’t invaded him yet is because of implied military support from Greece and extensive trade routes that would make invasion costly for Bavaria.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-Seeking to improve the use of gunpowder (which in its current form, burns too slowly or quickly and often fouls the barrels of guns), the Phoenicians have come up with a clever way to make different types of powder for different uses. By manufacturing powder and pressing it into small cakes before sifting it through sieves of different sizes, you can make different “corns” of gunpowder. Generally speaking, finer powders burn quicker whilst coarse powders burn slower. The coarse ones are sold to the Greeks for their cannon, whilst fine powders are used for the ignition of the cannon, and also in crude and early versions of the firearm. Some engineers think that gunpowder could be potentially used to power an engine, based on the idea that an explosion in a piston can drive the piston up, and by using a sparking mechanism and a pump to blow in tiny amounts of fine powder, one can power an engine with it. Gunpowder is also being extensively used in mining and quarrying now, with safe ways of handling it being finally in common practice. Of course, one man had the misfortune to have an iron spike fly through his skull after a charge went off early. Amazingly he survived, but his behaviour was permanently altered, and his story becomes a case study in early psychology and biology, especially with regards to research into the brain and human behaviour.
-The army takes gunpowder and extends the military applications of it further. By stuffing it into a tube and lighting it, it can fly into the air and explode. The first military use is not as a weapon however, but for use in communication. A logistics corps eventually develops as the need to move and prepare gunpowder is essentially to many weapons used by the army, whilst academies are set up for naval officers, and for those involved in communications. Ballista’s that fire bolts or bombs are also being improved by the addition of fuses (although they do not explode on contact), allowing those with some mathematics knowledge to calculate roughly how long the shot is in the air for and therefore when it will land and explode. Early grenades are also being phased in, with them being used by shock troops as the prelude to a massed charge. A popular game with POWs originates from this time, where the prisoner has a grenade hooked onto their trousers and is let free. If they can discover the grenade and throw it away before it goes off, they go free. Unfortunately, quite a few end up not being lucky enough to manage this in time.
-With economic and social change being quite fast, political change is naturally slow to adapt. There are some attempts to alleviate the growing numbers of malcontent on the streets by introducing policing forces, whilst the government adopts more of the trappings of democratic rule in order to make sure that wealthy middle class people and their concerns are being heard. Many of them have brilliant ideas about how to help the poor whilst being patronizing towards them in the most efficient manner, gladly voting for tax increases that get funnelled elsewhere. This money ends up funding the expansion of canals, the opening of new mines, roads, and even to help prop up agriculture after a third of the country suddenly relocated underground. Some is even used for a rather glamorous contest, where it asks for people to invent a device which can tell latitude accurately. Nobody really has an idea, but one chap manages to build a large metal box with a pivot and gears inside and weights along with a rope wound around a drum. He says that his machine can be used in bell towers and astronomies for assisting in tracking time, and thus with determining latitude. It’s a step forwards, and he is assisted by the Phoenicians, eventually resulting in the development of the first generation of mechanical clocks. Unfortunately, they do not possess pendulums (and so lose time often), are rather big, bulky and cannot be used on ships. Still, he is well funded and eventually sees the widespread deployment and adoption of these new “clocks”. Some towers even begin to be purpose built for the task, and are called “clock towers”. All models created thus far have the hands remain stationary, whilst the machine rotates the face.
-The Phoenician trading company merges with the Greek trading company, although in actual practice very little changes save for a financial crisis. During the attempts at establishing colonies in Hanajia, the feared Xerxes raided and annihilated the colony, causing a lot of unhappy merchants to lose their investments into the company. The Phoenician merchants knew it was a bad idea from the start, and practically all of them leave the MTC, leaving it on an uneven footing. Competition from smaller merchants and lobbying also undermines the company in Phoenicia and their overseas possessions, and when the financial crisis wreaks havoc on the Greek state and results in economic collapse, many in the country are demanding the Phoenician government pulls out of the agreement. One positive change during this time period however was the gradual increase in the trade of coffee, with it being grown throughout several places in Africa and exports being handled by Phoenician merchants. And of course, it’s not complete without ice cream. Even though most street vendors sell ice cream adulterated with things like chalk, ice cream houses become popular and many chambers are dug underground to store ice in. Curiously, it is discovered that by dissolving saltpetre in water, it cools the water down, and can be used to cool ice cream. Whilst it does dissolve into nitric acid and potassium hydroxide (both of which are unpleasant to touch), careful washing normally prevents children being burned, usually. One popular flavour is coffee flavour, where one mixes in ground up coffee beans with the ice cream.
-The plague is exceedingly deadly in Phoenicia, given their strong like of ice cream and the large number of fleas that often fell into ice cream from the vendors clothing. Doctors ply the streets with the vendors, chastising the ice cream vendors for selling disgusting things whilst they carefully put leeches on an eager patient. One such doctor sets himself up in Malta, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is simply to apply leeches to the swollen buboes and hope that they suck out the disease. Instead it kills the little bastards. Bad for the leech, good for the doctor, who can always harvest more leeches (by paying a poor person to put their legs in the pond and picking them off) and sell them. It is no surprise that in this country, the name for a doctor is the same for that as a leech.
cis. joshb – Chiefdom of Polotsk
Capital: Polotsk
Culture: Polochan (Slavic)
State Religion: Slavic
-Rather than any distinctive improvements in technology, science, or mathematical or philosophy thought being made, there are largely importations of foreign ideas, inventions, and discoveries. Of these, includes the adoption of modern horse saddles, crossbows, bows, chainmail hauberk armour (already starting to fall out of fashion in more advanced civilizations), and general improvement in terms of equipment and military strategy. Forces of armoured lancers, horse archers, and crossbowmen are being fielded, with large numbers of high quality weapons and armour bought for the Chiefs personal retinue. War resumes with the enemies of the Polochans, with the name of this area gradually shifting towards “The Chiefdom of Polotsk” as neighbours recognize this geopolitical entity. The chiefdom continues to grow, although grow begins to significantly slow down once they start meeting people with well-developed fortifications and allies to call on in the west, so expansion to the east is preferred.
-A council is called at Polotsk. Out of the sixty or so chiefs that ruled over the villages that did not fall under the High Chief's demesne, one tenth was selected to be stripped of titles in punishment for treatment of the High Chief's emissaries to the Chiefs. This is not as a punishment to scare the chiefs, however, because the High Chief holds a council with the surrounding chiefs of each man who is stripped of his land, and lets them know that they will be allowed to divide his land among them. The High Chief then informs the people who have not been called into private council (the Chiefs who are being stripped of their titles) that they have been convicted of treason and that their lives have been gracefully spared and they have been merely stripped of their titles to the land. He hoped this would build loyalty among the Chiefs, and in return for the land of the deposed Chiefs, he had them swear oaths to him as High Chief of Polotsk, requiring that they give him a tithe of one tenth of what they tax from the citizens and nobles of their domains, as well as a small force of soldiers each. He officially calls his realm the Chiefdom of Polotsk, gradually bringing into existence an organized and strong feudal system at a time when most countries have begun to dismantle feudalism.
-Emissaries were sent to encourage the Kievan Rus not to convert to Christianity. Men versed in Slavic religion travelled into the towns to continue preaching and prevent Slavs from turning to the Mrvian religion. Any Mrvians passing through Polochan land who are missionaries were turned away and barred entry, causing a diplomatic faux paus. Many who return or try to sneak through are imprisoned. Slavic tribes around the Polochans are offered the option of swearing the same oath as the subchiefs to the High Chief of Polotsk, in return for peace and the ability to enforce their own laws, provided they provide tribute and soldiers and do not undermine the government. While their attempts to prevent the Rus from converting to Christianity failed, they have succeeded in encouraging neighbouring tribes to consolidate and form alliances with Polotsk. One problem however, is that these chiefs demand equal power in a confederation instead of submitting under the Chief of Polotsk.
-A most curious doctor sets himself up in Polotsk, yet found little business. He promised that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines), yet still finds no interest. He travels around and discovers that no outbreaks have occurred, mostly due to the rural backwardness of the country and its isolation preventing the plague from reaching here. (Whilst some isolated outbreaks do occur, it is difficult for it to spread due to the low population density and lack of urban centres). Bitter and angry, the doctor leaves for Germany, where he dies of the plague after selling magic onions that promised to cure the plague.
Mediterranean Trading Company
Capital: Lygos/Istanbul/Malta
Culture: Broadly Mediterranean
State Religion: Irreligion
-The Mediterranean Trading Company undergoes perhaps its worst crisis in their history. The successful colony in Hanajia was destroyed in a space of several months by the Xerxes people and local natives. Many plantations were burned, houses pulled down, land flooded or otherwise made useless, and colonists executed or dead from disease brought by introduced malaria and plague. Whilst new ships with cannon were developed during this time, they are wholly unable to help the colonies, which all but collapse during this time. A financial panic develops which results in the collapse of the Greek economy as it is realized that valuable returns would never arrive, and that many investments are now worthless. The company loses a great deal of support, especially in Phoenicia as many merchants undermine the company after being bitterly angry at it. Bailouts from the Greeks are unable to convince many to return, but it does survive on existing trade with Africa. However, for exploration, this is a golden age. Many explorers chart the southern coasts of Hanajia (discovering peoples who are too primitive and few in number to pose a threat), the rest of Africa (discovering the Kongo and the new Zulu port near Cape Agulhas), and much of Asia.
-The Eastern and Western trading companies merged to form the Mediterranean Trading Company, with the former houses and much infrastructure and regulations remaining in place. However, it is made clear that Greek is the official language spoken, and the main headquarters remains in the Greek capital of Lygos where they can easily keep an eye on their activities and breathe down their necks. The Phoenicians generally relegate themselves to Africa, while the Greeks handle Asian and Hanajian trade (until the colonies were burned), with Phoenicians pushing deep inland to shift trade towards the trading posts of the company, whilst Greeks in India sold the princes there manufactured weaponry and armour in return for luxuries such as sugar, spice, and everything nice (including silks and faux-Chinese and Wapanese goods). The financial panic, plus the inability of the Greek state to support the company however due to financial problems, has led to the Phoenicians being displeased with the promises made during the merger. Rising iron prices are another as well, blamed on the Arhonians and Misiryabanis speculating on iron.
Afro-Asia
-In much of Asia, this period sees devastation brought by the plague, killing tens of millions of people and causing many states to either collapse or undergo significant reform and change. The Mongolian Empire meanwhile expands, conquering much of central Asia and accidentally helping assist the spread of the plague. The African Empires in West Africa undergo severe disruption from the crisis, and many are unable to recover as increasing coastal trade and the decline of inland trade results in these places declining in favour of coastal Kingdoms and Chiefdoms.
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-A new type of sailing ship comes into use, mostly as a hybrid of shipbuilding techniques from Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Asian world. Called a caravel, it is a wooden ship that looks somewhat similar to contemporary Wapanese whaling ships. It is relatively small, but can sail vast distances overseas and is sturdy enough to make transoceanic voyages whilst also allowing enough cargo and crew space for water and food supplies that not only will feed the crew, but often turn into a type of slime that later becomes the basis for some French national dishes. These caravels are used to explore (initially) down the east African coast, but are also being adopted by the Greeks for use in trade and exploration. Some entrepreneurs are also sailing away as far as Indochina, although resupplying is still a pain.
-Assisted by the Turks, the Egyptians launch a significant naval invasion of the Shia Islamic Caliphate in Southern Arabia. Using records, generals, and textbooks from their previous invasion of Aksum, the military targets population centres along the coast where they bombard forts with artillery pieces in galleys before assaulting the damaged fortifications. Consolidation and conquest of the countryside is achieved afterwards, but rebels and raiding groups are a nuisance in the hinterland. They are greatly assisted by the introduction of new cannon pieces, which unfortunately are too heavy for most ships and are so mounted in galleys to take advantage of their stability and speed in calm coastal waters.
-After hearing the news of the conversion of the Greeks to the Aquinist branch of Christianity, the Egyptians decide to reform their church and more or less do the same thing, establishing a patriarchate at Jerusalem. Unfortunately, this was an ill-timed move as the plague and increasing land clearances and industrialization are bringing social ills. Riots erupt in many cities after wages often lag behind prices, whilst industrial action is common. Adding in the fact that the empire is full of Jews and Muslims along with increasing numbers of weirdoes who worship Waifu, it makes it a hotbed for dissent. Many leaders of rioting groups and rabble-rousers are imprisoned or executed, sometimes being exiled to remote villages deep into the more backwards parts of Africa, where they often spend their time trying to convince the locals that their religion is the best and dying of malaria. Waifuism becomes a popular underground cult, spurred on by the fanatical resolution of their preachers. It is also popular due to teenagers having a fascination with the orient and wearing ill-fitting and uncomfortable copies of Wapanese clothing. Some lonely people even buy small figurines to put in their houses in lieu of friends.
-Whilst industry and agriculture continues to grow (especially agriculture), the unfortunate arrival of the plague happened to not only kill a lot of people and result in some towns being abandoned for the first time since the ancient Egyptian kingdoms, but it also caused trade to stagnate and the general quality of life to suffer. The Egyptian state tries to encourage the sluggish economy to pick up again by consolidating lands from plague victims and getting the local landlords to work cultivating cotton, sugar, coffee, and other cash crops on them. Meanwhile, cottage industries and blacksmiths are growing like mushrooms to import cheap iron and steel, using water powered hammers to drive hammers and bellows and manufacturing Damascus steel. Unfortunately, the complex development of irrigation, waterways, and waterwheels means that there are increasing shortages of places to put waterwheels, meaning that many people are being forced to switch to wind or animal power, move upriver, and are faced with rising prices. One industry that does do well however, is gunpowder, heavily subsidized by the state. Collecting urine from people, mining sulphur and saltpetre, along with grinding up charcoal dust, gunpowder can be produced and used for the increasing numbers of cannon in the armies and navies of Egypt. Charcoal and timber shortages however, are a gradually increasing problem.
-Finally, to make everything much worse, the MTC suffers a financial crisis when the colony in Hanajia collapses after native raids destroy it in combination with disease. Many merchants are ruined, credit dries up, and many industries are forced to lay off hundreds or thousands of workers whilst giving bonuses to their managers. Recovery is slow and marred by problems brought about by the plague.
-A most curious doctor sets himself up in Cairo, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to take something that causes the plague (believed to be human excrement) and to mix it in water, then dilute this solution until the poo has one part to a million of water. Drinking this solution is believed to cure the plague. The doctor who invented this treatment later died from a stomach infection after drinking the wrong beaker.
Burinn – United Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Seeking to improve armour for use in warfare, experiments with iron and steel are continually conducted, until eventually strong platemail armour is developed. Naturally an outgrowth of old chainmail hauberks, it began by adding small metal plates onto the chainmail, before gradually adding breastplates and replace the chainmail to the point where it only covered joints such as the armpits (vulnerable to stabbing). Initially these suits are difficult to move around in, with some tipped over unable to get back up again, but lighter variants are gradually developed, often using new alloys. Eventually, a heavy cavalry force of armour plated men comes into existence, used to deliver powerful charges at critical moments in battle. For the time being, most missile weapons simply bounce off them, but their charges can be countered by competent pikemen.
-With developments in cannon design and shipbuilding, some of the first ships with cannon on them have appeared. Naturally, these cannon are lighter than pieces used on land, and have to be fired sporadically and must be fired from the front or back. It was discovered that one ship which gave a broadside had a tendency to capsize. Given the drawbacks, the first ships to use cannon are galleys, which are not only good firing platforms, but highly mobile as well. They are used in the invasion of Arabia, consolidating control and finally wiping out the threat of an independent Shia state. The casus belli is claimed to be that pirates attacked shipping (which they did, but the Caliph always denied this). Coastal forts are bombarded and easily taken after relatively short sieges, but some cunning Arabs started to pile sand in bags and pile them up on the sides of walls, softening the blow. Others would dig deep ditches and use the sand to make slopes for the cannonballs to bounce off, but most of these preparations were ad hoc, and failed to prevent the main assault.
-Continued investment into industry and transportation is made, with the main focus being into improving steel manufacture, weapon and armour creation, plus general expansion of the traditional industries. Canals and toll roads continue to be built, and gradual industrialization continues. Large guncasting foundries are being founded to secure supplies of artillery, whilst powder makers are being set up on the boundaries of cities (and for good reason, they often explode).
-Unfortunately, this is not all to the favour of the residents of such a vast and multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire. Increasing Hellenic influence was always resented and rejected by the peoples of Persia and Mesopotamia along with Christianity, but the switch from Iberian to Aquinist Christianity was for many the last straw. A financial crisis destroyed the financial and trade sector of the Turkish Kingdom and economic calamity throws many people out of work or results in wages lagging or declining relative to prices. The sudden switch in religious policy also managed to annoy Iberian Christians as well, but before anybody can react, news of the Khazars being invaded by a massive foreign army hit, along with a new disease.
-The plague sweeps through the Empire with greater killing efficiency than a Soviet designed famine, and Mr Death is particularly busy given the high populations in this part of the world. It is so terrifying that when one cure (smoking tobacco) is promoted, one school adopts it readily and even whips a boy for refusing to smoke it, for he put them all at peril. It doesn’t cool down religious and ethnic tensions, but merely fans it to greater heights, as one group blames the disease on another, or says that it was divine will. The growth of capitalism is another concern, and many workers are now starting to demand shocking things like bars to prevent people falling into machinery by accident. Strikes begin to become more common as well, with rising wages, low demand, deflation, migration, taxation, and many other woes contributing to problems within the Empire. Due to the conveniently timed religion switch, manage say that the government used it as a ploy to raise taxes, and many people have begun to emigrate or hide their funds. The government attempts to build sanitation projects but labour shortages are common as people move around to better paying jobs. Faced with little alternatives, they are forced to debase the currency. A patriarchate is established in Antioch, complete with a half-finished church which sinks into the foundations because half of the workforce died of plague.
-A most curious doctor sets himself up in Istanbul, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is called “sungazing”. Whilst prior to the plague it was useful for curing chronic eyesight, it is said that by gazing into the sun, one can absorb the energy of the sun and remove the disease. So far, only Superman can do this, and he is both fictional and not a human, and so does not count.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-With the need to sail overseas to trade with the growing Carufonian colonies, ship design has necessarily been required to make improvements as sailing over the Pacific in slightly modified whaling ships is considered suicidal. Large shipyards have been built, importing stands of good timber from Manchuria to build ever larger ships. Ship blueprint designs are gradually being printed and kept in large libraries for access, with designers being hired to assist in the development of new ships. One of the main improvements is the adoption of the lateen sail and adoption of shipbuilding techniques from Europe, allowing them to build strong oceangoing vessels that can also carry large cargoes. Some of these vessels reach a tonnage of 200, and begin to gradually displace older ships commonly in use. The colonies in Caurfonia have begun to seriously get involved in export trade, exporting the first barrels of coca, tobacco, and other such goods to Wapan. Of course, they realize that agriculture is immensely profitable given the rich soils of Carufonia, and so after the plague conveniently manages to kill a lot of Gajin, they buy or annex land at rock bottom prices and hire locals to work on the fields. The first experimental crop is tobacco, and in 948 the first barrel of Carufonian tobacco leaves for Wapan. Gunpowder is meanwhile imported from abroad, most notably from the Mongolian Empire.
-With the decline of feudalism, the Emperor sees to it that an organized and modern standing Imperial Army is formed, mostly as an outgrowth of the Emperors personal retinue. The title of Samurai (already being bought by wealthy people to attain prestige) is used to term heavy infantry. A similar task is done for the navy, which includes the adoption of a new uniform called sailor-fukus as their uniform, which then, oddly enough, become popular with young Wapanese girls. The spread of gunpowder has seen the first bombs invented by the Wapanese (a clay pot which is thrown by hand or a stone thrower) for use by the military as well, and the most modern forts (built in Taiwan) include powder stores to prepare the bombs with.
-The nobility, which was slowly falling into decadence up to this point, is now at its lowest, while traders get increasingly richer. They buy lands off the impoverished daimyo and samurai and set up agricultural or other businesses there. The Emperor starts to favour this new class of minted nobility over the now-dirt-poor warlords because they pay much more taxes and do so on time. Legislation is passed that favours traders before the warlords, and this, of course, made the latter angry. They gathered the remainder of their forces to rebel against the Desunoto Emperor attempting to dethrone him, but a combined force of the Imperial Army and well paid foreign mercenaries did away with them in one staggeringly quick battle. The event was later referred to as “The Slaughter of the 999”, because while the exact amount of the daimyo forces is unknown, it was strongly implied it wasn’t even a 4-digit number. Some Misiryabani mercenaries at the battle brought the polybolos, and at the end of the battle, the rebels (led by a rogue foreign military officer) made a suicidal charge against the machines, being cut down in the process.
-With the growth of trade going on, yakuza clans have slowly come into prominence, living off prostitution and smuggling. They take on wearing fedoras to masquerade as the Nice Guys and because they like the design of the hat. The Nice Guys start to sew various religious symbols onto the bands of their fedoras so as not to be confused with the criminals. Some of course, use it as a way to infiltrate Yazuka gangs in order to foil their illegal activities. Young men wear them at schools in imitation, and whenever a girl in a trendy sailor uniform walks by, he is obliged to tip his hat and say “M’lady”.
-To combat the yakuza, a first law enforcement structure independent from the military is established. Named “Keisatsu” and armed with tonfas and/or short swords, they are the first to actually investigate murders and thefts instead of just blaming it all on the first suspect they come across. The Nice Guys are at first upset with this development since a lot of their functions have been relegated to the Keisatsu, but soon they have enough work finding infidels and doing counter-intelligence.
-The Emperor is at first baffled when the Carufonians asked for political concessions so soon after asking for military assistance, and called him a “needy cunt” in front of his advisors. They, in turn, advised him to concede, seeing as exerting influence over a province this far away would be hard given the poor communications and transportation. The Emperor begrudgingly agrees and grants Carufonia a large degree of autonomy if they pay tribute. Also, all fees on trade back and forth between Asian Wapan and Carufonia are removed, increasing the flow of goods from the New World and making it easier for Carufonians to buy supplies. The next Emperor even allows them their own flag to wave alongside the Wapanese one. The Carufonians do well from exporting goods such as tobacco and coca.
-KSOT buys plots of land in or near major Zulu settlements using silver and sets up Waifuist temples there. There they agree to teach Zulu warriors martial arts and the usage of fancy Wapanese weapons if they agree to convert. Of course, the high taxes pose a problem, but this is solved due to the business acumen and financial subsidies given to the missionaries by the Wapanese state. Supreme Oniichan learns about the mission in Egypt and grieves greatly that he can’t help them sufficiently due to the long distance from Egypt to Wapan. Nonetheless, he arranges with great effort for a package to be sent there, containing a letter of encouragement, a sword and some money. The man tasked with delivering it returns to Wapan and writes a book about his journey, titled “Sore wa koko de totemo atsui seikō naze?” or “Why the fuck is it so hot in here?”, which becomes a first source of information about Africa in Wapan and a best-seller. The mission does not significantly grow, but the first generation of missionaries have left to begin travelling throughout Europe. They find that the political and social conditions are tolerable in a Kingdom of “Bohemia”, where the people are tolerant of many religions and some even convert to them during their rebellious teenage years.
-The plague quickly spreads into Wapan through trade routes with China and Korea, and while the colonies did get infected, it is unsure if the disease reached Hanajia first or was brought by the Wapanese. A great number inevitably die, with the bodies buried in mass pits and many sailor uniforms going on discount (used once: may contain fleas). There is no cure for the disease, save for those with more money and sense, and so a most curious doctor set himself up in Akihabara, and soon had a burgeoning business. He promised that his own special treatment for the plague was much better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to take water and boil it in a silver container, leaving it to rest in the container for a week and crushing garlic paste into it. After the week is over, one must sprinkle silver dust into the liquid with more bits of garlic and then drink it. 9 million people die.
Sincleric – Sino-Mongolian Empire
Capital: Avarga
Culture: Mongol (Altaic)
State Religion: Tengrism
-Seeking to improve the “fire spear” and make it more powerful as some armies have anticipated the shock value of it, the metal tube is lengthened and bamboo used in construction is abandoned. The tube is then attached to a wooden crossbow stock and has a Z-shaped trigger pivoted on the side with a burning match tied to the top. When one pulls the trigger, the match is pushed into a hole drilled into the barrel, igniting the powder and firing the charge. Early models have bores of roughly one inch and are about twenty times as long, before gunsmiths (as they come to be known) gradually introduce a ratio of 1:40 for the bore and barrel, as this gives good accuracy. Such guns are heavy however, and so most cavalrymen use pistols (smaller versions) instead, despite their poor accuracy and ability to penetrate armour. Footsoldiers are given the larger guns to use, although they may often require something to rest the barrel upon. Working with spearmen, they can fire a volley before cavalry and spear using men give a devastating charge.
-When the Khan asked for a new alphabet for the Mongolian language, the Misiryabanis delegates suggest the Turkish script. He is so pleased that he orders everyone in his vast empire to begin the long and arduous task of translating everything into this new script, assisted heavily by the Misiryabanis. They end up eventually introducing a few new words into Mongolian, and also take many copies back home where they are easily translated into Turkish (given the script is the same). As for the Silk Road, many surveyors from Misiryaban begin to survey the route between Mongolia and Europe, discovering new places that roads can be built in to facilitate trade, bridges to be built for crossing certain areas, along with milestones and watchposts. Unfortunately, a lot of labourers die during construction, but given that they are conscripted Chinese workers, nobody really cares. One Misiryaban surveyor (at great expense) even builds a model atmospheric railway to show the Mongolian Khan, much to his amusement. These intellectuals are also brought together to write up an entire political, ethical, and moral philosophical system for the Empire, with one pillar being the advocating tolerance of all people (apart from when they are natives of the Phillipines who don’t like being invaded), and religions. This finds itself into formal law, and opens the floodgates for all sorts of weird and smelly people to take to the streets to talk about deep philosophical ideas they discovered personally and didn’t actually bastardize from a foreigner. Schools also begin to supplant the Chinese script in favour of the Turkish one, and not only do they get rid of unwelcome books, but unwelcome scholars as well. To complete the process, the Khan moves to Wuhun and adopts all of the Chinese imperial titles as he gradually rebuilds the Chinese nation. Qin Shi Huang would be turning in his grave.
-Using Greek and Asian shipbuilding techniques, the Mongolians have set up massive shipyards along the Chinese coastline, and in a break from Chinese tradition, have opened up ports to foreign trade and promote naval exploration and activities. In these years there is certainly a great deal of that, with many ships charting the coastlines from the furthest Wapanese colonies to the nearest reaches of Polynesia and as far west as India. Of course, this trailblazing also helps set up early contacts with many foreign states and future trade routes, along with bulk goods from all over the world can travel. China has inevitably managed to find loads of markets, and with the suppression of the old style of Confucianism, merchants and foreigners have risen and trade is now something more respectable to partake in. Silk, porcelain, iron, manufactured goods, along with weapons and armour are all exported at low prices, and the Chinese economy of scale allows them to undercut many small merchants (especially in Indonesia). Many petty rulers buy these weapons in bulk and use them to fund wars of unification, whilst agriculture in these fertile regions booms (one of the few things the Chinese always are happy to buy, is food).
-With the Khan realizing that the economic potential of these lands is too much to ignore, he decides to invade the Philippines (etymology unknown), establishing colonies, bringing over small armies of migrant workers, building ports and outposts, plus crushing native dissent. The new handguns are especially useful in terrifying the natives. Drunk on success, the Khan declares war on Korea. King Yi Seok decides to rally his entire country for the war against the Khan, meeting him in battle at the battle of Yalu River and loses. Intellectuals would forever hate him, saying “He was defeated by barbarians fighting with nothing but sticks, old women, and their own shit”. His depiction of his exile is not flattering either. “After fleeing from Korea like the inbred cowardly retard that he is, Yi Seok got his shit kicked in by a Wapanese blind beggar with no arms or legs”. The battle itself was reported as having gone thus: “Yi Seok made the mistake of not doing a single intelligent thing and raided one of their camps. After witnessing his entire army being anhiliated by a bunch of barbarian savages from the middle of bumfuck nowhere, he shit his pants and fled the battlefield like a little girl”. The Khan declares the day of the battle (November 9th) to be a national holiday.
-In other military news, the Mongolians spread rapidly over central Asia with terrifying speed. Their already powerful position allows them to blackmail and bully most Kazakh, Uighur, Turkic, and lesser tribes into federating under the Mongolians (with some slimy people seizing the opportunity to become rulers). A power base develops between the Aral and Caspian seas, the former one having been kept safe due to the lack of agriculture around to drain the rivers which feed it. They meet the Khazars and negotiate favourable trade treaties with them for an initial period of time, but the next Khazar ruler believes that the Mongolians are bullshitting. He nails hats to the heads of the dignitaries and congratulates himself. Most of his court abandons him and a vast Mongolian horde arrives to burn his capital to the ground. Half of his army dissolves after news of the first few battles reaches them, and his once powerful empire falls apart. The Mongolians also end up bringing a nasty new disease, later to be called the plague with them, bringing more woe to the people here. They catapult diseased bodies into a port city, and it is theorized that this is the method by which the disease reached the Greeks. The Mongolians can hardly celebrate however, for many tens of thousands of soldiers died from disease along. However, with control of the major trade routes, they have begun to improve the Silk Road with engineers imported from Misiryaban, whilst also ensuring goods can safely travel along them. Allowing free trade and immigration is important to the success of the road as well, and some merchants use it to avoid the prohibitive tariffs one must pay in Egypt.
Satansick – Zulu Kingdom
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Irreligion
-With the development and growth of trade as the Zulu increasingly adopt the trappings of civilization and the complex social and economic organisation thus entailed, the Zulu begin to establish the first banks (in coastal cities) after giving foreign traders permission to set themselves up there. Initially a place for foreigners to borrow and lend from whilst in the Zulu lands, the first banking institutions are being established by the Zulu independently as a means of attracting money for the King or private merchants. The King has found the development of the bank most useful to him, for he can borrow great deals of money and promise to pay it back later. It takes some considerable time for the royal family to return these promises.
-The Zulu war machine, now adopting cheap and massed use of iron weaponry and adopting wide scale organization of the armed forces (slowly evolving from little more than raiding bands into an organized army with generals, logistical supply chains, cartographic surveys, etc), can much more efficiently conduct war. In a series of campaigns, they expand westwards, easily overwhelming small tribes and farming communities that simply do not possess the manpower to stop the Zulu. To prevent these tribes causing problems, many of them are broken up and sent to different parts of the Kingdom to be settled in various areas, either as slaves or serfs to work the land. Sometimes they make their way to the coastal cities were they either get on ships or adopt a trade. Some of these people are coming into contact with foreign influences from overseas, most notably, Waifuism and the Greek language, both of which are common in the cities.
-Waifuism has its spread arrested by the policies of the Zulu King, who decrees that a large tax be pushed on people who openly worship a non-approved religion. Since this tax could only really be paid by merchants, it results in it being more or less an extra tax to derive extra funds from merchants. People still worship Brian or Waifu underground, hiding their beliefs inside their skull, where thankfully, the taxman cannot get inside as of yet. Tax policy also becomes problematic over time as very slowly, inflation rates begin to rise as Zulu becomes connected with the rest of the world’s monetary systems. The tax on foreign religions begins to slowly decline, and by the end of this period, practically the entire middle class has begun to openly worship foreign religions and pay the required taxes. Increased incomes are suspected as being a culprit in the matter as well. Zulu warriors are most notable as converts, for many missionaries have bought plots of land and offered the warriors military training in return for conversion, using financial subsidies from Wapan and trade to cover the taxes.
-The Zulu are also increasingly patronizing famous poets and artists, and the state decides to finally splash out on the first instances of art galleries and printing presses (imported at great expense). Many poets and artists have begun to disseminate their works, and very often only in the main tongue, having the subtle effect of driving regional languages and accents underground and further promoting Zulu nationalism. When one of these works is finally translated into Greek and a copy sent to Egypt, it becomes a bestseller there, and one man proclaims himself an Emperor, travelling down to meet the Zulu King in order to play checkers with him. He is apparently the Emperor of Formosa.
-An official expedition is sent to the southernmost cape on the continent with the express intent of establishing a new city. They discover Cape Agulhas, along with a plaque there written in Dutch and English. This is not actually a good place to build a new city, so they travel slightly west where there is a large protected bay that is excellent for establishing a port in. They gradually build up a city with a large port, with many traders and merchants eventually travelling here and some using it as a stopping point to prepare for the journey to the Kongo. Kongo itself is a rather wealthy place and good to trade at, for the goods can be sold to Greek traders at a considerable markup. However, one merchant looks at a map of the world he bought from the Greeks and notices a blank spot between South Africa and West Africa, which could be potentially crossed. He takes a ship and sails along the coast, eventually meeting Greek traders and then sailing around the rest of the continent to Egypt where he sells off most of his goods at a high mark-up. He then sailed back home the normal route, and became the first man to circumnavigate Africa.
-Unfortunately, the plague manages to arrive in the Zulu Kingdom after many years of travelling around the seas. It eventually jumps off ship and spreads throughout merchant communities, before devastating the towns and spreading outwards into the countryside. Luckily however, population densities are rather low (due in part to people being reliant often on nomadism and pastoralism as opposed to sedentary agriculture, plus ethnic cleansing), meaning that the disease quickly dies out once it runs its course in the cities and the first quarantines are imposed. This however, does not stop a most curious doctor setting himself up in Bulawayo. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to take a drill and drill a hole into the skull, before drinking a mixture of arsenic and crushed bulls’ testicles.
New World
-It is unknown where the plague first entered the new world. Some blame the activities of the Greeks, who established a colony in Brazil and created a stepping stone for other to enter the continent, thus bringing forth the disease. Others argue it was the Wapanese, who brought it via Carufonia. In either case, it’s undisputable that the disease rapidly spread along trade routes and hit the Caribbean area the hardest initially, sometimes destroying nascent civilizations in the process of adopting metal, writing, animal husbandry, and otherwise paving the way for empires which survived the calamity (not without their own problems) to annex their neighbours. Demographically, losses are tremendous. Combined with the fact that the population has already been weakened heavily by earlier diseases and political instability, plus with food production at an all-time low, the range of estimates for the number of dead can be as high as 40% of the population for the whole continent.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-With increasing adoption of modern systems of government, merit-based examinations for entry into the civil service, this country is slowly evolving into a modern and efficient bureaucratic state with a well-developed legal system and regulation of the activities of their citizens. The Virkamiesten [scholar-officials] system has been developed into the Osasto [local governments], with paid professionals getting no land but they are paid a salary and granted a generous pension upon retirement. Of course, this money allows them to buy land anyways, although some also invest into trade and build fine houses in the areas they are to administer. In time, they come to realize the value of a good education, and begin to pay for private tutors to educate their children so as to prepare for the exams. Understandably, over time, the same families begin to gradually come into power.
-The 'Marsalkka' system is also developed into Poliisivoimat [constabulary], a proper police force, also with paid professionals with no land grants but paid salaries and given pensions. A proper system of Tuomioistuinten [Law Courts] is also established in order to deal with disputes, once again with judges being dependent on the state for wages and pensions. Each Osasto manages the above two organizations, taking in taxes, and generally organizing projects within their administrative districts. There is no happiness without order. It’s a Nazi quote but it stands the test of time.
-The Tiedeakatemia [Academy of Science/Natural Philosophy] is founded, the purpose of this organization is to fund approved third-party projects into the natural world and a place where inventors and scientists can discuss issues in the world at large. They create the first map of Kauppiasmailla [Their name for Hanajia], showing a reasonably accurate east coast, somewhat accurate for much of the Caribbean, and mostly guesses for the rest. This is understandably a problem, so the Akatemia Etsintä [Academy of Exploration] is set up as well. Their task is to gather information about the lands outside the Empire and educate potential colonists in the fields of knowledge required to set up a successful colony.
-These explorers travel outwards, writing down accounts of the lands they visit, drawing maps, and speaking to the peoples settled there. Unfortunately, they also help bring back the last of the great diseases, the Black Death. It is actually three different strains, each more horrible than the last. It scythes down everyone with brutal efficiency, killing commoner and merchant alike. This is the perhaps seen by many as the end of the old era. Many people supporting the old order have died, and many hierarchies destroyed. The reforms brought in to reform the state were well timed, allowing for a new class of people to take control of the country. They begin to quarantine the infected, and try to mitigate the worst of the diseases, studying the spread of it and controlling it (sometimes infected peoples are dumped in the rivers of enemies) for the states own use. Eventually, by the end of it all, about 40% of the entire population has died, reversing centuries of population growth and any gain made from the end of the introduced diseases from the Wapanese. Thankfully, most of their enemies have died as well, so invasions on the country are few. The fact that the state grows strong and can manage projects (such as in agriculture or trade) is another boon as well, allowing the people here to make it through perhaps one of the most difficult periods in history. One of the curiosities is the massive deflation of prices, and increase in the price of labour as landowners compete. Peasants are rare, and valuable!
-Some strange men from the north arrive overseas in weirdly built wooden ships. They bring ingots of iron and sell them at rock bottom prices in return for furs, rubber, ivory, and varied other goods. Given the somewhat high price of iron and lack of production facilities, the merchants are all too happy to buy iron in bulk in return for rubber. This rubber of course, must come from somewhere; hence imports begin to steadily increase. Tobacco and coca later arrive, and as relished just as much.
-A most curious doctor sets himself up in Juutalainen kaupunki, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to cut the arms and drain blood from them, for an excess of blood is believed to be the problem.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-The first contacts with foreigners from outside of the continent have brought many things, disease, knowledge, plants, and animals. These Greeks seem to be quite interested in finding profitable plants, travelling throughout South Hanajia to catalogue and classify all that they can find. Of course, many of them are not being really used by the locals. Coca leaves are chewed, Brazillwood is burned or used for building, tobacco is burnt and inhaled, and alcohol is a weak fermented liquid. This is completely unacceptable to the Europeans, who begin to search into their uses. Some of these men travel to Xerxes and begin transferring some of this information over, eventually allowing alchemy schools to be established at home. Of the many new inventions and uses having come about, Coca is now purified into a brown powder, Brazilwood is used to make dyes, Tobacco is packed into tiny pipes and smoked, and alcohol distillation is introduced to make more powerful elixirs. Rubber is also heated up with sulphur to make it stronger. Sugar is introduced along with coffee plants, although they are marginal plants for the time being. The Xerxes state does however realize the extreme potential in developing agriculture, and sets to work establishing official monopolies and laws regulating the growth and production of these useful plants.
-The army begins to become much more regulated, and is more closely controlled by the state. One interesting new idea is the concept of “reserves”. By taking people and putting them in “reserve”, they can still engage in civilian life (such as planting valuable coca plants), but cunningly do not require full time wages or training. This allows the budget for the army to be brought under more control and to make it possible to know where to get your soldiers very easily in case of war, given that their locations and names are recorded down on a government register.
-With weird foreigners from Europe popping up on the shores and borders of the Empire, there are more tensions with the foreigners. They do bring horses, chickens, pigs, goats, cattle, rats, mice, cats, rice, sugar, wheat, and other such plants. They also bring knowledge, although it’s mostly cartography and alchemy that sees serious development during this time. The Greek colony has begun to slowly grow, establishing plantations, factories, and ports. Unfortunately, tensions with the locals have led to attacks and reprisals on both sides, especially when it comes to the matter of “who owns what land”. One particularly powerful chief (who formed his kingdom by forcing a number of farming villages to submit to him) finds that the Greeks are too troublesome, and asks for assistance from Xerxes. Xerxes already has several foreigners established in their country as botanists and otherwise looking to record and translate texts. The Xerxes state eventually accuses them of trying to spread Christianity and undermine them (the arrival of missionaries did not help) and eventually expels them from the country entirely.
-Xerxes decides to sail to the Greek colony, where upon arrival; they ram the ships in galleys, raid the villages, and besiege the fort there. It takes several weeks but eventually the fort falls after assistance from the local chiefs. It surrenders and the inhabitants are enslaved, whilst the water supplies are cut off and the buildings burned. Unknown to the Xerxes however, individuals infected with malaria and yellow fever arrived in the colony from Africa, and whilst the easternmost portion of the continent is not suitable for proliferation, when brought back home, it spread like wildfire along with the plague. Out of the seven thousand colonists, only 48 survived, whilst much of the empire was heavily depopulated. Plague itself died out very quickly due to the low population densities, whilst it took years for any sort of effective resistance to malaria to appear. The Xerxes people eventually discover a treatment for flu that the Peruvians have, where a tincture is produced from the bark of the Cinchona tree. The reason for the popularity of it is due to the Peruvians using the plant to treat shivering, which coincidentally is a symptom of malaria. It is initially rare however, and many people still die from the disease until use of the plant is widespread. Plague occurs in isolated outbreaks as well, but no record of this particular outbreak is mentioned beyond the mid-10th century.
-A most curious doctor sets himself up in Xerxes, and soon has a burgeoning business. He promises that his own special treatment for the plague is better than the treatments used by people elsewhere (disparaging foreign doctors who go into the streets of the capital city, trying to sell ineffective and often dangerous medicines). His treatment is wholly different. The treatment is to shave a live chicken’s arse, and then tie the chicken to the armpit. It is thought that this will assist in reduction of the swelling.
-The advent of coke is particularly advantageous for Xerxes, as now one can produce iron using coal deposits. Unfortunately, South America is in rather short supply, meaning that many mines are often small and separated over long distances. Coal and iron also has to be imported over long distances, made even more difficult by the low numbers of pack animals (such as horses). Iron production does eventually (and crudely) get started, but production is not only low, but of poor quality as well. This failure does not deter the state, which announces that vast areas of rainforest are to be cleared for conversion into charcoal and to make room for roads, agriculture, and mining. Even then, very little iron and coal is found, forcing them to introduce the new methods to the Mexicans in the hopes of them developing their own iron industry, and then importing the required iron from there. Unfortunately, little useful iron is found. Gold, silver, mercury, copper, tin, and arsenic are all available however for extraction, with merchants suggesting using gold and silver to buy weaponry from the Wapanese and the Europeans.
-With the existence of large overseas markets having been realized, plus the emergence of traders willing to buy all sorts of goods, it makes sense to start investment into planting and growing crops for export. Coca, tobacco, and rubber are the most popular, and thus receive the most initial investment. Large plantations are founded, although due to extreme labour shortages this forces prices up immensely. Many people leave the lands they once cultivated to move to the new plantations, where prospects of high wages are enticing. So far however, the only country which really has an interest in buying rubber is Misiryaban, apparently in order to prevent their giant kettles from leaking. Coca and tobacco meanwhile, are often chewed, smoked, or inhaled, with the psychoactive substances in them giving the user feelings of euphoria. They are initially taken in the coffee houses of Europe, and by the Nice Guys of Wapan, before slowly disseminating out into the middle classes. The Caribbean isles are particularly good for growing tobacco, especially given that the population mostly avoided the malarial and plague outbreaks (for a while at least). Tobacco is grown in fields, cut, dried, then stuffed into barrels and exported to Europe or Wapan where it is smoked, chewed, or snorted.
-The ambassadors of Xerxes travel to all of the Mexican and Andean countries, informing them that a group of people with “skin whiter than bones” threaten their existence, and that they must not be allowed to settle. The Wapanese seem exempt from this, as do intermediaries who trade on behalf of the Europeans. The merchants of Vallitu seem happy enough to do this, selling tobacco and coke to Misiryabani merchants who sail from over the Atlantic. Some Spanish and Portuguese (along with Greek and Phoenician merchants who manage to sneak in) manage to buy the good stuff as well. Their presence is rare however, and most of them conduct smuggling operations as well.
Notes: This is the last turn the cultural and religious maps were made. This was a sacrifice made by our GM in order to finish the turns faster.
Turn 17: 950 to 1000 CE
Music for The French Revolution,Concerto Koln
Turn music
Political map of Turn 17
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=42889760#post42889760
Turn quote: Tweedledum and tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Events of the years 950 to 1000:
Europe
-In political theory, several theorists are gradually creating the radical left-wing political philosophies that would later be known as Communism, Socialism, and Anarchism. More moderate theories produced are Conservatism and Liberalism. Other writers would talk about slavery, women, and if there really is a moral basis for a society which treated those without land, money, or political connections poorly. One of the more famous philosophers writes an essay on poverty, of which he claimed to have first-hand knowledge. Here we shall quote a line: ”The father was poor. The mother was poor. The daughter was poor. The son was poor. The butler was poor. The housemaid was poor. The chauffeur was poor…
-The Flintlock musket is invented in China during this time, but due to the movements of armies over nations, it has proliferated much further to the west, mostly in Europe and western Asia. In other cases, it has been independently invented (such as in Greece). Wapan itself has benefitted from such introductions of firearms capabilities as well, but have instead focused on improving specialist arms than mass produced ones for the main armies.
-A few dignitaries gathered for the unveiling of an official plaque. There were a couple of speeches, and then the last speaker said “And so it gives me great pleasure to announce we have entered ‘The Modern Era’. He pulled open the little curtain, there was a light smattering of applause, and then millions of country people picked up a few belongings and abandoned the countryside they had been farming since the Neolithic.
Zillamaster55 – Laubergian Reich
Capital: Viikuru
Culture: Laubergian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-The Empress Mabriella III rules over the twilight years of the Laubergian Empire. Laubergia has existed in some shape or form for countless years, but industrial development, land clearances, plague, civil unrest, and many other problems have finally reached a boiling point. When the Bohemian state effectively loses control of much of their country, raiders and bandits swarm into Laubergia to grab food and strike the weakened and backwards military. The aging Empress is unable to effectively rally the armies, for real power lays among her eldest son. He rallies much of the antiquated feudal army, and marches to defend a bridge against a crowd of rioters. Unfortunately, they had acquired firearms from abroad, and whilst poorly trained, they are deadly weapons. At a standoff on a bridge, the army is forced to fire ancient artillery pieces on the crowd, but they fail to do so. The crowd pushes wagons over the bridge and shoot the soldiers, most of who are badly trained. They flee, but in a last ditch attempt, a group of heavily armoured nobles give a thunderous cavalry charge. News of the massacre spreads, and riots burst out throughout Laubergia. Sales of food and debts from Misiryaban were taken on by Laubergia, but the collapse of the Misiryaban ability to repay debts or even the food they bought results in a complete collapse of the entire economy.
-Whilst being nominally neutral in the Great War, the inability of the Laubergian state to defend themselves results in most enemy armies simply marching through the heartland as though it was nothing. Many farms and towns are gradually looted over the course of the war, and rebellion intensifies. The last prisons are broken into and the prisoners held within freed, although most of them appear to be annoyed by the break in, along with the fact that many of the “liberators” have stolen the good bottles of wine they kept in the cells. After a mere week, the son of the Laubergian Empress (who recently died) attempts to take the throne, but the people demand he give up his powers and introduce a parliament. He refuses, and a revolution happens, adding to the woes of the population. The remainder of the Royal guard is ordered to defend the White Palace in Viikuru. They are led by Father Baltzar, who has women and children march among the crowd. In a pathetic last gasp of the Laubergian monarchy and state, the crowd simply pushes past the soldiers. The “Emperor” jumps out of a window to avoid being captured, but he breaks his ankle and is caught. He is hung, and over the next few years, Laubergia fractures, with the main consistent becoming an unstable Republic led by the Licente faction, followed by the Egsoikons. Influenced heavily by the theory of evolution and secularism, the churches are pulled down and the priests are initially hacked to pieces or hung. Much later, criminals are shot in a new ritual called “Firing squads”. It later organizes large scale invasions of the breakaway states led by brothers of the last Emperor. They are summarily executed or flee abroad to Tefullmorostan. One of the brothers exclaims at his execution: “Great, one civil war in the entire history of Laubergia and I’m on the wrong bloody side!”
KingArcher – Misiryaban Caliphate
Capital: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Islam (Sunni)
-In a cluster of mines and iron foundries, an engineer was rather annoyed by the limitations of the low pressure steam engine. Seeking to find a way to scale down their size whilst retaining power, he decides to simply increase the pressure of the steam inside. He manages to make a model small enough to move around on cart, but one day he hits upon a rather clever idea. Bolting some crude wheels to the side and attaching a drive chain, he effectively starts to “ride” the spluttering monstrosity. He is unable to steer it however, and it falls into a ditch because he cannot steer it. Undeterred, he decides to use a plateway to overcome this problem. Despite breaking the older rails, it proves to be a success at hauling bulk goods, and after the tracks are replaced, two more engines are ordered in the area to haul goods around collieries. An experiment was also conducted with ships, and the now powerful engine now makes the steamship something actually feasible. Whilst they still use sails, steam power gives it an immense tactical advantage.
-As relations deteriorate with the Greeks, Misiryaban begins to slowly shift towards increased military expenditure and a war economy. The army begins to swell as the poor, criminals, Irish, Welsh, and Scots are recruited and (when the war began) conscripted. Paid six pence a day to fight, they have poor morale and tend to desert when given the chance. Reserves are also established in implicit acknowledgement there will be high attrition rates. As trade relations worsen, the state starts to heavily subsidize agriculture, providing for the early growth and spread of railways. Many farmers have begun to buy steam powered tractors to power farming machinery, although at considerable expense. Coal and iron production skyrockets, and inevitably industry exponentially grows. Firearms are gradually phased in during this time period, moreso towards the end.
-With rising food prices, and a shortage of horses due to army requirements, many people have begun to invest into the development of railways. The early atmospheric lines are quickly abandoned once the first true locomotives begin to run upon them, and by the late 9th century, a thick network of iron veins have begun to crisscross the nation, moving people and supplies with ever increasing speed. Inevitably, England has begun to see these railways starting to be built, and is somewhat reluctantly brought under more Misiryaban influence. Seeking to increase population growth, the state has also begun to provide maternity subsidies towards women to encourage childbirth, whilst also setting up nurseries (so working mothers can keep them there) and loosening laws on sex before marriage. It is initially unpopular, and given the turmoil of industrialization and later war, a huge class of orphans begins to swell throughout the urban areas. Overall, increased food production, declining costs of transport and measures to improve allocation have resulted in a massive population boom. This was when Misiryaban truly entered the modern world, in which children lived feral on the streets covered in grime, their parents working to win a war that would never be won.
-The Caliph of Misiryaban, Mehmed the 9th, was a cautious man. Unable to rule effectively, he busied himself examining new schools to be opened and holding banquets, whilst the bureaucracy filled with new self-made men, seeking to rationalize state apparatus and improve efficiency. Cautious, they balanced foreign policy, until the Greeks finally barred access to Misiryaban merchants. Supposed public support for the war was high, when in actual fact it was mostly pushed by ministers in the government and civil service, with the newspapers crying out for Greek blood. Large public demonstrations occurred outside of the Greek embassy, which was later set ablaze. Misiryaban moved to bar access to Greek ships in coastal waters, eventually chasing down ones that refused to comply. The Caliph ordered partial mobilization and requested aid from her allies. As the Greeks moved their forces to Italy, Misiryaban began to pool coalition forces in France. Misiryaban then declared war, with the Caliph standing on a balcony at his palace in front of the assembled crowds of middle class peoples, waving flags and cheering him on. (Many of course, had been ordered to go by their bosses). He says that the land once held by the Turks shall one day be returned to them, and thus he declares a holy war on Istanbul, rallying the whole population for this suicidal venture. For the first few days, there is a great deal of excitement. The national anthem is played constantly, people sign up for service, strikes come to a halt, various foreigners imprisoned, and everything Greek related changed or vandalized. One writer comments on the war as “Why it is in general, war is evil, yet this one is good?” He is later imprisoned. The vast majority of the soldiers are untouched by this national feeling. There are no bands to see them off at the railway stations and ports. Their expressions are reported as “Sombre and resigned”. It was their experience that would ignite the revolution. The Caliphs desperate gamble would bring about the end of his regime.
-On the seas, Misiryaban has begun to field their new steamships, some of which had thick wooden hulls and iron plates crudely bolted onto their sides. Due to the inability of Misiryaban to produce good artillery, most of these ships are built to become ramming vessels, deflecting cannon shot with the armour and then holing an enemy vessel. In the first battle (Cabo Del Oeste), the Greek navy is forced to flee, but when they travel to Spanish ports, they are blocked from entry, and soon are mopped up by the Coalition forces. The Phoenician fleet is initially shattered as well, and with remaining Greek vessels, they remain in the ports for the rest of the war. The navy instead travels to Italy to help conquer the country and secure supply lines, raid trading vessels, and to use French ports as fuelling stations. Railways being slowly built over France and Italy are helping to supply coal to these ports from Arhonia, although the French government feels as though it is under siege and blackmail from the Coalition.
-The armies of Misiryaban, the Baltic Entente, Polotsk, and Arhonia headed south through France, reaching the Alps where the armies of Greece and her allies lay. Heading slowly through the passes, both sides are unwilling to meet, eventually the Coalition forces begin the assault, and in a rather curious twist, it turned out that the Spanish (who allied with Greece initially) changed their minds and pledged support to the Coalition. At the same time, the so called “Kingdom of Italy” declared war and mobilized their men in Corscia and Piedmont, flanking the Greeks in northern Italy. They, and the Coalition spread around Italy, “liberating” Italian cities and cutting off Greek supply lines. Starving and demoralized, the Greek forces in Italy mounted a desperate breakout that was quelled by the Coalition forces, eventually resulting in thousands of prisoners being captured and Italy being steadily conquered. After Italy is subjugated in a lengthy campaign, the Italian state is announced once more, although for the war it remains under Misiryaban military occupation.
-In Central and Eastern Europe, the rest of the Coalition forces head down the Danube towards the Greek homeland, building railways behind them and generally siphoning off Bohemian resources to feed their vast army with. While the Bohemians play a minor role in the Italian theatre, they play a decisive role in the Balkan one. When the Coalition forces reach the Greek Danube, they are met by large heavy gun emplacements, which deter crossing of the river. What’s more, a truly massive force of Rus with Mongol help is heading that direction. Seeking to find an alternate route that isn’t stupidly suicidal, the generals instead head into Romania, which is too weak to prevent such blatant transgressions. Bohemia quickly realizes that the Coalition is more trouble than it is worth, and after secretly negotiating with Greece, they begin to act against the Coalition. Railways are slowly dismantled or sabotaged, whilst messengers are imprisoned or shot at. The Coalition pushes through on into Epirus. There, they meet up with the victors in Italy and the navy (by which point has taken control of the Mediterranean). They continue overland in Thrace towards Istanbul, helped onwards by systematic looting of the countryside, sufficient supply lines, and the failing efforts of Greece to defend the Danube from the Rus. Eventually, Bohemia strikes, and hard. They assault patrol groups and dismantle railway lines, along with driving Coalition ships out of the ports and attacking counteroffensive forces. A network of fort systems slows down the army immensely however, and requires constant reinforcements from Italy and further afield. Over time, their quality declines.
-The Coalition forces become increasingly desperate having been trapped in Greece. Stuck a mere hundred kilometres from Istanbul, yet without supplies, they cannibalize the country. Grand old cities such as Athens and Sparta are ransacked, all of the food eaten, the buildings burnt, and the people forced from their lodgings. Discipline and morale began to fall apart, and by the time they reached the promised city, a majority of the army had dissolved from disease or desertion. Hasty military occupational government had been established in the rest of Greece, yet with poor supply lines it was unable to coordinate the war effectively. Italy began to protest as requisitions sped up, and France slowly chafed under blackmail and slowly plotted for revenge as their country was held under virtual military occupation. The Rus eventually shattered the Greek lines on the Danube and joined in on the looting, before they and Misiryaban came to an uneasy alliance over the great siege of Istanbul.
-Lasting endless months and marked by bloody naval combat in the straits, the city was gradually starved. Most of the inhabitants fled before the Coalition arrived, leaving an undermanned city isolated from Greek possessions in Anatolia and abroad. As hunger sets in, both sides are reduced to eating leather and candle tallow along with rats and dogs. Even the horses are eaten, worsening supply shortages and mobility. Eventually, the city falls, and what follows is not the triumphant march of victors. A mob of emaciated men, wearing rotten clothing and slowly walking into the city, shuffle towards the central plaza, led by the general, who is forced to walk on foot. He orders his men to try and prevent the city from being damaged, but within hours he is left with little more than his bodyguard. The city is burned to the ground, looted, the inhabitants raped, killed or driven away, and the crosses pulled down and smashed. Unfortunately, the Misiryaban state is completely unable to control the city, for they have a crisis brewing at home.
-In Misiryaban, as the economy moved to a war footing, a great deal of money was sunk into the army and logistics, most notably the railway. As the number of men dying in campaigns was high, untrained reserves were called upon, and inevitably their quality declined. The amount of land to cover was vast as well; at one stage they practically occupied half of Europe (directly or by proxy). The consequences are inevitable. Borrowing from neutral or friendly states gradually rises (especially from Arhonia and Laubergia). Promising to pay back later, the ability of Misiryaban to administrate (let alone tax) their new possessions are near impossible. Eventually, with destruction of economic assets yet increasing debts and debasing of the currency, monetary inflation spirals out of control. Soon, many public services (such as maternity care) are ended, wages slashed, and prices rapidly rise. Food shortages set in as well due to a reliance on foreign imports (the agricultural reforms were too little, too late, and in any case unable to cover the shortfall). The number of orphans continues to swell and eventually factory strikes begin to cause production to come to a halt. To cover the crisis, troops are sent in to quell the unrest, but due to the troops being mostly composed of Irish and Scottish conscripts, they start to rebel. Several cities are seized by mobs and an “Islamic Republic of Albion” is declared, and their Irish allies are forced to drop out of the war to cover their own troubles at home. Begrudgingly, the Misiryaban army is forced to return home (or what remains of it), leaving the occupied lands in a state of lawlessness. The French state then finally declares war on Misiryaban, attacking ships in ports and seizing supplies, whilst also attacking Misiryaban armies.
-The Phoenicians and Greeks finally break the blockade as the ironclads run out of ready access to coal. The Spanish also switch sides (again) and declare war on Misiryaban, and the allied forces begin to heavily blockade Misiryaban and crush most of their remaining navy. The allies begin to slowly make ground, capturing vast scores of prisoners as multiple members of the coalition drop out of the war. The Rus invasions results in Polotsk and the Baltic to sue for a white peace, whilst Arhonia lazily swaps sides to sell materiel to the allies. After six long years of war, the Caliph still has delusions of winning, continually writing letters to his allies and promising them that he will win the war. On hearing that the capital has fallen to revolutionaries, he takes a train there, but is diverted to a military depot. There, he is forced to write an official letter of abdication, passing it onto his illegitimate son. He refuses, and instead gives his powers to the provisional government established by the revolutionaries. The letter ending the dynasty is written in a school textbook (due to a shortage of paper) in a local school, and copies are written on the back of posters advertising soap brands. The provisional government immediately signed a peace treaty with all members of the conflict, followed by the Welsh and Scottish declaring independence. Misiryaban proper (Cornwall) meanwhile is invaded by Phoenicia and occupied. Misiryaban is at an end.
Damian0358 – Kingdom of Bohemia
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-One of the more interesting inventions in recent history has been introduced in Bohemia. Knowing that one can make small paper bags and put a candle inside, thus allowing it to fly, an inventor hits upon the idea of making it bigger. Of course, to avoid flammability problems, he makes the structure from asbestos cloth, and to make the balloon as light as possible, he uses a wicker basket and a variant of Greek fire as fuel. On August 18th 953, he ascends in the balloon, marking the first ever recorded lighter than air flight in human history. He continues to build balloons and floats over many parts of the world, including a flight over the Adriatic. Unfortunately, the balloon began to descend too early when over the sea, and he was forced to throw his clothes out of the balloon and to piss and shit off the side. He landed safe and sound, although shaken. Seeing the potential military use of a balloon, the Bohemians establish a balloon corps, who float above the field and report on army movements. This invention would prove crucial in the battle of the Danube.
-The Bohemian army, on hearing of the coming storm, decides that rearming and reforming the army is a wise course of action. They receive muskets, cannon, and the new powders from Phoenicia and Greece, setting up foundries and gunsmiths. An artillery corps named "Gvozdika" and an logistical corps named "Zolja" are formed to assist in the management of the army, whilst Phoenician military instructors come over to help with the reforms. Keeping to tradition however, a shock force is formed out of the Varangian guard, consisting of a mixture of heavy armoured men with swords, axes, and shields, yet possessing muskets and pistols as well. They are initially very clumsy, often abandoning some weapons and eventually developing a weapon to suit their needs. They take a pistol and affix an axe head into the end, and keep two of these along with a shield. They discharge their pistols before making a devastating charge, fighting in a similar manner to their ancestors. Finally, one general suggests using parachutes for men by chucking them in catapults over walls. An experiment is done with a chicken, and it takes some time for it to be scraped off the ground. However, the advent of the balloon has made this possible. Unfortunately, their capacity is tiny, and furthermore, they stick out like sore thumbs.
-In the Great War, Bohemia initially sides with the coalition. They split up their forces and head to Italy and Northern Greece. However, there is betrayal afoot. The Bohemians sent crates to Misiryaban, promised to be full of cannon pieces. Instead, when opened, they are full of giant wooden dildos. The Bohemians betray the coalition, but at the crucial moment, the Spanish end up betraying the allies. The Bohemians and Greeks are routed in Northern Italy, leaving the bulk of Bohemian forces (in Bohemia and Greece) to manage the rest of the war. The coalition had already marched through Bohemia (mostly because they didn’t want fighting in their lands) when they met on the Danube to give battle to the Greeks. However, plans change when the Rus decide to invade, and forced to hold off the invasions, the Bohemians bring a great number of troops to the northern borders to hold off the Rus and Mongols, armed with new flintlock guns. They do manage to sieze Coalition railways and cut supply lines, although they do not have the manpower to launch a large scale invasion of Italy or attack the main coalition army. Instead, the “Fabian strategy” is introduced, where they mostly whittle down the main coalition armies with raids and supply shortages, along with preventing reinforcements from arriving. It is not enough to prevent the attack on the capital of Greece however, which fell more due to the Rus and coalition desires to rip apart such a wealthy and magnificent city. After its collapse, the Bohemians pounce, tearing apart the collapsed coalition armies and chasing them back over Europe. The Bohemians also manage to finally defeat the Rus, and head northwards to attack Polotsk, which however had fled to Prussia in the wake of the Rus and Mongol invasions.
-The Bohemians then order the German states to invade Arhonia, but they refuse, citing improved trade relations and the fact the Arhonians never really got involved in the war. Bohemian merchants also complain, because of the fact the Arhonians are quite willing to war profiteer and sell much necessary supplies to the Bohemians and their allies. Instead, the Bohemians (and her allies) move to capture vast tracts of land throughout Eastern Europe, encouraging Germans to move here to colonize the abandoned land and to help settle the area. The Bohemians have also been behind the move to rename Burgundy “Westphalia”, a name which the Westphalians seem to enjoy. At the conclusion of the war, Bohemia comes out a rather strong and united Empire, having asserted dominion over vast new territories and made their neighbours to look rather weak and disunited. Greece and Laubergia are two major losers, and the Bohemians have exploited this fact to assert control over vast areas of land “Regarded as De Jure”. The Greek government collapses, and Bohemia uses this as a pretext to capture most of their old lands. To complete the celebrations, Aquincum is rebuilt with a glorious new cathedral, and fireworks are launched to the cheering of crowds. Some railways are partially rebuilt, and the Emperor himself takes a train to the city, barely noticing the gifts of bread and salt lain on tables at stations along the route. He also announce success that an explorer had, who discovered the island of St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic, and claimed it for the Empire.
-Preachers are sent to the Eastern Alliance nations of the Delian League, the Ptolemaic Empire and United Turkish Kingdom. They are sent to calm down the religious situation in regards of the Iberians and Waifuists. Meanwhile, mosques and synagogues are built where there are a major amount of Muslims and Jews respectively, in an attempt to win them over to the side of the Aquinists. One local rabbi pours out a jug of milk, saying that there is no room in the community for the Waifuists. The Bohemian cleverly adds a pinch of sugar to the milk, saying that it would not cause the vessel to overflow, and would make the lives of the Jewish sweeter. They are won over by this motion, and soon religious tolerance begins to make several inroads.
-Meanwhile, one preacher at a small Aquinist church in Thessalonica discovers an alphabet written in the 9th century by brothers Priest Cyril and Deacon Methodius and their students. Based upon Old Church Macedonian, a Slavic language that existed in Macedonia, the alphabet was called Glagolitic and was presumably used by the Slavs living in Macedonia. The preacher brings the alphabet to Velehrad, where the church's best linguists figure out the alphabet having origins in the Greek alphabet. They modify it and create the Cyrillic alphabet, which is then yet again modified and two Cyrillic alphabets are made, called common Cyrillic and Church Cyrillic (which is used for Church Slavonic). For the creation of the Glagolitic alphabet, the brothers Cyril and Methodius are named co-patron saints of Europe and the Cyrillic alphabet.
-Around the same time, a linguist in Nitra decides to use the old forgotten Latin alphabet and Latinise common Cyrillic. This new alphabet, called Slavic Latin, becomes so widely popular that the king recognizes it and common Cyrillic as the two official interchangeable alphabets of Bohemia. Common Cyrillic and Slavic Latin become the standard alphabets of much of Slavic Europe (adapting their languages to the alphabet, making their own national variation of common Cyrillic). A variation of both Slavic Latin and old Latin called Western Latin becomes the standard alphabet of Lombardy, Italy, Romania, Bavaria, France, Aquitania and Westphalia. A Norse linguist in Lugii also creates the Varangian alphabet, a Slavo-Germanic alphabet, being a cross between Common Cyrillic and the Germanic Runic alphabet. This alphabet is adopted as the official alphabet of the Varangians and many Varangians begin to wonder if they should be more than just Norse immigrants.
-Since the 5th century, beer had been stored in cold areas, "lagering", like in caves for example, yeast that ferments at the bottom emerged as hybridization around the late 9th/early 10th century in Lugii. In Bavaria, a man took the Misiryaban pale ale and applied it to existing lagering brewing methods, creating pale lager. This approach was picked up by other brewers, with the most notable being Vinlov Grov who, in the city of Pilsen, would create pilsner beer and produce the Pilsner Urquell.
Mackalda2k6 – The Delian Empire
Capital: Lygos
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-As the Delian Empire continues their policy of modernization and industrialization, the first true modern firearms and artillery pieces have come into being. Flintlock muskets and cannon with light carriages and strengthened barrels. This has allowed for the deployment of lighter artillery pieces, such as 3 and 6lbr guns, which can be quickly brought to a field, aimed, fired, reloaded, and also packed up and be moved again to a new position. Heavier guns such as 32 and 64lbr guns are also making an appearance as stationary pieces, mostly used in fortifications to deter coastal invasion and to break up armies trying to assault fortifications. A great deal of money inevitably has to be spent on modernizing the army, training, engineering, construction, and other general large scale projects. This would later prove to be the undoing of much of the Greek military and eventually their Empire itself.
-The Greeks enacted a series of economic reforms in their transition into a modern industrial state. Firstly, the currency was debased so as to provide extra funding (although at the risk of promoting inflation, economic growth and optimism covered these problems). Next, fractional reserve banking was introduced, so as to further free up credit for lending and to bring banking under control of the state. A committee is formed, which sets interest rates and is intended to generate a profit for the state. It initially does very successfully, negotiating reduced interest rates on loans, securing national debt, and building reserves of foreign currencies and precious metals. The stock exchange is reopened, allowing for companies to begin publically trading once more. To generate further cash for the state and to reduce the deficit, the land of plague victims is seized and sold off (often for rock bottom prices since there’s a hell of a lot of land), and finally, the borrowing of large amounts of credit from Phoenicia. With all of this cash available, a whole plethora of new reforms can be introduced.
-Firstly, all of the land in the Empire is divided up into various districts, for census purposes and for voters. The franchise is extended to people who own or rent land worth eighty drachmas (effectively the entire middle class and some artisans). The parliament is filled with a group of awful people wearing [i]commoner [/i] clothing, and demanding a number of basic trade and industry reforms. The twelve hour day is introduced, mostly under pressure from conservative gentry and rural farmers and a tiny number of people claiming to represent the working classes. Representatives from Italy finally get their demands conceded, where they are finally allowed to use their own language again and to actually manage their own affairs. In economic affairs, the state has heavily subsidized the construction of vast mining networks for coal and iron, along with foundries for small arms and artillery pieces. Shipwrights have also been expanded, along with the general number of lime quarries, cement factories, brickmakers, sawmills, and other necessary industries for the military.
-As troubles from religious and ethnic strife occasionally flares up, along with the stresses of industrialization as vast unplanned cities sprawl everywhere, crime rates have risen dramatically. To counter this, the first metropolitan police force is formed, initially badly paid and also responsible for lighting streetlamps. Inevitably they are often corrupt, and it takes wage increases and better ministers to finally sort out the departments responsible for the management of crime. The police forces are gradually introduced throughout most major cities, but on the eve of the Great War, they have hardly a presence in the countryside. Most rural people still see the state as an annoying intruder, coming to tax them and conscript them into the latest war. On a warm morning, one farmer lifts up a newspaper to see that the Coalition led by Misiryaban had declared war on Greece. The farmer finishes eating his toast, curses, and then tells his wife that “The stupid bastards in the government are doing it again”.
-The Allied forces assemble in Istanbul, where they have managed to assemble a vast army, intended to head to Italy and the North of Greece, where they shall fight the Coalition and hopefully win the war. As the armies head out, the navies travel to Gibraltar, to give battle to the Coalition navy. Unfortunately, while a tiny number of experimental steamships had been built by the Allies, it was hardly enough to turn the tide in the battle. The Coalition navy ended up using their ironclad rams to smash the allied navy, most of the ships being impenetrable to cannon shot (due to iron plating). Eventually, although a few steamers are forced out of action due to heavy and concentrated bombardment, they are unable to move quickly enough to escape the ironclads. Most of the ships are captured or sunk, and the allies are forced into a humiliating retreat.
-The war goes from bad to worse as the coalition navy gradually asserts control over the Mediterranean Sea. Supply routes are cut, trade declines, and revenue falls. The first battles go extremely badly when in the Alps, their armies are betrayed by the Spanish, who cut supply lines and collaborate with Italians to raise trouble and to get cities and towns to declare independence from Greece one after another. The front collapses, and many Greeks are captured as prisoners or fight to the end. The rest simply melt away into the countryside, deserting the main army. The coalition forces celebrate by declaring Italy as an independent Kingdom once more, and proceed to continue the successful campaign by marching through Laubergia and taking everything which isn’t nailed down, including hammers to remove nails with. The coalition marches to Northern Greece near the Danube, where amazingly, they decide to retreat. The reasons for this are soon found out to be because of the incoming Rus invasion.
-The Rus state was conquered during the Mongol invasion, although they were promised a lot of autonomy and land if they invaded their neighbours. Looking at the Pontic steppe with envious eyes, they invade and seize control of much of it, renaming it Ruthenia and establishing their own minor “Khan” as lord of the Ruthenian Khanate. The rest of the armies head southwards to Greece, where they burn and loot the lands north of the Danube, and later start to batter Greek lines. The Greeks have been able to hold them off, but unfortunately they received news that the Coalition had flanked them to head into Romania, heading eastward through a network of forts. While these forts do slow them down and cause a great deal of attrition, they have massive supply shortages due to the loss of Italy and the seas to the Coalition. It is difficult to move goods overland, and as order breaks down in the countryside, the Greeks are forced to make a painful decision. They begin to move men away from the Danube defences to slow down the Coalition forces, and just when it appeared the tide was turning, the Ruthenian Khan pushed through the defences and charged down into Thrace, eventually arriving at Istanbul where he made an uneasy alliance with the Coalition. Most of the allied armies were destroyed, and due to the constant patrols and blockades, reinforcements are difficult to come by. The Allies are forced to evacuate the civilians from Istanbul before the invasion, while religious and ethnic strife within the industrializing Turkic and Egyptian empires are causing recruitment problems. Eventually, the city is lost, but only for a few weeks. It is regained, but the entire city has been razed to the ground and utterly destroyed.
-The Greeks do “win” the war in the end, but for all intents and purposes it was an empty victory. The Phoenicians and Bohemians, having come out as strong winners in the conflict and having solidified their positions, give very little room to the weakened and ruinous Delian Empire. They are unable to prevent the Phoenicians pulling out of the trading company (which collapses) and requisitioning a lot of materiel, warehouses, ships, and metal and currency reserves due to the inability of the Greeks to repay their crushing debts. The Delians are never able to regain the land lost to the Ruthenian Khan (and later the Serbian Kingdom, founded by a breakaway Rus army). The last ruler of the Delians, who is sitting in the congress building when news came of civil unrest and strife, along with the Phoenicians occupying Athens for a further four years, decides to avert a civil war. He meets the opposing general and tells him “I can’t be bothered”, before he retires to a villa where he died of old age. The general put himself in power, dissolved the congress, and announced the creation of a military dictatorship, before he set about ruling the country himself by decree.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-Interested in the effect produced by rubbing sulphur with fur, one researcher has begun to toy with electricity as well, a long unconquered foe in science. He takes a glass sphere and puts a piece of cloth on it, turning the sphere to generate an electric charge. Two metal rods are used to store the charge, and once there is a big enough difference between the electrodes, a spark will be produced. In order to store the charge, a glass jar is created with foil lining the inside. The jar is filled with water, and a wire is led from the electrical generator to the jar. This allows one to store charges of electricity for future use. These curious experiments are the first ever forays into the science of electricity, and the race is now on to create uses for it. The first ever practical use is when an experimenter takes a glass tube with a vacuum inside and adds a small amount of mercury. By administering an electric charge, once can produce a light bright enough to read by. Being weirdoes, the university students make a number of these strange lamps for the university library, and soon after they start to annoy the local candlemaker, who is forced to drop prices when the university students begin making flimsy mercury lamps instead of buying his candles.
-On hearing that foreigners have a strange type of soldier called “Grenadiers”, the Baltic entente elects to form their own regiments of these troops. They are rather tall, and carry large bags full of grenades to lob at an enemy before giving a fearsome charge. When flintlock muskets and other gunpowder weaponry leaks in and is eventually adopted during the Great War, the Grenadiers (and later the rest of the army) adopt firearms. They now give a charge after firing a volley and throwing grenades, acting as a powerful shock force used to punch holes in enemy lines. When the King goes with his army (including mercenaries from much of the Baltic area), he gives them a powerful speech, urging them to be brave. The Entente initially sticks by the coalition through thick and thin, but the invasion of the Rus changes plans, and a great deal of men have to be recalled to help fight off the invasion.
-However, there were other interesting events going on before the Great War. The first tomatoes were brought to the Baltic, but due to the cold weather, have been unable to develop the tasty fruit that has been well enjoyed in Mexico. Undeterred, a small number of “Greenhouses” are built using glass, where one can heat up a small building with a glass roof (and which is also well insulated) and grow tomatoes and other heat loving plants inside. The downside is that glassmaking is expensive, and so very few of these greenhouses are actually built. The King ends up trying a new dish where one puts a tomato and cheese paste on dough and bakes it inside an oven. The creation is named a “Pica”, and is enjoyed at his table along with a large mug of “Kvass” (a type of alcohol made using bread). A man also decides to announce that the world is round, having looked at the stars. His neighbours view him as though he’s a six year old that just had an epiphany. They inform him that the world is round, and that the rough dimensions of it have already been known for over a thousand years. Other plants have also been introduced, and unlike tomatoes, have taken off more successfully. Potatoes and pumpkins do better than the tomato, but the local populations seem reluctant to eat these new cultivars. They also have a few problems adapting to the local climate, and it will require some breeding to allow them to successfully adapt. The same is true of the tomato, and one plant breeder says he could possibly induce the tomato to grow in cold weather. The potato finally starts to be grown at the end of this period, spreading initially among the poorest peasants to stave off hunger. After they adopt the potato, the cycle of famine years (which had dominated agriculture since the 11th millennium before Brian) finally comes to an end.
-Unfortunately, to cut these developments short, the Mongol and Rus invaded eastern Estonia, bringing with them a wave of destruction and general looting and pillaging. This forces the Baltic Entente to pull out of the war, bringing their forces back across hostile Bohemian and German lands. Attrition and battles weaken them before they arrive back home, and by the time the army had reorganized, much of Estonia and Latvia had been lost to the Rus. Moving away from careful fiscal policy, a great deal of money was borrowed to fund and rebuild the army, along with securing the aid of Sweden and Finland (both of which had seen some Rus attacks). A counterattack was made by the three nations, which succeeded at driving back most of the Rus (albeit at the loss of some eastern lands to various warlords or Mongol puppets). Having finished the war, the Entente intended to return to aid the coalition, but by the time envoys had arrived, it had reported that Misiryaban had lost control and was on the verge of a revolution.
-The Phoenicians occupy much of Misiryaban, and later crush the remainder of the Baltic navy in a short but decisive war near Kattegat. A white peace is signed by the two exhausted powers.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-Arhonia is a quiet Kingdom, and one that didn’t do particularly much during this time. However, they did nominally ally with Misiryaban, and sold them coal and iron for their armies. Gradually, they began to set up locomotive and arms factories, with Arhonia being often responsible for the first railways in much of Europe, laying tracks from the North Sea to as far as Italy. In order to improve industrial production and capacity, the first steam-powered hammers (utilizing low pressure engines) are built, and are used to press massive ingots of iron and work them in a considerably short time. Of course, many factories also belong to Greek companies, and under blackmail from Misiryaban, all of them are “temporarily requisitioned” for the war effort. Most of them switch to military or locomotive production, as Misiryabani demand for metal is extraordinary. Iron prices rise massively during this time, and the Arhonian state (which contributes little real fighting to the war effort minus punitive batallions) makes shitloads of money from heavy industry. As demand drops when the war drags on and Misiryaban is increasingly unable to service her debts, Arhonia begins to sell the iron to their other neighbours and starts to slowly build the first railway lines in the country independent of the Misiryaban military. Eventually, as Misiryaban begins to implode, most of these railways and supply depos are seized by Arhonia due to the failure of Misiryaban to pay back long term bonds and loans. Arhonia uses her money and industrial capacity to develop a strong and modernized army to ward off foreign intruders and control civil unrest. Industrialization has finally taken off in Arhonia (helped by the long tradition of industrial investment).
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-As Phoenicia seeks to increasingly assert her naval power over much of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, improved ship design is a must. Up until now, most ships have been ugly and mostly have been additions on top of older designs in use for centuries. The advent of cannon means that height is no longer a real advantage, and so some ships have the top decks cut off to give it better manoeuvrability. This “raze” design becomes popular, and soon the frigate (a light ship intended for chasing down other ships) steadily grows in size using this model. Large banks of guns are introduced, with heavier ones on the bottom and lighter artillery pieces on the top. When a broadside is given from one side of a ship, it is devastatingly powerful, especially at close range. Over twenty years, a massive number of these ships are commissioned and much of the old vessels in the navy are phased out.
-The advent of the firearm and cannon is especially useful to the Phoenician military, which readily adopts both with much gusto and relentlessly drills their soldiers and artillery crews to fire in synchronisation and as quickly and accurately as possible. The heavy guns are adapted for use in ships and coastal defences, where they can protect ports and the coastline from enemy vessels. To further assist in the development of coastal defences, watchtowers are erected along the coastline with signal fires and the military flag (A black chevron on a beige background). Finally, a reserve system is introduced, so as to obtain a steady supply of soldiers and sailors for when the existing ones are taken out of service due to unexpected casualty rates. All of these would prove massively beneficial during the Great War, in particular, towards the end of it.
-At the battle of Cabo Del Oeste nearby Gibraltar, the coalition forces meet the Phoenician and Greek navies, which have been well prepared for fighting to come their way. Unfortunately, what they saw was considerably shocking. A vast fleet of grey ugly monsters appeared to be on fire, coming in their direction. Assumed to be fireships, the navy tries to slow them down by firing chain shot at the opposing forces masts. Whilst these do come down, the ships do not slow down at all. In a panic, the Phoenician and Greek navies attempt to batter these ships with heavy broadsides, but the damage given is mostly superficial, only heavily denting the hulls. The soldiers on board are ordered to give hand to hand combat, where they jump onto the ironclads and try to rip the hatches off so they can get inside to the crew. Unfortunately, these ironclads end up ramming the frigates and holing them, causing them to take on heavy water. Forced to retreat, the Greek and Phoenician navies are chased back to their own or friendly ports. In the case of those that went to Spain, they were betrayed when the Spanish coastal gun garrisons fired on the ships and forced them to surrender. The Misiryaban ironclads were unable to capture the Phoenician ports however. Due to the signalling system and heavy coastal guns (some of which fired 64lb shot), they provided enough power to punch holes in the ironclads, forcing them to simply patrol off the coasts and raid shipping. The original plan was for the Phoenicians to bring their army over after the coalition navy was destroyed, but for much of the war they were unable to do anything resembling such a plan. Curiously, a single small tower in Sardinia held out against the coalition navy with two heavy guns, and the military decides to adopt these towers into general use. Over the course of the war, these towers are built along the North African coast, and in Malta, Sardinia, and other overseas possessions. Slowly, as the tide turned, the coalition navy was put under increasing pressure and was unable to keep up the raids on shipping lanes. The Spanish and French declarations of war on the coalition sealed the deal, resulting in the navies being unable to reach necessary coaling stations. Without fuel and increasingly isolated, they either fled or surrendered to the Phoenicians.
-As the tide of the war changes, the Phoenicians bring their fresh armies to Misiryaban, where they launch a coastal invasion of Misiryaban proper, and gradually occupy much of the country. The capital later falls to revolutionaries, with the Caliph abdicating and a republic being proclaimed by the revolutionaries. The Phoenicians then send armies to Wales and Scotland, where they officially declare these countries to be independent and end up bullying Ireland and England into accepting a peace treaty. The Phoenicians then effectively turn Misiryaban into a puppet state, with relatively lenient peace terms (mostly being that the state is to ship cheap iron, coal, and other industrial goods to Phoenicia as reparations). The Phoenicians gradually set up a number of forts and diplomatic embassies, and later bully England into becoming a near protectorate state. Whilst not actually having to support them in war as such, English foreign policy has the shadow of Malta laying over it. A white peace is later signed with the Baltic Entente, after the Phoenician banks suffer from a major financial crisis.
-The tricorne hat is introduced by soldiers, who take the old flat-brimmed hat and pin up the sides of it to create a hat with three corners. They are adopted by practically every member of society as exceedingly fashionable. Merchants enjoy wearing intricately decorated versions of these hats. Some of these merchants in these new hats have also begun to gradually stop doing business with the increasingly weakened ETC monopoly, which is starting to come under increasing strain as the war goes poorly for the Greeks. After the war itself, the lack of funds and the inept leadership of both the ETC and Greece results in the company being eventually dissolved, and the assets being sold off. The Phoenician merchants take up the slack in the vacuum and often buy a lot of cheap Greek assets, often abusing their status as lenders to repossess a great number of ships, warehouses, and offices. By the end of this period, the lion’s share of trade has shifted to the Phoenicians, who are now recovering from the war rapidly and have managed to gain access to valuable new markets and have cheap sources of industrial goods from Misiryaban to utilize to their own ends. It is no surprise that the first railway in Phoenicia was built solely by captured coalition engineers. Unfortunately, the large amount of money lent to Greece to help fund their war is, well, gone. This doesn’t really stop merchants from repossessing whatever they can get their hands on, helping to further push the once mighty Delian Empire into poverty.
cis. joshb – Chiefdom of Polotsk
Capital: Polotsk
Culture: Polochan (Slavic)
State Religion: Slavic
-With trade routes developing Polotsk, the state has begun to adopt gunpowder, and steel into the army. The Mongolian invasion of the Rus gave Polotsk experience of the firearm for the first time, unfortunately on the receiving end. The Rus sweep through Polotsk and overrun the country, forcing the government to abandon their invasion of the tribes nearby to hold off the Rus. Some tribes even rise up and join in, and much of the country is ruined in the ensuing war. In an attempt to stir national feeling, a high council is called where the banner of the nation is standardized, although this does little. Polotsk is forced into a humiliating treaty by the Rus, and many of their soldiers are recruited and sent west to batter the Bohemians and their vassal states (some of which collapse). Thankfully, the wars do not last forever, for the Rus have learned of the treachery of the Mongols, and marched back home to be annihilated. Polotsk quickly regains some of its powerbase using the proliferation of firearms to gain an edge over their neighbours, but they have lost a considerable amount of land in the east. They instead are forced to occupy all of the remaining land, ruined by years of war, surviving only because their neighbours too had been destroyed. They rebuild much of their power base in Prussia, which survived the incursions of the Mongols and Rus to a degree (most of them travelled southwest).
Mediterranean Trading Company
Capital: Lygos/Istanbul/Malta
Culture: Broadly Mediterranean
State Religion: Irreligion
-Due to the Great War, most of the activities of the company went silent or otherwise quiet during these busy years. Eventually, after the country effectively collapsed, the company was liquidated by the Greek and Phoenician states, with the assets sold off to repay the large debts incurred over the course of the war.
Mr. Face – Spain
Capital: Madrid
Culture: Spanish (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-The Spanish interest in physics has culminated in a work that is universally seen as one of the most important works of science and the foundation for classical physics. So called “Principios Matemáticos”, it describes the laws of motion. The first law is that a body is always at rest or in constant motion, unless acted upon by an external force. (A ball floating in space will never change the speed at which it is travelling unless it comes under the influence of gravity or hits another object for instance). The second law states that F = ma, where “F” is equal to the force acting on the object, “M” is equal to the mass of the object, and “A” is equal to the acceleration of the object. (If you have 5kg of mass and the object is accelerating at 2ms^-2, then 10 units of force are being applied to the object). The third law plainly states that when one object exerts a force on another, an equal and opposite reaction is produced. (If a cannon fires a cannonball with 500 units of force, this same force will be applied to the cannon, and is responsible for the recoil in the gun). These works are quickly disseminated and used for the most obvious practical purpose, artillery. Initially, the society responsible for funding the publication of this paper is unable to pay for the publication costs, because the president of the society had accidentally wasted all of his money on a book called “Privilege theory”. It sells no copies.
-In the Great War, the Spanish initially appear to be on the allied side, although in the Alps they turn on their former allies and cause a lot of trouble in Italy, eventually leading to the collapse of much of the Delian Empire. Much later, they turned on the coalition and precipitated its collapse, raiding trade routes and seizing supply lines, depos, and ships. The Portuguese join Spain in the war, and during the closing months they enact a massive blockade of the Isles of Mann, and eventually invade and occupy much of England. They do manage to seize control and create a puppet government, although this government is partly under the shadow of Phoenicia, which not only has a more modern navy and greater trade assets than Spain, but is starting to undergo the nascent stages of industrialization. The Spanish meanwhile, agree that the Portuguese ought to have the next papal seat, which goes to Pope Eugene IV. The Royal Family is forced to stay in an isolated villa in the countryside until the war dies down, due to the large number of foreign spies wishing to assassinate people in the country. The first minister of the treasury was killed by an assassin, prompting the response.
Afro-Asia
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Secular (Traditionally Christian) (Aquinism)
-The Egyptians introduce a series of military and naval reforms, mostly upon hearing that the Greeks had begun to prepare for war and were outfitting their armed forces with the latest improvements. While there have been an introduction of new ship designs, larger shipwrights, docklands, foundries, manufactories, supply depots, firearms, and artillery pieces, the most odd invention is that of a special type of cannonball. By taking a hollow metal shell and filling it with gunpowder, before adding a thin layer of mercury fulminate to the inside of the shell, provided the cannonball hits an object with sufficient force, the mercury fulminate will ignite and cause the cannonball to explode. Whilst these are introduced and facilities for their production are gradually introduced, they have little impact in the overall course of the Great War. The difficulty of producing them en masse, along with accuracy and their prohibitive costs (by the time an ironclad is in range, it’s too late to stop it), leads them to be mostly a failure against the ironclads fielded by the Coalition. Their time would come in later battles, when they proved to be immensely successful against fortifications, wooden ships, and massed ranks of infantry. The artillery pieces firing them however are still horrifically inaccurate and often dangerous to the user.
-The armies and naval forces of Egypt join the Greeks, but in the Italian and Balkan campaigns they are beaten back and routed. On the sea, the Coalition would dominate for a considerable time until the closing months of the war. Whilst the Egyptians could have fielded a significantly larger army, they were reluctant to move their men from the trouble spots in Arabia and their lands to the south, still often unruly under the rule of the Ptolemaic dynasty.
-To mitigate these problems, the Ptolemaic King (Ptolemy XIII) decrees that in light of influence from abroad, he will announce a series of reforms to please the people and reform Egypt into “A happy state where the crown and the people are one”. He drafts a constitution, which limits his powers and puts a parliament elected by the landowners in charge of new laws and the budget. He still has the right to veto any law he doesn’t like, meaning he still has quite a degree of power. A central bank is established, a census system is organized to record population, agriculture is encouraged through subsidies (mostly a move by parliament to get the support of landowners), use of the native language encouraged, the state religion abolished, a police force is brought into law, fiat currency introduced, and laws on land tenure are modified, mostly to allow the state to seize unoccupied land and sell it off to the highest bidder.
Burinn – United Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Secular (Traditionally Christian) (Aquinism)
-The Turks introduce a series of military and naval reforms, mostly upon hearing that the Greeks had begun to prepare for war and were outfitting their armed forces with the latest improvements. While there have been an introduction of new ship designs, larger shipwrights, docklands, foundries, manufactories, supply depots, firearms, and artillery pieces, the most odd invention is that of the steam engine. While the Misiryaban state used to hold a monopoly on the creation and spread of steam engines, their Turk cousins finally cracked the secret, partly through indigenous ingenuity, and partly through the tried and tested method of sneaking into the country, copying down everything, smuggling the plans out, and rebuilding the machine from scratch. When the first factories begin to be built in the Kingdom, it goes a long way towards assisting in the development of industry and procurement of military supplies for the allied forces.
-The armies and naval forces of the Kingdom join the Greeks, but in the Italian and Balkan campaigns they are beaten back and routed. On the sea, the Coalition would dominate for a considerable time until the closing months of the war. Whilst the Turks could have fielded a significantly larger army, they were reluctant to move their men from the trouble spots in Arabia and their lands to the south, still often unruly under the rule of the Turks.
-To mitigate these problems, the Turkish King (Selim I) decrees that in light of influence from abroad, he will announce a series of reforms to please the people and reform Turkey into “A happy state where the crown and the people are one”. He drafts a constitution, which limits his powers and puts a parliament elected by the landowners in charge of new laws and the budget. He still has the right to veto any law he doesn’t like, meaning he still has quite a degree of power. A central bank is established, a census system is organized to record population, agriculture is encouraged through subsidies (mostly a move by parliament to get the support of landowners), use of the native language encouraged, the state religion abolished, a police force is brought into law, fiat currency introduced, and laws on land tenure are modified, mostly to allow the state to seize unoccupied land and sell it off to the highest bidder.
-The state sponsored secret police/intelligent services are probably established around this time, with their headquarters in the old castle of Alamut. They are a highly secretive order with utmost loyalty to the King, in some cases even committing suicide to prove their loyalty. While this is a good way to impress visiting foreigners, it is usually not the best way to use them.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-Contact with China is commonplace, and eventually the so called “firearms” begin to appear throughout the country, used to keep wolves away. Native smiths have begun to work upon them, but local peculiarities have made it difficult to replicate the mechanism used in China. They mass produce matchlock guns, but with added oddities such as a sight (to look down the barrel on), a snapping mechanism for the match, and general improvements to make it more ergonomic. A type of spinning wheel used to make sparks is also invented for the gun, but it is difficult to mass produce. This type of firearm is mostly used by the Nice Guys, usually concealed within their clothing. It is also adopted by the wealthy and military officers, although it never goes into mass production. The matchlock however, gradually becomes integral to the Wapanese army, slowly displacing other weaponry. The first military academy for commanding officers is established in Akihabara as well, taking these developments into account.
-Empress Satsuki I Desunoto, seeing as the current policies of religious intolerance can be potentially bad for business, pressures the KSOT to relax the laws on foreign religions (but not too much). The KSOT begrudgingly allowed people to practice other religions, but only at night and where Waifuists could not see them. People are no longer prosecuted for openly admitting that they follow some other religion. The Wapanese are still a bit untrusting and xenophobic of other peoples and religions, but foreign merchants and diplomats can now operate more freely. Due to worshippers acting at night, some buy areas in towns and renovate them for religious use, often disguising buildings as Buddhist or (in tinier numbers) Christian, Muslim, and Hindu places of worship.
-While she also reformed religious law, the Empress also cunningly relegated most of control over the Nice Guys to the government, defining a line between state and religion. They became less of a monastic order and more an efficient intelligence service, providing internal security and counter-intelligence. Though there is a lot of tradition and ceremony in the organization, some of the more obtrusive traditions were abolished, particularly the celibacy and no-shaving rules. They still kept the fedoras, though, as they are stylish and classy and go well with anything. Eventually at the end of this period, they officially divorced the organization from the monastic system, which in turn is absorbed by the Waifuist church. The Shinigami are reorganized as well, turning from a ninja clan into another intelligence agency, this one focusing on espionage and other operations on foreign soil. Their existence is still top secret, with most people dismissing it as an urban legend, although some people overseas become stressed out by their most popular tactic. In order to distress somebody, they quietly break into somebodies house and rearrange the furniture or other items. One target eventually breaks when, preparing to smoke Herbal merchant, discovered he was actually smoking tea leaves instead.
-Colonization efforts continue, and many new names come about for various areas of Hanajia. Hanihon is given to the large island off the northwest coast, Kumato to the large peninsula north of the Kurils, Hankumato to the northernmost lands in Hanajia, and Ibolozi to the lands between Hankumato and Carufonia. Carufonians meanwhile sail southwards and study the lands and peoples. They chart maps of the coastline and start to figure out that maybe this place they’re in is not the anti-pod of the world previously known to the Wapanese but something completely different. Regardless, they refer to the southern continent as South Hanajia, and the other one with the Wapanese colonies referred to as North Hanajia. They meet various local civilizations there and are of generally friendly disposition to them, readily establishing trade links. Metals, coca, tobacco, cacahuatl, alcohol, and many other such goods move by ship. Many of these things come back to Wapan, with the natives renaming cacahuatl to kakawaro. The drink spreads from Wapan, with the loanword becoming dominant throughout the world as kakawaro drinking and eating spreads.
-With steadily increasing Waifuist populations in the Zulu Kingdom, the son of the Zulu King (and future king himself) met with Supreme Oniichan Fukuroda I Moefaggu and proclaimed, with much ceremony, that Waifuism will become the country’s official religion. Along with priests, many expert Wapanese craftsmen went to Bulawayo to install a second Pantsu Totem there, as well as to teach the secrets of Wapanese shipbuilding and metal casting (to actually make the weapons they were taught to use) to the local followers. Bulawayo is now recognized as a valid place of pilgrimage by KSOT, and as such many pilgrims for whom a voyage to Wapan would be too lengthy travel there instead, bolstering trade and the number of pilgrim’s tales. The King also cancels taxes on Waifuist temples and monasteries, allowing it to burst out and rapidly consume much of South Africa.
-KSOT sends a formal letter of gratitude to the current Bohemian monarch for being so accepting of their religion, and with it a copy of the New Book of Moe in gilded covers, translated into Mrvian and richly illustrated. However, most books in Wapan have an entirely different story. With the printing press now commonplace, many enterprising people use it to mass-produce and sell cheap pornographic imagery. So called “hentai”, it becomes a last refuge for impoverished artists (mostly to avoid starvation), and is viewed poorly by the KSOT. Though not strictly illegal, the yakuza become the primary distributors of such material, with many smut peddlers being fronts for other more clandestine businesses. Hentai becomes popular everywhere from the Zulu Kingdom to South Hanajia, but we wouldn’t know because everyone is too ashamed to admit having it. Meanwhile, a prominent yakuza boss died of spine fracture when he tried to dive into a pool filled with his hentai money.
Sincleric – Sino-Mongolian Empire
Capital: Wuhan
Culture: Mongol (Altaic)
State Religion: Tengrism
-Continuing with gradual and steady improvements on the firearm, a new weapon has come about which represents the pinnacle of firearms development within the extended Empire of the Khans. By taking a matchlock and replacing the match with a spring loaded mechanism and a piece of flint, firing is made a much safer and reliable job. The use of a pan to cover the powder makes it possible to use in wet weather (to a degree), and other varied improvements have seen the firearm itself become gradually more ergonomic. For cavalry, the end of a musket is cut off to make a “carbine”, which is much easier to use on horseback (and by skirmishers) whilst sacrificing little accuracy. Bullets and power have also been put into tiny paper cartridges, which can be mass produced and used by soldiers on the field of battle. Combined with the exponential growth of the manufacturing capabilities of China, the ability to mass produce flintlocks cheaply, and other improvements in supplies, it is now possible to field vast armies of men who require little training beyond drill. The Mongolian Khan decides one day to raise tens of thousands of these men (along with his cavalry forces), and to change the face of the western end of Asia forever.
-In the years before this great invasion however, many careful policies were introduced to improve the army. Every district is to provide a number of well-trained cavalrymen each year, some of who have begun to abandon bows (due to laziness) and have begun to train using different weapons and tactics. Firstly, they wear much less armour, and tend to prefer light weaponry, choosing to use the horse as a mobile platform to give firepower quickly on the field. Pistols are popular among such men as well. Many of them travel to Xacitarxan and Soğucak in the Caucasus and the steppes between the Black sea and Mongolia proper to assist in colonization. Chinese peasants are usually reluctant to go, and so most colonists tend to be criminals and political prisoners, who travel into central Asia to set up camp in the middle of nowhere and to assist on the construction of a grand highway connecting China to Europe. Of course, many such prisoners die during construction, and due to the extreme isolation, many such camps don’t even bother building walls. Similar activity goes on in the Philippines, and to a lesser degree in the rest of Indonesia, where trading posts and forts are built, often by slave labour, often by free men. The line is blurred.
-The Khan hears of the news that a great war has swept Europe. Seeking to waste no time, he raises a vast army, marching quickly along the great highway to reach the Rus state, which is currently holding poor relations with their neighbours. The Khan occupies the Rus after storming the major cities and quickly ends effective resistance. In a twist however, he tells the Rus that they are to become his vassal state, and will be given weapons to fight their neighbours in the west. Accepting, and being aware of advantages to collaboration, they launch an invasion of Polotsk and the Baltic. Using Chinese firearms and the advantage of numbers, they swarm into these countries and quickly overrun them, and in a wave of conquest, march westwards in a spree of conquest, reaching even the German heartland and Greece, where despite being unable to conquer the lands, they do significant damage. They also manage to meet the Bohemian army, heading north to attack Polotsk and chase away the Rus. The Mongols actually participate in this battle, utterly annihilating the Bohemians and forcing them to retreat. After this lengthy campaign, the Rus travel back home.
-They discover to their dismay that the Mongols have gone back on their word. Instead, there is nothing left. All of the cities have been burned down, entire families arrested and exiled to the rest of the Mongolian Empire, the crops stolen, farm tools broken, livestock slaughtered, and even mines collapsed. The Rus do rebel, but the Mongols have already left. A vast army is desperately raised to fight the Khan himself, but weakened and demoralized by hunger and disease; they arrive on the banks of the Ugra River to make one great last stand. The use of massed and drilled firearms breaks the Rus army, and they scatter over Europe. The survivors become looters and bandits, and others carve out feudal states as principalities under the Mongols. They frequently make incursions west, and land is divided up and given to Altaic tribes, Manchurians, and Tatars, who begin to gradually colonize the former lands of the Rus. Due to their policies there, they have begun to even convert the culture and language, turning the Rus into model Tatars. The ripple effect westwards (not to mention the collapse of food production) would have dire consequences in Europe. When the varied merchants and the so called “Capitalists” appear once more, many of them are encouraged (or forcibly moved) to China, where they are to set up businesses and assist in the development of the Empire.
-Small groups of intellectuals travel to Europe during these years, soaking in the culture of the countries they visit, recording down innovations, books, inventions, and other notes of interest. They also go around promoting businessmen to migrate to China, where business is booming, and later travelling back with them to give details of what they discovered in the west. To aid with this, many Chinese intellectuals and businessmen are heavily subsidized and encouraged to spread their activities west, partly to make money, partly to build influence. Although progress is slow, China begins to finally see a significant pickup in economic activity, with the first signs of industrialization showing through. The old system begins to undergo some strain however, as land tenure laws become outdated and prices start to fluctuate more rapidly. Peasants have started protesting in the worst afflicted areas over matters of food prices, deportations, and some degenerate into riots. The vast size of the Empire makes it difficult to administrate, forcing a great deal of decentralization to be adopted so as to allow some degree of control to be maintained (as opposed to losing the land outright).
Satansick – Zulu Empire
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Waifuism
-With the population once again growing and trade recovering, a lot of black market businesses and unregulated merchants are up and about making money without tax collectors knowing about it. Not only is this potentially dangerous as many people can sell tainted goods without consumers knowing about it, but worst of all, it’s a valuable source of money. To begin covering trade, a civil service is finally established for the first time in the Zulu. Starting as an outgrowth of customs officials, tax collectors, judges, magistrates, and various lawmen that make sure that business is well regulated. A law is even enacted which says that if any trader gives a bad deal to the consumer (such as selling spoiled eggs or meat), they can get a magistrate to come along and investigate directly. Most notable during this time is the capture of Herbal Merchant suppliers, who had not actually been selling the drug at all, but instead had been selling finely ground bark, grasses, and sawdust.
-Now that the Zulu have extensive ports and the ability to contact waifu missionaries and merchants about war, it transpires that these foreigners also have very good weaponry and armour. The Impis (an elite cavalry force in the army) are given specially imported Wapanese arms and armour, and are developed into a type of “shock troop”. Their task is to punch through enemy lines or flank them, allowing the main force to move in quickly afterwards to mop up the remains of the shattered formation. They gradually begin to breed heavier zebras and put armour on them as well, allowing for devastating charges to be made atop them. Reverses in the army have also been introduced as a hierarchical command structure with organized logistics comes into place. As the Zulu state modernizes, a strong military force is necessary. Unfortunately, as it grows, administration and control over the borderlands is becoming increasingly difficult.
-The Zulu king is once discovered to have been attempting intercourse with a Hatsune Miku (The patron saint of singers) figure that had been given to him as a gift. Seeking to cover up this act, he says he was actually honouring their religion, and says that he knows everything there is to know about Wapan and its culture. Nonetheless, he decides to send his son on a journey to Wapan to study there. After the old king drops dead in 979, his son returns to begin a complete transformation of the entire Zulu state from top to bottom. He begins by publically declaring he has converted to Waifuism, and orders all detractors to be executed. His coronation is a splendid affair, where he spends a quarter of the government’s annual budget, declares himself Emperor of all the Bantu peoples, and introduces Waifuism as the state religion. He says that it is the duty of the Zulu to unite all of the Bantu under a single banner and single religion.
-His reign is contested between historians, some arguing that he was a tyrant, others that he was a great man. He ordered a pantu totem to be raised in every settled place in his vast empire. He abolished the taxes on Waifuism and started a brutal campaign to force the eradication of native religions and foreign imports (including Christianity and Judaism). Law was extensively reformed, roads built, ports expanded, and Wapanese from overseas were imported to oversee the modernization of the country. They recommended improvements in agriculture, architecture, and industry especially, establishing vast mining and new farming estates, foundries, workshops, factories, shipwrights, and logging camps along with forestry. Herbal merchant and urine go well together, for the shredded remains of the plants can be stewed in urine for saltpetre.
-Sanitation is also developed, but in contrast to other countries, waste is pretty valuable. Urine is collected and used in many industrial processes (including saltpetre), meaning that even in the smaller villages, there is a demand for pee. Many of the first waifuist temples have a “pee tithe”. Every member is obligated to urinate into a pot next to the building once a day, which is then collected daily by a carter who takes it to a city for sale. The funds raised are used for the upkeep of the building.
-The ports are growing quite quickly now, especially in South Africa. The end of this century has generally seen the first exploration attempts diversify into trade, and many merchants are now sailing around the whole of Africa for the first time. It offers a way to bypass the overland route and tolls of Egypt, and with increasing ship sizes, improving navigation, and the growth of a network of ports, it means the Zulu can finally profit from transoceanic trade. Even Zulu merchants are able to cash in, with the new Wapanese shipbuilding and metalworking techniques; they are building large trading ships and metal items, then trading as far away as Europe. After twenty years, most craftworkers and farmers’ incomes have doubled, although there have also been a steady rise in prices as well.
Hanajia and Pacific
-The residents of Hanajia have begun to see a boom in the use of introduced foreign technologies or native ones recently developed. Chief among them is the heavy plough. With the rapid spread of horses, ironworking (or trade routes), plus trading networks, many people along the Mississippi river valley finally have the ability to plough through the tougher and heavier soils with aid of animals (such as horses and cattle). This has allowed for many tribes and small chiefdoms with access to both the ability to rapidly expand farms and agricultural productivity. Unfortunately, this exhausts the soil, and with growing populations, the first groups of colonists or immigrants travel out westwards into the plains or along rivers. Intervals between births gradually drop from four years to two years, a great boon in assisting these pioneers driving out their troublesome neighbours. There is also increasing adoption of writing, stratified hierarchies, military action, and legal systems. Hanajia (north of the equator that is), is largely undergoing the same changes Europe did four to three thousand years ago, albeit sped up by imported technology. South of the Andes and Xerxes however, Hanajia is still more or less in the Neolithic.
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-The recently developed systems for the government are further reformed within Kauppias. To maintain oversight of them all and ensure they aren’t abusing their positions, the Siviilihallinto is established to not only maintain oversight, but collect information in the form of censuses and surveys, then compute them and track the overall growth and development of the country at large. It also makes the tasks of decision makers easier (and means they can’t lie as often), for now a database of hard information exists. The first census is carried out in the year 963, and is carried out every 20 years. The next census (held in 983) revealed that the population and acreage of land under cultivation (along with food production) was growing contrary to doomsayers predictions. One bureaucrat who examined the information came to a rather horrifying conclusion, in that he found the total population growth relative to the growth of land under cultivation, was growing faster. He predicted that eventually population would exceed land cultivation and there would be a famine. What he failed to realize however, is that land can be made to produce more over time, so his prediction is delayed (for now.)
-Noticing that the strange northern foreigners are keen to trade, several special ports are established along the northeast coast, in much cooler areas. They have wharves and facilities able to handle the relatively large ships, along with well-developed roads, large warehouses, cranes, tax offices, and other such facilities to assist in the smooth running of a port. Rubber, tobacco, and coca, are three very popular exports, and are taxed highly. These ports begin to gradually also see a growth in fishing fleets and methods of agriculture adapted to the cooler climate as well, with some of the more successful ports growing into bustling towns. Rivers are also bridged, have watchtowers and forts built along them, and tollbooths set up to profit from trade. Expansion along trade routes is common, and a large military expedition is made westwards to build forts to secure these routes.
-The military, which used to be a ramshackle pathetic mix of conscripted peasants, mercenaries, rich people with wanderlust, and militias, is dissolved and new reforms are set out to establish a professional military. Firstly, all soldiers are full-time paid professionals, given plots of land in troublesome or under-populated areas after they finish service. While many soldiers do die or desert before their time is up (about 20 to 25 years), a great deal of men are enticed to stay on for the promise of land and good wages. A tiny fraction of them even save up and when they arrive, often buy the land around from soldiers who had no interest in farming. Labourers are hired to work the land, and large profit-based farms for retired men (aged in their 40s to 60s) are now becoming common. They are rising as a respectable class of refined gentry, often sending their children into the same army to repeat the process all over again, and given their ties to the regime, are loyal even after retirement. Some of them begin to grow cash crops, usually tobacco or cotton.
-In accordance with the reforms, the government has set up military based, foundries, armouries, workshops, and other zoned areas intended for the production of materials for the army. A physician is usually set up as well, along with barbers, dentists, and other sorts of people required for keeping an army well groomed and maintained. Hierarchical ranks based on meritocratic exams are also introduced, meaning (potentially) a private could advance up to become a general or even out of touch with reality. When it is realized that generals are of mixed competence, the Pääesikunnan akatemia is founded as a permanent general staff. Their task is to study warfare, review old battles, study and develop theory, and draw up plans for military campaigns. It is in this that they plan the conquest of much of the continent around them, filled with nascent states and rapidly developing. Training of soldiers is made key, with their armour and weaponry being particularly good, their strategies many, their prowess for quick thinking, and ability to maintain formation despite shock attacks is highly prized.
-Of course, a (relatively) tiny professional army is not to be relied upon, some form of reserves must be kept in case of a truly big war. It is for this purpose, that the reserviläinen is set up throughout the country, based on administrative districts. People unable to be full-time soldiers can participate, getting training rarely, a subsidy, plus some obsolete or inferior versions of armour and weaponry that the professionals wear (although many choose to buy better weapons). For when times are truly desperate, varusmies are conscripted from the local population, being paid for their services after a short campaign or even battle. With all this organization and improvement of the army, that not only can large swathes of land be easily subdued, but administered, colonized, and progressively incorporated into the country. The military even built decent roads and bridges, and in the process, created a template for most infrastructures in that part of the world today.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-With increasing popularity of tobacco for smoking, a bright chap comes up with the idea of taking a piece of paper (a recent import from overseas) and putting tobacco in it, before rolling it up and smoking it as one whole piece. Not only are these new “cigars” enjoyed over pipes more, but new machinery and devices are being introduced to facilitate their mass production. Vast paper mills and rollers are being built to create rolling papers and cigars, with them being stuffed into barrels and exported overseas. Varieties and blends utilizing coca extracts are also popular, with them now gracing the lips of many people throughout Eurasia. Of course, it’s also highly addictive, and along with peers pressuring people into trying it and the fact nicotine is one of the few stimulants around, smoking is on a massive rise. However, cheaper and cruder varieties are made using mixtures of used leaves and sometimes ground up sawdust and leaves, whilst many clergymen call for their abolition. Of course, back home, it is also quite popular, and given trade duties on it, it is also a good source of income for the state as well.
-Now that horses have been extensively introduced and become well known, the military has taken up their use with much gusto. Originally relegated to the wealthy, new breeds of horses (along with their numbers) have multiplied and prices have fallen as a result. Many are being used to pull carts full of necessary supplies, and roads have naturally begun to widen and develop to take this into account. In the plains where they evolved many millions of years before, they readily adapt and proliferate, and even the tribes to the south have begun to tame them. Many traders have decided to start selling horses to these peoples, and some villages are being offered vassalage and protection by Xerxes, in return that they provide a small number of troops or resources to contribute to the armed forces. Of course, most of these newcomers have little idea of how to run an army, given their lack of experience with large scale warfare. The first academies are established to specially train such persons, and later extend to the entire army, so as to create a professional officer corps that can run an army.
-With improving communications and roads, Xerxes is now fully aware of the existence of the Wapanese, with many traders heading overseas or through Mexico to Carufonia, buying horses or old ships. Many Wapanese traders are all too happy to sell these things in return for the addictive drugs that Xerxes possesses, and many high quality horses and ships eventually travel down there, where they are examined, adopted, and improved upon. The captured Greek colonists (along with any remaining texts) are told to translate or write down everything they know or hold on those texts, and are granted a large portion of land to build their own community in. They mix with the local population and much later, Greek traders and other foreigners who travel to Xerxes, creating a small town in itself. It would become known as Elli̱nikápolis. Many of these Greeks are later given permission and the resources to import necessities from home, and keep alive the Greek tradition of love for philosophy. The first true universities are founded with their assistance, and the first area of interest seemed to be the ocean. They start a school of “Oceanography”, where they would sail out and drop weighted ropes into the water, measuring the depths of the seas and mapping coastlines as well. They also begin to start catching aquatic life with nets, and begin to categorize them into different groups. Influenced by the new theory of Evolution from Europe, they have opted to broadly split animals into two groups (vertebrates and invertebrates), and further divide them up based on similar characteristics.
-Starting to take more of a genuine interest in economic affairs, the state announced the establishment of agricultural and small business subsidies to farmers and craftworkers to assist in the development of roads, agriculture, industry, bridges, and other necessary infrastructure improvements. Many of the small craftworkers open successful small scale ironworks to make agricultural equipment, whilst farmers begin to produce steadily rising quantities of food and cash crops. With property and income taxes also in place, a steady source of funds can now be used by the state, and inevitably a lot is left over for other programs. Deciding to emulate the Greek love of learning, the first state schools are established in conjunction with local education initiatives. They teach the language of the Empire, history, mathematics, philosophy, and other subjects of note to young people. At the age of 12 – 14, a student can continue further study with a small financial grant, and eventually go to university, whilst most other children go to work in the trades. Not a single person is overlooked, as orphans begin to be cleared from the streets and put in state run orphanages, working to clear the streets of refuse and other menial tasks. Some eventually go on to become apprenticed or start up a farm in the countryside..
-Movement begins to steadily pick up with the spread of horses and wheeled wagons. Society has undergone a complete transformation, as now people are becoming literate, wealthier, and gain some knowledge of the world beyond their borders. International trade begins to grow exponentially, a new monetary system is eventually established to aid with commerce, and most niggling of all, the people have begun to pressure for reform. Educating the peasantry has resulted in many of them demanding rights and an ability to participate in government, or at least some say on all sorts of issues troubling them. One particular problem is the growth of farmland. As they grow and spread outwards, many old growth forests are being cleared and tilled, and whilst this aids an economic boom and population recovery from the plague, environmental degradation is starting to become a problem.
-Some explorers travel down the coasts and over the seas of the Pacific, eventually reaching the Galapagos isles, where they establish a colony. Exploration has also been conducted along the Atlantic seaboard as well, and far to the south, large and vast under populated plains are discovered, which could be perfect for agriculture and pasture. Some sailors also go up and down the West African coast, raiding Phoenician and Greek trade vessels, apparently fighting for the Coalition. Their influence on the outcome of the war is minimal.
Turn 18: 1000 to 1020 CE
Beethoven - 8th Symphony (Complete) ♫*
Turn music
Political map of Turn 18
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=43061990#post43061990
Turn quote: It is only totalitarian governments that suppress facts. In the Greek Empire we simply take a democratic decision not to publish them.
Events of the years 1000 to 1020:
Europe
-In the former Laubergian Reich, the upstart state of Weißen forms after the King of Sudgrund inherited large estates and strong claims to the western portion of Salzreich. In a war lasting seven years, he allies himself with Italy and proceeds to enact wide ranging military, social, and economic reforms, transforming his small and poor Kingdom into one with efficient taxation and conscription policies. Pressing his claims, he went to war with his neighbours, initially with Carinthia. Salzreich noted his upstart actions and declared war, but due to incursions by the Mongolians, was badly damaged, and forced to sue for peace with Sudgrund in order to focus on the Mongolians. Meanwhile, the Sudgrund state further continued with reforms by declaring independence from the Salzreich church and forming their own “Reformed” church, with seperate liturgy and declaring it an independent body from the Aquinist faith. Finally, it declared war on Bavaria, and seized land that the family had laid claim to in the previous centuries, and renamed itself Weißen. Modelled along highly militaristic lines, it is starting to rapidly modernize to compensate for the failings under the Laubergian Reich. France invades Aquitania during the commotion, and begins to further centralize power. Now with control of all French people, she looks to expand.
KingArcher – Misiryaban Caliphate
Capital: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Islam (Sunni)
-After the reign of Mehmed the 9th was cut short by his suicide after his large military defeat at the hands of the Phoenicians and the Spanish, the government was soon placed under military control under Phoenicia. However after some short diplomatic dealings Phoenicia soon pulled out and left Misiryaban to fend for itself. Since the Caliph and the government was completely destroyed the country was placed under a military dictatorship by Muhammad the 3rd, but he soon rebuilt an actual government, albiet not in the style of the old government. He created a republic based mostly off of Delian democracy. The old royal castle had the furniture moved out and was reused as a senate building were the each district's representatives would meet and discuss each law. Only one meeting was held.
-The Republic quickly begins to print propaganda attacking the Spanish and Bohemians. Unfortunately, the Spanish decide to invade shortly after the Phoenicians demobilize. As the Phoenicians demobilize, they also take the colonies of Misiryaban, leaving the country to just the home islands. In a panic, as Misiryaban loses control of the country, the President tries to contact the bank and mint so they can print and borrow money for the war effort. The bank refuses, and so he is forced to go there with a small guard and to rob the bank for necessary funds, which he uses to purchase the last weapons the Republic can scrape up. This plan goes badly, and the Republican guard attempts to protect the secondary capital as the Spanish come marching in. A brief fight and sounding of guns ends with the Republican guard defeated and the royal family captured and executed. At the last meeting of parliament, a Spanish soldier marches in to inform them that the government had fallen and he required the delegates to leave. They march out of the building; a luxurious specimen built in the medieval period, yet now covered in soot and grime from the nearby factories. The papers of the executive office were covered with proclamations, but as the futility of it became evident, they slowly decayed into simple geometrical patterns drawn upon the paper.
Damian0358 – The Bohemian Empire
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-In the Bohemian Empire, experiments with electricity (the first cautious attempts having been conducted in the previous century) have allowed a number of observations to be made and applications derived. It is found that an electric current can be made to flow through a wire by making a coil of copper wire and moving a small magnet through it. Similar discoveries also note that two different metals (such as copper and zinc) separated by moist board, can also produce an electrical current. Finally, these can also apply in reverse. Therefore, by applying an electrical current to a wire in presence of a magnet, one can induce motion. In a spate of excited experiments, researchers manage to also discover a relationship between units of electrical potential, units of electrical resistance, and units of electrical current. (For instance, by increasing the current in a copper wire, one can induce it to heat up. By modifying the resistance to be extremely high, and with enough resources, one can induce a wire to glow extremely hot, and even to give off light (before it burns out of course)). From these experiments, the first batteries, dynamos, motors, earliest attempts at lighting, and electromagnets all come into existence. All require vast amounts of copper if one is to produce these on a large scale, and for the first time since the Bronze Age, it’s a good time to be a copper pit owner.
-With the slow liberalisation of the Empire, the Emperor decided that, with the changing times, perhaps adoption of a constitution would be best for the Empire. On the 3rd of December 1015, a Petrine modelled constitutional monarchy is adopted, with the creation of the Bohemian parliament. Jindřich Dobransky, member of the "Liberální strana" (Liberal Party), was elected the first prime minister. Besides the "Liberální strana", the other current political parties are the "Sociálně demokratická strana" (Social Democratic Party), the "Monarchista strana" (Royalist Party, conservative), the "Tomancka strana" (Tomanist Party, communism, named after their party leader, Vlček Toman (basically Titoism)), the "Díogenécka strana" (Diogenist Party, social cynicism, named after Diogenes) and the "Konzervativna liberalna strana" (Conservative liberal party).
-With a lot of industrial equipment (and Misiryaban prisoners) being cannibalized from the war, the groundwork for industrialization of the Empire is now underway. The coal and iron rich centres quickly sprout in Bohemia proper along with parts of Poland (so named for the Polans, an ethnic group in the Vistula basin). The ready access to confiscated railway locomotives has allowed Bohemia to become the second country in the world to build a locomotive factory, although production is still small scale and piecemeal. Despite these setbacks, a thin spider’s web of railway lines slowly grow over the Bohemian Empire, linking up industrial centres and later would be of benefit to the military. The second decade saw the kilometres of railway in existence double.
-The hot air balloon, along with blueprints and a small number of engineers, is sold to the Phoenicians in return for their wooden frigates (the ones that they couldn’t be bothered or had enough money to convert into paddle steamers), which are used to patrol the Danube and protect the tiny external trade of the Empire. When St Helena begins to become increasingly important, the frigates send supplies and men to the island to build a large star fort on the island, and to use it as a base for the colonization of the New World. A colony is established on the eastern coast, watching over a large bay and having a commanding view of the nearby plains. Perhaps more wisely than the Greeks, they also built a truly massive stone and brick fort in the latest style, armed with 52 heavy guns and stocked full of supplies. The approach is kept clear for roughly half a kilometre, while the town rests on the nearby slope facing the sea. Smaller Martello towers are built on opposite sides of the bay.
-The Eastern Empire, the Phoenician Federation and the Bohemian Empire charter a railroad company, each investing a third into it. The company, under the use of many proxy companies, works to build a connected rail network across Europe and North Africa. The plan is perhaps stupid and ambitious in its undertaking (and perhaps pointless in the case of Africa, given the existence of steamships), but the money has been presented and the manufactory owners do not question where the money has come from. The industrial facilities to produce such equipment for the railway initially came mostly from Misiryaban (before it was stripped bare and invaded again), followed by Bohemia (who had the foresight to steal Misiryabans industrial secrets and build their own rival railways before anyone else), and Phoenicia (who stole most of Misiryabans industrial equipment and rebuilt factories for the purpose of building locomotives and rails back home).
-With Bohemia having become a very large kingdom, Bohemian king Wenceslaus I Hostiv, had decided the Kingdom is to be named an Empire. As such, the Bohemian Empire is crowned, with Wenceslaus I Hostiv becoming Emperor. A new flag is introduced as well, and to celebrate, missionaries are sent to Armenia to remind them to stay Christian, and if possible, to become the correct type of Christian.
-The Khan, having relocated to eastern Europe, declared war on the Bohemian Empire, seemingly with intent to destroy it. The Bohemians, having been completely unprepared for such a war (having until very recently no fortifications or militia system of any kind in the East), decide to bring up their armies to meet the invasion. They meet the Mongolians at the Vistula, and in a four day long battle are eventually forced back despite having a superior number of heavy guns. The tactical manoeuvres and numbers of the Mongols are largely to blame (along with their fondness for using Russian infantry as cannon fodder). The Mongols also take advantage of the Bohemians lack of heavy fortifications outside of the major cities, wreaking havoc upon the countryside and temporarily forcing many cities to accept him as their sovereign and to grant him a tribute in kind and men. Before the Bohemians can recover their forces and try to prevent him moving further, the Khan marches into the open lands of Germany, much of which had never experienced war on any significant scale before. He devastates much of Germany, looting the country for a whole year before pulling out, for his loins had become worn and emptied while his caravans of loot had become overburdened.
-The Bohemians eventually manage to force the Mongols to leave Germany and then Bohemia, aided largely by the movements of Polotsk and the Baltic. Reform of the military and railway administration also allowed them to begin to actually outmanoeuvre the Mongols as well. Sieges are lifted and eventually angry peasant mobs armed with muskets and using the railways manage to force the last of the Mongols to leave, while the Bohemian army prevents their return. The damage had however been already done. Salzreich suffered especially badly, with their upstart new neighbour Wei ßen taking advantage and grabbing land left open as the Mongols had effectively destroyed authority. Another state formed in Germany along the North Sea coast, named Baselland. The German states, having grown deeply hostile towards the Bohemians for their inability to defend them, have begun moving towards militarism and reform, seeking to rebuild their countries and having grown more aggressive. With the rise of secularism, religious reform is a hot potato discussed in Germany, with some states starting to split from the Bohemian Orthodoxy (always viewed somewhat as a foreign import) and have begun to move towards more “German” worship. The stirrings of nationalism have also begun, for a “German” identity is starting to form. The Bohemians only had to let the Khan tip the first domino.
Mackalda2k6 – The Eastern Empire
Capital: Byzantium
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Realizing that significant problems have been posed by the production of wrought iron into steel, a new process has been introduced to fix the last crucial gap, and to reduce the cost of steel manufacture. By blowing air through the molten pig iron, one can burn off the impurities, yet keep the metal hot. By then introducing carbon after having burned off the impurities, one can easily and reliably mass produce steel at considerably low prices, as much as a fifth of the original costs for production using the blister process. With this, the iron foundries begin to slowly adapt their facilities and modify them to focus on the production of steel as opposed to iron. Steel manufacture has only just taken off however, and it will take some time for it to surpass iron as the metal of choice for construction and engineering. For the time being however, gun barrels, cannon, ship armour and struts, engines, machinery, tools, and other sorts of metal items are starting to be made increasingly out of steel. There is a general reduction in the bulkiness of artillery and firearms as well, as one can afford to make a barrel lighter if the metal is stronger.
-The Delian Congress-in-Exile in Antioch drafts a formal constitution with the Turks and the Egyptians that unifies the three powers under one international Congress. Each respective power joining (Delian League, United Turkish Kingdoms, and Ptolemy Egypt) become states of the newly unified Empire, each retaining their previous governmental system so long as it maintains its democratic status and guarantees the vote to all male citizens. Greek is made the official language of government in the Supreme Eastern Congress; states are allowed to speak their own language in government affairs. Some citizens are mildly annoyed at the news, given that Hellenization more or less continues as before, although many people have begun to set up local schools throughout the countryside to educate children in their native language.
-The military is consolidated under a single joint Chief of Staff comprised of skilled generals and admirals elected by the Eastern congress. The army is intermixed to get different people used to living together and training is standardized as the three old empires merge into one. The Turkish and Egyptian forces are massed in Anatolia and cross the sea into Greece from Athens and Lygos to assert the power of the Supreme Eastern Congress and Delian Congress over the dictator. They spread word for the Greek forces to desert the dictator and support the new Constitution. They liberate the major cities and then establish a police force, securing the land of both forces loyal to the dictator and any other armed forces. Due to the weakened internal structure of Greece and its ruined economy from the war, there is little opposition to the creation of the new regime.
-The Mediterranean task force is formed, uniting the three navies there and rebuilding them to mimic the new steamship and frigate designs of the Phoenicians. The same occurs for the Eastern task force. People are also sent across Europe and into Mongolia to record the battles fought there. This information is amassed into treatises that are taught in the military institutes across the Empire, hopefully to better educate generals on warfare and on how to prepare for it. Unfortunately, given that the majority of Mongolian conflicts are logistically and technologically lopsided so often, this is no way to prepare an army for warfare with the modernizing states of Europe.
-A bizarre steam car with a polybolos strapped to the side is built as an interesting military experiment, but due to the poor ability of such a heavy and unwieldy vehicle to steer (let alone use most roads or terrain); it ends up crashing into a ditch and bursting on fire. The local farmers then sue the military for scaring their farm animals, and after a lengthy court case, end up winning due to the support of several wealthy landowners who had bones to pick with certain military leaders.
-The Supreme Eastern Congress holds a census for the entire empire in the year 1008, recording a population of around nineteen million persons. Due to demographic losses from war and destruction of houses (along with a lot of people going unrecorded due to the requirement of an address being crucial to the census), historians still debate the validity of this census. The Egyptian and Turkish parts (having largely escaped war) are much more accurate however. In tandem, a centralized police force is also established, mostly in accordance with census data so that they can govern the ethnic or religious trouble spots (or the new industrial centres).
-To manage these reforms and to pay for the growing bureaucracy, taxes are raised on the upper classes and the burden on the poor is somewhat slackened. Of course there are complaints about this, but the promise of political favours seems to buy over the nobility for now.
-To reform the economy, the Empire has begun to look inwards as opposed to outwards. The great trading companies are at an end, and now the state has begun to raise tariffs and heavily subsidize heavy industry. The first true railways appear (in small numbers), while the number of mines, factories, shipyard, foundries, and other such enterprises quickly expand in number, sucking up armies of peasants and turning them into factory workers. Bizarrely, the empire also legalizes trade unions, introduces minimum wages, and tries to implement basic safety features in workplaces. While admirable, most of these reforms are ignored or easily circumvented. Many trade unions are also infiltrated by factory managers or private contractors and often broken up. Due to non-existent workers’ rights, very often a factory owner can fire all of the strikers and bring in new workers. In the actual places which do implement these reforms however, progress is painfully slow and full of mistrust on both sides. The government is viewed as attacking the new rich too much, and trying to pander to the workers and old aristocracy.
-Foreign trade still happens however, and with the breakup of old state-owned enterprises and opening of markets to trade, merchants are sailing to the Orient to buy spices, gems and other goodies before sailing home to sell them off. Unfortunately, the Phoenicians are developing an increasing grip on trade in the Atlantic and increasingly the Indian oceans. Being squeezed out by the Phoenician state supported trading companies and their hold on coastal ports, forts, trade routes, and increasingly local rulers, the Greeks are losing the edge in their trading capabilities. The Empires focus to invest internally into heavy industry and military production is having a similar effect as well, as many merchants simply decide to move into these areas of expertise instead.
-Lygos and Istanbul is rebuilt and the administrative region is redrawn to combine both cities into a single municipal entity now named “Byzantium”. Reconstruction commences soon afterwards, with many fine examples of architecture utilizing industrial materials (such as wrought and cast iron beams and decorations, reinforced brick and iron buildings, bridges, etc) first being built during this time. There are proposals for a massive iron bridge crossing the straits between the two cities, with a railway line upon it. The Greek Empire is much more interested in a new railway line however, for on hearing the proposals of Phoenician and Bohemian engineers and economists, there are talks of grand railways spanning whole continents, and so some money has been set aside for the purpose.
-With post-war confidence returning and economic growth making impressive leaps and bounds under the new prime minister, one would be mistaken for believing that this is a renewed empire. Underneath the surface, despite attempts to alleviate the worst of social ills, many differing ethnic and religious groups are still often hostile towards the Empire, viewing the centralization of power within a single city in Greece to be intolerable. The congress is frequently besieged by the demands of the plethora of delegates, many demanding greater autonomy and privileges, freedoms for their own peoples, and sometimes calls for independence. The far eastern portions of the Empire are frequently the worst, with industrialization and growing wealth only serving to expand the politically conscious groups there and embolden them. It is no surprise that when an orchestra plays a new symphony by an upstart Kurdish composer (itself based on older Kurdish folk music and poetry); the Turkish authorities are near powerless to prevent a riot breaking out and kebab stores being set on fire.
-Political clubs are exploding in number throughout the Empire, with many talkers and shouters finally finding the freedom and financial resources (along with an audience) to talk about the matters of the day, big or small. Newspapers begin to explode in number throughout this period and often end up travelling over borders (much to the annoyance of neighbouring kingdoms with less political freedoms). People are even testing the limits of censorship laws by publishing pornography and pictures of various politicians in rude poses. Jokes are swapped freely along with songs and dances, while the young and politically conscious have hundreds of political organizations to be snared by and later renounce.
-Mongol raids still occasionally happen on the border with Ruthenia, but these are sporadic and the Mongols are showing signs of strain in their attempt to breach the borders and spill into the Empire.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-A most curious and strange invention has been invented in the Entente around this time. Most normal firearms use gunpowder as a propellant to fire the shot, making a loud bang, flash, and a lot of sooty smoke. The solution comes in an unexpected form, when a gunsmith invents a mechanism that allows one to pump and store compressed air. By putting a small tank into the stock and fitting a gravity fed mechanism to feed rounds into the rifle, one can fire shot over considerable distances with high accuracy, almost no noise, and enough power to fire thirty shots in succession. Due to the fragile nature of some of the mechanisms and the requirement that the air reservoir be continually pumped up again, it requires a special type of soldier to use them. Their inability to be used in the main battle also means that these guns are generally reserved for skirmishers who own act independently in small teams, to circle the enemy and attack the inflexible formation and command structure. Practice battles with these soldiers offer a glimpse into the next era of warfare.
-For the rest of the army, simple additions to existing weaponry have been introduced. In a revolutionary leap forwards that not a single other general or gunsmith thought up of, the Entente introduces a type of knife that can be slid around the outside of a gun barrel and locked, turning it into a type of short spear. While relatively simple (and other nations have seen soldiers tying knives to guns or sticking them in the barrel), this is the first instance in which muskets with affixed bayonets have been purpose built for war. New drills are henceforth carried out with them, and a new type of charge (where soldiers charge with the gun held in a particular way) is introduced to deadly effect. The army is then relentlessly drilled, and drilled again, preparing them to discharge a volley (or more) of shot before making a powerful charge. Offense is vital to their new strategy, with skirmishing wind rifles to pick off enemy leaders and soften up their lines for the main infantry body to discharge a number of volleys, before committing to bayonet charge (supported by cavalry with lances, sabres, and pistols or carbines).
-To provide the necessary provisions for the army, the “allotment” system is introduced. Under such a system, a small number of farmers are granted a tax reduction if they provide the land and supplies to maintain a full time, professional soldier (normally a ratio of about five farmers to support one soldier). The soldier stays in a cottage maintained by the farmers, with his rations provided for by them. While decentralized and of limited ability to support a large army, it takes a massive drain of resources off of the war ministry, providing enough to keep around forty thousand men under arms at all times.
-The navy undergoes reform as deficiencies noted in the Great War are marked down to be taken care of. Onshore provisions for healthcare, pensions, supplies, and shipbuilding may be severely lacking, but the extra revenue saved by adoption of the allotment system has allowed the Entente to spend a great deal of money on building several ironclad and wooden paddle steamers. The coastal defences around Denmark are rebuilt as well, using lovely geometrical designs and the latest in mathematics to calculate the most efficient way to clear the surrounding lands of hostile human lifeforms. In a number of the larger coastal forts, joint military drills are held with Sweden, a friend to the country and increasingly involved with their affairs at large.
-With the necessary reforms in place, the Entente is prepared for any future war. Such a war arrives when a Mongol-Rus invasion of the Entente takes place after their prior campaign in Bohemia had gone successfully and they wished to pick a new target. Unfortunately for the Mongolians, thirty years of military and economic reform had changed the face of the Entente. The traditional horde structure faced severe difficulties when officers and other commanders tended to be shot by the new wind rifles, while the offensive tactics of the Entente pushed battles away from sieges and into the field. The combination of drilled infantry using shot and bayonet, along with supporting skirmishers, carabineers, and dragoons, all act together to break up the opposing forces and to force them to consider dangerous new tactics and strategies. Finally, the first railway locomotives can quickly move up men and guns in a short period of time. This, in combination with improving telecommunications, has left the Mongols embarrassingly out of place, and they are forced to retreat after an attempt at assaulting a star fort goes horrifically wrong. Aid from their Finnish, Polotskan, and Swedish allies also helps with taking the war to the enemy themselves, where large tracts of Russia are occupied and divided up between themselves. The Rus sue for peace, and are left with a rump state.
-Taking Greek cannon captured from the war, the state has it melted down with the resulting steel being sufficient in quantity to create the Steel Crown of The Commonwealth in medal form (inlaid with real amber). A monument was also constructed, to commemorate the soldiers lost in war under the flag of the Entente and those of her allies.
-The industrial and agricultural capabilities of the Entente continue to steadily improve. With the introduction of crops from the New World, only the Entente has been so accepting and enthusiastic enough to push for their introduction to all corners of their lands (and to a lesser degree in Sweden and Finland). The Latvians are especially enthusiastic with adoption of the potato, where the Latvian regiment spends their spare time breeding new strains of potato. Sasha Braus introduces a new strain that becomes well known for being able to grow in rocky soil, and is best served steamed. Pica consumption also slowly spreads. As for infrastructural improvement, steam locomotives are imported from England and Misiryaban, with several railways constructed throughout the country to assist in further industrialization and mobilization of the armed forces.
-Sensing a power vacuum in northern Europe, The Entente moves to establish several key royal marriages and alliances with the nations of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, and finds itself the leader of a personal union, The Baltic Union, with these nations through well placed political deals and several bribes. The attempt with Norway falls through however, for the Norwegians have no interest in Baltic expansion, and see the offer of royal marriage as an attempt to undermine their sovereign power. The Finnish are especially keen due to the threat posed by their Rus and Mongol neighbours, while the Swedish are keen to build up their own power base within the Union. In all matters minus some foreign affairs, all countries still remain pretty autonomous and are largely left to their own devices.
-To help boost further economic growth, tolls on Bohemian goods are dropped, while a slightly higher and temporary tariff is raised on bulk goods from Polotsk to help raise revenue for industrial development.
Salricci – Kingdom of Arhonia
Capital: Kraskai
Culture: Arhonic (Germanic)
State Religion: Hutonism
-Not much happens here. Thanks Obama.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-The Phoenician state is becoming increasingly irritated by the lack of organized measuring system based on rational divisions that are easy to convert for day to day use. To this end, the first scientific attempt to define length is made. One unit of length is equal to one ten millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator. This unit of length bar is kept as a physical metal bar in a carefully maintained environment at the building of weight and measures. Mass is then later defined in relation to this (one unit of mass being the mass of one cm^3 of water), along with other various measures (such as velocity, speed, force, energy, intensity of light, etc). All of these measures are in a decimal system as well, making the system much simpler and easier to use for the majority of people (plus matching the base ten counting system used in Europe). Taken together, all of these reforms represent the basis of the metric system and the birth of the International Measurement System.
-The Phoenicians are quick to exploit their gains from the war. In the peace treaty, Misiryaban had to give up more or less their entire navy, and the Phoenicians not only took the ironclads, but modified them for use with cannon and improved the design slightly. A huge fleet of paddle steamers is gradually constructed (many of them armoured in iron plating), and the old vessels are either sold off to the merchant marine or to Bohemia (in return for hot air balloon models). The Phoenicians also withdraw from Misiryaban after two years, taking a great number of industrial equipment and machinery with them, including seventy steam locomotives and the machinery for a machine parts factory. The Misiryaban colonies (including Iceland and Greenland) are also seized and added to the growing Phoenician empire.
-With all of these new industrial machines and expertise, along with a strong financial system, control of outgoing European trade (and incoming trade from the New World), and having escaped the war mostly unscathed, the state is now pouring vast amounts of money into economic and military development and expansion. Shipwrights are churning out armoured paddle steamers (many of them used to protect overseas trade), railways are being built, factories expanding (especially in iron and coal production), and business confidence is high. Two new stock exchanges are built in Malta and Carthage, while the "War Capacity" act is passed in Malta. The act grants large subsidies to any engineering company or individual who wishes to set up a shipyard, factory or company that produces useful products in the interests of the nation. These companies are to use mostly trained labourers, and must hold backup facilities, jigs and machines in case of war. This act is mostly designed to speed up the rebuilding of the fleet, although it goes further and provides a basis for the famed “Pan-African railway”.
-Despite its name, it is not actually as ambitious as first thought. The railway is merely a plan for a line running from Carthage to Mauritania (connecting the western ports), possibly a secondary route to cover the inland. The Greeks and Bohemians are excited with the proposal, sinking large amounts of money into the construction of the railway. After seventeen years, the entire railway network of the country is finally unified under a single system (although private companies run individual parts), with timetables being drawn up and supply depots established for the quick movement of materiel and men overland. During peace, it is a most excellent way of bringing the hinterland into contact with the coast, and many farmers can find new markets to sell their goods. For many people, fresh milk and honey can be finally consumed in the cities (provided you can pay for it!).
-A national engineer’s college and library is established, complete with classes for surveyors, railway engineers, managers, locomotive designers, and all the various types of people required for the construction of a railway and to maintain it. Despite the later start than Bohemia, a locomotive factory is built and quickly outgrows that of the Bohemian national locomotive works, and many indigenous locomotives are being put into service. To keep the workers happy, a ten hour day (mostly pushed through by landed men and farmers) along with safety regulations and minimum wages are adopted. These are viewed with a degree of disdain by the new rich, but given that little private enterprise exists out with government support, few complain. The vote is granted to all men who rent or own land (including poor persons who rent an apartment from a slum landlord). This is effectively most of the population, helping to win over the Berbers and Phoenicians in equal measure. To celebrate, the government also gives free land grants to people wishing to settle in new lands acquired by the Phoenicians, in particular, to the south.
-With increasing confidence in her abilities, the army moves to subjugate the restless tribes of the Sahara and control the West African coast. Transport is difficult (and to a degree still is today), but the advent of the first railways (up to the points where the terrain is too poor for a line) allows the military to bring in enough men and supplies to actually make it feasible to conquer an area. Forts are built and more surveyors travel south, plotting out new lines and gradually extending the Phoenician grip southwards. Following them are the new colonists, seeking to apply their knowledge to exploit the oasis’s and other sources of water to grow cash crops (especially fruit) which can be boiled or fermented into jams and wines and sold for a tidy sum.
-Sicily is also invaded, on account of the population there being Phoenician in origin. Using their powerful navy, the Phoenicians annihilate Italian opposition and quickly land in the west. Given their limited war goals and the fact Italy is still recovering from the war, they easily take control of Western Sicily through use of what an Italian minister calls “Steamboat diplomacy”.
-The Greenland and Iceland colonies are granted to Norway (for some cooperative and unknown purpose), along with a number of frigates to assist in modernization of their navy. Similar actions go on in Wales, where a port is set up to exclusively trade with Phoenicia. In return for vast supplies of coal and iron, ships are sold to the Welsh. A guarantee of independence also assists massively in this endeavour. Frigates have also been sold to Bohemia in return for hot air balloons, while gunpowder manufacturing secrets have been sent to Spain in return for the latest books oh physics and specially relocated physicists.
-Despite all these reforms, the Phoenicians have found that after twenty years, their railway network is still horribly incompetent in case of a major war. The times at different towns and stations is often out of synchronisation, (some towns differ by 2 to 3 minutes depending on their location) whilst railway accidents are common due to the inability to communicate messages quickly down lines. Semaphore is used, but on foggy days and nights, entire lines can be crippled.
-Ships sail out into the Atlantic to discover new naval bases that would come in useful in the future. As such, the islands of Bermuda, Ascension, and the Bahamas are discovered (or rediscovered) and have ports and coaling stations built on them. Trips down the South Atlantic coast run into logistical issues beyond Ascension and one captain points out the obvious “There’s a group of good islands suitable for agriculture and as a naval base to the west of Portugal, why haven’t we gone there yet?” Finally, one commander tries to sail into Indonesia but is forced to turn back due to poor supplies. He does meet an Indonesian sailor however, who tells him of a vast southern continent sparsely populated, which he often sails to the northern tip of to trade with.
cis. joshb – Chiefdom of Polotsk
Capital: Polotsk
Culture: Polochan (Slavic)
State Religion: Slavic
-The Polotsk state recognizes that in terms of military strategy and access to modern technology, they are actually pretty backwards. To compensate for this, Polotsk imports firearms, cannon, machinery, engineers, railway locomotives, and other various inventions and developments so as to oversee the rapid modernization and industrialization of their country. The first punitive attempts at building railways is made, while in order to fund this, iron and coal mines are set up and the resources sold abroad to pay for this. Agricultural surplus is also sold off for a handsome profit, which in turn can be used to develop the country further. Slowly but surely, the military adopts modern flintlock muskets, integrates several artillery regiments, and phases out antiquated or useless armouries and soldiers. Foundries have also been established to provide for a ready source of metal for production of weaponry, while gunsmiths have popped up throughout villages to make up the shortfall in gun production.
-In revenge for the Mongolian and Rus invasion of their homeland and the Baltic, Polotsk (along with the Baltic Entente and her allies) declares war on the Mongolians and the Rus after their latest invasion goes horribly wrong. With assistance from the Entente in terms of strategy, tactics, and equipment, Polotsk batters the Rus and reclaims vast tracts of land they once held, and even expand into the Rus heartland itself before the Rus sued for peace, and were left with greatly reduced territories. Polotsk also grants some borderlands to the Entente in the peace talks, seeking to clean up the borders as both nations have different priorities when it comes to expansion.
-Politically and socially however, Polotsk is extremely backwards, with an essentially feudal political system still in operation (despite the growth of a fragile and disorganized civil service and bureaucracies to manage the department of war). Due to the system of granting money to his supporters among the landed aristocracy to maintain power, many are “borrowing” loans from him at reduced rates, which they use to fund their lifestyles and use the proceeds from their land rents to cover the interest. Of course, many nobles did not realize they were making a profit at all, and for the majority of them, as farms in other countries (particularly in the former Laubergian Reich and the Mannish Isles) modernized and increased agricultural production, incomes fell in Polotsk for both landowners and labourers, leading to poverty and bankruptcy for many. Only a tiny minority of nobles make the transition to profit-based agriculture, while many others are forced to pawn off their estates to the peasantry. Some cover their debts by freeing their serfs and selling land to them, although the peasantry hate that they have to take on these new debts.
Mr. Face – Iberian Kingdom
Capital: Madrid
Culture: Spanish (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-With extensive contacts throughout England and Misiryaban, in the aftermath of the Great War, the Spanish have been able to import many machines (most of them stolen) and have used them to kickstart their own sluggish economy. The first railway is built in Spain, a short thirteen mile stretch connecting an industrial centre to a port. Originally intended to move heavy goods, passenger traffic has flocked to the railway, which promises a cheap and quick way of visiting the seaside. The port had a large beach nearby, next to which a seaside resort town quickly grew up. Many middle class people travel here for short holidays, while various traders buy fish and then travel inland, selling fresh fish to people astonished that they can eat fish regularly in the comfort of their own homes. Several more railways begin to be built during this time, although they are widely unorganized and have low capacities.
-The Spanish, seeking to finally crush Misiryaban once and for all, declares war on the fledging republic. Almost as soon as the Phoenician occupying forces left, the Spanish quickly moved over the border from camps set up in England, and moved into the ports as they seized control of the country. Before the last ditch attempt by the Republican guard to defend the “Revolution”, the Spanish king makes a speech:
"Let those who have been accustomed unjustly to wage private warfare against the faithful now go against the infidels and end with victory this war which should have been ended long ago. Let those who for a long time have been robbers, now become knights. Let those who have been fighting against their brothers and relatives now fight in a proper way against the barbarians. Let those who have been serving as mercenaries for small pay now obtain the eternal reward. Let those who have been wearing themselves out in both body and soul now work for a double honour."
-The Royal family was captured, and in a rather poor show, was executed, much to the annoyance of the loyalists. Pretenders to the throne (such as cousins and uncles) had already fled by that stage however, most of them having fled to Zaudibaum. The country is fully occupied, and conversion of the populace to Iberian Christianity began in earnest. This move was exceedingly unpopular however, and managed to alienate the pagans who initially welcomed the arrival of the Spanish. The Portuguese monarchy had recently had a succession crisis, leading to a union of both crowns for the time being. The “Iberian Kingdom” is created, although both kingdoms still possess separate legal systems, civil services, bureaucracy, and to a degree, languages.
-The Iberian Kingdom occupies the remnant Aragonese Republic on the eastern coast, although this also had a lot to do with political manoeuvring as it did to force of arms. The Republic had always remained diplomatically isolated, and increasing incursions by the Spanish into the Republic eventually leads to them giving in. The occupation lasts for a full nine years before a formal treaty recognizes that the Republic is to be annexed to Spain, retaining a number of political concessions and autonomy. Over the next few years, these are gradually rolled back as the Spanish reform their civil service, incorporating the Republic and centralizing administrative control in Madrid.
-The Spanish state begins to implement economic reforms so as to encourage industrial development, along with the building of the first railways, gunpowder mills, armaments factories, and new shipyards. There is no word yet on any land reform or political reform, as many small farmers throughout the countryside still resent the feudal structures that have yet to be dismantled, and many of them feel powerless to better their lot. Some can make themselves heard through the occasional bout of violence, but these are always crushed. Poverty has also forced many of them to start migrating towards the towns and cities, where there is ample employment in the new factories. The blueprints and engineers needed to build the new powder factories came from Phoenicia proper, who in return for this, have been sent men from the royal society eager to explain new ballistics breakthroughs to them.
Griffster26 – Scotland
Capital: Dùn Èideann
Culture: Scottish (Celtic)
State Religion: Islam (Sunni)
-In Scotland, an interesting new invention has come about in response to issues posed by traditional firearms. All firearms require loading from the muzzle, in a process that takes time and is especially difficult when in a battle situation. A hunter shooting clay pigeons comes up with a nifty solution (he also manages to avoid the unnecessary expense of buying clay pigeons by shooting real ones). By loading from the rear (or breech) of the barrel, using a hinge and a locking mechanism to prevent any material being ejected from the wrong end, one can quickly and easily reload a firearm by stuffing the cartridge into the barrel and then locking the barrel. Despite this innovation, paper cartridges are notoriously unreliable and the gun still requires a pan of powder to ignite the charge. It can only reduce the time required for reloading by so much, and these firearms are inevitably more costly than normal ones due to the added complexity. Despite this, the industrial capacity of Scotland allows for the mass production of them (if the expense is to be allowed), and cavalrymen particularly enjoy using them (and seemingly employ them the best).
-The Islamic government of Scotland, having survived long enough under Misiryaban rule to see the religion take root, has declared a campaign against the pagans. Rooting them out wherever they can be found, in a period of 20 years the Scottish finish the conversion of their country, save for the Highlands where many people still stick to the old ways. They even try to rebel at one stage, but the rebellion is easily crushed when several of the villages where the ringleaders were had been set ablaze. The clearances had been temporarily stopped by the Great War, so it is postulated that in order to finish them off for good, a resumption of such clearances may be prudent.
-The Scottish also manage to acquire a number of ships (either stolen or quickly built in the new shipyards) and begin to patrol the coasts with them, before quietly annexing the Outer Hebrides and Orkney Isles. The Norwegians are extremely angry at this gesture, declaring war on Scotland and engaging in a series of naval battles. Unfortunately for Norway, their navy is woefully underequipped and unable to fight on equal footing with the Scots, who have heavy guns and even a number of steamships and ironclads. The Norwegians also have poor financial resources at their disposal and are horribly backwards in their military structure and organisation. The Scottish win the war, but the Norwegians have begun to make significant military reforms in order to avoid becoming a complete embarrassment again in the next one.
-To ensure the loyalty of the peasantry, some land reforms are enacted, where large areas of land are given out to people, any old servile structures from the far past are abolished, and people are allowed to actually own the land they farm. For the first few years, many peasants are pleased with the news, but changing economic and social conditions have led to them starting to sell their farms to more successful neighbours (or to the former lord) and move to the cities. It is mostly the sons of farmers who do this after having inherited it from their parents, or particularly bad ones who were blessed with poor weather, poor intellect, poor land, or alcoholism. The cities continue to grow into smoky and noisy centres of industry and commerce, although the Highland villages are particularly resistant to their changes (their isolation from markets and transport along with poor education facilities means many of them are forced to be self-sufficient and often remain outside of the money economy).
CapLaPorte – The Kingdom of Romania
Capital: Salona
Culture: Romanian (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Romania has seen heavy influence from her neighbours over the past few centuries. The Laubergian Reich, the Delian Empire, and Italy, have allowed Romania to take in many people from her neighbours (including political refugees) over time. Her relative isolation from warfare and general prosperity due to Mediterranean trade (which has only started to shift in favour of the Atlantic seaboard) has made it a good place to do business, in spite of some old feudal customs and restrictions on trade and industry remaining. It is in this Kingdom that the political philosophy of Communism first develops (before the more radical Lendinites came about). In Communism, it holds that society progresses through stages of development, based upon which class of people happens to hold power at the time. Almost inevitably in every stage it is a tiny elite holding all of the land, capital, and material goods, whereas the poorer classes inevitably must labour for consumer goods. The theory holds, contrary to empirical evidence, that over time, wages will fall as capitalists fight to increase profits, leading to a point where a large social revolution occurs and society organizes itself by having the workers create communal settlements and democratically decide on how to organize their labour collectively and to produce what is needed.
-The King enacts a nation-wide mandatory conscription policy. All males must, at some point before they turn forty, serve two years in the army, and thereafter must return for some basic military training. The military is restructured to accommodate for the large numbers of men passing through it. The initially small, but well trained core of the army is made to begin teaching the massive numbers of new conscripts. There is a decline in quality, although the number of possible men the country can field has massively expanded without having expended too much money on it. The state sets a standard for basic military training, which includes physical fitness, small scale tactics, weapons operations, and a focus on guerrilla warfare. Some females are given the basics of military training too, mostly for nursing and baggage personnel who are hardly protected from the dangers of war. All physical education teachers in the country are also replaced with NCOs, who drill fitness and discipline into children. Many of these reforms are modelled upon those adopted by Wei ßen, or in turn, is adopted by Wei ßen as the basis for the new military.
-Noticing that Romania is somewhat backwards and behind her neighbours, the monarchy takes massive loans from public and foreign banks in order to rapidly industrialize. New factories, producing weaponry, soaps, glass, iron, cloth, and other various manufactured goods spring up all over the country as families begin flocking towards the various urban centres. Most of these factories are usually owned by private individuals, with subsidies from the state being used to fund their construction. Mining operations in the mountains throughout the country kick off as well, with a large focus on coal and iron extraction. Later on in the second decade, the first unorganized worker's unions begin to pop up, demanding better rights, healthcare, and minimum wages. The King ignores them and acts generally hostile towards their existence, banning trade unions. The urban populace start to agree with the ideas present in the recently published "Communist Manifesto", which calls for a worker's revolution against the monarchy, with the main actions being a large nationwide strike to bring down the Kingdom. Despite these calls, most of the population is still located in the countryside. This is an era of high childbirth and declining mortality rates, and most farms have yet to be cleared like in the rest of Europe. Many young sons go to the cities to learn how to read and to make extra money for their families, while the daughters become domestic servants. Most people want to ascend into the professions such as minor clerks, shopkeepers, and the skilled trades.
-The King, angered by the trespasses made on his territories during the Great War, warns the world that Romanian land is not to be trampled on by the "Străins", and pledges to "Fuck up the next dickhead who thinks he can just mosey on through my land". He also condemns the practice of Waifuism, and calls for the expulsion of all practicing Wapanese within his borders, citing the reasoning, "Do they ever shower?" and "Anyone who can get off to a drawn girl is insane". The wearing of fedoras is then banned within his realm. Soon afterwards, Waifu temples are closed down and the religion is pushed underground, where they mingle with Communists and other radicals.
-The Liberal Prime Minister suggests to the monarchy that some enlightened reforms may be necessary to streamline his Kingdom and to further modernize its capabilities, along with holding off revolution. He suggests that railway locomotives be imported and a vast railway network constructed (the Prime Minister used to be a railway clerk), that a state owned trade association union be established, the consultative council be expanded to include the growing middle classes, reforms to the civil service, and finally, the abolition of serfdom and necessary land reforms to improve agricultural output and to move labour to the cities, which ought to get labour to where it is needed, free up land for use, and create a conservative landowning class. For the time being, only several small scale railways exist in Romania, with peasants riding in the flatbed trucks to carry sacks of fresh food to the cities for sale.
Yawmwen – Lendinites
Headquarters: Byzantium
Ethnicity of party leaders: Greek (Hellenic)
Party line on religion: Atheist
-The new political philosophies floating around Europe often have many adherents. This is especially true in the multi-ethnic and troubled Eastern Empire (created as a merger of the old three empires). Initially, the philosophy of dialectics swept the Empire, with it showing that history progressed through stages in which contradictions would be resolved through them eliminating each other to create a new synthesis. In turn, this synthesis would inevitably end up contradicting something else, starting the process anew. In history, this meant old societies being supplanted by newer ones through such a process. The arrival of evolution gave further credence to this idea, with many believing that society, its development, and its direction and ultimate purpose would all be explained through natural scientific laws. From this came the Lendinites, adhering to a branch of communist philosophy which views the current society (where a tiny elite hold all wealth and power, and those who labour for the elite in return for enough to live on) are inherently at conflict with one another. In turn, this leads to a social revolution to address social inequalities, at the front of which stand the Lendinites. They differ from anyone else on the left due to their militancy and their willingness to use political power as a means of bringing about revolution. Instead of "smashing the state", the Lendinites intend to "seize the state, grow the state, and then the state will disappear when it's ready to". Their party is strictly organized and structured with a clear hierarchy. Revolution will come at any cost, even if they have to fight in every part of the world. The reason for this is that they hold that Capitalism will not destroy itself, meaning that only a dedicated party of professional revolutionaries can do the job.
-An international news publication mostly focused on economic and war news from the perspective of authoritarian communism is created, and is disseminated throughout universities to students with poor critical thinking skills and to old ladies outside of grocers who mistakenly thought they were buying a different newspaper. The paper lists the provisions of the famous manifesto that had been written decades before as if the editor himself had wrote it, and is poorly received as a paper by most people. One phrase made about the paper is “The paper consists of the same number of words whenever there is any news in it or not”. Among friendly circles however, it is well received (minus on minor accounts). One particular article fell into disrepute after the number of potatoes the government had stolen from a peasant was misprinted, and some argued that it was not a misprint. This argument would eventually lead to a split in one communist circle, where two writers spent six years arguing over the issue, sending nasty messages to each other’s partners (marriage is forbidden) and developing their own ideologies increasingly further away from each other. As it turned out much later, the story had actually been falsified in the first place and the missing potatoes had been actually eaten by a feral pig.
-The establishment of the first Lendinist party in the Delian Empire was under the leadership of Dimitris Lendin. Comrade Lendin (the son of a wealthy nobleman from Anatolia) also wrote the Lendinist political philosophy, which believes in the use of powerful political parties to seize control of power in countries, agitating the working class, and oppressing the landowning class for the purpose of an eventual transition to a complete egalitarian society. The motto of the party is "lendin' a hand to the revolution!" Currently, due to the infancy of the ideology and party, they can do little more than support their volunteer militia and publish leaflets to distribute to people who use them to stuff the cracks between door frames or as firelighters. Lendin takes time off from his busy life as a part time lawyer to write more of his philosophy, obsessively reading books on his heroes, and shunning the wealthy lifestyle by talking to socially inept people in Mrs Miggins Coffee shop, located under his apartment.
-The Lendinites establish a "people's militia". Nominally a group dedicated to ensuring peace and protecting against police brutality, in reality they are a paramilitary wing of the lendinites with the goal of eventually taking control of the country. At this time, they do little more than shout at the police whenever they make arrests and try and form vigilante mobs against the police. They are under-equipped due to lack of weapons and manpower, and usually help to fund the party through illegal activities ranging from smuggling to robbery. Many of them are sent to prison or exiled, although they have rather comfortable lodging there. Greek housewives often send fine white loaves to these prisoners as treats. The Peoples militia also end up inventing a type of crude bomb where you take a bottle of Greek fire with a cloth stuck in one end and light it before throwing the bottle. It is effective at setting flammable things on fire.
Afro-Asia
Gishatako – Ptolemaic Empire
Capital: Alexandria
Culture: Egyptian (Coptic)
State Religion: Secular (Traditionally Christian) (Aquinism)
-The Egyptian Monarchy and Parliament meets with the Delian Congress-in-Exile in Antioch and drafts a formal constitution with the Turks and the Greeks that unifies the three powers under one international Congress. The constitution is laid out as follows.
-Each respective power joining (Delian League, United Turkish Kingdoms, and Ptolemy Egypt) become states of the newly unified Empire, each retaining their previous governmental system so long as it maintains its democratic status and guarantees the vote to all male citizens.
-The state governments will be under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Eastern Congress, comprising a lower House of Representatives that is proportionally elected from all distinct regions of the Empire (Turkey, Greece, Mesopotamia, Arabia, and Egypt.) Furthermore, an executive council is to be formed above the lower house, being made up of 3 members of each state. These members are nominated by state executives and must be ratified by a 2/3's vote in Congress. From the council, one member is elected as the emperor, a largely ceremonial title that just puts him in charge of ensuring operation of the council. Likewise, the House of Representatives will elect, by 2/3's vote, a Speaker of the House who will organize the house every time it convenes. This title requires re-ratification every 2 years.
-A census is to be conducted to arrange the Empire into new voting districts where things like ethnicity, religion, and other discernable variables are to be considered. This census will be required every 25 years from the first one to ensure proper proportions amongst the districts. From this census data, the first Supreme Eastern Congress will be convened in Antioch until such a time that Lygos/Istanbul are rebuilt and ready for habitation.
-Until the census can be concluded, the Delian Congress, Turkish Parliament, and Egyptian Parliament will form the Supreme Eastern Congress between them. The Congress elects three members to serve on the council and the monarchs of Turkey and Egypt appoints three men each. Upon conclusion of the census and re-structuring based on the information therein, elections shall be immediately held.
-The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the Eastern Empire; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the Eastern Empire,to borrow Money on the credit of the Eastern Empire, To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, to establish a uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the Eastern Empire, to coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures,to provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the Eastern Empire, to establish Post Offices and post Roads, to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries, to constitute Tribunals, to define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations, to declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water, to raise and support Armies, to provide and maintain a Navy, to make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces, to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions, to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the Eastern Empire, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress, to exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the Eastern Empire, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings, and to make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the Eastern Empire, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
-The Eastern Empire shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and, on Application of the Legislature, against domestic Violence.
-The Congress, whenever two thirds of both the lower house and executive council shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as Part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, or by Conventions in states thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress
-The Constitution is ratified by the Turkish Parliament along with the Egyptians and Delians.
Burinn – United Turkish Kingdom
Capital: Istanbul
Culture: Turkish (Altaic)
State Religion: Secular (Traditionally Christian) (Aquinism)
-The Turkish Monarchy and Parliament meets with the Delian Congress-in-Exile in Antioch and drafts a formal constitution with the Egyptians and the Greeks that unifies the three powers under one international Congress. The constitution was previously laid out in the Ptolemaic turn, and thus has been already covered. For both the Turks and Egyptians, they have left the game, leaving a single Empire under rule of the Greeks.
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-The Wapanese, inclined towards imperial ambitions and improvement of existing weapons of war, have adopted an old idea for a new purpose. In the past, arrows would have string wrapped around them, the string wrapped around the arrow causing it to spin in flight, and thus stabilizing it. By applying the same principle to bullets, once can make tiny cuts into the inside of a barrel, and when firing a projectile, cause the bullet to spin in the air, thus having greater accuracy and range. The downside is the increased maintenance, difficulty of manufacture, and in turn, the cost of deploying them. Initially, these are given to men with higher capabilities than normal footsoldiers, being deployed in small groups where they skirmished ahead of the main lines to pick out important targets (such as officers). To prevent them being decimated by massed attack, they would spread out and hide in the environment, thinning down the enemy lines before the bulk of fighting commenced. Such riflemen were also utilized in siege battles, and are viewed as elite within the army. Despite such improvements, mass production capabilities are still largely off, leaving rifles to a small number of soldiers.
-Foreign cannons begin to be imported, mostly for use in coastal defences and sometimes in naval battles (land battles necessitating their use are few). Eventually, successful foundries are established, where the metal for the cannon is worked tens of thousands of times over and over, and in the far future an autistic man would complain that in a board game he saw them as being vastly underpowered for the work that went into them, and suggested new stats for them. The Emperor had earlier ordered to send troops to Arabia to attack Turkey and help their Misiryaban friends, but due to a “logistical hiccup” nobody actually went anywhere. The Emperor, furious with such inefficiency, orders to purge the ranks and puts forth reforms to make an efficient bureaucratic apparatus, both for military and civilian affairs. On the civilian end of these reforms, a census system is installed; the country is divided into prefectures, borders of which are mostly based on old feudal holdings. The prefects are elected by the people of the prefecture, who must be aged at least twenty, Waifuist and have basic formal education.
-The missionaries of Wapan are becoming increasingly aggressive with their mission to convert the peoples of Manchuria and beyond. Some missionaries are travelling to all parts of the world now, setting up missions, monasteries, businesses to fund their endeavours, and attempts to curry favour with various political figures. The first converts in Xerxes and Western Europe are starting to appear, while much of northeastern Asia is becoming extensively proselyted. Some of these missionaries discover gold deposits in Carufonia, setting off an intensive gold rush as thousands upon thousands of people from Wapan (and China) sail overseas to find a new life there. Given the chronic labour shortages, Chinese immigrants are able to make a good living there. Farmland expands rapidly while some of the smaller and quiet port towns (which had existed for centuries in some cases) suddenly start booming into cities. The old population (including the local tribes) are often swept away, and any semblance of the old life starts to die as land hungry migrant’s march east. Go east the old man said, and so they did, in their thousands. Other explorers and colonists settle islands throughout the Pacific, some uninhabited, some inhabited for significant periods of time.
-A Waifuist priest invents a most curious thing: it is a large, man-sized pillow with the image of a Waifu sewn or painted onto it. He calls it “dakimakura” (though colloquially they become more known as “waifu pillows”), intending it for unmarried men who still want to be close to their Waifu. It becomes particularly popular with the Nice Guys, most of whom, despite not being celibate anymore, still can’t get the girl.
Sincleric – Golden Horde
Capital: Moskha
Culture: Mongol (Altaic)
State Religion: Tengrism
-Due to the particular needs of the horde, mass production of weaponry and supplies is difficult when armies are often operating thousands of miles from any major production centres. The Mongols have come up with a clever trick to this however. By reducing the bulkiness of various tools and weapons, along with making light carts and essentially the ancestors of modern tents, the Mongols can move lightly and over vast distances. When they need to settle down for a short period of time, they can quickly set up industries to procure the materiel needed to run an army. Despite this, the actual mass production capabilities of the Mongolians are limited at best, with them having to rely on massive manufactory complexes in China or (increasingly) in the western portions of their empire.
-The need for new methods of war is vital for other reasons as well. The Khan has ordered a large invasion of the west, in this instance, being the invasion of the Baltic and of the Bohemians. The Khan also realizes that maintaining such a vast empire is difficult for even a great man, and so he splits up the Empire into three constituent parts. The Eastern Chinese Empire, the Sibir Khanate, and the Western Mongolian Empire (called the Golden Horde). Of them, the Chinese khans do exceedingly poorly. The disintegration of the Empire along with socioeconomic changes in China leads to a general overthrowing the last Khan in a palace coup in 1018, which sets in motion a number of wars and general unrest as the country is thrown into great confusion, from which it would not emerge for some time.
-The hordes meanwhile, move to the old lands of the Rus, establishing the new base of operations alongside the Moskha River, named by the earlier Finnish inhabitants who used to settle the area long before the Slavs or Mongols came. The camp of tents quickly grows into a large cluster of wooden cabins and houses, retaining a distinctive “village” look. Even today, Moskha is still called “the big village”. The Khan also builds a small palace, which is quickly surrounded by Tengri temples, more palaces, and later, a masonry fortification to defend it. A large square is built in front for parades, named “Kaunis Square”.
-To gather resources for the reorganization of his empire and the acquirement of vast new territories, the Khan orders an invasion of Bohemia, gathering his Russian vassals and puppets. Before the invasion, he forces Ruthenia and Kiev to accept his overlordship, and gathers up a vast horde, before plunging into the heart of the grand old Bohemian Empire. The Bohemians, having been completely unprepared for this, decide to bring up their armies to meet the invasion. They meet the Mongolians at the Vistula, and in a four day long battle are eventually forced back despite having a superior number of heavy guns. The Mongols also take advantage of the Bohemians lack of heavy fortifications outside of the major cities, wreaking havoc upon the countryside and temporarily forcing many cities to accept him as their sovereign and to grant him a vast tribute in kind and men. Before the Bohemians can recover, the Khan marches into the open lands of Germany, much of which had never experienced war on any significant scale before. He devastates much of Germany, looting the country for a whole year before pulling out, for his loins had become worn and emptied while his caravans of loot had become overburdened. Salzreich suffered especially badly, with their upstart new neighbour Wei ßen taking advantage and grabbing land left open as the Mongols had effectively destroyed authority. Another state forms in Germany along the North Sea coast, named Baselland.
-The Mongols return back to their empire in the lands of the Rus, where they promote the superiority of the Mongolians above the Slavs and then for sport decide to invade the Baltic Entente and push it out of the East for good. This invasion is more or less a failure, and when the horde arrives, many officers and commanders are picked off by unseen and unheard men (some of who are later captured and discovered to be snipers with a type of rifle powered by air pressure). The new military strategies and battle tactics are a shock to the Mongolians as well, with some Baltic or Polotsk soldiers coming overland in short times in great iron monsters called “locomotives”. The Baltic Entente, Polotsk, and the Finnish (with assistance from Sweden) invade the Rus afterwards, and carve up the land to divide amongst themselves. The use of innovative military tactics and technology by the opposing forces showed severe deficiencies in the organization of the Mongolian army and their ability to wage a modern war. Another attempted invasion of Bohemia goes badly too, for they come across a large number of forts having been hastily built in the interim, along with a recovery of the military capabilities of the country. The spread of railways is having an increasing factor in the order of battle, as the Bohemians can bring up reserves and move over vast distances faster than any horse can. Ten years after the khan first enters Bohemia, he is forced to leave. He angrily curses the iron beasts that foiled his plans, The Bohemians (drunk on success so it would seem) follow him into his empire, where they are whittled away and ambushed constantly to the point they are forced to turn back.
-Smaller invasions are conducted on the Greeks and Serbians during this time period as well, but due to the terrain and relatively industrialized and war prone nature of these areas with an excessive number of fortifications, means that no lengthy campaign here would be of any benefit. The Mongolian horde, whilst formidable, is reaching the limits of its capabilities as the Europe it desperately tries to prevent modernizing, is doing exactly that in order to fend off the Mongolians. One of the greatest generals decides to take an interesting route back home. He takes a steam train east on the way home, bringing back a watch he was particularly enamoured with. Some even bring back foreign books and ideas, and have begun to wear the latest fashions from the west.
Satansick – Zulu Empire
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Waifuism
-The Zulu Empire, realizing that modernization of the military is of direct importance to success in the future, has begun on a firearms mass production and armaments program. Importing some muskets from overseas and taking them to pieces, copies are successfully made and distributed out to the armouries of the Empire. Over a period of roughly a decade, the first standard firearm of the Zulu comes into use, being a smoothbore flintlock musket. The Zulu army, having already benefitted from the vast Zulu empire having a great deal of resources (a large portion of the budget is spent on the military), can continue in their wars of conquest, grabbing even more land. As the Zulu Empire expands, a great number of towns and cities are founded (primarily as administrative and military centres). The bureaucracy also grows haphazardly, along with the aristocracy managing the empire. Namibia is the latest addition.
-The Emperor announces a number of naval reforms, annoyed at the backwardness of his navy. He travels to Europe where he views the shipyards first-hand and returns home, ordering the construction of new shipyards and the construction of modern ships so as to create a large navy that could project the power of the empire beyond the continent. To this end, a number of islands in the western Indian Ocean were colonized and filled with forts, trading posts, docks, and other colonial necessities. Seeking to modernize his state further, he bans regalia (only to be worn at ceremonies), much to the annoyance of the nobility. Warpaint is to be worn when uniforms are unavailable, and sandals are banned. Soldiers, being rather annoyed, circumvent it by wearing toughened socks instead. The inability of the state to pay for soldiers’ uniforms (and often weapons) means they have to take up secondary jobs in order to pay for them.
-To further modernize the army, music is introduced for drills and marches that modern warfare requires. Zulu military music is composed around a loud fast paced drum pattern, after this they add animal horns, and the soldiers join in the fun by either bashing their weapon against their armour or by ominously chanting in Zulu. Conscripted boys of conquered tribes are adopted as a method to speed up assimilation as well. To help fund these wars, taxes on Herbal Merchant are raised along with those on alcohol and hentai, apparently due to the morals involved. The Emperor also creates an intelligence agency similar to the Wapanese 'Nice Guys' (Bad Boys) specialized in counter-espionage and internal security. The espionage service is meanwhile called the 'Mamlambo'.
-To showcase the best of Zulu art, the Royal Zulu Institution of Arts is founded. This government funded institution hands out subsidies to artists, many of who call out for pan-Bantu unification. Despite all of the propaganda, the Empire is still largely medieval in many aspects. A “modern” military is supported through massive feudal aristocracy and vast estates of serfs who work the land. Many nobles live comfortably on them, and unlike in other countries where they developed into an effective counterbalance to the sovereign, had ended up dependent upon him. The Emperor is an all-powerful autocrat, ruling over a vast African Empire.
Hanajia and Pacific
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Ruskie – Valittu kauppias mailla
Capital: Juutalainen kaupunki
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Palvonta ja sitä hampurilainen, kauppias, vapaus ja taputus
-As the power of the state continues to grow, many among the ranks of the bureaucrats have begun to realize that the state, an abstract entity beyond them, must be reformed if it is to survive wars such as those of the foreigners to the Far East. Cutting deals with merchants from Misiryaban and increasingly other countries, all sorts of various machines, tools, weaponry, textbooks, and smart people are imported, paid with tax revenues and often tariffs (merchants who bring machines from Europe have taxes eliminated on them).
-The first modern shipyard is built, where in the space of several months; a replica of a six-gun frigate is built, and christened as the first ship in the navy. Over the next twenty years, several ships are eventually built, although they are relatively small compared to the European vessels. Various mechanical wonders are imported as well, from printing presses, muskets, clocks, steam pumping machines, agricultural equipment, and even watermill and windmill machinery.
-Under significant pressure from their neighbours, the Shawnee monarchy is forced to open their borders (duty free) to foreign trade, along with allowing the export of not only goods, but people and ideas to the country. In the future, this would have severe repercussions for not only the Shawnee, but for Kauppsia. In the year 1020 the first government crisis in a long time took place. The bureaucracy, long gaining power in practice ruled and ran the nation alongside the military. The merchant families who 'ran' the government would always pass legislation and embezzle funds from the budget to keep the edge over each other. However, the embezzling of funds was not the main problem however, as the constant squabbles between families and the hired mercenaries each family used against each other, coupled with the fact that the families slowed down or stopped completely the work of the bureaucracy until the crisis was resolved was the main concern. After the kultaaburg-pääomastein family feud was over both of the families were bankrupt, and had brought the government into disrepute, something had to be done.
-Johan kultaaburg was in the 'palatsi doge' [Palace of the Doge] when Joni, one of the higher-ups in the civil service came in. Johan looked at Joni with a look and said in a tone that gave no doubt that he didn't care much for the intruder. 'hyvin sitten, miten aiotte korjata tämä sotku?'
"Yksinkertainen." Joni said in a neutral tone, he then clicked his fingers and four soldiers marched into the room.
"Mikä tämä on?" Johan said with a smile on his face while standing up out of the chair 'Luuletko voit päästä minusta eroon?' he then laughed. His laughter was cut short when Joni said still in the neutral tone 'Ei, meillä on sotilaallinen tehdä sen meille.' Johan was suddenly grabbed by the soldiers and escorted out the room, while shouting 'Et voi tehdä tätä minulle, sinulla ei ole oikeutta!' Joni still in the neutral tone said;
"Valtaan? Varmasti ei. Tämä on yksinkertaisesti normaali oletus johtokunnassa, joka esitettiin muodossa 32B, hallinnosta valtion, whitepaper 48:53-D, on vallansiirto tietyissä olosuhteissa muuttama suojalausekkeiden 3, 8, ja 12b, lain 48-9 ja käskystä 3W-4.
Mitä siellä ei ymmärrä Doge?
Olet kirjautunut niitä kaikkia."
-The events of this apparent event were written down so poorly it gave the first translator of it into an Indo-European language an aneurysm. A picture was recorded for posterity’s sake: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/109107273/RP/Transfer_of_power.JPG
-Soon afterwards, with firearms being imported and the state using allies from abroad, the state entered a whole new phase. The bureaucracy would now rule, with a whole new class of people rising to become the new rulers. With a whole plethora of inflexible rules and regulations, a clever schemer can press the required levers and buttons to produce the desired results. In a centralized government system, promotion in the bureaucratic-political hierarchy is the only path to power. The power of the state continues to expand, while the autonomous nature of smaller political and administrative units weakens and ossifies. The people initially do not enjoy this form of government, but then they come to accept it. They do not enjoy the system, but they do see it as “theirs”.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-Some military engineers in Xerxes have come up with a crackpot invention that they see as key towards future success. By taking wood and metal strips and fashioning it into what appears to be a miniature windmill blade, one can attach them to an axle, that when spun, is actually a very efficient way of moving through the water. Since no real motive power or applications exist as of yet, this requires a plethora of odd uses for this invention. The first ever application is to put it inside of a tube of flowing water (along with several other such propellers). Unbeknownst to them, it is actually exceedingly more efficient than the waterwheels used over in Europe, and over the space of about twenty years a number of workshops and manufactories adopt this invention. It is even fitted on boats, where by reversing the mechanism, you can move the boat through water. No longer are oars used, but instead a treadmill or cranks inside the boat, powered by people and/or animals.
-To encourage settlement of the hinterlands, the state has passed a law which gives free grants of land to farmers (provided they go there themselves, plough up the soil, and hope nobody will object). When they start travelling into the less densely populated areas (or ones held by less sophisticated peoples who eat with their fingers and don’t wear the latest fashions), often there are conflicts, and often the army has to be brought in to end this problem. The policy is somewhat successful at enticing people to move outwards, although given that it is easier to expand into new land than invest into old land, people are still using the methods their forefathers did. Scratch ploughs and sickles are still in use, despite knowledge of the scythe and heavy ploughs introduced from Europe. To try and resolve this, five new universities are founded (all for the sole purpose of looking into mathematics), subsidies are given to people who develop new technologies and ideas, and finally, people with private companies are given tax breaks in return for promoting economic development.
-Xerxes natives are now sailing in all directions, looking for new markets to sell narcotics to. Expeditions into the Pacific are largely failures, save for the discovery of a heavily forested island with a group of strange looking people already living there. When spoken to, it is discovered that settlement of the island was in recent memory, and that the older people there remember having come from islands to the far west. They have a most curious religion, and have already erected their first statue (which they call moai). They have plans for more in the far future. A small port and a fort are meanwhile established as a base for exploration. In the opposite direction, merchants and explorers have charted much of the coasts of Europe and Africa, finding that their drugs are also well appreciated there. The powdered white narcotic is nicknamed “Xerxes flour”.
VOSK – La Plata
Capital: Nova Vista
Culture: Platean (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-A group of Portuguese refugees that fled the Iberian Peninsula land at the southernmost tip of Hanajia, in four ships. Although they were mostly composed of religious lunatics who left Portugal in order to carry out new forms of religious persecution, they have been largely financed by significant merchants back home as well. The colonists build a port city on the spot they landed, becoming the colony of Nova Vista, and the lands claimed around it as La Plata. Almost immediately, democratic elections are held and Francisco Paulo, the captain who led the expedition to this new land, is elected the ruler of La Plata. Portugal itself is interested in developing the colony, giving nominal support to their endeavours while keeping it at an arms distance. They don’t wish to become embroiled in foreign conflict or invest too heavily into an enterprise that could fail, so it has been largely left to its own devices.
-The settlers find that the land is acceptable for most forms of agriculture. Barley, oats, rye, potatoes (a new one grown mostly out of necessity to feed animals), and a number of other crops can be grown in poorer soils, while pasture can be used for sheep, goats, cattle, and other animals. Supplemented by fishing and other small scale economic activities, one can make a living here, even if it is not particularly luxurious. The merchants who funded the colony later decided to send more supplies and some soldiers over to try their luck at inland expansion. Pretty much every group of people they met were subsistence societies (although some had managed to acquire artefacts from Xerxes) and largely indifferent to the settlers. Peaceful expansion happened, until the tribes became annoyed at the clearing of land or the shooting of wild animals, and so various small scale conflicts broke out. Roughhewn wooden and earth rampart forts were later built as protection for the early homesteaders.
-The colony slowly grows from an initial population of 800 to 4600 over a twenty year period, with most of the growth happening in the last five years as the colony became gradually more self-sufficient. Given the poor prospects back home (where Portugal is in a nascent industrial revolution), many smallholding families, pushed off their lands by the church or local nobility, have opted to increasingly choose emigration as an option. The lack of a professional military necessitates the creation of small militias to protect ones land, and many Portuguese settlers are armed with muskets, pikes, swords, crossbows, bows, and other weapons (often secondhand and crude). The population is hostile to Portuguese overlordship, which is minimal at best anyways due to the geographic isolation.
-To manage economic activity and to build and repair ships that go on trading and exploration expeditions, a small shipyard is built in Nova Vista, while offices are set up for a logging enterprise and another for mining activities. There are talks of building those new-fangled “railroads”, but the cost of importing the surveyors and engineers necessary to build lines (along with the prohibitive cost of importing a locomotive and the lack of any real economic rationale behind it) shelves the plan.
Bumbanut - Khoffler Republic
Capital: Khoffler
Culture: Khofflerin (Germanic)
State Religion: State Atheism (Atheist)
-As secularism, the spread of evolution, and the first forays into genetics becomes widespread, a lot of conflict is breaking out between various sections of society. While religious disbelief had always existed, it’s now possible for people to openly state it and associate in grouping with one another without being beaten to death in the streets (in the more tolerant places that is). A group of Germans in Saxony decide that not having their own group of people to hate in isolation is rather unfun, and so they set up a joint stock company to fund the colonization of the large island discovered off the northeastern coast of the New World (named Khoffler).
-The colonists arrive and find there is plenty of land and resources available to service the majority of their needs. As for abundance, the land is relatively poor (reserved for mostly the poorer types of crops and pasture), so timber exports to the Misiryaban colony to the north and cod fishing make up the bulk of economic activity. Some whaling and hunting happens as well, although there are contentions over overlapping zones where both German and Misiryabani whalers and fishermen operate. Given the island colonies deep hostility to all forms of religion, they outlaw it and announce that atheism is the only permitted ideological position to hold there. The local tribes inevitably are confused by this arrangement, and then are deeply annoyed when their ancestral burial grounds are dug up for the grave goods or the sacred common lands cleared for agriculture.
-Tribal attacks increase in intensity, plus foreign warships tend to contain Muslims or Christians aboard, both with the power to quickly invade and tear apart the young colony. To counter this, at some great expense, heavy guns are imported and several forts are built around the island at strategic points along with small masonry towers. No organized military is required, but these forts and towers are exceedingly useful when a threat rises. Loosely organized militias usually cover the rest. Despite the hostility to the outside world, trade does go on with the religious kingdoms and empires of Afro-Eurasia. One curious invention even was partially introduced by a failed missionary. It is known that by taking smallpox scabs and rubbing them on a cut, you can induce a weakened form of smallpox and later gain immunity to it. The breakthrough comes when a doctor, observing that cowmaids suffer from a similar form of the disease (cowpox) do not catch smallpox, decides to try it out on a boy. He takes cowpox and injects it into him, waiting for the boy to recover. He then infected him with smallpox, and amazingly he did not succumb for a total of 56 years afterwards. Inspired, the doctor spreads the vaccination process and after twelve years, the entire island is effectively immune to Smallpox, which not only causes infant mortality rates to plummet, but in turn allows the population to rapidly expand.
Turn 19: 1020 to 1040 CE
Political map of Turn 19
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=43264125#post43264125
Turn quote: It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Events of the years 1020 to 1040:
Europe
-The Iberian Church undergoes large reforms when a former communist is elected pope. Promoting a kind of “Christian communism” that is counter to the new system he sees growing around him and to the atheistic Lendinists, he wants to improve the lives of the poor and dispossessed throughout the world. He is especially critical of the Aquinist churches, especially the reformed ones as being in the palm of the hand of their Kings and Emperors. The reasons for his ascent to the seat are poorly known, but it is rumoured as being a deliberate move by the church to cover up the fact the previous pope used funds to enrich him at the expense of others. Secondly, he voices concern at the debauchery and hedonism of Christians who take Xerxes drugs, saying that as he walked through the streets of poor cities, he observed people who were progressively destroyed by these drugs, sending money to “Hanajia scum” who profited upon misery.
-Spurred on by developed in international shipping and industrialization, it is becoming economically feasible for machinery and bulk goods to be shipped overseas. The prices of many “luxury” goods ranging from sugar, cocaine, tobacco, coffee, tea, and opium slowly decline during this time period despite exponentially growing demand. The lower and middle classes now have regular access to these popular and addictive products, often using and abusing them en masse as they spent their meagre surplus wages on whatever trivialities and novelties they can find. Xerxes and to a lesser degree parts of the Eastern Empire massively benefit from these changes, with consumption skyrocketing and the number of opium and cocaine dens exploding. People smoke, snort, eat, lick, drink, boil, and inhale in drug fuelled stupors. Xerxes uses the money to enrich their country, albeit at the cost of many European states. The use of hard silver and gold for payments is worrying, something that has been mitigated somewhat by the sale of manufactured goods (especially guns). Unfortunately, bullion crisis’s have led to several European states abandoning commodity based monies in favour of ones backed either by the country’s ability to repay debts via taxation or otherwise trying to expand gold and silver mining operations. Prices continue to fall, with wages often remaining stagnant or declining. Industrial workers do slightly better (at least they have access to education and the demand for technical jobs is always high), but for the vast majority of European rural labourers, the age of true penury has begun for them. Many turn to drink on hearing news that a clearance act was passed. After “crack” cocaine is developed by Xerxes merchants in response to a price glut, it quickly takes root among the poor and becomes heavily entrenched. Europe may be riddled with drugs, but Xerxes has used them to advance from being a medieval backwater into becoming a rich and powerful Empire built upon agriculture.
-Despite extensive offers from foreign merchants to avoid the Weissen customs union being established, it is successful in adding all members of the former Salzreich into a single customs union, and has adopted a single railway gauge for infrastructure purposes. There are further talks of adding more members within the rest of Germany, and potentially abolishing passports when travelling between member states.
Damian0358 – The Bohemian Empire
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-With continuing improvements into the study of electronics, new equipment and materials have yielded fruitful results. It is known that one can send an electrical impulse down a wire, and use this impulse to induce motion in a needle connected to the wire. By connecting up the wires to a number of needles that point at letters, one can slowly send messages down an electrical cable (at effectively the speed of light) and retranslate them back into coherent messages. This electrical “telegraphy machine” is first trialled on a railway line, where the first message ever sent through such a method is officially “God bless you” but due to a fault in the equipment, was actually transmitted as “Dog bless you”. The telegraph machines begin to be made piecemeal by skilled craftsmen and are initially installed in railway stations as a way to coordinate timetables. Only at the end of this period do they first start to be used outside of the railways, mostly as a way for rich people to send messages quickly. The army modernizers advocate the widespread creation of a network for military purposes. Other lesser known inventions (at the time) includes the world’s first rechargeable battery, newer electrical motors and dynamos, plus transformers and interesting little devices called capacitors.
-In the aftermath of the Mongol Invasion, the Bohemian populace realized that Kiev, a great friend of Bohemia, had been vassalized by the Mongols (the news didn't report on it until after the invasion). Many called for war against the Golden Horde to free Kiev, whilst others wanted the return of the Romanian coast, currently held by Ruthenia, under Bohemian control, for the purposes of rebuilding Great Danubia. The influence of the idealists and romanticists had been gaining ground and was significantly fuelling nationalist feelings. Conquest of “rightful lands” was seen as a top priority and morally correct, even if the inhabitants had never been part of Bohemia, even culturally. This snag was worked around through the growing popularity of the Pan-slavic movement, advocating a union of all Slavs. Many archaeologists who had yet to fully integrate science into their studies often would collect old artefacts and claim that they were proof of the existence of the Bohemian culture in the area. This was satirised in the first science fiction novel, where a man travelled to the moon on a spaceship and found a rock that looked like a Bohemian emblem. He claimed the moon was settled by Bohemians many years ago and that the moon ought to be brought back under Bohemian control. Such views were taken at face value, leading to the massive expansion of the Empire both in Europe and overseas, whereas others began to think if one could really travel to the moon, and more importantly, how to do it.
-Military reforms are carried out to professionalize the army further and split it up into several parts for various duties. Of these are the home forces, the expeditionary corps, and the colonial force (to administer the newly named “Brazil”). In Brazil, the colony is largely dependent on exports of a prized wood used in dyemaking (named Brazilwood). The colonial government is established in the port town of “Sveti Pavel”, with a governor to administer the colony and raise large revenues for the crown. Initially, most economic activity is largely focused on gathering Brazilwood and growing trees in plantations as a source for the dye. With rising populations, self-sufficiency of some kind must be realized, and so large farms for growing food have also been set up. Grains, fruits, vegetables, and animals are all grown or reared. Given the large availability of land (after the natives are booted off) and good source of wealth, living standards are fairly high and people can afford to build fine houses and eat copious amounts of food. Warfare and the misery brought about by socioeconomic changes leads to many of the downtrodden and poor seeking new lives here. Many of course also find jobs in the colonial army, helping to shoot the hostile natives.
-In 1024, the Emperor goes to the colony of Brazil, as so to see its progress, as well as introduce himself to the natives. There, a native princess gained interest in the Emperor, and, after the Emperor gained an idea and shook a small bag of little coins, the two have sex. The princess then gave birth to a boy, who is named Dimitri. The scandal rocked the monarchy and much of high society to the core. When the baby boy returned to Bohemia, the crowds (most of whom had never seen a Brazilian before) thought the Emperor had been licentious. The newspapers went wild and proclaimed they could never accept the foreign boy as their Emperor. In a cunning move, the Emperor (after much discussion with parliament) made Dimitri the constitutional king of Brazil in 1040, creating the cadet branch of Hostes. The king of Brazil holds no power within the colony or the Empire, being limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours, essentially being "just for show". The Viceroy of Brazil is the one who holds power over Brazil, and is appointed directly by the Emperor whenever the previous Viceroy or Emperor dies or steps down. Dimitris power consists of being the only man in Brazil allowed to own a giant pair of scissors, used to cut ribbons when opening buildings.
-Traders and explorers, having come increasingly into contact with the Incans, decide to organise a trade with them, given the efficacy of cinchona bark extract in treating malaria. In return for the saplings and bark of cinchona trees, the Incans are given massive assistance with modernization of their armed forces, gaining firearms, ammunition and military advisers to teach them how to use them. As soon as the trees grow, they extract the Quinine within its bark and immediately use it to treat malaria, as well as to create tonic water. Of course, in order to get bark (especially when it comes to colonizing malaria ridden lands), the Bohemians are planting vast plantations of the stuff not only throughout Brazil (where they grow best), but also have brought them to the Kongo in Africa, where they not only intend to build a colony, but plant these trees and use the quinine from them to aid in expansion. When news of the potential Bohemian colony in Africa reached the Zulu Empire, the Emperor wrote a letter stating he will not allow it, as he wants to keep the rainforests of Africa safe. Such a reply was considered utterly bizarre. However after some discussion, the Emperor allows Bohemia to colonize only a small part of Africa on the exception that Bohemia did not harm the rainforest in anyway. Nobody asked the kings and chiefs and tribes of the Kongo of their opinion, but the King of the Kongo (increasingly a puppet both of Bohemia and the Zulu) does not care as long as the riches of the world keeps flowing to him so he can indulge in large banquets in his palatial home.
-The Bohemians also strike a good deal with the Phoenicians. In return for the secrets of electrical equipment and telegraphy (used to begin modernizing their communications infrastructure), the Phoenicians give the Bohemians brand new artillery pieces, rifles, a number of steamships, plus a contract promising assistance in any colonial wars if the savages get uppity and demand basic human rights.
-With the peoples demands for war heating up and the painful lessons of the war with the Mongols making itself felt, a large armaments and warfare preparation begins. Many older forts are either completely rebuilt or abandoned, and new fortifications with heavy gun batteries and ditches along with thick walls to soak up artillery bombardments are built. Most of these are built nearby cities and along the borderlands, with them being able to mutually support each other and finally force enemy armies to pass through unfavourable terrain or “killing fields” in order to reach populated urban areas.
-The parliament, having become vitriolic and angry with Polotsk, decides to take advantage of Polotsks declaration of war on the Rus and Mongols to the east. With assistance from the Eastern Empire, the Bohemians declare war on Polotsk, sending soldiers with modern arms by railways and coordinating them with telegraphy networks. The expeditionary force is chosen to carry out this operation, with one portion sent to conquer Polotsk itself, while the other travelled to Kiev to “free” it from the Mongol yoke. The forces sent to free Kiev are sent first, given that Polotsk and Bohemia both are opposed to the Mongols. Using modern firearms, telegraph networks, and railways, the Bohemians are able to push back the Mongols and free the whole of Kiev, before withdrawing their forces as Polotsk marches into Mongolian lands to continue their conquests.
-Quite quickly, the expeditionary forces take the railways to Polotsk, and after cutting some telegraph cables laid by Polotsk or listening in on them and sending false messages down them, quickly begin to occupy the country given that the Polotsk army is far away fighting unaware of this. The Bohemians even send false letters to the Polotsk commanders, informing them that supply situations are deteriorating due to raids and an economic crisis at home. The remaining Polotsk military units fight throughout the country, but eventually yield after a quick and brutal invasion by the Baltic Entente finally silences them for good. The remaining Polotsk army in Mongolian held lands eventually begin to dissolve, and within a few weeks Polotsk is under military occupation and without an army or navy (the new steamships blockaded the ports).
-The Bohemians force the dissolution of the Polotsk state, in which large tracts of land are annexed by her neighbours, the Kingdom of Prussia is formed within Polotsk, and Kiev becomes independent, with close political and diplomatic ties to Bohemia. Interestingly, both Prussia and Kiev cover lands between the Baltic Entente and Bohemia, with many people seeing the creation of Prussia as simply in order to create a convenient buffer state.
Mackalda2k6 – The Eastern Empire
Capital: Byzantium
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-As the demand for mechanical power and efficiency continues to exponentially increase, engineers have come up with what they believe to be the solution. Called a “compound engine”, it reuses the steam multiple times. A “triple expansion engine” variant is adopted for use in steamships and factories, whereas the former sees application in railway locomotives. These powerful engines drive ships and locomotives even faster, allows them to be build bigger, and to pull more goods. The first locomotive to hit 110 km is built, and successive records keep being broken. The factories, now freed from using massive and relatively weak engines, can automate a number of tasks and drive ever more powerful machines. In fairs and exhibitions, there is a constant and almost fetishist talk of “raw power”, where numbers keep going to dizzying heights and the machines belch pitch black smoke and soot into the skies. A writer of the day, after watching a steam digger trundle forwards and dig a massive trench for it to run through, comments that the world is entering the “Age of the machine”.
-With the wealth and industry of the Empire growing, higher revenues from taxation are being reported, allowing for the army to be again reformed and expanded. Built up to pre-great war levels, they also introduce new tactics and training into armed forces. Equipping every musket with a bayonet and training soldiers extensively to use it. They adopt a massed volley system of line infantry and, using rifling gained from the Wapanese, equip riflemen units that skirmish the flanks of the enemy. Form two distinct heavy and light cavalry regiments, heavy relying more on armour and sword to hit the enemies hard, and the light using various firearms and lances to skirmish and maintain the advantage of mobility on the field. Wisely they also replace colourful uniforms with dull green and browns to help them blend in with the environment.
-In the new foundries, the machines are powerful enough to Cast solid pieces of metal and drill into them to make rifled gun and artillery. They diversify the artillery corps with different types of cannon with specialized crews (Field Guns, howitzers, mortars, and siege artillery), relentlessly training the artillery to be fine at their craft and to use heavy artillery bombardment to crush any forts or armies standing in their path. A reserve home force and an expeditionary army are introduced in order to cut down on costs, while the military industry is largely privatised, using contracts with companies to encourage cheap and efficient methods of production. They contract rifles that can be mass produced for all infantry and also mass produce paper cartridges. For some reason, there is a demand for paper cartridges to be made by businesses instead of the soldiers.
-The navy is no stranger to such reforms. Experimenting with new shipbuilding techniques, the Eastern Empire shifts away from sailing ships and gradually leans towards adoption of screw steamers. Large ironclads with compound armour plating, explosive shells, and powerful triple expansion engines driving screws are built at great expense, replacing paddle steamers with new propellers that Xerxes originally invented. They relentlessly drill and train their sailors to be the finest in the world, incorporating pickled foods into their diet as well as fresh fruits to keep them healthy. Unfortunately, all of these massive reforms and expenses have left the Empire with an eye-watering debt and huge deficit. These are largely ignored at the launching of their new ironclad “The Redoubtable” On her launch; she instantly makes every other ship in the world completely obsolete.
-Social problems continue to mount however, along with more economic ones. Citing their armed militia, the Empire declares all Lendinists outlaws and had the courts declare them rebels and their activities illegal. They send in the home-defence corps in large numbers to completely drive out the Lendinists, sack their headquarters, and dissolve their militia. Assassination attempts on the leaders are rumoured as well, and many of them are imprisoned or exiled.
-In a bow to appease the Arabs, Kurds, Jews, and other minority groups, the new census data recently collected tells the Congress that serious social inequalities and problems exist. To solve this, they divide the Empire into semi-autonomous states reflecting the cultural majority of a region. Keeping the Greek/Turkish/Egyptian territories under control of a centralized Congress, but devolving power to the other states, giving them basic autonomy as long as they pay their taxes, provide soldiers, and let the Supreme Eastern Congress declare wars as well as respect both capitalistic and democratic precedents. This manages to appease most of the liberals and reformers, cooling a great deal of tensions and making the Empire a whole lot less volatile. Unfortunately, with looser political cohesion and these states often using loopholes and bureaucracies to avoid contributing their fair share, the Empire is coming to gradually depend more on the resources they can muster within their own borders. Deep unpopularity with the wars of recent decades and the arms race is costing vast amounts of money. When it comes to taxation, many delegates (even a few Egyptian and Turkish ones) refuse to assist with budgetary concerns, making the raising of money difficult. Creditors have begun to become wary of the Empires debts, and interest rates are gradually starting to rise.
-Bowing to protectionist interests (particularly those of the Greeks), large duties and tariffs on the import of foreign goods are enacted, partly to raise revenue and partly to encourage the growth of national industries. The other states of the Empire are deeply hostile to these measures, accusing the Congress of enriching their own Greek constituents (and the Turks/Egyptians to a lesser degree). Other problems have also begun to arise as now the Egyptians have their own nascent nationalist movements (spurred on by memories of Ptolemy’s grabbing control centuries prior). Some Turks ironically think about the Empire of Dagger from antiquity, and begin to encourage education in the old tongues in order to reverse Hellenization now that the more unpopular policies have been dropped. Railway infrastructure continues to grow, and now Mesopotamia is prioritised as the main food source of the country. Cash crop cultivation is focused upon in Egypt with the poppy now being used for the production of opium. Opium dens grow throughout the Empire, and are deeply resented by the other ethnic groups. They accuse the Egyptians and Greeks of spreading degeneracy and undermining the moral fabric of their people by pushing these drugs onto them. The earlier Greek habit of supporting the hard liquor industry did little to calm these fears.
-Despite increased strains on the budget, more subsidies are lavished on the railways and locomotive industries, with networks now steadily building trunk routes and connecting the main towns and cities of importance. Journey times shorten, until eventually it takes a mere week to travel from the Persian gulf to Byzantium. These costs are so crippling that the Empire sells Cape Verde to the Phoenicians in order to raise funds, along with selling steam engine designs to Wapan and the percussion shell to Xerxes. The short term boost from the sale of Cape Verde helped the government through a minor crisis in 1026, but the loss of the islands has resulted in the complete collapse of their trade interests in the Atlantic, with the Phoenician merchant marine now heavily dominating overseas trade. Many businesses gradually make the transition away from shipping and focus into the growing railways, industries, and agriculture, aided somewhat by state help. The growth of the railways and industry is especially impressive, but with the state starting to break down under the strain of raising funds and managing one economic crisis or military excursion after another, the states are becoming more confident in their demands.
-To reassure the Greeks of their power and as a show of force to the other states in the Empire, the navy sails (all the way around Africa) to the Indian Ocean, where they land on and annex the semi-obscure islands of Socotra, the Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion, the Egmont Islands, and Diego Garcia. The loss of influence and prestige in the west to the Phoenicians has brought them to focus on the east, where they work on building relationships with the Indian and Indochinese monarchies and republics. Trade has begun to improve slightly now that a railway crosses the Suez and major ports service both ends of the line, making it feasible for merchants to conduct large scale trading in Asia. They negotiate some favourable trading rights and permission to establish trade factories and forts, but at a great cost. They have to sell them a great deal of weaponry (often military surplus or obsolete equipment), along with ships, intricate devices, and even some steam engines. The King of Myanmar even buys a steam locomotive, not to ride in, but to decorate his palace and impress foreign dignitaries. Most impressive however, is when the Empire arrives in China. Completely disregarding any advantage they could potentially give the Chinese, they are forced (by lack of hard money to fill budgetary gaps) to sell the Chinese everything from guns, steam engines, ships, cannon, clocks, astronomical charts, and a great deal more of innovation. The Mongol rulers (who administer an increasingly rebellious China and Korea) see the practical benefit to adopting modern arms, buying them en masse, setting up armaments factories, and then drilling their men in the Greek style. Several centuries after the first crude guns left China, they have returned vastly improved, and in the arms of a growing number of capable and ambitious Chinamen.
-Finally, the Empire, in a bid to expand influence in Europe and to bring the Balkans under her wing again, invades Ruthenia. While largely a success (the ironclads completely smashed the ports), the mass produced paper cartridges deform, break, or become spoiled during transit. Problems with the machinery and workers that produced them, along with slippery fingered bureaucrats and private contractors are to blame as well. The private contractors are dismissed, but the damage has been already dealt. Many soldiers are forced to wait in the ports or even abandon areas when enemy reinforcements arrived. The war drags on for several more months as much of the surprised gained in the initial conflict is lost, and while the Empire replenishes the supply lines, it is a long and hard fought gruelling war lasting eight months, with the coup de grace being the intervention of Kievan and Bohemian forces to help force the Khans to sue for peace. Administration later becomes another massive headache, as there are now even more ethnic and religious groups to please (although the Greek colonists who hung on for all those years are pleased they can get the return of their privileges). The railways eventually arrive here, but the costs of administrating the area are considerably high until tensions cool and the economy picks back up again. Ironically, due to the tariff laws, the Ruthenians manage to turn the Empire into a captive market. They undercut Greek farmers heavily, causing their incomes to decline and in turn annoying the landowners who demand new protections from the congress. The farmers later hold a march, and when they arrive at the Congress, they are informed it is not in session today, because they did not have enough money to repair the building, causing a section of the roof to cave in during the weekend.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-In continuing improvements to electrical equipment, and increased knowledge of electrical science, a whole plethora of odd and weird devices and machines (many inspired or reimported back from the Bohemians) are introduced. It is well known that if one had 4 resistors and did not know the resistance of the fourth one, they could modify the resistance of one of the resistors until it created a “balanced” bridge where 2 resistors are in series and are parallel to another 2 resistors in series. (r1/r2 = rx/r4, where x is the unknown). When the current is zero, the “bridge” is balanced. The potential applications include heat sensors, whereby modifying the resistance of one resistor (which will experience a drop or increase as the temperature changes) will produce a signal. The main direction of work however, takes us to a strange machine that uses a small lever to press marks into a sheet of paper (or apply ink). By linking two such machines over a long distance, one can draw a dot on a sheet of paper from a great distance. Initially not well received, eventually these machines begin to be installed in the new railway stations, in post offices, and increasingly are being adopted not only to send simple messages, but entire written notes and codes. The first commercial telegraphy service in the world is soon inaugurated, with it costing a day’s wages for a labourer to send the first commercial messages.
-Rifling of firearms continues to spread throughout the military, eventually culminating with the entire army being equipped either with muzzle loading rifles or the more modern air rifles. At great expense the latter is favoured, and although costs of production are high and the machine is still somewhat fragile, enticements and other attempted improvements sees the air rifle become common among all skirmishers and light infantry units, along with a few being used by officers or senior soldiers among the rank and file. Drills are still important, but individual soldiers are starting to be noticed for merit, and the solid blocks of infantry previously used are gradually breaking up into smaller subgroups in which the soldiers and officers own initiative is gradually becoming more important. Soldiers are now using the terrain and attempting to encircle enemy forces along with increasing use of cover, a lack of willingness to meet with a bayonet charge, gradual abandonment of the bayonet itself, and increasing use of camouflage. Grenades are being gradually adopted by “shock” troops, but due to the problems with timing the explosion (mercury fulminate is useless for grenades) they do not see widespread adoption. Artillery begins to see steady improvement however, such as the adoption of small “scopes” made from telescopes attached to the top of the barrel to aid with aiming the gun. Sometimes a small metal shield is crudely bolted onto the front and painted over, partly to hide the gun, and partly to hide the crew.
-In Sweden, a 17 year old named Ingvar Kamprad begins making cheap, easily assembled parts kits for various pieces of furniture. He then names his business IKEA, and with help from Entente investors, is soon shipping his kits over Europe as a means to appeal to the aspiring middle classes who want to own affordable and functional furniture. This is part of the gradual shift towards consumer goods products (which is seen as key to future success of the lifeblood of the nation). With the spread of railways and increasingly faster and larger steamships and clippers (the latter are mostly used for long distance travel). To aid in this, small grants and loans with favourable interest rates are given out to aspiring grocers, who gradually begin to move increasing quantities of goods around for consumers. The adoption of ice houses to preserve food is spreading from Scandinavia into the rest of the Baltic, and farmers are subsidized so as to produce ever more food and to reduce prices. One factory manager responds by cutting wages, but a group of workers manage to sneak into his house one day and beat him senseless. After this he not only announces increased wages, but also that he will be moving abroad for the time being. The general trend however is for people to gradually have more to buy, and diets slowly improve. The new lower classes of the Baltic now own small houses with IKEA furniture, cheap cotton clothing, eat potatoes, bread, butter, bacon, fish, drink tea, and generally have enough left over to buy some newspapers or tobacco with. This is what most of the urban poor generally seems to aspire to.
-The Kalevala is written in Finland, and the Kalevipoeg is written in Estonia. Both are works of poetry focusing on the ancient mythologies of both these nations, helping to spur nationalistic feelings among the people here (who beforehand saw themselves as peasants living in one village) and helping to assist in the task of nation-building that intellectuals seem so keen on these days. The Baltic Entente, for some reason, requests that Finland join them in a political union. The publishing of the Kalevala meant this had stupidly backfired however, resulting in a great number of nationalists opposing union with the Baltic on the basis that it would be harmful to their independent nation. Soon afterwards, the Finnish decide to aggressively assert their right to independence by expanding north and east into Karelia and Lapland to take over the people there and to create a “Greater Finland”. The Entente responds by trying to expand in the same direction, but the Finnish unfortunately seem to have a head start and already block access to most of the land by virtue of their large borders.
-The Entente also declares war on the Kingdom of Polotsk helping the Bohemian and Eastern Empires in their other wars throughout eastern Europe (the so called “liberation wars”, where they liberate the many countries and lands there and then annex or put heavy political pressure on the liberated). Although the Baltic entente is not a great driver or initiator of such wars, their new military doctrine and soldiers prove their worth upon the field most excellently, and they gain not only some lands previously lost, but vast new ones full of peoples to rule over and derive power from.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-With industrialization underway and heavily modifying society on every level, the Phoenicians have reported extensive problems with building many machines given the difficulty of finding the right parts that fit easily. Into this steps an engineer who, using the recently adopted metric system, invents a system of standardized screws and bolts for use in construction and metalworking. His system quickly becomes popular (especially with encouragement from the state), and soon whole factories begin to be built around the principle of integrated parts. If a part of a machine breaks, one can simply replace it with a spare part and have it quickly running again. Some far-sighted factory managers even apply the concept to the production of goods themselves and to workers. Jobs continue to be systematically studied at every angle, and scientifically broken down into smaller constituent parts consisting of a single action. Machines are soon designed to replicate these simple actions, gradually mechanizing the entire process from start to finish. Workers are hired based on their productivity, and if they do not match the average soon enough, they are quickly replaced with another worker on the line. These factory managers are deeply unpopular, and the workers feel angry at the fact they have to do simple, boring, and repetitive jobs, but the overall wealth of the nation improves. There is a significant time delay between what wages ought to be, and how long it takes for them to reach that level however.
-In return for giving Xerxes the use of the propeller as a means of driving ships, Phoenicia sends technicians and teachers to assist the country with the adoption of a metric system and gunpowder manufacture. They say “Thanks!” and repay by selling Phoenica cheap cocaine and tobacco by the shipload. The Phoenicians repay this by sending people over to kidnap Cinchona farmers and smuggle out seeds, before establishing plantations in their colonies. A similar deal is done with Wapan, where the Phoenicians adopt their rifling methods to rifle firearms and artillery pieces, and are now using powerful machines to bore standardized calibres into these new guns. Cannon are standardized with 50mm, 90mm and 130mm calibres respectively, and rifled muskets are issued to snipers. A sword-type bayonet is adopted (it can be detached and double up as a sword), being issued to every soldier in the army (including sappers and artillery crews). Another line of reforms sees the establishment of a permanent general staff, complete with an old pentagonal star fort in Malta being refurbished to serve as their headquarters. Electrical and mechanical engineers are adopted into the army to build bridges, lay railway lines and telegraph cables, along with other important infrastructure.
-The military also adopts fitness regimes and standards for their soldiers, with soldiers now requiring education in some military theory, foreign language, trades, or other important tasks that may be required when they travel overseas to fight on behalf of the Federation. Small fleets are subsequently based in the Bahamas and Bermudas along with offices and barracks to hold these soldiers (for overseas conflict). With several artillery batteries and fast steam powered frigates, they clear the north Atlantic of piracy in its entirety, contributing to a massive boom in overseas trade as insurance rates for shipping companies drop and more merchants are encouraged by the relative safety to invest overseas. The presence of ports and the growing number of lighthouses and accurate nautical charts continues this trend, and some Martello towers also double up as lighthouses. Despite this, the lack of lifeguard organizations and an integrated communications system (along with lighthouses in general) hampers further development of international trade.
-The Federation invades Mali, using the Cinchona bark extracts (heavily imported and subsequently grown) to treat malaria. The Malians are taken by surprise of the rapidity of the invasion. The use of railways and telegraphs proved crucial in bringing necessary supplies, reinforcements, and relaying messages quickly. The whole country is subjugated and put under colonial administration, which then sets itself on improving agriculture, building vast infrastructure networks, and then bringing the land separating them from the coast under control. Natives are hired as soldiers to assist in these endeavours, and the great rivers are soon lined with ports, railways, guns, and telegraph stations. “Shekel-counting” colleges are built to educate the people so as to prepare them for modern agriculture and industry, missionaries travel down to spread the good word (Iberian Christianity seems tolerated) as well, and the Pan-African line is extended southwards. Vast irrigation canals and networks are also constructed to provide the water supplies necessary for intensive agriculture and to water the growing population as well. The arrival of these iron monsters on rails heralds the glorious arrival of the Federations power. Of course, you may ask why they even conquered this land in the first place if it is so malarial ridden. The answer is simple. More land to grow cinchona in to make anti-malarial medicines with!
-A competition is started to create the fastest steam train in the world (and the fastest steamship). The winner of either will win the Golden Hexagram award, along with a generous cash prize. Up until now, the record for a crossing of the Atlantic is about 16 days length. However, a Greek shipowner (who bought a ship equipped with powerful triple expansion engines) claims the prize after he sailed the Atlantic in a mere 9 days and 23 hours, travelling at a speed of 20 km/h. This is followed up, embarrassingly, by a Greek railway engineer who claims the prize after building a steam locomotive that hit 110 km/h, going so fast that it showed the Phoenicians that from that point on, lines had to be built straighter and gentler if they wanted such fast and powerful engines on their railways.
-The Federation expands her naval and mercantile grip further into the Atlantic. Over several years, she colonises the Azores, Montevido, the eastern island of the Falklands, and then finishes up by sending gunboats to an obscure island in the Malays, where they bully the local King into granting them control of the swampy island populated by bands and tribes of indigenous Malay people. The Phoenicians then quickly build a fort and dock, followed up by a marketplace and several Martello towers to defend the island, before setting sail east in search of new lands. The Phoenicians did try to colonize an island called “Diego Garcia” in the Indian Ocean, but unluckily for them the Greeks were prepared to waste more money getting there first. Undeterred, the Phoenicians set up more plantations in their new possessions and sign trade deals with Asian rulers before meeting Waifuist missionaries and chapels already common to the area. The Phoenicians are informed of the many lands in the area occupied by a mostly backwards (but sometimes willing to convert) people, and of more innovations the Wapanese have. Buying their new rifles and schematics for rifling machines, the merchants go back home to make a lot of money mass producing these new rifles. The rest expand colonial operations, with the recent colonial acquisitions being turned into trading ports and being treated as bases from which to expand further overseas. The growth of coaling stations and the relative decline of the Eastern Empire (especially in the Atlantic sphere) allows them to dominate the seas.
-A trade deal is conducted with the Zulu Emperor. In return for fleet basing rights, the Zulu are to receive the equipment necessary for the construction of railroads and assistance with modernization of their ports (mostly in order to make them serviceable to steamships).
-The navy sails to Marseilles in Lombardy, where they annihilate the naval forces and destroy the gun batteries before assaulting the port with heavy infantry attacks. The fort takes longer, with several weeks required before the walls come down and the soldiers inside surrender. Of course, the French send for reinforcements, and with little time to lose, the Federation army digs a network of trenches and puts in heavy gun batteries around the city, along with setting up a supply system to maintain it by sea (complete with a light railway to service the city and her port). The French arrive and make several punitive assaults on the city, but are driven back multiple times. Naval assistance in the form of offshore bombardment is particularly devastating as well, eventually forcing the French to sue for peace when they find it impossible (at the time being) to break through into the city and retake it. The treaty is essentially the Federation annexing Marseilles for the simple reason that they could.
-The Phoenicians also reinvent an old and rather strange and odd holiday that takes place shortly after the winter solstice. In this holiday, one eats copious amounts of meat and then spends a lot of money on presents or donates to charitable organisations. They then have big meals with as many people as possible, and send mass produced printed cards to everybody they can think of. Too polite to reject these letters, complete strangers end up sending them back, and soon the postal service is choked with millions of letters and cards being sent around this time of year. Although life may be generally miserable for the factory workers who have low wages and take cocaine and alcohol, the rural farmers heavily in poverty and debt, the homesick soldiers far overseas suffering from exotic diseases, the bureaucrats and administrators suffering heatstroke and the threat of assassination, plus the tribes, bands, and chiefdoms all being slowly gobbled up, this is one time of year where people can forget most of these problems for a day or two. Amazingly, the factories close and managers give large meals to their workers, the co-operative societies donating vast sums of money to providing shelters and clothing to the poor, and even some old and quaint landowners have a tradition where they throw a vast feast reminiscent of the old medieval era, giving the children toys. Even the bureaucrats of the state are not exempt, for the colour of ink for pensions paid out is changed to be more festive colour, complete with an additional note informing the recipient they have received a ten pence bonus for Christmas.
cis. joshb – Kingdom of Polotsk
Capital: Polotsk
Culture: Polochan (Slavic)
State Religion: Slavic
-The Chief of Polotsk, deciding in that he ought to make his country slightly more modern, adopted the name “Kingdom of Polotsk”, crowning himself King in the process. With this change in outlook, he begins to seek out ways to reform the military and soon the political institutions of the state in conjunction with new economic reforms. The Chiefdom is declared a Kingdom by Chief Yaroslav, who becomes Yaroslav I of the House of Polotsk, with the crippled noble class being called to a grand palace built from fishing huts on the Baltic coast. Their lives are payed for with a reasonable standard of living. With the nobles gone, the King sends out administrators who derive their power from having the King's authorization, rather than ownership of local land. They administer things such as tax collection and conscription. The King hopes to gain centralized control of his nation this way. He starts by introducing new “breechloading” guns (based off the idea the Scots had) and having them produced en masse for the army. Unfortunately, they are unrifled and often fragile, plus the poor industrial capabilities of the country limit their spread and overall adoption. It is however, the first service firearm adopted in Polotsk, and over time the military gradually adopts the international metric system (redesigning their cannons with the standard) along with importing brand new artillery pieces and attempting to import Baltic air rifles. Unfortunately, the Entente refuses to send the designs, stifling further reform.
-The Chiefdom had been declared a Kingdom by Chief Yaroslav, (becoming Yaroslav of the House of Polotsk) with the crippled noble class being called to a grand palace built from a fishing village on the Baltic coast. Their lives are paid for with a reasonable standard of living in return for the clearing of their debts, and with the nobles gone, the King sends out administrators who derive their power from having the King's authorization, rather than ownership of local land. They administer tax collection and conscription, gradually centralizing power under the King. Unfortunately, this makes his attempts at bringing reform to the countryside difficult. His use of land captains to administer localities without bothering to check with the locals (merely taxing them or conscripting them) makes the matter worse. When the King encourages the use of potatoes, hoping it will help solve some hunger issues, the peasants refuse, viewing his imposed policies with great hostility. The peasants are increasingly angry at the squeezing out of their craftworks (as imported goods and the factories lower prices) and often just buy imported tobacco, alcohol, or other drugs to consume. When the first railways are built by the government, they are mostly in order to get supplies and soldiers from the developed land in Prussia to the frontier with Rus. Entrepreneurs ride on these to carry goods around the countryside, often acting as a link with the outside world for these isolated villages.
-Seeing that the peasants (based in rural kolkhoz communal villages) are still quite miserable, Yaroslav introduces land reforms aimed at creating a large class of landowning and conservative farmers to rely on for support. Sending in surveyors to chart the land and divide it up, many are often wary of these surveyors, and applications to privatise many plots are often withdrawn due to peer pressure. Insecurity means that these villages often form and are difficult to break up (as they are a way of getting through hard times), and given the monarchies lack of interest into developing the land, this is still a major problem. There is some minor success in more economically developed areas close to the urban areas, but the removal of the nobility and their lack of power later resulted in very few landowners with the money or power necessary to enact clearances so as to improve agricultural output. Using his centralized power, to appease liberals, the king establishes a parliament. It has 81 members. 20 from the urban poor and peasant/serf classes; 20 from the merchant, businessmen, horse-breeder and artisan classes; 20 from the nobility, 20 civil servants from the central government, and the king himself being the 81st member. The parliament is allowed to propose and approve laws about taxation and internal law; although it is neutered by the fact the king reserves the right to take precedence over the decisions of the parliament, with 70 members needing to vote to override him. Given that the votes disproportionately favour the nobility and government, the 20 civil servants almost always vote for the Kings decision, effectively leaving him with a monopoly of power and retaining the Kingdom as an autocracy.
-Star forts are gradually built along the coasts of the Baltic to protect shipping and to cover the approaches to ports, most of them intended to protect against Russian incursions. An army of 15,000 is conscripted (with many more in the reserves) to declare war against the Rus. 63 of the 81 members of parliament refuse to show up because they all were heavily opposed to the war as the King had recently become engaged in debauchery and allowing foreigners to peddle drugs in the Kingdom to his subjects. Ignoring the parliament, he dissolves it and sends the army into Russia, where they initially have several major successes against the Russians and their Mongol allies. The support promised by the Bohemians, Baltic, and Greeks fails to materialize, and much later it turns out that they were betrayed, backstabbed by those very “allies”. Appeals are made to France and Brandenburg, but both of these countries are already embroiled in heated conflicts and are marked by complete ineptness and failure against those very same Empires. The King of Polotsk, on realizing that the Bohemians are marching on his capital and his isolated army is being ripped apart by Mongols, develops a heavy cocaine addiction. On the day where his parliament is forced to sue for peace on his behalf, the King consumed a great deal of cocaine and went missing during the night. When he came to, a loud banging in his closet was heard, and upon opening there was a very small and very cross man standing there. As it turned out, the King had thought he had found a leprechaun outside and chased him around the streets before picking him up, locking him in the closet, and promising only to let him out if he gave him the pot of gold. The parliament signs a peace treaty with Bohemia, dissolving Polotsk and giving a large portion of the land to Bohemia and the Baltic Entente plus the creation of the buffer state of Prussia.
Mr. Face – Iberian Kingdom
Capital: Madrid
Culture: Spanish (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-The Iberians are always on the lookout to improve their ability to fight wars and project their power overseas. Very often, war isn’t about glory, sometimes it’s just about killing the enemy. To this end a new type of air rifle, adopted from the Baltic Entente, is introduced. Unlike earlier designs, it is one of the first heavily robust models, and now a special machine used to pump air into it is invented, reducing a number of the drawbacks behind it. By implementing small unit strategies using the new compressed air rifles. Small squads gradually become the norm and unit cohesion steadily grows. There is an increasing focus on damaging the infrastructure of the enemy (and consequently their ability to fight).These modern units are more or less tasked with maximizing damage to enemy infrastructure and wreaking havoc on supply lines. While rank and file infantry armed with muskets and bayonets are still the main force, the new type of soldier is gradually coming to the fore, with military reforms radically changing the nature of warfare in the future. Whenever this is for the better or not, is long debated.
-The navy also undergoes similar reforms, setting up vast shipyards (or improving existing ones in the former Misiryaban Republic) and building bigger and more powerful ironclad steamships. With heavier guns (some are 64lbrs), these can easily tear apart all wooden ships, and damage some of the older ironclads. They are however made obsolete by the Eastern Empires new ironclads with triple expansion engines, powerful machines indeed that put the Spanish at risk of quickly falling behind. The Spanish ships continue to patrol the high seas and protect convoys, projecting naval power as far afield as “Hanajia” as it is called by the Wapanese. The Eastern coast is finally charted in its entirety, with trade posts being set up and large scale trade with the “Americlaps” as they are called now underway. With the economic basis for cash crop agriculture in place in the east coast, many of the chiefdoms and kingdoms there are rapidly planting crops such as cotton and tobacco, then selling them in bulk to Spanish traders to be exported to Europe. Prices consequently begin to rapidly drop, and aided by the efforts of the Spanish, most people now can smoke tobacco and wear cotton clothing. Spinners and weavers have a hard time converting cotton en masse however, bringing an increasing demand for mechanization of the textile industry. The new ships are also used to bring supplies to the Bohemian and Eastern Empires in the liberation wars, and are much appreciated for the quality of the tobacco brought over.
-In a continued effort to promote industrialization and reinvigoration of the country’s economic and social structure, several reforms are enacted so as to turn Iberia into a modern state. All laws regarding feudal obligations, trade protections, and the old guilds are abolished, with amusing results. Firstly, the nobility begins to quickly throw unprofitable peasants off the land and start to convert the lands to pasture or intensive growing of various crops. Heavy machinery and tools are imported, and contrary to the high unemployment common in other countries, there is actually a net increase in labourers required. Vast estates (initially) need masses of workers to shape the land, build fences, barns, repair the existing facilities, dig canals and roads, and to generally reshape the entire landscape. This process starts to end in 1039 when the number of clearances underway peaks, with vast armies of former peasants travelling around the countryside to work on the new projects. Unfortunately, these start to drop within a few months, and now that all of the land has been finished, unemployment in rural areas has begun to rapidly accelerate. With no legal protections or any way to manage these problems (plus the avocation of a laissez faire economy), the first “boom and bust” cycle in Iberian history has happened. With little other prospects, the workers slowly move to the cities, accepting jobs marginally better paying than those in the countryside. For many other unlucky persons unable to manage the transition, they poach on the estates or starve, with some lying dead in ditches, their mouths full of grass.
-The nobility did not suddenly get granted these wide ranging powers to dismantle the poor laws and enact clearances out of nowhere. Over the years, the King was put under significant pressure to adopt a constitution, especially as the modern state grew out of his immediate control. Eventually, the nobles who made up a large part of government ministries and officers in the armed forces, along with allies in the new growing middle classes, presented a constitution creating a Congress for legislative purposes and a President for executive purposes. The Poder Judicial is also instituted; with a system of checks and balances introduced to ensure no one branch gains too much power (separation of powers). The King still retains some power (such as being able to veto any law minus budgets for a year, and the dismissal of members of the cabinet) but is largely a figure head. Free elections are to take place with all men (who own or rent land of a certain value) being able to vote for representatives of their choosing. The Liberal and Conservative parties form, with small minority representatives being less moderate and advocating reforms ranging from legal rights for women to strengthening the church). In a drunken fuelled rage later after seeing one of the delegates wearing a cloth cap, the King is heard shouting something about his hatred for "communism" and how the "commie bastards" that are the Lendinites are "literally Hitler, Mao, and Stalin rolled into one". There's still no word as to who Hitler, Mao, and Stalin are but they're thought to be bad, bad people. Soon afterwards, restrictions on the growing numbers of libertarians and socialists (as they call themselves) slowly grow, pushing several underground. Trade Unions are also banned due to some possessing a “socialist” nature. Anti-authoritarian groups are allowed, as long as they only criticise the enemies of the state.
-The old pope dies (not that he did much other than sit around and cackle about having so much fucking gold because he was a massively greedy twat). After the elections, the new Pope hails from Madrid, and seeing that the urban workers and rural peasantry are desperately poor and losing faith in god, calls for a reinvigoration of the church to meet demands of the modern day. He starts by setting up soup kitchens and shelters throughout the towns and cities, but is hampered by indifferent support from the state.
Griffster26 – Scotland
Capital: Dùn Èideann
Culture: Scottish (Celtic)
State Religion: Christian (Iberian)
-Firearms manufacture is reasonably easy, as any fool can hammer a piece of metal into a tube or use the more modern machines to automatically melt them. However, munitions are more difficult, and are usually paper cartridges made by soldiers themselves in their spare time. The integrated metal cartridge is a massive step forwards away from this and revolutionary in firearms technology. By encasing the shot and powder in a metal case and using a mercury fulminate cap on the bottom, the weather is no longer a problem for firearms users and guns jam or misfire much less. Another advantage is that since all bullets are of the same standard size and shape, one can easily and quickly reload a gun using mechanical aid. In combination with the older beech-loading rifles and the manufacturing capabilities of Scotland, single shot breech loading rifles are now able to be mass produced on a large scale. The Scottish army has accurate rifles that can be reloaded quickly along with being reliable and cheap. The era of industrial warfare is being born.
-With continuing improvements to the navy and logistical capabilities, the Scottish government invests significant sums into a new colony in Florida, with the purpose of establishing a strong naval presence in the area and to bring some trade under their control. The first colony is a rather poor attempt, with most of the inhabitants dying to disease and being unable to stand the humid and hot climate. Several forts, towers, and even some tiny ports are eventually established and stocked with supplies, while the forests nearby are cleared for some agriculture. The presence of large pools of stagnant water provides breeding grounds for mosquitos though, and recently cleared vegetation is their favourite habitat. Attrition rates are horrifically high and migration to the colony is piecemeal and slow. It takes years for the worst of the mosquitos diseases to pass (people from West Africa do particularly well here, so a lot of them are hired or quietly bought to work here), but at the very least, the lucrative trading opportunities (rubber supplies are essential) make it worthwhile.
-Iceland is taken from Norway in another war. Unlike the previous war, this one was considerably much more difficult. The Norwegians had spent large sums of money on improving their navy along with modernizing their society, while also building Martello towers in Iceland to deter the Scottish navy. Six ironclads are used to capture the island, but at the cost of the crowning glory of the Scottish fleet (The Bawbag) to be crippled and eventually sink. The Bawbags sails were torn to shreds and the masts knocked down by cannonfire. The ship was forced to burn the furniture onboard to make it to the coast, whereupon it was caught on a reef and torn apart. The Scottish manage to beat off more Norwegian attacks, but after a long conflict and many ships crippled or sunk (including an incident where the town of Dundee was invaded, set on fire, and the local magistrates leg blown off by a cannonball), Norway sued for peace. To annoy the Scottish before they captured Iceland, an evacuation ship carried off most of the valuables, weakened the piers (one ship docked at one and when goods were being offloaded the pier collapsed) and greased the flagpole so nobody could take down the flag. When the Scottish admiral noticed this, he ordered the flagpole cut down.
-Education reforms and pollution standards are now being set throughout the country. A commission into workplace health has discovered that to their shock, many people are suffering from unclean drinking water and silicosis, and worse, many of them cannot even read. To rectify this, two acts are established to cover the worst excesses of such problems. The education act sets up regional and local schools in the countryside and cities to provide two hours of education for children per day. As for pollution, each council is now responsible for the digging of a standardized sewer system throughout the city. Many commercial and industrial organisations must be connected to them, along with some tenement owners (although these are often flouted). It’s a tiny step forwards in that now the rivers look light brown and have little things floating in them instead of deep brown and having big things floating in it.
-The Scottish state formally announces Iberian Christianity as the state religion. At this news, there is considerable civil unrest, riots, and even attempted assassinations and murders. The government does roll back many of the purported reforms in light of this to approach a more moderate stance, practically leaving it with no way to convert the country to this other religion (most seemingly for political purposes). The schools and religiously apathetic are a clearly good place to start, and by slightly reforming Iberian Christianity so that it can take the modern industrial world into account, the new movement begins to succeed in the cities, particularly among the younger industrial workers.
CapLaPorte – The Kingdom of Romania
Capital: Salona
Culture: Romanian (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-The Romanian government, acknowledging that large reforms must be made to agriculture in order to produce the overall wealth of the land, begins to purchase foreign farming equipment and to build machine tool factories to provide for a domestic source of farming equipment. Unfortunately, most peasants cannot afford to buy these new machines. The government steps into dealing with this by deliberately ordering traction engines from workshops and lending them out to various agricultural communities, where they can be used to power threshing machines, pull ploughs, and other necessary improvements. Unfortunately, they are too big to be used on tiny fields, forcing many plots of land to be joined together. While some villages do successfully manage to communally agree on how to join up fields and manage the land, the vast majority of peasants simply sell their plots or tenancy rights and move to the cities. In cases where the nobles own the land and the peasants, they simply throw them off the land and join up the strips. Food prices begin to steadily drop and the cities begin to see a growing number of workers, but at the cost of slowly getting rid of rural communities. Those that do move to the cities, often make more money than they did on the farm, sending back some cash to assist the families at home. There is very little diffusion of cosmopolitan ideals here, save for tea-drinking and the move towards becoming literate enough to read the good book.
-The Romanian army undergoes reform in order to catch up with her neighbours, given significant problems posed by the retention of a near medieval military system and the reluctance of many in the armed forces to move towards a more modern system. A coherent, easy to understand chain of command is established however, along with a large bureaucracy to manage the allocation of supplies and general administration of the armed forces. The ministry of war is established, and gradually the military begins to become an arm of the state as opposed to a personal possession of the monarchy. The army also performs some peacekeeping duties, often being called in to control strikes and unions whenever they get big and dangerous enough to cause problems. Firearms factories are built and large numbers of artillery pieces and guns are produced, along with powder stores, bayonets, uniforms, and other necessary equipment needed for the army. A medical corps is established as well, complete with a brand new invention where by applying a liquid to a wound, heavily reduces the chance of infection. Of course, a good surgeon is still in high demand, and the best ones tend to be the ones who saw through legs the quickest. One doctor is fired after when sawing through an infected arm, grew tired and simply snapped the remaining part off.
-The King goes through with reforms suggested previously to the civil service, dividing it up quite nicely into just under a hundred agencies, departments, boards, councils, crown corporations, and the like in order to administer Romania. Soon after the reformation of the Civil Service, the King dies and is succeeded by his heir, who sacks the Liberal Prime Minister, replacing him with a conservative royalist. The new King continues with industrialization, supporting clearances which drive the rural population into the cities, and continues with industrialization of the nation no matter the cost to the lower classes. However, he does not bother appealing to the new middle class, for it remains small. Despite this, many peasants’ sons and daughters dream of owning their own small businesses or working minor administrative duties. Most notably is the “Tea not liqueur” movement, where an educated liberal peasant swears not to drink alcohol, and instead drink tea instead. The money saved is encouraged to be invested into cooperatives, insurance organizations, and other societies built around the ideal of community and self-help. At the forefront of this movement are nationalist merchants and businessmen, who coincidentally sell crates of tea and continue to argue for import tariffs on the import of Greek alcohols, which they argue, is destructive to society and benefits Greek merchants. Unfortunately, this liberal society is slow growing and particularly fragile, but has general support among the growing power of the industrialists and some literate workers.
-Conceding the demands of the older merchants, tariffs are raised as high as is economically feasible, an embassy is also established with the Greek Empire. Seen as a slap in the face to the tea drinkers, the businessmen argue for the elimination of duties on tea and a repeal of the unpopular bread laws (which pushes up the price of bread, supporting the farmer and landed noble at the expense of the worker). Official propaganda is finally circulated externally in order to encourage immigration to the Kingdom of Romania, with an open border immigration policy enacted, and the King hoping that this will bring in cheap labour. Unsurprisingly, net immigration is actually very low, save for people in the poorer parts of the former Salzreich and the Greek Empire (devastated by war in recent decades and still slow to recover). Incentives to migrate are low as well, given that more successful and economically developed countries (such as Phoenicia) already suck up a great deal of labour. Finally, a lot of people are also migrating abroad to seek out opportunities. On the whole, net migration is stagnant (save for internally, where a slow shift to urban centres is noted).
Yawmwen – Lendinites
Headquarters: Byzantium
Ethnicity of party leaders: Greek (Hellenic)
Party line on religion: Atheist
-Lendin writes a scathing critique of the reforms passed throughout the eastern empire. In his analysis, he accused the ruling class of pandering to the proletariat workers at the expense of the farmers and ethnic minorities who had become increasingly disenfranchised by industrialization. He asserted next that there will be no self-determination for people like the Arabs or Armenians if they allow themselves to be forced into cities and Hellenised. This article, called "So much to do, so little to eat." is disseminated among areas of the empire where natural resistance to the Hellenization of indigenous culture is most prominent including "ghettos" in major cities and areas that have large farming economies. It spreads like wildfire among the Arabs, Kurds, and Armenians, all of who are becoming increasingly bitter at the states attempts to block their demands for increased autonomy. It comes at the perfect time as well, for many of them are just becoming literate and in seeking to improve themselves, often through off old ideas and ideologies in order to latch onto new ones. The Lendinists have to compete heavily with the Idealists however, who promote nationalism and the creation of “nation states” as homelands for nations.
-The Lendinite party begins the creation of new "cells" throughout the country. Members who have not yet been arrested appear to go into hiding, although what is really happening is the organization of secret societies throughout the country. These new cells are not engaged in any direct action; instead recruiting a new intelligentsia and member base across the empires that will take part in what they consider the inevitable overthrow of their bourgeois masters. Funding comes from morally and legally dubious activities, and there are many who hold that suffering does not matter as long as the end justifies the means. To this end, many self-professed revolutionaries often dedicate their lives to the revolution, often being in constant fights with the authorities. Given the general hostility of the Greek population as a whole to the party (Greeks tend to hold the most privileges), a large number of party members are often minority groups or from even outside the Empire. The people's militia, while mostly in ruin after the arrests of most of their members, still attempts to continue its operations in Athens. Former members who have been sent to prisons and gulags are tasked with recruiting members from within the prison system. People who are violent or intelligent with shorter sentences are priority recruitment targets. Collaboration and informers on both sides leads to a great deal of misunderstandings and a lot of innocent people being thrown into prison as well.
-Student Lendinites stage a strike at the University of Athens, demanding that students be allowed to create radical political organizations that can freely meet on university grounds. They are broken up and many are arrested, paradoxically driving them into the revolutionary life as people with records of “stirring up trouble” are often barred from holding office or often employment. Most factory managers refuse to hire such people, believing them to agitate the workers and cause delays in production.
-The students strike and the militia are the excuse the Empire has been looking for. Arresting all of the students and throwing them into prisons (or marking them down with criminal records so they cannot attain public office), the military also forcibly dissolves the militias and raids the offices and headquarters of the party. Many of the party members and leaders are imprisoned or exiled (including Lendin, who in his late 60s, fled to Zaudibaum to rebuild the headquarters there). When the Empire congratulates itself on this success, they have failed to account for the many thousands of enemies they have made among the intellectuals and some of the more militant urban workers and trade unions. The party is forced into the underground and criminal worlds, where they continue plotting the overthrow of the Empire.
-The Khoffler Republic also sends monetary donations to the Lendinites of Greece (these contributions gradually growing as the Republic itself grows), and the members are often offered asylum or are the target of favourable trade deals. Most of these happen in Zaudibaum, where the Lendinites often operate “legal” businesses as a means to raise income for the party. These contributions helped significantly with the party getting through these difficult times, and allows them to continue running their vitriolic newspaper (filled with half-truths, calling out the lies of official papers filled with half-lies) and maintaining the organisation of the party.
RepulsiveMilk - Duchy of Brandenburg
Capital: Berlin
Culture: Bavarian (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinist)
-For whatever reason, the Duke of Brandenburg (having renamed his Kingdom of Bavaria and reduced his standing to a Duke) decides to order “His top thinkers to advance in military affairs”. His ministers ask him who these top thinkers were, and he does not specify. At unease, the minister responsible for provisioning the army orders a new model of musket and import of the socket bayonet, hoping this would appease the Duke.
-The Duke then follows up by bestowing vast gifts upon the nobles of the country and walking over to them randomly and making a flirtatious wink at them while whispering something into their ears. Onlookers report either the Duke or his noble’s faces turning a shade of red during the exchange. These nobles then set to work apparently raising taxes and armies. The war ministry protests at this, saying that the nobles have gone back to the old custom of maintaining standing armies. The fact that most of these nobles do not have the resources to do such a thing is seen as odd as well, until it is later revealed these taxes are being spent on this disorganized and splintered excuse of an army.
-The Duke of Brandenburg declares war on the Republic of Baselland, sending several armies lead by nobles who apparently gained their position not by merit upon the field, but upon the bed. Upon reaching the border, the army marches into the Republic and immediately dissolves into looting of the countryside and besieging towns. The Baselland army arrives via the newly built railway, fires cannon at the smaller groups to scare them away, and then sweeps throughout the country, effectively wiping out the invading army by the simple virtue of competence. The nobles of Brandenburg then opt for a suicidal charge against an infantry square. The Baselland commander mistakes the stupidity of the nobles for a clever ruse, and orders his army to pull back to a reinforced position. The nobles, thinking the enemy had begun to rout in face of superior force, continues the charge, moving up a hill into an artillery position. The guns fire grapeshot, completely and utterly eradicating half of the nobility of Brandenburg in a single blow.
-The Duke begins to weep, and flees from the field while his army calls him a cowardly French bastard. He is forced to sue for peace with Baselland, ceding several border provinces and losing a lot of popular support. The residents of Brandenburg are being swept up in a tide of German nationalism, and some are secretly advocating union with the strong and militaristic state of Weissen. Their influence in recent years (especially after victory in the war with France) has grown over the country.
DragonFlagon - Kingdom of France
Capital: Paris
Culture: Frankish (Germanic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinist)
-In a large and momentous shift, the French court switches the official language of the state and documentation to Germanic Frankish away from Lombardian French. Clovis the Frank had become King of France, and with increasing influence from German scholars and philosophers who supported nationalist sentiments, he made the somewhat odd decision to move away from his Lombard roots towards a more German lifestyle. Perhaps their location in Frankish Paris heavily influenced this, but the nobility of South-Eastern France are much more heavily latinised and considerably annoyed at this move. Many of the policies in education and official writing are reversed, starting a Frankish renaissance. To undermine the nobility (who have opposed his moves to Germanize the south), Clovis brings several German families back into the limelight and uses them to collect taxes and assist in the creation of the new model army.
-The Franks, with considerable funds and assistance, have managed to develop a new type of explosive for artillery, along with a new artillery piece with the ability to fire such shells. By taking a standard explosive shell and putting mercury fulminate inside (which ignites on contact with the ground), one can fire shells without needing to light them beforehand, plus always ensuring it explodes at the same time it hits the ground. A type of casing is also developed which splinters into many parts upon detonation, eviscerating anybody unlucky enough to be standing nearby. The new artillery pieces used possess short barrels and can fire angled shots that can fly over walls or on top of buildings. The army is now able to begin heavily modernizing and being formed into a regular standing force with paid professional soldiers. 35,000 men are raised, armed with the latest in firearms technology (mostly muzzle-loading smoothbore muskets, but there are often skirmishers armed with rifles) and unusually in this day and age, small pieces of steel plates put on the body (or chainmail) to act as a sort of armour. Presumably it is for defence against bayonets and shrapnel, for most muskets and rifles used at this time have exceedingly heavy calibres (usually 0.75 to 1 inches) and would make most armour useless. With this new army formed, Clovis uses it to crack down on rebellions and often bullies the nobility into toeing the official line. It works at keeping order, but there is still a great deal of resentment at the new ruler.
-Explorers and colonists with the intention of setting up a factory in productive lands to the west are commissioned by the state, hopefully to expand Frankish influence in the New World. They are given no direction of where to settle, or have bothered to take sensible tools (instead packing the holds with postmodern literature with which to trade with the natives). They explore most of the Atlantic seaboard and encounter many strange and fascinating civilizations (including other European powers) before returning home with little to show minus what appears to be gold. Apparently on a large group of snowy and ice bound islands they found rocks that appeared to contain gold.
-Unfortunately, in a damper to these colonial aspirations, the Phoenician Federation navy sails to Marseilles in Lombardy, where they annihilate the entire Frankish navy and destroy the gun batteries before assaulting the port with heavy infantry attacks. The fort takes longer, with several weeks required before the walls come down and the soldiers inside surrender. Of course, the Franks sent reinforcements complete with heavy guns with which to batter the defences of the Phoenicians. Unfortunately, the Phoenicians have not only dug extensive trench systems and built gun batteries of their own, but have extensive offshore support from the navy, complete with plentiful supplies. The Franks arrive and make several punitive assaults on the city, but are driven back multiple times. A huge final assault is made before the Lombardians start to revolt, angry at the Franks move to power and the fact that with the Federation they have access to extensive overseas markets. Weissen invades as well, hoping to take advantage of their weakness during the conflict. Eventually the Franks sue for peace when they find it impossible (at the time being) to break through into the city and retake it. The treaty is essentially the Federation annexing Marseilles for the simple reason that they could.
Afro-Asia
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism
-The Wapanese, seeking to improve knowledge into chemistry and to seek all sorts of new and weird things, have set up chemical labs with the purpose of breaking down everything to find out what it’s made of, and how to synthesize other things. During this time, they are especially good at several tasks. In the first, there is a great deal of advance into the understanding of carbon compounds. Alcohols are isolated, synthesized, named, and uses later found for them. A systematic system for naming them is found as well, and the atomic theory of matter (along with lines to link atoms together) is found sufficient for representing these compounds on paper. Each atom is found to contain a certain number of bonds it can make with other atoms (carbon has four bonds, and therefore can bond with 4 hydrogen atoms, with one bond each, to create Methane, a type of flammable gas and the simplest hydrocarbon). Depending on the bonds, different names are chosen (-ane is a carbon compound fully saturated with hydrogens, -ene contains a double bond between two carbon atoms in it, -yne has a triple bond). Fats, esters, oils, proteins, are also heavily looked into (one can convert an oil into a fat by saturating it with hydrogen). A periodic table of elements is also created (with many missing spots that piss off a lot of chemists), and most interesting of all, Amino acids and proteins. It is found that proteins (such as those in meat, detected by burning it and testing for the presence of nitrogen using pH paper) are made from a number of amino acids (monomers) that have been polymerized (monomers joined together to create polymers). Glucose as a monomer can be polymerized to produce starches and cellulose. After the chemists finish their babbling and tinkering, the people demand to see the results of their work. The chemists laugh maniacally, and tell the people of Wapan they have discovered how to create almost anything. They produce a test tube full of an ester produced by reacting carboxylic acid with an alcohol. When smelled, it smells distinctively of bananas. There is much rejoicing, for now the Wapanese can now make artificial flavourings. They have also started the science of modern chemistry.
-The Wapanese are also manufacturing modern rifles, although in somewhat low numbers due to the lack of wars or demand for them. There are talks of setting up large scale manufactories to produce them for sale abroad however, but these plans haven’t gotten anywhere much. Hearing of how Europe outperformed them in terms of technological progress however, the Emperor decided to take direct action and spared no expense. He invited, hired, or otherwise kidnapped every single foreign specialist he could get his hands on and poured vast sums of resources into chemistry. The first “modern” steam engines are built in Wapan, albeit in low numbers. The lack of coal was problematic for supplying these new machines, and the first steam locomotive unfortunately ran over a farmer who got too close to it. A local mob formed and tried to destroy the engine, forcing the engineer to dig a big hole and hide the locomotive inside of it until the government came to dispel the mob. After a few more years, the first railway in Wapan was eventually completed, with the engine dug back up and put back into service.
-Of course these specialists had to come from somewhere. Indeed, many of them came from the modernizing and industrialising Greek and Phoenician states. In return for schematics of rifling machines and models of the rifle, the Wapanese are given steam engines, improved gunpowder recipes, the metric system (which has yet to be implemented), decommissioned and ancient steamships (including one that had previously been used as a museum and was now the flagship of the Wapanese navy).
-Missionaries continue with their good work, penetrating more deeply into Indonesia and now parts of Polynesia as part of their quest to convert all the “savages” they come across. New Guinea is charted for the first time, and bizarrely the only agrarian societies are warlike ones in the highlands splintered into thousands of groups with many weird languages. This does not do well. The missionaries decide to sell the people there iron tools and weapons in return for permission to set up a mission in each village. The local big man or small chief is contacted and informed of the news. Gradually, these tribes begin to coalesce and worship together. They then go out and take over their neighbours, and begin to intensify food production and develop towards becoming states. Some missionaries are told about a vast continent to the south and islands to the Far East where the people still use stone tools and have never heard of Waifu. The missionaries continue to move.
-With higher demand for coal, the state owned Wapanese Mining Company searches for coal in Manchuria, Siberia, and Hanajia and establishes mining operations there, although the best sources at present seem to come from Manchuria. Some coal can also be bought from Korea, where the residents have a small number of mines in operation producing it on a small scale for local uses. Of course there is little regard for the inhabitants of the region, where the Wapanese gladly let toxic chemicals used to clean or bleach ores and minerals seep into the ground and streams, along with clearing the land and promoting soil erosion. In Hanajia, similar activities are undertaken on a smaller scale, especially as the colonies are gradually connected together and present a unified Wapanese coastline. Storehouses of coal are established for the two steamships that patrol the coast, helping to drive off pirates and other such persons. The colonies are also demanding further autonomy, such as the ability to maintain their own armies, manage their own taxes, and a great deal of other rights that would essentially raise them to the status of a dominion or vassal state.
-Many Bohemian Waifuists come to Wapan, bringing with them their weird Cyrillic writing. One scholar becomes particularly enamoured with the idea of written symbols denoting phonetics rather than entire meanings, and spends his life working to adapt the script for the Wapanese language. Many people, mostly commoners, like this idea, as it makes writing so much easier to learn and comprehend. The religious elite are, however, wary of this new script, and ban its usage for religious uses. Eventually, two writing systems are recognised: Heiminkana (“commoner” Cyrillic writing) and Koshokana (“High” traditional hieroglyphic writing). Many of the signs are written in both. This development has not yet spread to Carufonia, although the new script is initially making difficult inroads. It does spread rapidly among the people being converted in the more “savage” societies however.
-The Waifuist faith, while making some inroads into India and southeast Asia, has come to a problem in that a wide range of religions are tolerated and never really rise to the status of state religion. The Missionaries instead argue for the conversion of the Polynesians and the continent to the south, along with massively expanding operations in Hanajia. Here they have barely scratched the coast of the continent now increasingly being understood as the same continent possessing European colonies on the eastern side. A missionary is sent to investigate this part to see if there are any peoples there. He does indeed find a tribe willing to convert, and send the next decade setting up a mission and promoting his religion.
Satansick – Zulu Empire
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Waifuism
-The Zulu Emperor, increasingly at the helm of a vast multi-ethnic and backwards Empire, has become worried at the relative isolation of the Empire from the affairs of the wider world, and a lack of modern firearms and tools used to make himself much more powerful (and the state by extension, which has been slowly evolving as an entity independent of the crown). On hearing that the Europeans have been utilizing vast agricultural estates and many new innovations, the Zulu state has decided to finally end the problem of the unruly peasantry and food shortages with a new policy. A committee is formed, and dropping a vast stack of papers on the desk of the Emperor, they have found everything that could be potentially useful. It is titled “ON LAND REFORM”, and the copy is neatly removed from the “IN” box and placed in the “OUT” box. The Emperor then sits quietly and starts to play with a toy train while his civil servants carry out the reforms.
-Of these reforms, the first adopts a Eurasian profit-based model. All old feudal obligations are to be abolished, and nobles are encouraged to clear the peasants from the land and to join up strips, before investing into modern equipment and books. Despite being a farsighted policy, most nobles don’t even care. They squander their rents (now that taxes are forced to be paid in money) in the cities and on their manors, while their tenants continue to farm the land in much the same way. A lot of new crops have been introduced however, and the sweet potato is particularly popular as a staple crop along with rice. For cash crops, coffee, cannabis, sugar, cotton, and tobacco are all grown, packed into sacks and barrels, and then exported. While most farmers are unable to advance very far (for every success, there is a family who sold their plot and moved out), some do manage to scrape up enough money to buy neighbouring plots, hire labourers, become the managers of the estates of nobles they used to be owned by, and often start to bring about needed improvements. One such man is a gardener who became known as “Will-do-it Willie”. He is hired by his former master due to his experience of growing potatoes, and over the course of several years completely redesigned his lords’ estates, trebling the income and making the area one of the most productive in Africa, complete with an imported threshing machine. Willie later travels around the Empire, doing land shaping on an epic scale and getting involved in some government projects. He is later asked by an astounded Wapanese visitor if he could work in Wapan for a good sum of money. Willie refuses, saying “I have not yet finished shaping the whole of Africa yet”.
-With a lot of peasants flowing out of the countryside, yet a lack of large scale industries to soak them up yet, many of these people lay about unemployed in the rapidly growing towns. The Zulu state sees this as an excellent opportunity to build up the army, sending recruiters to impoverished areas and boasting of high ways and the exciting life to be had in the army. They even introduce a Eurasian style uniform, free of charge and made with breathable cotton fabric. Soon afterwards, the army slowly grows in size, becoming gradually more of a standardized force. Women and children still follow the baggage trains, although the practice is slowly starting to die out with the state now setting up storehouses, factories, and supply dumps for the army. Food, guns, bullets, powder, cloth, and many other necessities are being provided to soldiers, slowly divorcing them from their families and turning them into professional fighting men. The process of putting them in barracks walled off from the civilian world and curfews finishes the process. Many of these soldiers of course do not fight, but simply act as reserve or policing forces of some kind. The rest are sent to the growing network of towers, gun batteries, forts, and other coastal defences that are being built along the coast. When it comes to spreading north to extend control, conflict ensues, requiring the army.
-Until now, the Zulu state has largely only focused on the southern end of the continent, settling vast expanses of land (most of it being of dubious strategic and economic value), particularly to the west. However, as the importance of trade and shipping increases along with the need to maintain control of the coasts, new campaigns are pushing to conquer the land named “Tanzania”, covering a large section of the eastern coast, partly covering areas already in the Empire, or to the north. Tanzania is fairly easily conquered and subdued, assisted in large part due to the military reforms, extensive drilling, and improvement of roads and sea transport. To help control these new lands, a great deal of coastal towers and forts are built, along with a number of customs offices and toll gates and roads deeper into the hinterland. Any existing ports are taken over and are usually expanded, with the older small boats previously in use by subsistence farmers or fishermen now being replaced by large cargo ships (many of them bought second or third hand from Eurasians). The zebra cavalry, elite within the army, are more frightening than ever when they come face to face with the more primitive Khoisan or Pygmy peoples they continue to displace. Armed with Wapanese Uchigatana and flintlock pistols they're truly a force to be reckoned with, although the professionalization of the army and gradual removal of protections and privileges for the noble class has gotten on their nerves.
-To fund modernization of the country (especially land reform), a large number of diamond mines have been set up throughout the country to extract this special form of carbon, prized for its use as a gemstone and also its extreme hardness. One chap has even found a way of using it to cut glass and for use in lining drill bits. These “industrial” applications are perfectly suited to the diamonds that cannot be used for gemstones, although many of them are still in infancy or difficult to use as of yet. For now, the bulk of this money is to be made by mining, cutting, polishing, and then exporting these small pieces of carbon all over the world. Often these diamonds are used to buy political favours from smaller kings and chiefs nearby the Empire, often being a precursor step to political integration. The Kongo King then agrees to permit the construction of a fort on the Kongo coast (he wears so many gemstones and diamonds that his robes stand up by themselves) along with a port for trade. Several lumber camps and nearby mines are also dug or set up, mostly to export raw materials used in the production of luxury goods. The Kongo King retains some taxation rights however, using the money to mostly build a magnificent palace and redevelop his capital.
-To check on the progress of land reforms, the recent growth of the Empire (again), and to generally keep a tally on taxes, land, and people, the first modern census is conducted in the Empire by the Bad Boys. In addition to this, they also carry out the first general survey, much of it documenting the lay of the land so as to find suitable paths for potential railway networks. The Phoenicians, having been granted a twenty year lease on factories and ports within the Empire and a privileged trading status, have been especially grateful for the deal, and send a whole kit perfect for building a railway with. The first railway in the whole Zulu Empire is built; a locomotive put into operation, and is ridden by the Emperor himself to give his approval of the project. While initially a mere novelty, several extensions to the line and improvement of the carrying capacity eventually results in the capital now having the ability to import fresh milk (an important part of the diet in this part of the world and widely popular) every day. To keep it fresh, the Phoenicians have even built several ice houses and export ice to the country, albeit at some cost.
Joco117 – Sinhala
Capital: Colombo
Culture: Sinhalese (Indo-Aryan)
State Religion: Waifuism
-Sinhala begins to undergo some change in recent years. While there has always been heavy influence from Wapan and close ties, there are glimmers of a future for Sinhala that may not be merely just sitting on the sidelines as a passive entity in history. Now, the residents of Sinhala have a chance to make their mark on the world.
Hanajia and Pacific
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Ruskie – Konfederaation lääneissä Kauppias Mailla
Capital: Uusi piiri
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Secular
-Despite their relative isolation from the industrial world, some external influences are gradually leaking into this vast country. Besides tiny imports of firearms, clocks, trinkets, machine made tools and items, not to mention odd spices, gems and metals, there are also engineers and ironmasters. As it turns out, large parts of the country are full of vast hills full of rich coal and iron seams. Although very tiny amounts are extracted and people generally use iron, the first steelworking techniques have been introduced here as a means of making quality weapons, armour, and tools. Ironworking itself has also been revolutionized. The process by which one takes coal and heats it in an airless container to produce coke can be utilized to make cheap iron on a large scale here, and the conditions are just about perfect to allow for the industry to take off. The large internal civil war and unrest significantly delays matters however, not to mention the lack of good transport links on both land and water. Despite this, at the end of this period, the first iron foundries have been established with European assistance, with the rivers and tiny number of canals being used to transport cheap finished iron to the markets. Inevitably, economic change begins to finally pick up momentum, and there are foreshadowing signs that perhaps great events and change lie ahead for this nation.
-In the year 1037, the old bureaucratic despotism was to be overthrown by a combination of military units and armed citizenry, armed both with foreign arms and the spirit of liberty.
-On a warm day in Elokuu sometime in the late 10th century, a dairy producer and his wife had their first son, this child however would grow up to change the course of the nation, and to a large degree, much of history as well. Growing up before the Doges were overthrown, this child was brought up with the traditional sense of freedom and liberty deeply engrained like most Kauppiasians, however unlike most of them, the child consciously acted on these ideas as well as unconsciously believing in them.
-He joined the army, but as an officer. He had access to foreign traders and by extension books. Teaching himself Greek, Phoenician, and Arabic, he was able read up on literature regarding economics and political philosophy, developing a strong set of values and ideas he had described as 'Libertarismi'. Alongside this philosophy he made some close friends, most notably Ben Varuskunta, who would help him considerably in future endeavours. As he got older he had ideas on leaving the military and setting up a small surgery in the local area, however this idea was cut short by the advent of the Bureaucratic regime. A member of the clergy would eventually manage to position himself at the head of the bureaucratic system, hailing himself as a prophet to the great merchant in the sky, and giving himself the name of 'Avoin' claiming his words and rule backed by divine right. However as time passed it became increasingly clear that not only was he not 'open', but actually insane. Becoming increasingly paranoid and pompous, he saw 'traitors' and heretics wherever he looked, reaching the stage where he enjoyed watching people being tortured, under the guise of 'removing heresy'. It was rumoured he got sexual pleasure from this, and much later an entire fetish subculture would be named “Avoinaphilia”.
-While this was happening, the two friends would begin to write literature, and Ben would make posters with vivid imagery, often attacking figures he thought represented a threat to civilized society. At the same time, Avoin frivolously wasted the finances of the nation to build massive extravagant monuments in his likeness and 'his' nation, meanwhile infrastructure was beginning to crumble and economic activity slowing down and becoming sluggish. The two friends created the 'Libertaarisen Koalitio', traveling the north of the nation, handing out leaflets and holding speeches in secret or in rural areas. In the space of a year the north western part of the nation had switched allegiance to their side, with many who longed for the glory days being told to “come home” and to migrate to the northwest.
-Now clearly insane, Avoin sent the 'Pyhä Vartija' (his elite troops) to crush the rebels, pillaging villages of those who were not loyal to the regime. They faced some resistance from rogue deserters and former military officers, but they were no match for the elite soldiers and fled. The forces of Avoin advanced into the Northwest. Eventually the Pyhä Vartija and local reinforcements from loyalist army units besieged 'Asentaa-upea', and after six exhaustive months they cracked the rebel stronghold with the aid of imported artillery pieces and made a brutal assault. On entering the city, swarms of citizens lined up along the streets, glaring at the elite troops as they marched in. At one instant, they then quickly surrounded the column and in one massive, furious wave engulfed the Pyhä Vartija, using sheer numbers to eradicate the unit. Assisted by sharpshooters in the windows (including seventy Norwegian mercenaries and a member of the town watch descended from Mexican migrants), the use of firearms threw the whole matter into great confusion, allowing for the loyalists to be dispersed. With the 'Pyhä Vartija' units utterly destroyed, loyalist army units in the area quickly switched intelligence or fled from the area. The rebels marched on the capital, shouting slogans and waving flags comparing the ruler to a devil and drawing pictures of him, poking fun at his large nose.
-By 1035 the rebel forced had surrounded the capital that over several years had turned itself into a fortress, protected by the remaining 'Pyhä Vartija' units that had not been sent north. Surrounding them was various rebel army units and militias alongside citizens from different professions handling the different parts of logistics. After two whole years the fortress-capital fell to disease, hunger, and repeated artillery bombardment, Avoin was found dead, for he had killed himself. As the civil war ended, an expanded constitution was written, guaranteeing rights to all men, freedom of worship, and freedom of expression alongside other inalienable rights. The nation was heavily politically decentralized so as to prevent such a situation with Avoin ever reoccurring, with the 'Osatos' becoming 'Lääneissä' with expanded rights and powers. Alongside this the first democracy for all (adult males) was established, with the Doge elected every 5 years, and the 'Eduskunta' composed of representatives elected from each 'Lääneissä'.
-Eventually the two friends parted ways, Ben became a humble cartoonist for a newspaper, although no one knew what happened to the other one once the nation was reborn, some say he was killed by loyalist elements after the civil war, some say he went back to being a doctor, or maybe a dairy producer like this father. Along with his principles that shaped this great nation and this tale, only one thing for sure was known about this elusive man. His name: ‘Raun Palosuo'.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-Adopting foreign technologies they have been given (largely in the form of gifts but also in return for economic resources, several technological breakthroughs and foreign access treaties as well) by Eurasian states, Xerxes has been able to not only modernize their backwards country, but to significantly improve on one of them. By taking pressurized air containers and clockwork mechanisms, along with the explosive percussion shells introduced by the Greeks, a crude form of unmanned waterborne missile is created. Replacing rams (instead using small “torpedo boats” to launch these new “torpedoes”), these simple devices silently chug through the water to eventually hit a ship whereupon it explodes on contact. Initially these are difficult to mass produce, although the lack of naval wars means that this point is moot anyways. Most of the old boats and ships used by Xerxes are largely abandoned in favour of Eurasian styles, eventually culminating in the adoption of light skirmishing boats no larger than the smallest frigates in use overseas. The reasons for this are because not only are these vessels cheap and easy to replace, but have a low profile and can launch torpedoes before silently skulking away.
-With increasing ties to the Eurasians, a number of treaties are signed with the intention of using outside assistance to bring Xerxes into the modern era. Artillery (often older models), flintlock guns, shipbuilding, agricultural methods and tools, and a whole variety of other interesting ideas and innovations are imported in large numbers from the continent in general. More specifically, they pick and choose specialities from the varied Empires. From the Phoenicians they adopt the metric system and gunpowder manufacture, whereas from the Greeks they adopt modern artillery. Several steam engines and locomotives are imported at considerable expense (with the first line crossing Panama and linking the two major ports), along with a few foundries to produce weaponry and mines to extract the raw materials needed to fuel industry. Sources of crude bitumen and other oils are extracted in small quantities as well to light lamps with, another innovation brought by the Eurasians. Military manuals are bought from the Chinese army (probably in return for all that cocaine), and taking the lessons of a particular “Sun Tzu” to heart, Xerxes gradually decentralizes their logistics system using supply caches and depots and adopts increasingly sneaky and malicious methods of warfare.
-It is postulated that sucrose may have addictive qualities, and that this is largely behind its success. This could explain both the exponential increase in the demand for sugar overseas, and the immense profits to be made by growing the stuff. The Caribbean isles are perfect for growing sugarcane, and not only are vast tracts of land (with the local rulers often clearing out their residents who they were meant to look out for) cleared to make way for vast sugar plantations, but new and heavy machines to crush the plants and boil the juices into crystals are imported. Production rises, and despite many middle class (and later poor) Europeans buying literal shiploads daily, prices continue to decline. Initially unsure of what to do with the stuff, many new users spoon it into all sorts of foods (including beers and wines), mix it into mashed potatoes and meat stews, pour it over steaks, fry bacon in the stuff, and make cakes that are more sugar than anything else. The popular habit with tea and coffee is to completely saturate both liquids with sugar whenever possible. Those who cannot afford such quantities of sugar colour their teeth black to give the impression they are avid users of it. In Xerxes itself, the people are dead keen on these crops as well (especially given how cheap it is at home), consuming 40kg per head per year by 1040.
-European agricultural methods assist in this agricultural explosion as well (although the inability to move fresh foods hampers their ability to export perishables). With heavy ploughs, machetes, scythes, reaping machines, threshers, diggers, crop rotation, land clearances, land banks, land reforms, tenancies, and the abolishment of many old restrictive or cumbersome laws, there is a dizzying drive towards consolidation of productive lands and to bring every square inch of soil under the plough. Europe has an insatiable appetite, causing the landowners and rulers of Xerxes to deliver ultimatums to the less advanced tribes within the Empire or out with the borders. Tribes and chiefdoms are promised the ability to keep their lands if they convert them to agricultural use, growing cash crops for export and accepting the growth of infrastructure to transport them. Those that refuse are driven off the land, with rebellions crushed by the army. The majority of these tribes accept the deals, clear-cutting vast swathes of forest and converting it to intensive agricultural use. Cocaine, sugar, tobacco, coffee, cinchona, and a whole other vast variety of plants are introduced or grown, and then shipped for export. Prices are driven down further and an agricultural boom kicks off in Xerxes. The more they grow the more machines they can import and the labour they can hire. The more they have, the more they can grow.
-With vast revenues raised from agricultural taxes and some tariffs on exported crops (the monopoly on cocaine and near monopoly of tobacco ensures their control), Xerxes has made massive investments into education. Teachers from Europe are enticed with high wages to teach hordes of students hoping to make their way into the middle classes, engineers built railways and irrigation systems, ports are expanded or built with access to new and improved roads, and vast sums are spent setting up a patent office system and subsidizing particularly interesting patents (most of them relating to agriculture). Tax-free zones to encourage rich investors to move over and spend much of their money are introduced (several European tycoons, especially in Greece have begun to move here to invest into ranching and plantations). Finally, to encourage the growth of cocaine and tobacco industries, Xerxes lifts the tariffs and heavily subsidizes both (in return for later sums of money) in order to break through into European markets. This tactic is a wild success, and the cocaine merchants even discover a way to make even fatter stacks of cash. Unfortunately, recession hits and the subsidizing policies by Xerxes worsens the situation. Prices collapse and the merchants face a glut and ruin, that is, until they come up with a brilliant new solution. By “cooking” cocaine with sodium of bicarbonate (so as to produce even more intense highs), one can not only convert it into a smokeable form that can be sold in smaller quantities to more people, it is also cheap and easy to produce along with being ready to use and highly profitable. The rural and urban poor buy the cheap and heavily subsidized drugs and soon there are reports of epidemic uses of cheap and illicit drugs throughout Europe, apparently threatening the destruction of the whole land.
VOSK – La Plata
Capital: Nova Vista
Culture: Platean (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-Not much happens minus the usual population growth and general economic development of the colony.
Bumbanut - Khoffler Republic
Capital: Khoffler
Culture: Khofflerin (German)
State Religion: State Atheism (Atheist)
-The Khoffler Republic, still relatively new and growing, has decided that at considerable expense, they will import the materials needed for a railway on the island they call home. Importing two (ancient) locomotives that had been decommissioned in former Misiryaban and laying (eventually) a line connecting both ends of the island via the north coast, they had to actually build it as a narrow gauge line (1 metre wide), complete with modifying the engines for operation on it. They travel regularly, moving mostly freight and low numbers of passengers along it. These tiny engines also carry masonry tools and materials required for the construction of several gun towers and bunkers along the coasts of Newfoundland, mostly to protect coastal shipping and to tell the natives that the colonists are here to stay (not that it doesn’t matter since most of them died from disease or fighting).
-Using this new railway and the fortifications, the colonists gradually take control of the rest of the island, often fighting with the native inhabitants and shooting or sneezing on many of them. After twenty years, both sides agree to a peace where the natives occupy a thin and unproductive strip along the south coast (away from the railway) and watched by the militias and mercenaries hired as a form of ramshackle military on the island. A scuffle regarding the militias later leads to the island government announcing that all of the militias were to be merged into a single entity called “The National Militia”, composing mostly of part time soldiers and part time civilians, ready to be called on whenever a crisis occurs. The government is still largely egalitarian and operates by direct democracy, although with more and more colonists arriving (fleeing from the wars in Europe), population growth has led to them gradually expanding the bureaucracy and adopting several layers of governance. There are now several “mayors”, each responsible for all affairs in their part of the island.
-The Republic also sends monetary donations to the Lendinites of Greece (these contributions gradually growing as the Republic itself grows), and they are often offered asylum or are the target of favourable trade deals. Most of these happen in Zaudibaum, where the Lendinites often operate “legal” businesses as a means to raise income for the party.
[Seed Eater] – Laurentia
Capital: Timberhaven
Culture: Lakeish
State Religion: Folk Paganism
-The Laurentians are native to the Great Kauppsiasian lakes and practice a form of mostly peaceful farming, supplemented by low intensity mining and metalworking. Their culture of Lakeish is heavily nature-oriented and built around tight-knit small communities. Religiously they believe in a tradition of folk myths and polytheism of a pantheon of naturist gods that take the form of animals or part-animals. In recent centuries, the introduction of alien species and technologies has often resulted in additions or modifications of their religion and subsequent changes in farming lifestyles. Despite appearing timeless and ancient, their society has been gradually moving towards an organizational level akin to that of a state. Improving food yields, increased cross-cultural contacts, growing populations, a rise in trade and general wealth, along with wider awareness of the world at large have all contributed to this society starting to see such changes become not only visible within a lifetime, but is also accelerating . By the 10th century, artwork no longer shows people in contemporary clothing, but in the clothes they historically wore. With people realizing that the past was different, perhaps the future will be as well. It is with this realization that Laurentia uneasily enters the modern world, with the intention of securing a place for itself in history.
-Increasing foreign contacts have come to a head during this time as increasingly larger vessels penetrate the lakes to conduct trade with the people here. Cheap iron tools and weapons are being imported from Europe in return for animal pelts and various craftworks that have yet to be replicated by machinery. The Laurentians already know how to work iron (having figured it out in the past few centuries) and with ingots of cheap Welsh iron, have begun to use iron tools on a larger and more systematic scale. This is most readily applied to farming, where with the help of European oxen and horses, heavy ploughs are used to cut through the heavier soils and tear up roots in the soil. Iron tools and the demand for charcoal have also resulted in the clearing of more forests and more land being brought under the plough. Foreign agricultural methods have also been introduced, such as the strip system (whereby common land is divided up to be used by individual families, although livestock and tools are still held in common), three field crop rotation, use of manures and nitrates, not to mention proper drainage and secondary vegetables to support the diet. Food production begins to steadily grow, allowing for more hunters and ironmongers to be supported. With this, the demand for pelts and iron ore rises, and people spread outwards in search of both. The peninsula they call home is gradually brought under their control, often heavily assisted by the internal feuding of their neighbours as their satellites are temporarily left without defence, and either join the Laurentians or are bullied by groups of villages into joining in return for access to foreign goods. Good relations are established with the Kingdom to the south, only too happy to have a trading partner who isn’t dangerously unstable.
-These decentralized villages do have to eventually combine together to acquire the more expensive of goods, and thus with considerable funds, copper and iron minds are being opened and worked to provide a steady source of income with which to buy foreign goods. A printing office is established in Timberhaven (akin to an early Medieval town), which quickly adapts the Phoenician and Arabic alphabets, before printing several books on agriculture, engineering, philosophy, and poetry. Firearms are also being imported, although making them by their own hands (especially acquiring suitable sources of nitrates and sulphur) is a slow and cumbersome process. A money economy has yet to emerge except outside of the best connected trading centres (which use foreign currencies or solid chunks of metal anyways), making trade more cumbersome. Despite this, by the end of this period there are signs of groups of landless people without employment often taking it upon them to act as small scale traders (nicknamed bagman). Travelling over the wilderness through thick and thin for profit, they are often many a villages only dim contact to Europe. Many more conservative peasants often distrust the new books and methods, often saying “You cannot eat books”, while drinking bottles of imported French wine.
Daniel Smith - Titisuc
Capital City: Hanjob
Culture: Aboriginal
State religion: Dikinbut
-The people of this continent are diverse, often heavily isolated, and have lived in largely the same way their ancestors had done since they first left Africa all those years ago. Long forgotten now, the Aboriginals have gradually changed despite their stories of the “dreamtimes”. Over the course of 40,000 years, they progressively abandoned old stoneworking technology and adopted bone and flint tools of increasing sophistication. They started to fish, built elaborate canals and traps to catch fish from rivers, dug wells and pits for storage of water and non-perishable foods, plus saw successive waves of migration and adoption of outside ways. The dog was introduced around 6000 years ago (being utilized in hunting and as a food, with some varieties bred for consumption) and it is postulated that the oddity of the presence of Indian genes implies that some shipwrecked Indians possibly mingled with the Aboriginals and introduced a number of innovations and minor linguistic oddities. By the end of the first millennium, the people of the Northeast had begun to harvest wild millet, slash and burn the land to promote the growth of plants they like (and to promote the habitat of the main game animal the kangaroo), the adoption of sickles and food storage technologies, plus a host of other interesting things from the Torres Strait Islanders.
-It is in this world an obscure tribe of several hundred people (The Titisuc), an egalitarian society that harvests wild millet, fishes, hunts game, and conducts small scale trade with the Torres Strait Islanders enters modern history. One of the tribe encounters a Wapanese missionary, who introduces himself as having been sent here by his sovereign to convert the unfortunate souls of this land on the edge of the world. He does not understand most of what is said, but he brings the missionary back home where he explains to the tribe the benefits of adopting Waifuism (he produces a small icon of a girl with a penis) and to take on the trappings of what he calls “civilization”. The village big man (an important role, where he is to resolve conflict between the various families in the tribe and distribute food to the tribe members), a man called Hanjob, is initially sceptical. The missionary looks feminine and he is asked if he owns a penis or not. The missionary obliges by removing his robes and showing them that he indeed was the proud owner of a penis (A lady who went into a hut with him that night later came out announcing he was exceptionally virile).
-The missionary promises to return and he does, bringing several of his friends, a number of books, tools, a ship, and enough supplies to build a small chapel in the village. This is a common scene throughout much of the Malay area, and the missionaries succeed in converting many people to the Waifuist faith. Hanjob however stresses the need to reconcile both past traditions and future ways, and so he manages (with the aid of a missionary who helped him to learn how to read) to create an official religion for the tribe (with waifuism being of equal position and well tolerated). Called Dikinbut, it follows the natural order of things and observation, with trial and error as important creeds. It includes basic morals such as treat people as you would be treated and a god named Dikinvaj. When the missionaries describe the practice of farming, the tribe plants millet seeds (along with seeds the missionaries brought), being told to plant the ones that were produced by the plants which gave the biggest seeds. The first harvest is an excellent success and ensures stability of food supplies (well minus a failed harvest every half decade), provided that storage is well maintained and as much can be preserved to be eaten at a later date. The missionaries have also brought iron tools and a small forge to repair them, along with bows for hunting, cloth for clothing and sails, and nets for fishing with.
-With the tribe now growing food steadily and keeping close ties, the missionaries have reported a large problem with trying to convert the nearby bands and tribes to their faith. The missionaries have brought a load of guns (again, a common scene throughout the Malays), and with forty or so of the Titisuc, end up shooting and wounding the nearby Dicbut tribesmen. They agree to convert to Waifuism (or Dikinbutism), and are brought under control (a new concept) of the Titisuc. Hanjob, the village big man, decides to make his position formal, naming himself “The Big man” and using his influence and use of guns to gradually spread agriculture and his control over this corner of the continent. Eventually at the end of this period, he dies with several tribes under his control, with several Waifuist missions set up and the area firmly being homogenized into a nascent chiefdom. Their growing numbers (aided by the adoption of agriculture) means they can easily overrun the later tribes, giving them a dominant position. Some tribe members resent these changes, and watch as inexorably, their numbers swell and the fields gradually start to produce more. The tribes stop moving, settle down, and begin to have increasingly larger families. The proportion of young to old significantly increases during these years, aided by the Wapanese introduction of medical techniques and famine mitigation that plagued many other Neolithic societies.
Turn 20: 1040 to 1060 CE
Dvorak Symphony No.1 in C Minor, "The Bells of Zlonice"
Turn music
Political map of Turn 20
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=43525590&viewfull=1#post43525590
Turn quote: Good medicine tastes bitter.
Events of the years 1040 to 1060:
Europe
-Until now, many farmers in Europe were quite safe due to the logistical problems of transporting bulk food long distances. The merchants of the recently formed Confederation in Hanajia have avoided this problem in two ways. Firstly, they bought many aging European clippers and retrofitted them to carry bulk agricultural goods. Secondly, by packing ice into them they can preserve even fresh meat, and given economies of scale, this leads to the situation where it is now profitable to rear cattle on one side of the Atlantic and sell them on the other. The impact on European agriculture is devastating, and in turn causes many dire social problems. Farmers find it uneconomic to farm any longer, and switch increasingly to pasture or selling off their land. Any who survived the lord switching to intensive agriculture now has a second problem that their lord shares. They cannot compete. Many aristocrats use their existing capital to invest into growing industries, and gradually convert their lands to pleasure or specialist uses (such as forestry for hunting pheasant). The farmers are left out of luck, and are forced to move out of the increasingly deserted countryside to the already overcrowded cities (which at the very least are starting to try and tackle the worst social ills). Policing forces, public gas lighting, public education, sanitation, plus the gradual empowerment of councils to utilize and manage urban areas are all common trends throughout this era.
-Another great problem is the collapse of religious belief, often those that states attempt to prop up. Until recently, most rural villages would pay to support their local priest (or religious leader in the case of non-Abrahamic religions) and maintain the church. With the collapse of agriculture and movement to the cities, most of these churches have been abandoned and have fallen into disrepair. While there is limited success among some reformers in the cities, the vast majority of new urban dwellers have not a clue of religion, gradually becoming more disinterested in it. The eroding influence of secular thought and science has contributed further to this trend, giving increasing strength to the socialist and liberal philosophers and politicians. The European states that rely on religion to help maintain control are being increasingly undermined, especially as the religions start to fracture once more due to their inability to adapt to the modern world.
-Steam powered printing presses are coming into widespread usage (initially in Europe). This, in combination with rapidly improving literacy, has contributed to the explosive popularity of printed media on all sorts of subjects from normal to taboo and bizarre. Cheap horror stories, newspapers with obvious political biases, pamphlets of the various political parties, posters of the movements to repeal or pass certain laws, bibles and qurans, advertisements, public notices, and a plethora of much more is printed and disseminated throughout the cities (and soon the countryside). Standardized languages are gradually coming to the fore, strengthening nationalist movements. Intellectuals are creating new alphabets, trying to reinvent old languages and encourage the use of the mother tongue in a particular area. The idea of being a Frenchmen, a German, a Swede or a Greek as a person separate from others based on language and common heritage (and increasingly by some strange biologists as being inheritable traits, based on bone structure, skin colour, or temperament) is strong enough to even spill over into violence and revolution.
-Deep frying, as a culinary art, becomes popular around this time. By taking a fish, covering it in batter, deep frying it, and serving with boiled or fried potatoes (no chips yet), a cheap and popular dish (that is also nutritious) is thus created. It makes good use of the expanding cod fisheries in the Atlantic (and the switch to many root crops like potatoes by many farmers as grain becomes uneconomical) and use of animals fats (as gas and oil lighting replaces them) for cooking becomes more widespread. It goes down well with mushy peas as well, or so claim people from Leeds.
-Drugs and food are not the only things becoming cheap, for now with heavy investment into cash crops Europe (and slowly Asia) are becoming awash with cheap cotton and other textiles (such as jute). Sugar, chocolate, vanilla, spices, and other flavourings are also rapidly collapsing in price and becoming widely available (the chocolate bar is introduced and rapidly gains popularity) along with many other sweet foods. Of course this has caused domestic hemp, flax, and wool industries to suffer as cotton (being a light and cheap breathable fabric) production is industrialized. By 1060, there are 80,000 looms in Phoenicia alone, and in order to keep the looms running 24/7, gas lighting is introduced. Eventually it becomes common in every major city. This gradually gives rise to shift work (many industries are adopting shifts of 12 hours in length). The growing middle class (and semi-skilled or skilled workers) are buying massive numbers of imported goods that a century ago were considered luxuries. Tea and coffee is drunk by every member of society (people are cutting back on the sugar now that it’s cheap and makes food taste terrible if you apply too much). The age of plenty is here, but as always, there is a loud scream for more.
-A scientist begins to postulate on the activities of humans having an effect on the climate. While solar activity is on an increase (and will do so for the next two centuries); the exponential growth of industry, population, and the clearing of forest (to be replaced with agriculture, industry, infrastructure, and housing), producing blackened and smoggy skies along with acid rain and the leaching of chemicals into rivers and lakes, is a more obvious reminder of the human impact on the world. A railroad financier (James “Snake” Fisk, responsible for the Weissen national railway network), sums it up when he speaks to his son (who later was responsible for the 1058 panic). He took a model train and showed it to him, saying “This machine, more than any other, has changed the face of the world, taking power and amplifying it to make Emperors and kings look petty and insignificant. We are using this power to shape the world. And now, I am giving you this power”. The mileage of railway lines quadrupled worldwide during these 20 years.
-In 1858, faced by the collapse of agriculture, many investors poured money into the “new” railways so widely promoted by the great tycoons. Many lines began to be built in increasingly irrational places; many politicians began to see them as key political assets, with metal and coal industries expanding to meet demand. Unfortunately, the growth was too much in too short a time. Many farmers hopelessly in debt move to the colonies as a means of escape, and the inability to recoup these losses leads to further problems. Banks and other various institutions are gaining increasing control of land, yet have no income to show for it. Credit shortages are felt, interest rates rise. Prices drop and the land is often sold to the railway companies or rented out at near rock bottom prices to anybody wishing to use it. Many villages become derelict and overgrown, causing many railway stations (once built in economically vibrant and logical areas) to have practically no traffic left at all. Revenues plunge and massive losses are reported, leading to reduced confidence. Eventually, the announcement of the Eastern Empires decision to raise taxes on agriculture and industry seals the deal. The markets tumble and a huge sell off of crap land and bankrupt railways occurs, with a great many industries collapsing overnight and unemployment skyrocketing. Faced with few prospects and reduced flow of income, the workers turn back to cheap gin or crack cocaine, emigrate, or simply steal what they need. The growing illegality and stigma of the drugs trade is a source for less than legal employment as well.
-The Weissens find sneaky ways around this. Through protectionism and agricultural subsidies, they maintain the support of many farmers throughout these difficult times. The expansion of the customs unions powers to subsidize farmers throughout all of Germany further contributes to this process, and many farmers become open supporters of a unified German state under Weissen. Industry is still hit pretty hard however (no markets), leading to a huge depression. In 1059, all of Germany breaks down in a series of rebellions, riots, and even attempted revolution. Many kings are forced to create constitutions that at the very least, acknowledge symbolic checks on their power. The middle classes view Weissen as a strong state able to carry them out of difficult times and protect the Germans from foreign influences (such as the Bohemians and French). Anti-drug campaigns are rife with racist imagery showing foreign merchants as drug peddlers undermining society. Many offices are burned and ransacked, with the German flag flown from buildings. While the revolutionaries are crushed, there is agreement that a stronger Germany is needed. Weissen gradually expands her power over all German states (including bullying Lugii), and in 1060 announces that she supported the people of Lugii who demanded German unification. The French are hostile to any Weissen attempts for unification, and support the independence of the German states of the Rhine.
-Archaeologists begin to start digging around in a vaguely systematic way now. With a lot of money spare and travel much easier than before, many gentlemen can travel around and look in ruins or abandoned areas searching for treasure. One chap heads to the heart of the Bohemian Empire with a research time, intent on just that. He goes to a farm where a peasant found a broken bronze seal, and starts to dig. They find the remains of a large Bronze Age farming community, complete with an odd pit located underneath the flagstones of a medieval cottage. These flagstones immediately conceal later remains of the old Mrvian pantheon in the form of small bone and bronze statues. Apparently these were hidden there after the country had converted to Christianity. Digging deeper, the archaeologists discover what appeared to be a sacrificial pit, and find many bones and pieces of pottery inscribed with an undeciphered language. They found a horse skeleton and an ox skeleton, with malformed bones that healed several times. Both skeletons appear to have signs of extreme wear on the lower leg joints and other injuries. Unaware of how to map out what happened, the archaeologists conclude that the horse and the ox were beaten up in a religious ritual and then left to recover. After some time it was thought they were eventually sacrificed (shown by damage to the skull) and thrown into the pit, with the pottery writing meant to be charms of some kind. They are all taken to a museum in the capital, where the remains are proudly put on display with other findings as evidence of the forwards and civilized status of the ancestors of the great Bohemian Empire. “The pottery we have found here constitutes the oldest evidence we have of writing in Europe”. Theories are subsequently revised, the latest being that around 3000 bce, the people who had lived in the area invented agriculture, having sailed there from Egypt and bringing the invention of writing and metalwork with them. They then created the ancestor of the Bohemian state, and many historians are keen to stress the ties between Egypt and Bohemia, with Bohemia being a direct descendent of such a great civilization.
Damian0358 – The Bohemian Empire
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-In Bohemia, the potential of electricity receives a further boost when somebody discovers a way of transforming alternating current into direct current reliably using “transformers”. Given that AC works well over long distances (power loss is very low) this opens up a whole range of possibilities to the Bohemians when it comes to producing electricity and distributing it overland throughout cities and the countryside. The first such power plant is established nearby ancient Velehrad, where it begins operations (using the same steam engines currently employed in ships and railways) producing electricity which can be distributed to nearby businesses and even homes. The lightbulb gradually comes into being, and takes up much of the demand for electricity, although many mines and industries use electricity to also power electrical motors. The advantages are truly immense, allowing businesses to move power generation off of their facilities and towards specialists that benefit from economies of scale. A second industrial revolution seems to be starting, and the Empire formally adopts the metric system to assist modernization.
-To thank the Eastern Empire for assisting the Bohemian Empire in its war against the Golden Horde, the Bohemians join the Greeks in their 20 day bombardment campaign of the Khoffler Republic. They continue with several diplomatic meetings and more treaties. The brand new ships of the Eastern Empire are bought by the Bohemians, while the Eastern Empire acquires telegraph equipment and money. Crews are also trained in the new ships, and bring them to Bohemian ports. While there, they noticed the Greek sport of Baseball in action, and bring it home with them. It becomes exceedingly popular, and a baseball league (called the České baseballová asociace, BBA for short) is introduced, with each state getting its own baseball team. The Bohemians also buy heavy artillery pieces and manufacturing methods for the shells. New “bolt-action” rifles are also bought from the Greeks, which become the new standard rifle of choice.
-In early December 1051, a PE instructor at the University of Prague was trying to keep his gym class active on a rainy day. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied and at proper levels of fitness during the winter. After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules of a new sport and nailed a peach basket with its bottom removed onto a 3.05 m elevated track. This sport would evolve to become Basketball. It becomes popular throughout the Empire like baseball has, and is elevated to become a national sport, with a basketball league (called the Národní Basketbalová Liga, NBL for short) created and each state getting its own basketball team.
-The Bohemians also do a trading deal with the Phoenicians, swapping recent inventions and breakthroughs for the mutual benefit of all. Giving the Phoenicians alternating current as a technology (and in turn allowing them to start moving towards using electricity grids to power lighting in cities), the Bohemians in return receive the steam turbine and machine tools. This invention and equipment is a critical breakthrough. Using the steam turbine to generate electricity, the Bohemians have found one of the most efficient ways to produce electricity from heat energy, and subsequently are able to massively cut down on fuel costs. The number of power plants begins to steadily grow after the development of the turbine, and by 1060 most major cities in Bohemia now have a power plant of some kind built or being planned.
-With the Eastern Empire heavily indebted from the war against the Mongols, they sought to sell their holdings in the northern Black Sea. Co-operatively, the Bohemian Empire and the kingdom of Kiev purchase the land, giving most of the new land to Kiev (giving them sea access), while the rest is used to create a new Kievan and Bohemian vassal and buffer state named Georgia. Dobruja undergoes some teething problems at the same time as the Bohemians assert control over it. With the Greeks cracking down, many Lendinites fleeing from the Eastern Empire begin to settle in Dobruja, establishing a power base in the region. This catches the eyes of Vlček Toman, the party leader of the Tomanist Party. And after a census revealed that around 75% of the population in Dobruja is Lendinite, a campaign is done by the Tomanists to make the Lendinites in Dobruja to become Tomanists. This seemed like an unfeasibly high number (and later it did turn out that 75% of the population was not Lendinite, but the figure was closer to around 4%).
-The Bohemian authorities begin to clamp down, the result being the Tomis massacre, where in the city of Constanța (historically known as Tomis) a massive shootout happened between the Lendinites of Dobruja who attempting a revolution in the area (hoping on the success of the unemployed and indebted), and the Tomanists. In the end the Tomanists (with police and army support) win against the Lendinites, forcing them underground while the Tomanists begin taking control of the politics of Dobruja. The media reported on this event the day after the shooting, although with some cameras they are able to take pictures of the action themselves and publish them in all of the gory detail in the newspapers.
-The Empire, hoping to get into the colonial game, sends a flotilla of ships to the island of New Guinea, and establishes a colony on the western tip of it, mainly as a naval base from which to project their admittedly weak naval power. Competition from Wapan and especially Phoenicia makes this task near impossible, leaving the colony itself to be the focus rather than the navy. It gradually expands and sets up plantations and mines, along with discovering a highland people who grow food and have thousands of languages. The Bohemians then discover that the Wapanese have set up a colony on the eastern end of the island, and so to avoid a possible future territorial dispute, the leaders of the Bohemian Empire and the Weeaboo meet and draw up a deal, splitting the island of New Guinea in half, with the Bohemian Empire gaining the Western part, and the Weaboo Empire gaining the Eastern.
-Elsewhere, the African colonies expand and see construction of a new generation of heavy forts, as does the Brazillian colony. There are even attempts made to establish a colony in Texas, which Bohemia successfully manages. The colonies in general are starting to grow more rapidly, as resupplying areas becomes less difficult, railways become more common and cheaper to build, plus new treatments for exotic diseases are introduced (such as quinine for Malaria).
-The panic of 1058 hits Bohemia very hard. Despite their own industrial revolution, the vast mass of people in the homeland were little prepared. Many farms go out of business, banks are closed, businesses shut down, and economic activity generally slows. Many farms are liquidated and many country clergymen are forced into poverty. Their churches show signs of decay and abandonment, and the church as a whole is weakened. People move to wherever there is employment or better opportunity. The colonies are one such destination, to which an increasing share of investment is going towards. Eventually, Brazil and the Kongo start up eat up a lot of spare capital, leading to a stagnation of industry back home (although electrical power generation is picking off and doing well). Unfortunately, the Brazillian colony undergoes many calamities. Native attacks increase, water drainage works are sabotaged, plantations and houses burned, while the economic depression and collapse of prices compounds problems. The Bohemians respond with even more violence. They employ a general who advocated something he calls “total war”. The Bohemians bring a large force of soldiers that travel around the colony, pulling down villages, destroying food reserves, and executing or imprisoning suspects. Railways are being gradually built, and with the telegraph, they help to bring in needed reinforcements. While the natives for some reason seem to have bolt action rifles as well, sheer numbers and total war does them in. After several years, most of the native uprisings are crushed, and the plantations begin to slowly recover as Bohemian investment flows into them.
Mackalda2k6 – The Eastern Empire
Capital: Byzantium
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Steel manufacture is always looking to be improved, for steel beats normal iron in most aspects of construction. The Bessemer process was the first to make steel manufacture inexpensive and easy to do in bulk, but the true breakthrough comes with the open hearth furnace. The furnace is first filled with light scrap, such as sheet metal, shredded former manufactured goods or waste metal. Once it has melted, heavy scrap, such as building, construction or steel milling scrap is added, together with pig iron from blast furnaces. Once all steel has melted, slag forming agents, such as limestone, are added. The oxygen in iron oxide and other impurities decarburize the pig iron by burning the carbon away, forming steel. To increase the oxygen contents of the heat, iron ore can be added to the heat. The process is far slower than that of Bessemer converter and thus easier to control and take samples for quality control. Preparing a heat usually takes 8 h to 8 h 30 min to complete into steel. As the process is slow, it is not necessary to burn all the carbon away as in Bessemer process, but the process can be terminated at given point when desired carbon contents has been achieved. The gain in steel output is impressive, and improvements in efficiency mean that massive amounts of fuel are saved. This allows for the number of steel mills to proliferate and costs to come down, making the use of steel in all applications economical. Cast and wrought iron give way to steel, with the Greeks being responsible for building the world’s first steel-hulled ships, steel bridges, steel artillery, firearms, rail tracks (allowing for heavier locomotives to run upon them), and a whole host of other uses.
-To save money on the budget, the Greeks scale down their armed forces and abolish the expeditionary corps as a way of controlling the debt. Instead, the armaments industry is now at the forefront of investment. Building brand new factories and shipyards, the Greeks also obtain machine tools, steam turbines, and telegraph equipment from Phoenicia and Bohemia (along with money from them, Spain, and Xerxes among others) with which to further improve their facilities. The bolt-action rifle is bought from the Baltic Entente, the metric system is adopted and standardized machine tools are adopted to push the move towards standardization of all weaponry and ships produced in the Empire. Mass producing cheap and strong steel in bulk, steel is shipped to these new factories, where it is cast into the new rifled breech-loading steel artillery pieces, steel hulled ships are built, bolt-action rifles mass produced, and even introduction of semi-automated machinery. Warfare is industrializing.
-The Majestic class battleships are introduced by the Greek Empire. Constituting solid steel hulls, with huge guns and reinforced steel hulls, and the triple expansion engines, they are a powerful (if slow moving) class of vessel. Many ships are built and sent overseas, not only throughout Europe but quite a few ends up in Xerxes and the Konfederaation. Drug money and agricultural profits seemingly paid for them. Bolt-action rifles are also being mass produced. There are two models introduced by the Greeks, with them becoming standard worldwide. The first is the 98k short carbine (cavalry carbines are slowly being adopted by infantry), and the second is the 98k long rifle (modelled on the older muskets and rifles used by older line infantry). Both are extremely successful and reliable weapons, contributing further to their success. To deter spies from copying the rifle-making machines, they are covered in sheet metal (although this becomes a problem when one of them breaks down and a repairman finds it difficult to locate the source of the fault).
-The army sees adoption of much of this new equipment (despite budget cuts and reduced size) they phase out massed volley in favour of more flexible structures using 6-10 man squads working together to accomplish goals. The navy sees such improvements as well, including the introduction of the steam turbine, giving their ships the edge when it comes to speed. A new generation of ships gradually comes into existence to replace the ironclad, being generally named “post-ironclads”. They are characterized by standardized designs with common features, steel hulls with heavy steel armour, increasingly heavier and longer ranged guns, triple expansion engines and several types of heavy artillery. They become standard worldwide, but only Phoenicia is able to build ships of comparable status and field them. All other countries tend to either buy their ships or tend to be outclassed.
-On hearing news of the Khoffler Republic funding the Lendinites, the Greeks decide to kill two birds with one stone by using their navy to showcase their naval power, and to convince those German weirdoes how unwise such a decision was. The Greeks form a task force with the Phoenicians and Bohemians, bombarding the Khoffler republic for a 20 day campaign, using Bermuda as a base of operations. They target ports, naval infrastructure, rail lines, and the gun tower fortifications, although they avoid civilian districts and attack after the workday so as to minimize casualties. The campaign goes well, although the gun towers were badly damaged, their buried gun bunkers were largely untouched. It seemed as though the people on the island were also partly warned by this news, taking the time to move possessions and other valuable goods out of the coastal areas and take it by train inland temporarily for safety. The bombing campaign is otherwise a success, destroying many homes and the older coastal forts, not to mention sinking a lot of unarmed fishing vessels.
-A private company, in collaboration with the devolved Egyptian government, establishes the Suez Canal project. Digging a vast and deep trench from the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea, ports are built on either end and after a decade of construction the Suez Canal is finally completed. It is leased to the company for 99 years, after which the Egyptian government will take ownership of the canal (or may lease it out again). Unfortunately, global trade and shipping has yet to take full advantage, for construction was hampered by the 1058 panic and subsequent depression. Even when it opens, business confidence is initially low, and the canal only manages to service their debts by charging the Greek navy a lot of money to use it. It is otherwise very helpful at allowing the Greeks to access their ports in the Indian Ocean much more easily, and reducing travel times to the rest of Africa and Asia significantly it also helps to cut down on shipping costs and assists with the general shrinking of the world. Ferry services have begun to stretch from Greece to India and further afield. This projection of naval power also allows them to finally wipe out the pirates who plagued the Indian Ocean, many of them operating from bases in Somalia and India.
-To improve bureaucratic efficiency, administrative institutions, tax collection, and other general affairs of the Empire, a series of reforms are introduced. Entrance examinations and decentralization has led to a gradual development of meritocratic bureaucracies filled with increasingly ethnically diverse peoples. Putting Arabs into government not only buys the loyalty of their intellectual class, but serves to help legitimize rule to the peasants, who see the presence of their own kind in the government as crucial in this process. A census is regularly held, although processing and storing the data is becoming increasingly difficult. After the Lendinites fall apart with the death of their leader and the gradual loss of support among the workers, the Greek Empire formalizes the split by allowing a legal communist party to exist (able to take part in elections and their member’s eligible for office). It is exceedingly successful, splitting the power base of the far left and removing their threat at a stroke. Now only the conservative groups remain as a threat, and unfortunately, they are more numerous, better organized, and more powerful.
-Hoping to boost economic development, taxes throughout the Empire are slashed in tandem with tariffs on industry and agriculture (the logic being that richer subjects can contribute more in taxes, leading to an increase of revenue for the state). The income tax is gradually introduced as a means of tackling wealth inequality (and probably to siphon money off the large industrial magnates growing in power), although for the time being it remains low and heavily unpopular among the conservatives and the new rich. The Greeks in turn use this spare money to buy the loyalty of urban workers, introducing a 60 hour working week with Sundays spare along with Saturday afternoons. With rising wages, reduced food prices, more spare time, and the general standard of living on a steady rise, many workers are starting to find extra uses for this spare time. This ranges from drugs, alcohol, self-education (the number of newspapers, libraries, public reading rooms, etc explode), plus various sports. The Greek state, in seeking to curtail drug abuse and to encourage a clean and moral activity, promotes instead the sport of baseball.
-Inventing the game of Baseball during this time, the Greeks form two major leagues, basing major league teams in state capitals and minor league teams throughout the countryside. Games are held on Sunday (although many ad hoc ones are popular on Saturday afternoons after a busy day of work), with the newspapers publishing scores the next day throughout the Empire. Ticket prices are subsidized and encouraged by the state to be kept low, leading to a long term trend where stadiums proliferate in size so as to take advantage of the economies of scale from ticket sales. Many of these early stadiums often fall down and are crude, but they hold excited crowds of workers eager to watch this sport. Eventually, the use of opium and cocaine is banned outright in the Empire (several riots take place as a result), with consumption generally declining to a degree, although smuggling and secret opium dens are still big business. The police forces make themselves busy busting these dens of vice and degeneracy.
-One of the few tariffs on industry is retained, that on unprocessed steel. In fact this tariff rapidly rises during this time, discouraging the export of steel and iron products overseas. Businesses respond by expanding domestic production, and with the Greeks recent innovations into steel manufacture, their businessmen have ready access to cheap steel protected from foreign competition. The money raised is often given to the individual states of the Empire in the form of “grants”, normally in return for a promise (or already fulfilled obligation) to develop some infrastructure or education. Given how lucrative the steel industry is and the benefits of having access to a lot of extra funds, many states jostle for the grants, using them to set up telegraph networks and public schooling systems. Each state largely manages internal education, with separate ministers in each state. They gradually formalize and integrate most schools together into a single system with a single syllabus (every child shall be taught the same thing at the same time). The effect in the non-Greek parts is extraordinary, with regional and national languages starting to recover or come back into fashion. Old Egyptian or Turkish names are adopted when families abandon their Hellenic names, and literature is also published to cater to these booming national markets.
-The Greeks sell Ruthenia to the Bohemians and Kiev, pulling out of the area and ending their occupation within a few short years. However, there has been expansion overseas as well. The Andaman and Nicobar islands have been claimed and subsequently colonized by the Greeks, while with the expansion of naval, and trade power (made easier by the Suez Canal) the Greeks can finally sell a lot of manufactured goods to India, China, and Indochina. China seems to be undergoing a sort of interesting renaissance, where the expansion of industry has finally taken off in the northeast. Iron production has begun to grow exponentially, and fuelled by the Greeks willingness to invest both capital and machinery into the country, the Chinese state has found the benefits of industrialization impossible to ignore. By 1060, they have begun to apply their methods to processed goods and have started to build their own crude steam engines and railways in limited numbers. Glass factories, silk and cotton mills, iron foundries, intensive farming estates, not to mention a great deal of other industries are also rapidly expanding during this time and have begun to heavily undercut manufacturers in Indochina. The sale of arms proliferates, and the Greeks happily sell bolt-action rifles in bulk to the Weissens, Indians, Chinese, and those of Khmer and Dai Viet.
-Despite the impressive gains in industry and economic growth, the Empire severely suffers from the 1058 panic. While Egypt remained a massive and profitable agricultural exporter, the Greek homeland did less than well. Growing imports of food (with refrigeration and ice ships starting to become common) undercuts Greek farmers. The removal of agricultural tariffs and barriers to trade along with railway construction finally dooms them. Faced with heavy competition from Egypt (and to a degree from the Konfederaation), the Greek and Turkish farmers become heavily indebted. They switch towards pastoral agriculture or forestry, selling off heavy equipment and other machinery. Unlike in other countries, where isolation from markets or old laws mitigated the worst of the damage, the economic reforms of recent years utterly destroyed domestic agriculture. The 1058 panic begins with a massive bubble in railways bursting and many banks losing out. When they try to repossess the farms, they find they have control of a lot of useless land nobody wants to buy. Left with a lot of poor assets and little liquidity, many of these banks shut down as a result and the Greek economy goes into depression. Only the armaments industry does well with any degree of success, and the businessmen who survived are reluctant to invest at home, instead preferring investment into Egypt or overseas colonies recently acquired by European powers. For the Greeks it tends to be investment into China and India, with relatively little being reinvested back home.
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-In a culmination of technological breakthroughs in firearms technology, the Entente (having used earlier airgun technology and recent advances in rifling, breechloading, etc) have introduced the bolt-action rifle. A fine machine that simplifies the act of reloading and priming a gun, it immensely reduces reloading time. However, it has an immensely huge advantage not immediately recognizable. Reloading no longer requires the user to stand, allowing them to lay down on the ground and fire from there, reducing their visibility and chances of being hit. They also tend to be more accurate and thus are perfect for use by skirmishing troops and light infantry doctrine in general. For the Entente soldiers already well acquainted with the air rifle, it is a massive step forwards. An air rifle variant is developed to cycle in new rounds, although the actual air still needs to be pumped in (or use pre-made cylinders of compressed gas. Carbon Dioxide cylinders have been developed). Their usage is slowly becoming unpopular due to their complexity, but they are still often in training.
-To protect the Norwegians from the Scots and also themselves, the Entente decides to invade and annex them. Cunningly, they embark on an ambitious campaign against Greenland where they land north of the settlements and move overland to avoid the coastal guns. When the soldiers arrive bearing bolt action rifles and making extensive use of the terrain, the defenders panic after being unable to hit these semi-hidden targets at ranges beyond which their muskets and rifles can comfortable go. The Entente captures all of the settlements. They then good use of their new guns, sailing small boats up the fjords and having soldiers move quickly to attack fortified positions from all sides. Outranged and outgunned, defenders are quickly forced off the walls by the new rifles and by land based mortars. Coastal guns are captured and turned on inland defences, while ironclads steam up the fjords to shell the cities. The Norwegians are ruined despite their frequent attempts to modernize their military, and eventually they sign a treaty that formalizes the annexation of the country by the Entente. Sweden assists in the war, but is granted no new territories. The Swedish respond by claiming the strip of land between Norway and Finland, establishing an arctic port.
-Scientists travel to Wapan and back, bringing back new chemistry knowledge, and while existing explosives are gradually refined, the Wapanese seem reluctant to give away guncotton and dynamite so soon. Meanwhile, the old orange uniform so beloved in the Entente is abandoned in favour of a drab grey and green one (and white ones for snowy climates such as in the north or Greenland).
-The Entente turns their focus onto railway infrastructure. The number of miles of track rapidly grows, with railways now crossing the length and span of the major parts of the Entente and allowing for the quick movement of freight and express. The postal service has especially benefitted, with many post offices and telegraph offices being located in the same buildings. One can send telegrams and letters to any part of the world for a fair price, although many writers bemoan that people no longer put any thought or consideration into what they send to others. They claim that messages are simpler and no longer emotive, now that they cost a few pence and are read within hours as opposed to months.
-The Entente also experiments with electricity. Noticing the Bohemians forays into that field, they build windmills with dynamos in them, which produce electricity whenever the wind happens to be running. As windmills are quickly replaced by steam power, it’s a good use for the old buildings instead of knocking them down. They charge lead-acid batteries (another recent invention) stored in the base of the building, which are then used for various motors or for heating elements. They are still pretty weak and inefficient, making them unpopular and often uneconomical. Other sources of power are looked into, and one that does become successful is coal. Burning coal and using it to power steam engines, power is produced that can be sent along cables into nearby businesses. The advantages of a decentralized power generation system are obvious, and small businesses are the first to take advantage. Electrical sewing machines, lathes, washing machines, punches, presses, and many others start to be rapidly introduced and then bought in increasing numbers during this time.
-The refrigeration method, once unfeasible due to the requirement of a motor to pump a coolant constantly, is now available to certain industries now that electrical motors can be adapted. Their first use is in medical establishments and the navy, although operation costs are quite high. Pasteurization is also introduced during this time in natural response to the needs behind preserving dairy products. By heating up milk quickly and then rapidly cooling it, this kills most of the microbes inside that would otherwise cause it to go bad. The shelf life of milk practically doubles, and for the first time many people in urban areas are starting to consume large quantities of fresh dairy products. Bones strengthen and the average height of Entente citizens starts to steadily grow as childhood nutrition improves.
-The Entente agrees to a deal with the Greeks, in which they will export their bolt action rifles and the ability to manufacture them, in return for their steel manufacturing processes and heavy machinery required to drive them (such as their compound engines). Inspired by the Greeks baseball game, the Entente emulates it by setting up baseball at home and making it the national pastime, forming a league for international events. There are talks of a worldwide event for national baseball teams to compete in, to be hosted in Greece and as a means of fostering unity and sense of being in a community, even if only through a game.
-Exploration in Greenland expands now that they hold the various port towns there, allowing explorers to resupply and have a base to fall back to. They explore Greenland and the arctic, namely Lappland, and promote exploration by paying people who choose to settle in these regions with some tools and supplies to help them get settled there. The harsh climate is a disincentive to most settlers, and the Swedish and Finnish manage to claim the last of the north in the process, but the attempts are mildly successful at putting a degree of human presence up here. Fishing ports, hunting lodges, reindeer ranching, and some mining are introduced or expanded up here.
-The 1058 panic comes and hits agriculture especially hard, along with foreign trade and banking. The Entente largely coasts through the crisis due to their control of Baltic trade and relative lack of dependence on intensive agriculture, although the rural population is ruined by the depression that follows afterwards. Many pack up and move to the cities, but again in the cities, prospects are little better.
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-With further improvements to the steam engine, adoption of foreign technology, and now the demand for coal ever rising and causing problems for fuel consumption, the last in a long line of machines is introduced. By taking the propeller and putting it inside a cylinder and pumping steam through it, one can make an incredibly efficient means of converting heat into mechanical motion. Unfortunately, while it is good for uses where the machine is being constantly used for long periods of time (ships, long distance railways, 24/7 factories), it is not very flexible. A solution is found in that by attaching a dynamo to it, one can convert the surplus into electrical energy (that can be used for lighting or used to power a motor).
-These machines are put into the latest and most advanced steamships, with impressive results. With such powerful engines, the number of coaling stations, and their efficiency, it is now feasibly to move without using sails at all. All ships laid down with turbines (minus the first prototype) no longer use sails, are highly manoeuvrable, and have cut journey times from weeks to days. Merchants are all too aware of the bonuses of such machines, and one is even put on a purpose built ship (at great cost to the merchant). He then uses a dynamo onboard to power a refrigeration unit as well, and to further show everybody how great he is, he sails to Xerxes, buys a lot of fresh fruit, sails back home, and then sells it for shitloads of money.
-While the example of the fruit was interesting, it disguises truly monumental gains in the naval strength and technology of the Phoenicians. Taking in technological advances from overseas (the air rifle of the Balts, the Greeks artillery and ship designs, explosive shells, etc), the Phoenicians gradually develop heavier and heavier artillery pieces, taking advantage of steel in manufacture and explosive shells. Unfortunately, artillery still produces a lot of smoke, and the recently invented dynamite of the Wapanese is not well suited to that purpose. They have guncotton as well, but the Wapanese again have only just recently invented it. These developments all come together to assist in the Phoenicians new classes of naval ships:
-A class - Motor torpedo boats tasked with delivering torpedos into the enemy fleet at high speeds. Lightly armed and often travelling with tenders.
-B class - Destroyers tasked with destroying enemy motor torpedo boats and submarines. They are well-armed and often travelling with tenders. They have provisions for mounting torpedoes.
-C class - Cruisers tasked with bombarding hostile ships from afar with long-ranged naval guns, and also providing naval gunfire support to troops landing on enemy shores.
-S class - Tenders tasked with sustaining fleets on overseas voyages.
-The Phoenicians also import the new bolt action rifle from Greece, and modify them to create a carbine version issued to cavalrymen and the marines. However, as improvements in range and accuracy (not to mention reload speed) come about, many soldiers are experimenting with using carbines on the field for it is less bulky and cumbersome. Smoke created by these weapons is still problematic with concealing oneself however. Artillery also undergoes major improvement. Most heavy guns have hardly changed since their first appearance, but now the Phoenicians are keen on ending that. Breech-loading designs are introduced (with help from the navy), steel is adopted in their construction, large shields are put on the front of the guns to protect the users, and a new carriage is adopted with solid steel wheels. 60mm mortars are introduced that are highly portable (nicknamed mountain guns), and there are even experiments with an artillery fire control system. However, due to the painfully slow and often unreliable telegraph system being unable to manage this, most messages are still sent by letter or coded flag.
-In return for these innovations bought from the Greeks, the Phoenicians give their steam turbines and new machine tool parts to them. They also assist the Greeks in a campaign against the Khoffler republic, where they shell the island republic for its willingness to fund Communist revolutionaries in the Greek Empire. In return for advances in electrical technology (which have yet to be fully exploited) from Bohemia, the Phoenicians send them the steam turbine and machine tools as well. With the Zulu Empire, they send them their old military hardware and innovations (although telegraph equipment is a notable exception) in return for fleet basing rights (not to mention that the Zulu have a lot of coal). This allows the Phoenicians to project their naval power overseas and throughout the Indian Ocean as well, although communications there are somewhat lacking, and there is still a lack of coaling stations between there and Singapore.
-The Phoenicians copy the Baltic Ententes military reforms, (minus a modern force structure) complete with additional mortar support (these are mass produced along with shells and distributed to many soldiers), camouflaged uniforms, and steel helmets. Phoenician soldiers look quite disturbingly different to how all soldiers appeared forty years prior, and they seem increasingly concerned with the safety of soldiers as well, given by the re-introduction of helmets into armies.
-The Phoenicians continue with their imperial intentions, moving further into West Africa and conquering kingdoms and empires that until now enjoyed a rather comfortable position exploiting their peasants, engaging in brutal warfare, and torturing enemies of the state. Now that the Phoenicians are here, they have dismantled all of the old oppressions and miseries, and introduce new ones to take their place. The vastness of the Phoenician Empire is a source of pride for many, with a lot of Phoenician businessmen gradually investing into their colonies on an increasing scale (agriculture, infrastructure, and education especially), not to mention that a new idea is coming about. The Phoenicians have realized that they happen to own a lot of people and feel somewhat responsible for them, with many colonial administrators insisting they are there for the benefit of the local population. Setting up schools and trying to teach the people here the benefits of civilization, they also tend to shoot people who disagree with them. The newspapers lament this news, speaking of the “Semites burden” at lifting the people of Africa towards civilization.
-The new steam turbine ships are shrinking the world, but a new policy has represented a further push towards that. Taking massive spools of wire, one of them sets sail from the coast of Tunisia, sailing to Malta to integrate the island into the national telegraph network. The underwater cable laying experiment is deemed successful and further projects go underway to connect Sicily, Sardinia, and Libyan Phoenicia (the enclave next to the Greek Empire). A more ambitious project seeks to connect the Bahamas to Malta, and through intermediate steps (connecting to the Canaries, then to Bermuda, and finally from there to the Bahamas) the Phoenicians finally manage to bind their empire together with wire. The navy can issue orders from the capital to the Bahamas at the speed of light, and with the use of the turbine, can send ships in days and weeks as opposed to weeks and months. With all of this additional power in mind, the Phoenicians are able to increasingly control the very lucrative trade of the Atlantic (and most of the Mediterranean trade as well). With growing power (and the holding of both Singapore and the Bahamas), people are starting to say that the sun doesn’t seem to set on the Phoenician empire. The downside is that around Singapore the Phoenicians seem to hold very little power, given by the fact they must sail around the whole of Africa to reach it, have no telegraph link, or any coaling stations between Africa and Singapore.
-The Phoenicians commission a vast geographical and geological survey into the potential that their African Empire possesses. There is some coal, but not exactly the massive and economic reserves they were hoping for (while still useful, it’s often cheaper and easier to get coal from Germany or Misiryaban). They still do find significant quantities of other minerals however, such as iron, tin, gold, cobalt, phosphates, diamonds, manganese, and copper, that are incredibly useful (especially copper, used in the growing field of electronics, and gold, which people value for some reason). Companies set to work extracting these resources, and are enforced by the state to pay high wages and implement good safety standards. Despite these drawbacks, they are still immensely profitable and the workers in them spend a great deal of money on educating their children and trying to attain middle class status. With the Phoenicians gradually moving towards investment in their colonies (perhaps at the expense of home industry), there is a significant increase in the number of miles of railways, telegraph cable, wells, water piping and sanitation, and general improvement of roads, ports, and canals for areas where railways are not the best option. There are attempts to encourage national feeling and identification with the homeland here among the ambitious and aspirant here, but these go nowhere. Only in Sicily does the state have a victory, where in a referendum the people choose to remain Phoenician.
-The coastguard services expand, with them now being responsible for the saving of lives at sea. Using lighthouses, telegraph networks, emergency lifeboats, and other recent innovations, the coastguard can be quickly aware of when and where a ship is sinking, and move quickly to save passengers on-board.
-The Phoenicians withdraw from Marseilles, giving the city back to the French (which seems to be embroiled in continuing dissent and internal civil unrest), seeing that holding onto it is too much trouble. Instead, colonial efforts will take forefront with the colonization of Tristan de Cunha, South Georgia, the Marshall Islands, Wake Island, Midway, the Marianas, Kerguelen, Bali, and Leyte. Unfortunately, the attempts at colonization in the Pacific isles go poorly due to lack of supplies and readily available coal, while Bali suffers from frequent raids on the naval base there and high rates of disease weaken the garrison. Kerguelen and the Atlantic isles eventually manage to build up sufficient coal reserves, allowing Phoenicia to project their power across the Atlantic and parts of the Indian, although their power there is still wanting. Their main competition comes from the Greeks, who also have ambitions in the area. Ships try to also sail to Wapanese Carufonia, and chart the coasts. Unfortunately, the Wapanese government refuses to resupply ships that intend to claim land or establish bases in Carufonia, eventually leading to these vessels being forced to turn back.
-Montevido is ceded to La Plata, with the town there being taken under the administration of the nearby La Plata fort and eventually being renamed Raymundo Valdez. The Phoenicians, seeking to take advantage of this, export manufactured goods to the Konfederaation and Zulu in bulk. When the 1058 panic hits, although Phoenician agriculture and finances is badly hit, overall industrial output isn’t badly affected (save for prices, which fall). Exports increase, with the periphery non-industrial countries starting to increasingly import manufactured goods. The merchants of the Konfederaation come here to do financial services, but they are informed that their holdings back home must be used as collateral. The merchants then go to the private sector instead to seek funds.
-The Phoenicians are rumoured to be behind the capture of Lendin (by now an old man), and his subsequent removal to the Greeks. They put him in prison along with other party members, and along with on-going socioeconomic change in the Eastern Empire, the party slowly descends into obscurity. They have a new government agency, named Mossad who is seen as responsible.
Mr. Face – Iberian Kingdom
Capital: Madrid
Culture: Spanish (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinist)
-The Kingdom, in seeking to constantly improve their ability to project naval power overseas, develops the triple expansion engine. A powerful and terrifyingly massive monster that converts coal into motion as efficiently as possible; they are quickly adopted into the navy. These machines also begin to be gradually adopted by the private sector for use in industry. Textile mills are using them to run the many looms and spinning machines there, while foundries use such machine to power cranes and giant presses or hammers. The gains in production capabilities are most impressive, and start to push industrialization along in Iberia.
-With the expansion of industry, quite a few trade unions (legally or illegally) are formed. Most are built around the idea of improving working conditions and pay by using a monopoly on labour to force the price of labour up and putting manufacturers under pressure (either to raise wages or adopt new techniques). The more radical workers tend to congregate into Communist organizations, where they advocate getting rid of the factory owner himself and running the place themselves. At several protests they are quickly broken up by the police under allegations that several in the ground threw bombs and bricks at the police. Newspapers complain bitterly about the violent communists, and police informers also start to ask for different jobs when in these parties, they are forced to read dreadful literature.
-The Spanish sign several treaties with Phoenicia and the Greeks. They agree to form a mutual defensive pact with Phoenicia, agreeing to join one another in the case of a war against either party. As for the Greeks, they spend large amounts of money buying their fancy new steamships and bolt action rifles. Shipyards and armaments factories begin to be rebuilt to allow for the production of these new innovations independently. When the Konfederaation sends diplomats over, the Spanish agree to lend them money in return for their land as collateral. Amusingly, the diplomats however say that they do not wish to actually borrow money, and they vanish into the private sector with friendly merchants. Apparently, dealing with private merchants who offer better terms is easier.
-In another bizarre religious policy change, the Spanish switch to promoting Aquinism. Most of the new industrial workers don’t really care for this, but the middle classes and the rural farmers are very much angered by this (religion is still a big thing to them). The Spanish respond by declaring the Lisbon papacy illegal, with the result that the Portuguese clergy and Portuguese nobility ally in parliament to block further legislation aimed at economic integration between the two countries. Problems are exacerbated further when the Spanish introduce a constitution explicitly separating the papacy and the state. The Portuguese block further attempts at reform, and then they mobilize to pass their own constitution which puts power into the hands of the clergy and aristocrats.
-The Portuguese follow up by putting high tariffs on trade and preserving the power of the church and the landed aristocracy. They also work on reducing the influence of drugs by retaining them as legal, but using strong social pressures and the church to discourage people from abusing drugs and working towards removal of economic incentives for them. The Portuguese end the period by slowly banning foreign merchants from selling drugs and restricting their integration into the global economy. Agriculture still remains strong and the 1058 panic passes them by, although overall economic growth and improvements in living standard also pass them by. The Spanish clergy meanwhile are in rebellion, frequently refusing to read the new prayer book and encouraging the farmers and labourers to hold protests and riots. Despite this, they do take up the new sports which have become popular in the cities. Futbol is established and a Spanish league named La Liga de Futbol is made. Parilla is also established and a league named Liga Nacional de Parrilla is also created. These have the effect of keeping urban workers out of trouble, but it simply isn’t enough in the rebellious countryside.
-In the panic of 1058, long contractive trends in agriculture finally reach a peak. Most nobles gradually moved to the cities, acting as absentee landlords and gradually reducing their dependency on the land. Rents remained high however, and slowly the smaller farmers lost their land to the gradual encroachments of “improvers” who bought up land from heavily indebted farmers. Reduced profits make the trend worse, and when the panic finally hits, it results in a whole host of problems. 80% of farmers become effectively bankrupt, and a lot of land is left fallow due to the lack of demand for their crops. When the land captains come, many villages rally together and chase them away, spurred on by the clergy. They take control of the land themselves and steal machinery and animals from the absentee landlords’ barns, beating up any police officers who object. Telegraph offices are ransacked and the police are chased back to the cities or loyalist areas. After a few months, large areas of the countryside are effectively left ruling and running themselves, where they reintroduce Iberian Christianity as well. These areas eventually formalize into self-run communities, where the local church may be a centre of organization. The army itself suffers from desertion, save for urban soldiers. The parliament angrily calls on the army to restore control to the countryside.
-Industry is badly hit by the economic crisis as well, not so much by actual losses, but by the fact the Phoenicians are remaining ahead of Iberia. With extensive markets and control of the seas, the Spanish are being squeezed out of places where they can sell their manufactured goods to easily. Some of these have led to the Phoenicians even trying to sell manufactured goods in Spain itself, and there is a general widespread malaise of economic activity. Sales are poor, investment is low, and the foreigners seem all too keen to sell their goods here. Iberian Misiryaban is still a source of wealth to a degree, but only really in their industrial exports. Misiryabani agriculture itself collapses during these years, and soon that country faces riots and attacks on absentee landlords. The cities do not fare much better, with Misiryabani people calling for independence and being generally hostile towards the Christian occupiers.
Griffster26 – Scotland
Capital: Dùn Èideann
Culture: Scottish (Celtic)
State Religion: Christian (Iberian)
-The Scottish invents a special type of rifle. Called “bolt-action” rifles, they can be reloaded quickly by a trained infantryman, and have the advantage of being just as accurate and long ranged as other firearms. The ability to reload quickly has gradually brought about a new tactic called “suppression fire”, where the handlers of the guns fire not to kill the opposing side, but to deny them the ability to actually move out of a sheltered position. By pinning them there, one can take advantage of their immobility.
CapLaPorte – The Kingdom of Romania
Capital: Salona
Culture: Romanian (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-Not much happens to the Kingdom this turn, but the 1058 panic hits the agricultural and financial sectors pretty harshly here. Unemployment rises dramatically and bread riots are especially common for the next few years.
Yawmwen – Lendinites
Headquarters: Byzantium
Ethnicity of party leaders: Greek (Hellenic)
Party line on religion: Atheist
-The Phoenicians are rumoured to be behind the capture of Lendin (by now an old man), and his subsequent removal to the Greeks. They put him in prison along with other party members, and along with on-going socioeconomic change in the Eastern Empire, the party slowly descends into obscurity.
Afro-Asia
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism (Classical)
-The Wapanese are further pushing ahead into chemistry. By treating glycerol with nitric acid, one creates an interesting compound called 1,2,3-trinitroxypropane. It is notoriously unstable, but explosive, and much more powerful than gunpowder. Numerous accidents, premature explosions, and the volatility of it mean it is unfeasible in most applications. The solution comes in the form of using a material such as sawdust or chalk dust to absorb the liquid. This creates a much more stable form that can be used (although time will cause it to degrade). Being much more powerful, the military applications are immediately spotted, and a military reform gets underway to replace gunpowder with dynamite. The guy who invented the stuff however, after becoming immensely rich from the profits, feels quite guilty for inventing something used to take lives. Instead of setting up a charity where he donates a lot of money to humanitarian causes, he simply hangs himself and conveniently allows the Wapanese state to take control of the dynamite monopoly. Another explosive is also invented, mainly for the purpose of being a propellent as opposed to an explosive. Called Nitrocellulose, it has the alternate name of guncotton.
-The advent of dynamite has assisted with Wapanese arms in general as well. Now as production moves into factories and is being handled by machinery or poorly paid workers, Calibres are standardized to reduce costs and the overall efficiency of the logistics and planning of the army is improved. This is aided by the Greeks, happy to sell the Wapanese their brand new steamships, rifles, and other nice weapons of war.
-The disgruntled locals of Manchuria, furious with the incursion of Wapanese Mining Co. on their territory, take up arms and riot. The riot succeeds in chasing the Wapanese off the facilities, which were then left abandoned. The Emperor, however, sees this as a declaration of war, and lays down plans for a full scale invasion, occupation and integration of Manchurians into the Wapanese state using the classical Wapanese scheme. It is discovered that important leaders mysteriously die violent deaths, the supply lines are raided, and public water wells seem to be infected with cholera. Then the actual attack starts, with the army invading, occupying, destroying, looting, raping, pillaging throughout Manchuria. They establish officers as temporary governors on the newly occupied lands. After the conquest is over, with the inhabitants impoverished and downtrodden, the Waifuist priests step in, providing free food, clothing and protection for those willing to convert. Those of the locals who do not convert are considered third class citizens and are forced to work long hours on newly reestablished WMC facilities for pitiful wages until they convert. The invasion itself was largely unopposed in many areas, for the presence of a (Greek made) gunboat and a few shots from the guns onboard were enough to terrify the locals.
-The Wapanese, seeking to modernize their country and take advantage of recent innovations in the western end of Eurasia, introduce the metric system for all official purposes. Signposts throughout the vast Empire are converted from hogsheads and butterbandies to meters and kilometres. All very neat and tidy indeed. The expansion of the railway network coincides with the metrification effort, and is also the start of the Wapanese trying to bridge the major islands of the archipelago to Honshu, meaning that if one had a lot of money and time they could take several trains and horses from Satsuma to the Kurils if they so pleased. One man, a student of Will-do-it-Willie takes his ideas back home to Wapan, and taking the new smoky and grimy metal monsters around Wapan, he offers solutions to many problems within agriculture and how to fix them. One problem in Wapan is the decline of food prices now that the Chinese are starting to export goods such as rice in bulk. The student (who later calls himself Wee Willie) is accused by the Zulu of stealing Wills diaries, but they are later rediscovered in his house (nowadays a museum). Whenever or not they were stolen does not matter in the long run, for Wee Willie aids the Wapanese in planting land with tree saplings, introducing the practice of silviculture. In this, you treat trees as a long term crop. Trees are planted closely together and grown over a period of 20 to 40 years, at which point they are cut down and sold for profit. Woods prized for their strength, durability or aesthetics are now reliably grown and exported, and the Chinese are an especially hungry market (they cut down most of their trees to make way for farms and mulberry plantations).
-The Wapanese continue colonization efforts, settling the last of Kumato and also establish punitive attempts at expansion on the island of Papua New Guinea. Their great and ancient colony of Carufonia however, is granted formal independence as a dominion of the Wapanese in an elaborate ceremony. It is a great celebration, and although in foreign affairs and the head of state remains the Emperor of Wapan, they are given independence in all other matters. The laws on land and treaties with the natives are reformed, allowing people to more or less move east freely. The new government then passes a homesteading act, granting free land to whoever is willing to come and settle it, and a railway expansion act (the prime minister offers generous grants to those who can do the job). Four self-made Caurfonians, (A greengrocer, a draper, a blacksmith, and a general store owner) all agree to form a railway company and take up his challenge. They plan to extend the line all the way to the Far East, linking up the entire continent. They appeal to the Wapanese government for assistance. A line three thousand kilometres long, the grocer says “it is not simply tracks for a railway we are laying, but the foundation for a magnificent highway of cities”. They get a lot of support from the domestic government, and finish the initial stretch of the line reaching to the Sierra Nevada.
-At a conference held in the Konata University, Wapanese scientists displayed the wonders of chemistry to delegates from foreign learning centers. Most of them dismissed it as only good for making stuff taste like vanilla, while the Phoenician and Eastern Empire delegations saw the real potential and a bright future for this science. After the conference, they quietly approached the presenters and proposed them a long-term scientific partnership and ways of effective long-distance communication and improved steam engines in exchange for secrets of chemistry. Several years later, the Emperor ordered a telegraph lines to be built all over the Wapanese Archipelago and compound steam engines to be put in use by factories and trains all over the country. Copper mines are expanded along with factories to draw out the wire, and pretty soon rolls of telegraph wire end up travelling to their colonies and dominions. However, the Wapanese also find out the Bohemians also established a colony on the western side of the island of Papua New Guinea. To avoid a possible future territorial dispute, the leaders of both countries meet and draw up a deal , splitting the island of New Guinea in half, with the Bohemian Empire gaining the Western part, and the Weaboo Empire gaining the Eastern. As for actual control, they have very little control of the island, only holding onto tiny outposts on it.
-The Wapanese seek to uplift the Titisuc peoples of Australia, giving them outdated firearms and ships, teaching them how to manufacture them, as well as giving them advanced metalworking and agriculture methods. Seeing how they do not wish to accept Waifuism as it is (mostly because the name of their religion makes them giggle inexplicably every time they say it), the KSOT allows them to establish their own denomination of Waifuism, heavily influenced by Dikinbut. They build their own totem, and recognise Supreme Oniichan’s authority, but their religious customs are largely different, more based on introspection and personal journey than on congregating en masse for praying.
Satansick – Zulu Empire
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Waifuism (Classical)
-The Emperor has begun to start a program of aggressive industrialization and military expansion. Importing locomotives, steamships, rifles, artillery, other machinery, medical supplies, not to mention a plethora of many other things (often with assistance from the Greeks, who are happy to sell all of this), large factories and railway networks are starting to be built. There is little industry as of yet due to the lack of much to process that Europe (using economies of scale and existing advantages) does not already have a monopoly on. To this end, the Zulu are focusing heavily on mining, with many prospectors finding extensive and diverse deposits of gemstones, precious metals, iron and coal, not to mention specialist ones used in other industrial processes. With extensive iron and coal deposits, the railways can be easily built and fuelled without extra expense (importing rails and fuel is costly). The mines (many of which are state owned) provide a lot of needed cash for the Empire to continue with their many ambitious projects. The railways, despite being largely intended to move ores, are also being gradually adopted by passengers and farmers for transport and travel (the agricultural depression in Europe has largely left this place unaffected due to the lack of demand or proper facilities on the west coast for foreigners to sell food to, not to mention the ice ships see a lot of their cargo melt before arrival). It is the golden age for farmers here, as transport costs internally decline and the market for good food grows, but external costs have yet to be significantly affected. Farming machinery is becoming common in the southern and eastern parts of the Empire, where population densities are the highest and foreign competition is lowest.
-Despite this, Xerxes merchants are desperate to find new markets, and since logistical difficulties are few (not to mention competition on the harder drugs non-existent); it makes sense to sell cocaine and tobacco here. The merchants begin to do so, and while marijuana and domestic tobacco provides some competition, cocaine sells like hot cakes. Prices collapse sixfold over 8 years, (mostly due to the new market being realized and a glut causing many merchants to sail here). This results in an epidemic of cocaine consumption and abuse, ending with an imperial ban on the sale by the Emperor. He then throws Xerxes merchants out of the country and instead promotes the use of domestic drugs (particularly hash oil) as an alternative. There is still some smuggling, but the blow to Xerxes pride was strong. The Emperor has also noticed that there is money to be made in these drugs. He lifts some regulations holding back hash oil production and export, encouraging their usage in Europe as a “Christian” alternative to heathen cocaine. It’s also promoted as being safer, but in reality is not that much better than most other drugs around. Zulu merchants compete with Xerxes ones over hash oil and cocaine, often using clandestine business tactics. Ships on both sides start to vanish randomly. Fortunately, the 1058 depression in Europe largely leaves this place by, and in some ways is even of benefit. With reduced prices for manufactured goods, the country can import a great deal (especially with all those mountains of precious metals and gems they sit on) for a good price. Other industries are hit poorly however, and unemployment in the urban areas shifts slowly.
-The Zulus try to gain full control of the Kongo Kingdom by organizing a diplomatic marriage between the third son of the Emperor and the daughter of the Kongo King. Intermarriage between Kongo and Zulu people is heavily encouraged (with many Zulu businessmen and soldiers marrying in the Kongo and even having secondary secret families). With the New Greek weaponry and ships, the Emperor then sends a grand embassy of 3 massive steamers kitted out with the latest technology. They cast a shadow over the tiny docks, and soon after their arrival a treaty is signed in which the Zulu are to maintain a permanent presence in the area and are to assist in development of the country. In reality, they are building an administration serving the Zulu Empire, which gradually siphons power away from the Kongo King and firmly places the area under their control. The Zulu grant the Phoenicians extended port basing rights in return for more military hardware, telegraphy equipment, and assistance with developing electrical science in the country (but progress is still somewhat slow). The Bohemians in the Congo meanwhile continue to develop the land and gradually extend their influence.
-The Zulu emperor declares that the Khoisan are honorary Bantu, that they should be assimilated into the great Zulu race either as soon as possible or instantly (to this end, intermarriage, language standardisation, education policy, land grants, and often forced migration are all used to bring about this result). Meanwhile the Pygmy peoples of Central-Africa are deemed too weak to be assimilated, with the royal court deciding they should be removed from society immediately. They effectively sell licenses to capture pygmy people and to treat them as non-human (thus able to be exchanged and effectively the legal property of somebody else). They are exported in extensive numbers to overseas states (some put pygmy children in zoos). The Zulu rely on acts of popular fury against the sub-human Pygmy to thin out their population as well, grabbing land and granting it to their neighbours who happened to be Bantu (or Khoisan migrants). In later years this would be treated as essentially genocide, but the successors to the Zulu administration of the time would be reluctant to talk about this, often hiding the papers or blaming it on somebody else (as an aside, the British colonial government tortured Barack Obamas grandfather in Kenya but shhh don’t tell anybody lmao).
Milkdiary - The Kingdom of Khakistan
Capital: Aktobe
Culture: Khakistani (Arabic)
State Religion: Islam (Tihrawardiri)
-The Kingdom of Khakistan is formed during this time, partly from political refugees from the Greek Empire and former Misiryaban, and partly from various mercenaries and nobles from the old Khanate to their immediate west. The Khanate decides to assist the formation of this state by granting them vassalage status, and encourages them to expand out into the steppes and wastes of Siberia, partly to act as a buffer against incursions from the Far East. Shariah law is made to be the law of the land, and the King mandates that every town shall have a mosque built in their centre. Diplomats are sent to their neighbours to show that they mean no quarrel, and are able to also find generals and soldiers willing to assist in the expansion over the Siberian wastes.
-Unfortunately, most of the wastes are uncharted, unpopulated, and increasingly full of dense forest and hostile weather. In the wars with tribes and smaller chiefdoms lying around throughout Siberia, the Kingdom manages to capture a lot of prisoners. Unsure of what to do with them, several hard labour camps are set up alongside rivers and in forests. They catch animals for their pelts, cut trees, explore rivers for natural resources and various routes to the west or south, and slowly expand outwards. The King even manages to buy some steam locomotives with gold panned from rivers and animal pelts, constructing a line northwards and using it to move bulk timber and animal’s pelts. Agriculture is still pretty poor, for many peasants are still nomadic. For those who are settled, they grow poor crops (like millet or rye) and often supplement their diets with wild game. Medieval methods and tools are still frequently used, and superstition is rife. Expansion is easy, and with the aid of early railways and their mastery of the horse, this kingdom sets out to conquer the wilderness. Most towns founded are really just administrative or military centres, rather than being true towns as such.
Hanajia and Pacific
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Ruskie – Konfederaation lääneissä Kauppias Mailla
Capital: Uusi piiri
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Secular
-With the chaos of the civil war over and the new constitution being followed, this great and vast country wakes, hoping to make itself a force to be reckoned with on the geopolitical stage (as opposed to a backwards agrarian state). The first national banking system is introduced, complete with state control of the central bank and the power to regulate the money supply along with interest rates and other tools that can be used to boost economic growth. The Federal Reserve Bank is an institution which can print money, and also sell bonds to willing investors in order to raise cash for the state. The economic power of the nation now determines the value of the cash being used, and now wealth is not measured in gold assets or silver, but upon a less tangible concept that can operate without the need to build up costly reserves of bullion for international trade. The nation is taken off the gold standard (much to the anger of several politicians who complain that the merchants have taken over) and vast sums of cash are borrowed and then spent in an effort to stimulate the economy. The modern banking system has arrived here. This nation is also the first to utilize a fiat currency.
-Reform after reform is passed in succession, breaking down a massive number of barriers to trade and business. All internal and external duties and tariffs on all goods are abolished, quickly leading to a situation where foreigners export masses of manufactured and industrial goods into the country, depressing industrial markets and causing a lot of problems among the people. These revolts are put down by the army, but this policy later bears fruit when the vast agricultural lands are fully exploited. With nothing to stop them, plus the cheap import of new farming equipment (along with the first railways), the prices of foodstuffs and cash crops collapse. Faced with a glut, the merchants begin to export these goods overseas (on clippers while the Europeans have started to use steamers), which initially only mildly affects markets in non-perishables such as grain. When a clever chap comes over and suggests using the Wapanese ice preservation method, ships are packed full of ice and used to keep even meat fresh until it arrives. Soon, staple agriculture begins to boom here, especially in the late 1050s. Europeans are horrified however, with many rural areas starting to suffer complete demographic collapse.
-However, noticing that the merchants of Xerxes are peddling dangerous drugs throughout the country, a ban is placed on strong drugs and a blacklist is made of traders known to distribute drugs. The confederation has also realized the importance of infrastructure in improving the nation as a whole. While canals already exist, an especially large one is dug, extended, and widen between the Great lakes and the Hudson River, hoping to connect the capital to the growing wealth of the western plains. The effect of this canal cannot be overstated. On completion, the cost of moving one metric ton of grain from the great lakes area to the capital dropped by 95%. This canal would almost singlehandedly destroy European agriculture in combination with the many other advances made here. The state has used the money on other projects as well. The first crude and smoky railways are built (getting your hands on a locomotive is becoming much more easy now), connecting the most important cities and towns. The discovery of huge coal reserves in the mountains is another advantage, allowing for more railways to be constructed, with journey times (on the west-east axis) being cut massively. To assist in construction, many crude, simple smelters and forges pop up like mushrooms (subsidized heavily) to provide enough rails and rolling stock for the railways. Only a few of them survive the business cycles (which begin to make their presence felt here), growing into large iron foundries. Money talks, and with increasing profits from farming, the nation is able to buy almost anything it needs. The depression is hard hitting on the smaller farmers and business owners, who choose to either become wage labourers or move west.
-The confederation navy is established as a distinct body separate from the army and as a permanent standing force with their own defined roles and responsibilities. To coordinate the armies and navy together into a single ministry of warfare, the Pääesikunnan akatemia is founded. The Instituutti also benefits from this increase in funding, eventually developing in a modern and coherent secret service agency designed to further the interests of the nation abroad, and to act as counterintelligence.
-Unfortunately, some of this comes at a considerable price for many. For a society so long largely dominated by agrarian peasants with little experience of global markets and money economies (the old system promises stability, but the new one promises opportunity. Many try to navigate a path between the two), the adoption of all these new economic policies and the exponential growth of trade is often too much to bear. Prices begin to rise as inflation kicks in, becoming unstoppable as people become used to the idea that a bag of potatoes will always be slightly more expensive next year (but hopefully their wages will increase slightly faster). Wealth is being concentrated in the hands of the lucky and competent able to live in this new world, buying up the land of failing smallholder farmers. The other farmers simply look for new lands to settle, hoping to sit on some land and waiting for it to build value as they maintain themselves on the land. Unfortunately, Malthus is a cruel bastard. There is no more land, at least not officially part of the state. People begin to migrate to the neighbouring countries (or settle “unclaimed” lands) in the search of new farmland and a new home, with migrants starting to move into Laurentia as well. To those who want to keep on farming just that little bit longer, the old merchant has the answer. “Go west!” the old merchant said. And so they did, by the trainload.
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-Seeking to continually improve naval capabilities, Xerxes decides to improve on the torpedo idea. By taking a metal cylinder and filling it with torpedo tubes, an engine, plus men to control the machine, one can quietly sail into range of an enemy vessel (without being noticed) and fire several torpedoes before fleeing. The first models are leaky and prone to a multitude of accidents, but by the fourth prototype they have finally perfected the first production model. A small vessel powered by an air engine, it is not only discreet, but small, nimble, and most importantly of all, cheap and easy to replace. Xerxes sunk a vast sum of money into the project using drug money (ironically much later models, some used by other nations, would be used to hunt down drug runners), and upon completion saw to it that these new vessels become an integral part of the modern navy.
-With printing presses now being built or imported in increasing numbers, plus the expansion of primary schooling, for the first time, most people in Xerxes can read, write, and have access to a great deal of written material. The state has taken advantage of this by deciding to create “The department for social encouragement”, dedicated to printing simplistic messages supporting the state. The media created tends to have short, to the point messages, often using rhymes, alliteration, or consisting of three words, each representing an idea or concept. The messages given identify objective enemies, that the state and (on paper) the people both have an interest in defeating. The position of moderation is removed to create a binary situation, while the side supporting the side is often touted as an underdog, innocent, or on the defensive (as opposed to the enemy). Utilizing some of these rules and making strategic use of locations to disseminate the media and increase the audience size, the state has major success in the army expansion program. Thousands of boys join the army and thousands of girls train to become nurses and assist in the logistical, medical, and administrative duties in the army. Drafts are introduced on a biannual basis, complete with reserves and training. The army grows to an impressive 100,000, and there are plans to expand the army to 350,000 by 1080, followed by hopefully having 500,000 by the year 1100.
-Of course these new soldiers need training and to see some action, plus what’s the point of making a big army if you can’t conquer anything with it? Xerxes declares a war of expansion over the continent, aiming south and east. With the vast new conscript armies, armed with mass produced muskets and bayonets, complete with a decentralized supply system and a powerful nearby home empire along with many guides and spies, the tribes, bands, and chiefdoms stand no chance. They are blackmailed into surrender (or shot at until they do so), and Xerxes makes sure to reward those who come willingly. The many chiefs and traitors in the smaller tribes are granted control of their local area, and are charged with introducing intensive agriculture and an export based market economy. This is truly the age of deforestation, as Xerxes push to expand agricultural capabilities reaches fever pitch. Swathes are cleared by conscripts or poorly paid workers with axes and saws, and then the land is dug up and fenced, before finally being planted with fresh coca, tobacco, sugar, or many other new crops being gradually introduced. Malarial death rates, even with quinine, are shockingly high until the infrastructure for dealing with them is developed. Many tribes are also wiped out by the introduction of these new diseases. Given the armies land policy (retired soldiers are given free land) and the quisling chiefs willingness to develop the land, many left wing people in the next century who advocated simple living and held to the ideal of the romantic savage, were embarrassed when it turned out an indigenous people were not only capable of doing this, but loved doing so.
-Cotton, and marijuana begin to be also grown extensively on plantations. Given the recent gluts in the drug trade (and the search for new markets as some states are trying to clamp down on it), many farmers are keen to switch to these crops that also promise good returns. Peanuts are also being gradually adopted as a nitrogen fixing agent (along with providing a tasty snack to farmers) until it turns out large markets also exists for peanuts (Shelling, skinning, roasting, and salting would come later). The peanut is a miracle for bar owners, who until now, had to resort to putting salt in beer to encourage people to buy more. Now with “free” salty snacks, bartenders are reporting increased profits and improved “pub ambience”.
-Xerxes has also opened up many new deals with the Greeks. In exchange for their vast stockpiles of money, the Greeks are sending Xerxes all kinds of new military toys from bolt action rifles, new ships, and heavy artillery pieces. Factories have also been built to oversee the manufacture of these weapons (some of which leaks into the civilian market) and munitions, assisting general industrialization of the country. Despite first impressions of what industrialization entails, there is very little investment into industry (save for a few military hardware and railway locomotive factories). Most labour and capital is being poured into the rapidly expanding agricultural sector, the army, and in infrastructure (railways are heavily subsidized). Wages are raised by the state for those working in state owned industries (and eventually this forces up wages in the rest of the country when landowners realize their workers are starting to work in state-owned enterprises). The lack of many banking and financial institutions means that the new class of wealthy farmers have very little to do with their money anyways. Most pour it back into their land, buying heavier machinery or redeveloping their estates or higher wages. Unfortunately with some states banning consumption of some drugs, (and improving production) new markets are needed. Xerxes merchants travel throughout the rest of Europe, to the Zulu (who ban cocaine and annoy many merchants), the European colonies, and into Asia where they find vast new markets for their drugs (but unfortunately Chinese and Indian consumer classes are relatively small and shipping costs are quite high). Zulu merchants also compete with Xerxes ones over hash oil and cocaine, often using clandestine business tactics. Ships on both sides start to vanish randomly.
-The Wapanese prove to be excellent consumers, helping to soak up excess production. Xerxes has ironically clamped down on domestic drug consumption as well (although this is becoming increasingly difficult due to the rock bottom prices and good wages), but does not seem willing to cut back on production. These new markets have kept prices stable for the time being, but there are fears in the future that prices will continue to decline. Traditional agriculture (as the northern continent gradually takes on the role of breadbasket) is coming under strain as well, pushing the move into cash crops. The state has finally begun to try and tone down drug production by encouraging other crops as well, but the move is slow. Even then, prices fall quickly. The European depression in 1858 onwards is a mixed blessing as well. While importing is a lot cheaper, plus with some people having turned to drugs (and the drugs trade), consumers have a lot less money to spend, meaning in turn, a lot less on Xerxes drugs. It is no surprise that during those years there is a huge shift from pure cocaine to the cheaper crack cocaine. The depression eventually comes back to Xerxes, slowing down economic growth and pushing up unemployment.
-Finally, the guano islands and cliffs off the coast and throughout the Empire are noted for their ability to improve the fertility of the soil. Very quickly, large scale extraction is put into motion, and this is the final nail in the coffin for European agriculture. With cheap fertilizers, Xerxes can reduce costs even further, expand production, and sell even more stuff to even more people. Some landowners, who have now diminishing profits, start to process the crops on their land. Tobacco is made into cigars, sugar into a purer form, cocaine into a fine white power (along with crack being purified), cotton is spun into thread, and coffee beans ground up and made into an “instant” coffee, not to mention brazilwood being processed into the pure dye and sold for export. The chemicals or processes used often pollute the land or dump tons of byproducts into rivers (not to mention speed up deforestation). The Amazon begins to slowly change, and with irrigation and water management, humans are bending the river to fit their needs. It has yet to be tamed by any large dams yet however, and flooding is still often an issue.
VOSK – La Plata
Capital: Nova Vista
Culture: Platean (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-The colony of La Plata, after hearing of the usage of oil lamps back home, decides to begin trying to produce oil for domestic use, given the relative abundance of it around. A Bohemian inventor has migrated here, and he has brought back a certain way of producing oil he discovered back home in the Carpathians. In his home town of Czuiszhe, there was a river that frequently had a clear and oily substance float on the surface. The locals traditionally collected it and burned it for fuel or light, but the man managed to find the source of the liquid by drilling a hole into the ground and pumping up the fluid itself. He brought the idea with him to the colony, where with some local funding he surveyed the land for oil deposits and built a large wooden tower with a drill inside it. He brought up some black fluid, that with the correct industrial processes (cracking, fractional distillation, etc) he could convert into a useful mix of hydrocarbons. These are carbon chains with hydrogen, the length of the carbon chain, the bonding between atoms, or isomers of it producing varying different physical characteristics. Short chain hydrocarbons (such as methane or ethane with 1 or 2 carbons) produce a gas which burns quickly, while longer chain hydrocarbons (such as octane or nonane with 8 and 9 carbons respectively) produce more viscous fluids that burn more slowly. While these have varying uses (fuel, lighting, tars) the middle hydrocarbons (fluids that burn quickly and often evaporate) are useless, termed “petroleum” it is burned off as a waste product.
-The Platean Military academy is founded in Nova Vista in the hope that it can train both Naval and Army officers (instead of relying ad hoc on immigrants). The academy sets up a standardized test for eligible officers to establish a baseline, with the highest scorers placed in the military branch and specialty that best suits them. A 3 year draft is also passed for all able-body men in La Plata, and after their 3 year service is up they are placed in the reserves, required to attend 4 annual drills through the year. Unfortunately, this is incredibly unpopular among the immigrants (many of them having left home for this express purpose). Most of them are farming new homesteads far away from any populated areas anyways, making it difficult to collect draft dodgers. The result is a large deficit of footsoldiers and too many former officers pushed into an army they have little interest in working in (due to the size of the colony and lack of military action, this is understandable).
-Despite these drawbacks, the somewhat shambolic armed forces manages to keep control over the immigrants setting up new settlements and colonies (thus preventing decentralization and loss of power) and also manages to help encourage new migration by simply declaring they own any land they come across. When they find tribes and bands of people (most of them currently in their own Neolithic revolution as they switch to agriculture, and are finding the intrusion of other farmers demanding land annoying), the policy is normally to try integrating them. Missions, chapels, schoolhouses, and military outposts are all set up in order to try assimilating these peoples. Unfortunately this backfires when a group of ethnically similar tribes takes the lessons too readily. They quickly begin to send their children to the trading ports to make money and then use it to buy extensive lands back home (most new immigrants tend to be poor, while the existing social networks and support provided by the indigenous peoples aids extensively in acquiring and maintaining hold of land) from the particularly vulnerable immigrants. This eventually leads to an embarrassing situation where a large region has failed to integrate and instead, is using the capitalist system against the foreigners. This process is completed when a blacksmith manages to invent an entirely new alphabet (although he borrowed lots of amusing symbols, including the symbol “4” for his alphabet).
-Other expansion attempts go violently, but when one side has the advantage of numbers and firearms, it is a short fight. The colony (despite the setbacks with the modernizing tribes) gradually extends her power over much of the southern continent. In the north, a fort is established next to the Phoenician colony of Montevideo. The fort is named Raymundo Valdez (which later becomes the name of the port city). The fort becomes the northern base of the armed forces, from where they begin to expand control southwards towards the Nova Vista colony (whereas the Nova Vista colony expands north). Eventually by the late 1050s, La Plata has taken control of the entire coastline (largely by dumping people there and telling other countries that those people are their citizens), and have finally managed to secure (most of) a potential route for a north-south railway to connect the two main colonial port towns.
-After hearing of the Greeks forays into the Khoffler Republic, La Plata has realized that their own armed forces are utterly unable to defend themselves (let alone take on anybody) without significant improvements to their arsenal. Ironically, they buy their new hardware from the Greeks, consisting of iron hulled steamships, rifles, artillery pieces, munitions, and all the trimmings. The military is able to use this to press onwards with their expansion into the interior, despite large manpower shortages. The other problem is that all of the ports (save for Raymundo Valdez and Nova Vista) are too small to service these massive ships, not to mention the lack of coal and iron is another barrier to development.
-Noticing the massive manpower shortages, the country removes all controls on immigration save for a single hitch: three years military service. After this, the person is given a free land grant and their passage is also paid for. While expensive, it is popular. Many scores of displaced rural farmers in Europe (suffering from the agricultural depression) are packing up and moving here, with the bulk of migrants from Germany. They are happy enough to do military service in return for free land, and by 1060 the population hits 100,000, an impressive figure considering that 60 years prior the population was a mere 1000 (an average growth rate of 8% per year!). The manpower problem has been solved for now (as long as immigration stays stable), although the money required is causing massive financial difficulties. Debt rises steadily (with the Greeks and Phoenicians making up the bulk of lenders), and the interest rates are high as well (given the collapsing value of land in Europe and many banks suddenly finding they cannot easily get rid of crap land once held by a farmer with loads of debt who more or less jumped ship). The depression in Europe, while stimulating migration, has unfortunately cost La Plata even more, and they are in danger of running out of places to borrow from.
-With all these literate people coming over (or being educated in new schools along with indigenious children), the Vistian Chronicle is founded. Claiming to be a 100% accurate and truthful newspaper it covers all forms of domestic, foreign, and political topics around the world. It is offered in many different languages to appeal to the Portuguese-Speaking Platean colonists (although German minorities are growing rapidly along with some Greeks and Bohemians). Some newspaper copies are shipped back to Europe, detailing life in the colonies and encouraging the poor and unemployed to move here to take advantage of all of the freedom and the type of rural poverty they are used to. The University of Nova Vista is also founded in the capital, along with a campus in Raymundo Valdez. The university focuses mainly on the sciences, but has minors in Languages, the Liberal arts, and History. These educated and technical types assist with the construction of the country’s first railway, a project to connect Nova Vista to Raymundo Valdez. Having been done before the depression, it was one of the last projects of such ambition by the country (unfortunately, the huge debt ratio makes future ones unlikely for the time being). The relatively low population numbers (not to mention that few of them pay tax or extensively engage in the money economy once settled down in their homesteads) means that the wisdom of such a railway is not yet well known. Agricultural output is still poor and suffers from poor economies of scale and an inability to transport fresh food long distances. The huge depression in Europe and the near monopolisation of their markets by the Kauppsians are further disincentives, meaning that most export (if there is any) is to the Zulu Empire and Bohemian colonies, both of which have their own related problems for businessmen.
-A treaty is signed with the Phoenicians, although it is seen often as unpopular by segments of the population. In the treaty, it stipulates that La Plata is to be ceded the western Falkland Island, along with Montevido (now renamed Raymundo Valdez). Even the Phoenicians found it unpopular, given that a perfectly good naval base and city was given away for what felt like very little. Despite this setback, La Plata manages to derive a tidy sum from taxing the city and finds it a good source of labour and soldiers. The Falkland island has a naval base constructed there (although only sheep farmers and fishermen bother to settle there), and slowly they begin to use their expensive navy to gain a monopoly on all trade going by Patagonia. Given that transport over Panama is difficult, many people and goods go this way (aided by steam navigation), boosting the power and influence of the colony to a degree. They start to project their power increasingly to the north and along the coasts, eventually trading with the Incans and Xerxes on a regular basis.
Bumbanut - Khoffler Republic
Capital: Khoffler
Culture: Khofflerin (German)
State Religion: State Atheism (Atheist)
-The Germans of this Republic are an odd bunch, always importing weird inventions and people from Europe. While military technology is severely lacking (it tends to be people trying to escape conflict who come here) and the facilities for their manufacture is poor anyways, one man manages to make a very impressive toy. The idea of the “acoustical telephone” where one puts a cup at each end of a string and talks into one end and listens to the other is well known. A mad German however decides to go further by trying to improve of range of such a device. Telegraph cables have been gradually improved through his work, allowing for several signals to be sent down a cable at once. His latest invention involves converting sounds into electrical signals and back again. The inventor strings a cable over a distance of several hundred metres and puts a machine in each house. When he comes back into his house, he hears “Das Pferd frisst keinen Gurkensalat” blurting out from his machine. He shouts back into the machine, and discovers that it can successfully transmit human voice. With some funds, a simple version of this device is manufactured and put between the few towers and gun batteries on the island. A few more are placed along the railway line, and are largely intended for military or a few commercial purposes.
-Seeing that the natives are doing quite poorly, the reservation is subject to a series of improvements, where they are taught new agricultural methods and given tools as well. Incursions by colonists and soldiers are punished harshly (much to their annoyance) and in return, the natives are integrated into the military. Conscription slowly spreads throughout the island, although given the lack of much action and the low population numbers (the island is terrible for agriculture and has little in the way of manufacturing, services, or resources) means that it’s largely seen as more of a civic service than actually being intended for war. This becomes a bigger problem when the Greeks find out that the Republic has been funding the Lendinites.
-On hearing news of the Khoffler Republic funding the Lendinites, the Greeks decide to kill two birds with one stone by using their navy to showcase their naval power, and to convince those German weirdoes how unwise such a decision was. The Greeks form a task force with the Phoenicians and Bohemians, bombarding the Khoffler republic for a 20 day campaign, using Bermuda as a base of operations. They target ports, naval infrastructure, rail lines, and the gun tower fortifications, although they avoid civilian districts and attack after the workday so as to minimize casualties. The campaign goes well, although the gun towers were badly damaged, their buried gun bunkers were largely untouched. However, with the innovative telephone system, many people were forewarned of the impending event, taking the precious extra time to evacuate both people and material possessions. Although the Greeks destroy a lot of houses and the older sea fortifications, there are very few casualties. A lot of ships and boats are unfortunately sunk or captured by the Greeks, crippling the Khoffler fishing and trading fleets.
[Seed Eater] – Laurentia
Capital: Timberhaven
Culture: Lakeish
State Religion: Folk Paganism
-Very little happens in Laurentia, save for general increases in population and the economy there growing. The country starts to see Konfederaation people migrate here to set up homes, and to counteract this trend, Laurentia begins to claim and settle land to the west, if only to prevent the Konfederaation taking it. As the population grows and agriculture becomes a worthwhile activity, Laurentia becomes gradually integrated into the global economy and has to administrate over foreign migrants. They start to gradually develop stronger political institutions and a military force to manage their country, and very quickly adopt a money economy, exporting foodstuffs and importing manufactured goods (or drugs).
Daniel Smith - Titisuc
Capital City: Hanjob
Culture: Aboriginal
State religion: Waifuism (Dikinbut)
-Hanjob (now becoming increasingly old) has managed to become fluent in Wapanese by this stage, along with the ability to read and write. With the help of the missionaries, he buys several books of philosophy and on political economy. He realizes that if his tribe is to prosper beyond his death, he should create what we might nowadays call “the state”, which will exist regardless of whoever happens to be in power. He starts by creating a permanent office for the head of state, and this figure is granted (either by divine power or consent of the governed) “ownership” of every piece of land within his domain. The “king” then essentially makes a contract with a number of former big men and chiefs within his realm. By giving them control of a parcel of land, they are to promise to return the kings favour with resources or manpower for projects (such as building or war). In return, the king is to respect his vassal’s autonomy and protect them from foreign threats. The rest of the population (who hold no land and merely work it) then go into a contract with their local lords. By agreeing to work their land and fight on behalf of the lord for a fixed length of time, the landless is given security (from hunger and conflict). The landless man then leaves his state of nature, to enter into a complex society where conflict resolution becomes ritualized and taken out of control of families and into the hands of neutral arbiters. Such a system is beneficial to all, and when this system is developed, it is quick to integrate many Australian tribes.
-With aid from Wapanese missionaries, more modern equipment, ideas, animals, and plants are steadily imported. Of course, population numbers and densities are still very low and make intensive agriculture difficult. Hanjobs solution is to ordain that tribes are to move together into settled communities (with the aid of Wapanese missionaries) where enough people exist in one spot to make intensive agriculture feasible. Unfortunately, most people have little immunity to diseases rapidly becoming widespread here, and even foreign medical assistance is unable to help much. However, the experiment is working well enough, and given that the Wapanese have found a people willing to be converted to Waifuism, new supplies are always coming. Harvests are (relatively) huge, and with so much (relatively speaking) food available and the fact that farmers don’t need to carry children around, people here are breeding like rabbits. Disease culls many, but just as many babies are being born to replace them. The arrival of more Wapanese missionaries and some traders assists further, where they begin to take waves there and gradually bring a creole group into existence.
-With imports of weaponry and armour, plus now that horse riding and food reserves for soldiers are secured, fights against tribes are becoming increasingly one-sided. The Titisuc develop light cavalry and footsoldiers, armed with mass produced Wapanese swords and lances, wearing cotton uniforms and metal breastplates and helmets (armour in Wapan is falling out of fashion and much of the skills formerly used in their production are gradually being lost, save for breastplates and helmets). Despite all of this equipment being cheap and useless in Wapan (not to mention obsolete), they are terrifying against the tribes and bands of Australia. Many are made to cooperate simply by the arrival of the army, and even those that rebel or fight pretty soon die out or are broken apart due to disease or warfare. The Titisuc rapidly expand, and Hanjobs lancers are terrifying. Some horses do however end up escaping, and find Australia is well suited to their presence. Several other mammals are gradually being introduced into Australian agriculture, but they have yet to spread widely. The military campaigns of horses and the need to take a lot of them (to carry supplies) inevitably ends up with them spreading. Human expansion seems to correlate with that of the horse. There are suggestions from missionaries to introduce the Camel instead, for it is better suited to the climate.
-In order to better facilitate trade and actually have a way of storing value easily, Hanjob introduces the gold coin. It even has his face on it (which helps to legitimize his rule to those that never see him), and initially the coins are used so that you can trade with the Wapanese easily. Over time, as the Wapanese do this, a class of creole people (children of Wapanese and Aborginals) becomes well acquainted with trade and with the culture and languages of the Aboriginals. Using this knowledge they can travel throughout the country, acting as middlemen traders and spreading the use of money around. They help to bring together many disparate areas into a cohesive and functioning economic system. Social change is also starting to impact on this, as these people tend to be Waifuist as well, and help to spread their religion.
Notes: After this turn, the RP went into a hiatus. By this point, we reached the Industrial Era around 800 years in advance. While people did send in turns for Turn 21, it wasn't going to come out in a while, however it returned during the Easter of 2014 after three months.
Turn 21: 1060 to 1080 CE
Political map of Turn 21
Post link: http://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1292997&p=44583181&viewfull=1#post44583181
Turn quote: I think God's going to come down and pull civilization over for speeding.
Events of the years 1060 to 1080:
Europe
-As the world continues to move forward into the modern industrial era, it is becoming increasingly clear that an old world has been permanently lost. The growth of the moneyed middle classes and the labouring factory workers has led to whole new cultures and new social and economic inequalities. Trade unions, social clubs, tea rooms, libraries, coffeehouses, cooperatives, and a great deal of other social organisations have exploded in number, while the number of newspapers continues to proliferate. In some countries (the ones which adopted democratic institutions), there has been a move towards greater political participation and awareness. Parties are growing in size and appeal to ever growing numbers of voters. Politicians begin to be selected for sociopathic traits instead of wealth or land ownership, resulting in political institutions becoming gradually able to deal with the rapid social and economic change currently underway as more difficult decisions are taken. Academia and the civil service have stepped in and begin to exponentially grow, slowly building the new order that the industrial revolution has made possible. This is most evident in Greece, Wapan, Phoenicia, and Bohemia, where modern state apparatus have begun to expand rapidly in scope and scale.
-Another great calamity of diseases has begun to spread once more. Industrialization has forced vast scores of people together into dirty and smelly cities, filled with all sorts of breeding grounds for nasty diseases. The often unregulated nature of construction, the lack of policing forces, poverty, and industrial misery has of course led to the problem getting even worse. Brothels are aplenty, along with criminal networks, petty violence, venereal diseases, cholera, smallpox, plague, flus, and dysentery. Some countries have responded to these with alarm, by starting to work on ambitious sanitation systems and metropolitan police forces. The changes wrought by the industrial revolution dig deeply, and many worry if people can ultimately adapt to and survive in this new world they have created.
-New political ideologies have sprouted up like mushrooms, all finding excellent readership and loyalty in the papers and academic institutions. In the chaos created by the industrial revolution, they all clamour for one thing – power. It does not matter the colour of the flag, or the message of their songs. Most of these new parties and groups seek increased clout, autonomy, or their share of money generated via taxation. By promising their chosen supporting demographic that they can manipulate political institutions enough that they can ensure good returns, there is a clear way to power. Titles gradually grow into agencies, growing and having a bigger impact on people’s lives. The state is beyond being merely a few buildings and an army.
-Weissen continues her expansion of influence over the Germanies. By this point, all German states (with the exception of Lugii and Arhonia) are under some form of direct influence. Even Lugii is fiercely contested between Bohemia and Weissen, both countries trying to take advantage of the ambiguous ethnic composition of the country. Fortifications and military camps are being built on either side of the border, and large numbers of advisors and specialists head into various countries to entice them to join their side. France is still deeply hostile, but is unwilling to move into a major conflict with Weissen again, unless they have the support of an ally. Weissen too is unwilling to go to war, for fear of a war on several fronts. They make moves through the German Customs Union and other intergovernmental organizations, in the hope of achieving unification peacefully. In 1079, the German Confederation is formed, consisting of all German states (with the notable exceptions of Arhonia and Lugii). Weissen is pressing heavily for Lugii to join, and threatens military action if Bohemia blocks Lugii applying to join the German Confederation.
-Refrigeration continues to develop, but due to the energy expenditure and the size of the machinery involved, they are only used in few food processing plants and ships, or in hospitals. Keeping cool is something essential, because due to a recent increase in solar activity and concentration of greenhouse gases in the skies, the world is gradually starting to warm up. For now, it is relatively slow, but over the course of a lifetime the main effects so far is in the gradual moving of the treeline north and retreat of glaciers.
-The ailing Spanish have gradually lost control of the peripheries of their empire. Misiryaban erupts into rebellion, and the underpaid and homesick soldiers are outmanoeuvred and often besieged or captured by revolutionaries. The Spanish government is beset by a crisis of authority as arguments with the church and other religious matters come to the fray. The state eventually turns back to the Iberian pope once more after flirting with Aquinism. Unfortunately, this does not placate the populace. With protests and widespread strikes, the country stagnates and sees little in the way of development. Relations with Portugal are hardly improved, and radical political groups are popular. Far right ultra-traditionalists stress the need for an authoritarian ruler to restore order to Spain, while those on the left argue for freedom and/or equality. Political divisions deepen and violence slowly grows.
An early Bohemian Airship
Damian0358 – The Bohemian Empire
Capital: Praha
Culture: Bohemian (Slavic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-With continued advances in science and technology, at last some of the wildest dreams of early humans have been fulfilled, as humans begin to ascend into the heavens like gods. A particularly eccentric engineer worked on a hot air balloon model in order to make it possible to fly regardless of where the wind blew. By filling the balloon with hydrogen and making it into the shape of a giant cigar, followed by putting a small steam engine with propellers underneath, he created a weak but functional airship. His first flight takes him from Vrocislav along a railway line, before setting down after running out of fuel. It takes him an hour to cover a distance of nine kilometres, but the concept is sound. The Bohemian military immediately hires him and begins to set up workshops to manufacture them. Due to the heaviness of steam engines, and due to the Carbon Dioxide cylinders being too difficult to replace in battle, pedal power is used for these blimps. A team of 8 men will pedal the balloon through the skies with a payload of bombs. Besides observation and dropping a few firebombs, they are little much else use.
-With the Empires continued expansion into the New World, many have felt the Wapanese name of “Hanajia” is lacking. It is officially renamed "Emerika", named after the man who colonized Brazil, Emerik Gelerovic. This creates somewhat a problem for many cartographers. To further put the new acquisitions on the map, the colony of Teksas is established, while the one in Southeast Asia is called Papuja.
-Teksas itself is the newest of the colonial acquisitions. Situated North of the Mexica and to the west of Plaquemine, it is in good land for pasture. Unfortunately, being in the area where both native countries have little authority, and where trade is common, there are a lot of criminal and vigilante gangs, raiders, skirmishing armies, and occasional outbreaks of warfare. The Nahutal and Taensa dispute this region already, and the arrival of several hundred Slavs had compounded the situation. The Bohemians immediately set to work on rearing livestock and growing cash crops such as cotton. Livestock is often stolen, forcing the Bohemians to rely heavily on the new forts being built or on vigilante groups. Some Bohemians find that selling firearms is easier than growing crops, and shortly conflict escalates even more. Finally, a Bohemian company planning on construction of a railway is horrified to find their surveyors murdered and scalped, and demands that the colonial army intervene.
-With tensions between the Empire and Xerxes rising, fortifications are built at great expense throughout the colonies of Brazil and Teksas. Most of these fortifications are built with sweeping and wide areas with no obstacles, so as to provide a clear line of fire for rifles. This is also hoped to prevent guerrillas using vegetation cover.
-With the recent and severe depression of European agriculture, the Empire has taken a number of steps to alleviate the woes of the peasantry and to revive her stagnant economy. Firstly, a new act is passed to halt rural emigration. By subsidizing smaller farms and providing low interest rate loans, along with intervening more in legal disputes between landlords and tenants, the worst crisis is ended. Smallholder farmers stop moving away and begin to gradually diversify by moving into different areas. The improvement of infrastructure means that those able to cling on until now can reap the profits of selling fresh dairy to nearby cities, while fruit orchards, wineries, vegetable farms, etc are set up. While not a recovery, the policy is slowing down the proliferation of slums and sweatshops in the major cities.
-The armaments industry has received a massive boost too. Eager to expand the colonial military and to have stockpiles of firearms ready in case of war, the Bohemians have set up contracts with many businessmen to set up factories to mass produce rifles. Of course, being businessmen, many of these guns end up being sold in Emerika, while narcotics, sex slaves, and chocolate bars end up flowing in the other direction.
-Slavicisation of Lugii is made a priority. Using political pressure and some well-timed loans, Lugii begins to reform their education system, most notably only providing materials in Slavic languages and discouraging children from using German. Somewhat unpopular, it is deeply detested by the German minority in the country, who protest the decision. For now however, they are in a minority, and most of the population is indifferent. The Bohemians follow up by building heavy fortifications along the border that Lugii and Bohemia share with Weissen, and also sending military reformers to the country. Weissen reacts very poorly to this, and begins to interevene even more, using more diplomatic threats and economic sanctions to force Bohemia to back off. When this does not go as planned, Weissen conducts large military exercise on the border of Lugii. They then pressure Lugii into applying to the German Confederation, and tell Bohemia that if they block the ascension, then they will escalate the matter.
-Bohemia then declares the Spanish decision of converting to Aquinism as an "attempt to rid themselves of their Communist Pope". In the eyes of Orthodox Aquinism, the Spanish Aquinism is seen a sect of Iberianism, controlled by the state church. Eyes then later look upon the Bohemians when they are discovered supporting missionary activity in Misiryaban, souring relations with Muslims.
-As relations with Xerxes worsen, the Parliament goes over numerous debates. The modernizing and rapidly expanding Native Emerikan Empire is hampering colonial efforts and creating a threat to the whole of Brazil. War plans are discussed, and propaganda leaflets distributed throughout Xerxes (unfortunately, due to translations errors and poor literacy rates, the leaflets do not work as intended). The colonists of Brazil are angry enough, and after a final debate, they decide to declare war on Xerxes.
-A number of the new airships are brought over to Brazil to assist in the war, although due to logistics problems they have a small range of around 10 kilometres. They sail gracefully around the borderland areas of Xerxes, dropping firebombs on people’s houses, farms, plantations, warehouses, any railway lines, and patches of forest or grassland. While causing few casualties, the first initial attacks are successful at destroying a lot of crops and buildings. Unfortunately, when the Xerxes army begins to take potshots at the airships with guns (imported rifles are later brought down) and to mitigate the threat posed by the bombs with firefighting teams, the airships quickly become unable to repeat their earlier success. They revert to an observation role. While effective at scouting areas with low or little vegetation, they have become not worth much else in the conflict. Occasionally they still support skirmishing forces on the ground, where several of them in tandem can completely destroy a base or a village, with towns becoming heavily damaged. Again, the limited range also limits their effectiveness.
-The “war” with Xerxes is still pretty limited. Although there are official embargoes in place, merchant shipping regularly flouts this, often by trading in the growing boom town of Tensas, where both Bohemians and Xerxan traders meet. In Brazil itself, most conflict is limited to small scale raids, with both parties using skirmishers, vigilantes, criminal gangs, natives, and civilians in the war. It is limited as well, mostly to the borderlands where populations are low. The Bohemian strategy of trying to flush out the enemy with airships largely fails, while Xerxes is unwilling to conduct a major campaign into Brazil. Despite this, the rapidly growing Xerxan military presence is pushing the raids closer to the developed parts of Brazil, although this has brought them in the range of the airships.
-Xerxes decides that an invasion in response to the Bohemians is a good idea. Using tricks to inflate the apparent number of soldiers on the march (by pitching extra tents, lighting more campfires, etc) they are able to initially trick the Bohemian army into thinking that a major assault was to take place on the capital of Brazil. However, to get the mock invasion force nearby, this required taking out or bypassing several outposts. At the first outpost however, an airship team was able to take off before the Xerxes soldiers could catch them, the airship carrying vital information on Xerxen army movements. Realizing that letting them go would ruin the plan, an advance guard chased after them to stop the crew before they reached a telegraph station. This lasted for several days, with the airship team taking turns and dodging bullets. Leakage of gas became a major problem towards the end of the flight, with two men landing to sacrifice themselves. They reached the telegraph station in time and messaged back about the phony invasion plan due in three days. The Bohemians quickly put their men back onto the railways and sent them to the border outposts.
-Xerxes invades a wide stretch of land in the northwest of the colony, unaware of the reinforcements. Many of the frontline soldiers are gunned down by Bohemians, and their cavalry devastated. Forced to retreat, the Bohemians press the advantage by moving out of their trenches and fortifications out into open sugarcane fields. There, the Xerxen forces shell the Bohemians with their famous Relámpago strategy being employed. Cavalry and infantry forces broke through shortly afterwards and pushed back the Bohemians, although with severe losses. The war comes to a stalemate, although the borderlands are suitably devastated. The Xerxen attempts to break through are often foiled by the Bohemians use of railways and airships to give forward information. The Xerxen focus on decentralized warfare and rapid movement is good for warfare in the homeland, but as a way to push the fight into enemy lands it is exceedingly lacking. The plan requires that the Xerxen forces can resupply and convey orders faster than their foes, and unfortunately, the Bohemians have superiority in both. Railways and telegraph favour the defensive, and the use of airships is cited by many as helping to save the Bohemian colony.
The Greek colonial army in Indonesia, testing their new machine gun
Mackalda2k6 – The Eastern Empire
Capital: Byzantium
Culture: Greek (Hellenic)
State Religion: Christianity (Aquinism)
-While firearms have existed for centuries, and numerous attempts have been made to improve them, until recently nobody has really thought about the wasted energy of the recoil action in the gun. While the laws of motion have been developed years before as well, (every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction) and incorporated into firearm design, it has taken until now for somebody to think of a way to exploit that energy. By using this energy to eject the spent cartridge and then to chamber another round before firing, it reduces the labour intensive task of reloading a gun. In turn, if sufficiently designed, one can fire indefinitely as long as the gun has a steady supply of bullets and the barrel kept cool. The first such model developed can fire around 600 bullets a minute. It is initially treated as a light artillery piece, being mounted on a gun carriage and used in conjunction with light field guns and requiring a team to maintain and operate the machine. However, it is lightweight and mobile enough to mount on-board a ship, railway wagon, or a cart if so desired.
-Contests are launched among military contractors to develop improved rifles, artillery, and ships. They do manage to introduce a number of various improvements, but few overhaul the already existing equipment. Telegraphy equipment, navigational aids, mechanical calculators, telescopic sights, carbines, sniper rifles, electrical lighting, torpedo belts, etc are some of the many recent improvements. The ships of the Empire proceed to then patrol the seas of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, protecting trade and being readily available in case of a political crisis, rebellion, or war that needs attending to. The Greeks have also bought most of the islands of the Pacific currently held by Phoenicia, in return for free access through the Suez and naval bashing rights. This in turn helps the Greeks to possess a nearly global presence, if at a significant cost.
-A colonial military force, armed with the new Hiram gun, lands in Timor. Using Majestic class SS Justinian, they island hop throughout Indonesia, using these new firearms and rifles to mow down and terrify the natives, before claiming the land and installing a colonial administration. In such a way they gradually add all of the islands between Timor and the new possessions bought from Phoenicia to their Empire.
-To try and revive the sluggish economy, the government undertakes several measures. As Greek and Anatolian agriculture is lagging behind and poor, the government decides to buy up all of the land held by banks and rent out the land directly. The state also bails out several banks and tries to encourage venture capitalists to rent the land from them, with many of them using the land to build housing or industry or mining on. The state also shifts industrial subsidies to incentivize further investment in capital goods and weaponry production inside the country itself, and encourage the export of capital goods (which are immensely profitable). It is quickly discovered that being one of the few relatively developed economies, the Greeks can export capital goods to developing ones for high profits. Skilled workers are trained and hired to help develop these new industries too, and the Greeks begin to slowly diversify away from a focus on military ends.
-Realizing that Egypt holds immense potential as well, several large public works projects including advanced irrigation are now underway, along with various large-scale urban projects aimed at cleaning up slum like conditions and providing better sanitation and transportation throughout the cities. Tram networks and suburban railways are built for the first time, while multitudes of horse-drawn bus companies, taxicabs, paved roads, street sweepers, etc are all introduced to make the streets clean and well built. Many of the older cities have slums and old housing demolished to make way for the new developments (including wide streets and council housing), with a lot of archaeological studies being conducted as well. Many artefacts from the days of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Israelites, and Turks are discovered, with many museums set up to hold these ancient objects. The old Phoenician city of Tyre is excavated too, shortly before half of it is flattened to make way for a new railway line.
-Tariffs on steel are dropped entirely, encouraging steel manufacturers to export raw steel abroad. Of course, Weissen and Mann are also becoming major steel producers, this extra competition causing some problems as Greece tries to a major industrial power.
-Greece hosts the World Series, inviting every other country to participate in the summer event throughout the Eastern Empire. They ensure that the event is well publicized and covered by the Eastern press, and expend a lot of effort on bringing the country together to celebrate the event and to support their national baseball team. Scores of people turn out for the events, and those that cannot attend see pictures of the game and articles in the newspapers the next morning.
-The Greek Government purchases the Suez from the Egyptian devolved government, in the process helping to clear their debts, but becoming heavily indebted in the process. The Egyptians take advantage by going on a large spending spree, where they rapidly expand the miles of railway track in the country, reforming the army, and heading south into East Africa to claim more land and annexing the various Ethiopian chiefdoms that survived earlier wars with the Empire.
-The number of trade partners continues to grow, with more contacts than ever established in Hanajia, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Since now the Eastern Empire has the strongest and influential navy, especially in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, they manage to coerce and bully most of India and Indochina into buying solely goods manufactured in the Empire. They sell them a lot of military equipment, capital goods, and other machinery and inventions so as to assist modernization. Drugs, alcohol, sugar, tobacco, and other luxuries often follow. In return, the Greeks often get various minerals, and start setting up plantations and factories in many of the major port cities. India sees the majority of investment and influence, with some cities swelling in size with Punjab, Bengal, Karnataka developing more modern armies and allowing the Greeks to build military forts and set up businesses (with preferential treatment) in their countries. The three powerful states have reached a stalemate however in their plans to dominate India, with Bengal and Karnataka both trying to take over Orissa. Tamil survives as a near puppet of Karnataka, that is, for now. India as a whole is of great importance to the Empire, for it produces a lot of raw iron ore and coal that can be manufactured into steel and sent back to the empire for export. The initial encouragement is for the businessmen in India to send the semi-processed iron to Greece, but with the influx of capital goods, they have begun to focus on native steel foundries.
Riga tower under construction
StaleRye – The Baltic Entente
Capital: Riga
Culture: Livonian (Baltic)
State Religion: Deism
-A most curious invention has been introduced, the latest in the long line of developments in the science of physics. With this device, one can convert Morse code into electromagnetic radiation of the form of “radio waves”, which can travel considerable distances without the need for wires. We understand this to be the result of photons of differing energies having different frequencies and wavelengths. That is, the higher the frequency of some radiation source, the smaller the wavelength (and vice versa). Another recent experiment manages to begin shedding light on what we now call the “Electromagnetic spectrum”. On this spectrum, higher energies with short wavelengths have the ability to ionise atoms (removing electrons from the outer shell). The higher the energy, the more materials that the radiation can ionise, and also the more kinetic energy imparted to electrons. It is also discovered that by shining a high frequency light onto a charged metal sphere (from experimentation with radio equipment), that electrons will jump from the sphere. The first models of radio use large antennae to “catch” the waves, and use the energy of the waves themselves for the device. They are gradually improved upon, and eventually start to compete with the telegraph; with some models mobile enough to be building inside train carriages and ships. Of course, due to existing infrastructure and other problems with radios, they will not completely supplant the wired telegraph.
-Being the progenitor of the bolt-action rifle and not to be outdone by the Eastern Empire's oddly named 98k rifle family, the Entente Army holds a contest for the fin-est engineering minds throughout the land to submit rifle designs for a promising reward and production contract. Many rifles in many different calibres and of many different designs are put forth, but ultimately the Entente decides to go with a rifle put forth by a duo consisting of an Estonian by the name of Olav Laar and a Finnish immigrant named Simo Häyhä. It is unique in that in comparison to most bolt action rifles of the day that fire from a five round internal magazine, the rifle fires from a ten round extended box magazine utilizing a short magazine placed in front of the trigger group. The rifle features an exceptionally rugged, yet extremely smooth cock-on-close real dual lug action, and as a result, the shooter is able to operate the bolt extremely quickly due to the closeness of the operating handle to the shooter and as the all of the energy exerted in pulling the bolt back is exerted on extracting the spent cartridge, and allows the shooter to slam home another round in no time at all. The rifle is full-stocked to nearly the end of the barrel and features a blunt nose, with only a small button protrusion for the newly developed blade bayonet sticking out a small fraction beyond an inch and comes equipped with aperture type battle sights that go out to 1000m. The rifle is also made to fire a new, rimless pointed cartridge developed by Laar himself in 7.92×57mm (Also known as 8mm Baltic) using a cordite propellant, a cartridge the war department is so impressed with that they decide to adopt as well, and they soon develop charger clips that can be fed into the rifle to load five rounds at a time as, though the detachable magazine can be replaced with another filled with ten rounds, the process is somewhat complex due to the shape of lip of the magazine where it meets the chamber in addition to commanders fearing that soldiers may lose additional magazines when deployed in the field. The rifle is adopted as the Magazine Laar-Häyhä (MLH), and a shorter version is soon produced called the Small Magazine Laar-Häyhä (SMLH).
-The Rifle becomes beloved amongst the soldiers who carry it into battle, and the general public at large. Infantrymen coming into the Entente are forced to perform a "mad minute" in training with the rifle, scoring a minimum of 15 hits with the gin onto a 12" round target at 275 meters in under a minute, though with the smoothness of the bolt, many often exceed this, with the average being about 28. The rifle is so beloved amongst the Entente that the king has a half scale model of the SMLH that shoots a half scale cartridge made for his young son so that the two can hunt and shoot together. To protect his sons head, the King also manages to arrange for a Medieval “Kettle hat” to be brought as well. The military, hearing of this, decides to conduct field tests where they shoot the Kettle hat with rifles. They are pierced at closer ranges, but by making them out of the stronger steel imported from Mann, they can provide protection from most forms of shrapnel and the occasional stray bullet.
-As the Entente is still the head of the Baltic Union, they make several moves to integrate Sweden into the Entente and effectively annex this. This begins with stronger diplomatic pressure, and concludes with the military being sent in and enacting virtual occupation. The surprised Swedish are unsure of how to react but with strong words, and call the occupation illegal. Despite the spread of new propaganda leaflets encouraging Sweden to become part of the Entente and use of subterfuge in doing this, the inhabitants of Sweden react poorly. The rise of nationalism there comes at a bad time too, and heavy protesting and rioting later breaks out as the period wears on. Political parties advocating a strong Swedish nation grow in popularity, and soon the unrest spreads to other parts of the Entente.
-The Entente purchases a Majestic class Greek steamship, and ends up retrofitting it with new equipment and making it the most advanced piece of equipment afloat. It has a radio telegraph machine onboard, allowing the operator to contact various locations on land instantly and accurately. A powerful advantage it indeed is, and soon the Entente is expanding shipyards and creating these ships in addition. Unfortunately, the capacity of the Entente to build these ships is limited, and the cost of doing so is especially high, mostly due to the use of the latest equipment (including radio telegraphy).
-As the country begins to gradually import steel and iron for use in construction (mostly from Sweden), the architectural implications of this advance are starting to be exploited. Buildings have already been built with metal frameworks and reinforcement for some time now, but rarely has it been the case that buildings were deliberately built with the iron or steel skeleton taking up most of the stress instead of merely reinforcing the existing structure. Moves have been made towards using cast iron or steel girders to create a strong internal skeleton for the building, around which the floors and walls are built. Not only does it make the building stronger and cheaper to build, but it opens up space, meaning fewer walls and pillars are needed. In turn, better ventilated, well lit, and light buildings are better able to make use of the space in cities and to be built higher if so desired. The first such buildings begin to appear in Riga, and even have elevators inside of them to move people between floors. To commemorate recent advances in architecture, a project is commissioned for a giant iron framework tower to be built in Riga, intended to be the tallest building in the world.
-A patent office is officially established, protecting the intellectual rights of various patentees and generally making it possible for inventors to profit from their work. Various inventions begin to slowly proliferate as a result, including the gramophone, the elevator, the typewriter, radio, the safety razor, the aerated shoe, the cholera belt (a belt which prevents you from getting cholera and doesn’t work), the shoe umbrella, the bra, the fish walker (a fishtank on wheels), a miniature golf set for use when on the toilet, a sleeping bag which the user can walk in, a hat with a wig glued to the top, a necklace to hold wine glasses, the rotary ice cream cone, and the saxophone. A new soft drink, flavoured with cola nuts and cocaine, with carbon dioxide dissolved in it, is also invented. It is granted a monopoly and begins to sell well throughout the entente, providing a suitable “kick” to those feeling down or tired.
-To aid industrialization and to make patenting simpler, the metric system is made standard throughout the country, while shipbuilding and metalworking sees investment. Unfortunately, agriculture is still severely lagging behind, and while heavy industry is growing steadily, light industry and commercial services are still doing quite poorly. Consumerism is low and most of the new inventions brought in so far are little appreciated or sold widely. Even then, some foreigners have begun to use them more or even produce them themselves, much to the disappointment of the residents of the Entente. People continue to move to the cities to work in heavy industries or to join the army, causing the military-industrial complex to grow. Otherwise, economic growth and development is stagnant.
-The colony in Greenland expands, backed by the efforts of various fishermen, fur trappers, hunters, and whalers seeking to make a living there. Pasture is having some success, although the ecology is considerably weak and unable to support a great number of grazing animals. Growth is slow, and surveyors and explorers continue to move across Greenland, discovering mostly river valleys or ice sheets. The warming climate does help incrementally, although humans are largely unaware of the change in warming or care much for it. The first study of ice sheets is published, a series of reports stretching back over forty years, reporting that yes indeed, some of the ice sheets have retreated several hundred metres and calve more frequently.
Phoenician soldiers in Nigeria
Mallow234 – Phoenician Federation
Capital: Mdina
Culture: Phoenician (Semitic)
State Religion: Canaanite
-As the industrial revolution matures in the great Phoenician Empire, labourers have swarmed cities in search of work. For Phoenicians, they have one of the most rapidly improving living standards, marked by increased wages and a plethora of more goods to consume. Unfortunately, as the price of labour rises, many industries have to find ways to keep down costs, and one of these is automation, and to use unskilled workers. Into the breach steps a clever inventor by the same of Harrison Jones, who manages to take several manufacturing processes and integrate them all together. He manufactures rifles, and introduces a system whereby the rifles are moved along a conveyer belt. Along the belt, workers add pieces to the gun in simplistic steps, gradually building it up and producing a finished product at the end. Not only does it cut down on production costs, but production can be kept constant and individual steps are carefully examined and later automated. Thus begins the process of semi-automation. The process begins to be expanded out from just rifles, into making biscuits, steam engines, electrical equipment, and an assortment of many other goods.
-In return for clearing a lot of La Platas debts and sending a lot of railway equipment and machinery to help build up their railway networks, they have been sent blueprints and designs to the internal combustion engine and oil drilling machinery as well. The excited military gets to work, setting up several wells in the colonies and refining the oil. The first automobiles, crude and weak machines, trundle around the streets of some Phoenician cities and military bases. The Phoenicians are keen on building vast fleets of these automobiles, but many engineers are still taking the time to perfect and develop these things. The civilian market is almost non-existent, with much of it composed of gentlemen and engineers who build their own cars, often for fun. Even by 1080, they are still not widely popular. Their numbers are low, the miles of paved road low, their suspensions are terrible, the coverage of petrol stations low, and they tend to be slow. The first accident caused by a car is when a group of people were told to get out of the way of an incoming automobile. The crowd slowly walked out of the way, not taking it seriously, when a local politician happened to run out in front of it without realizing the car was there. He was knocked down and suffered an injury that later killed him.
-The military efforts to replace horses with automobiles have largely failed so far due to the problems mentioned above. They do introduce reforms to the standard rifle however, replacing all infantry models with the cavalry carbine. The carbine is phased in to become the main service rifle, as the weight and size of the old rifle is starting to become a liability in warfare. With the new rifles and any of the cars that don’t break down or run out of fuel along the way, the Phoenicians expand rapidly into the rest of Africa in the hopes of claiming the last gaps before somebody else does. One group of adventurous soldiers clamber onto a truck and drive over the plains past a tribal village, where the residents come out and chase them on horseback. The soldier’s gun down those mounted on horseback and later drive into the village, where they inform the residents that they have brought civilization to them. The truck breaks down however, forcing them to leave on foot, while the tribal elders mock the men in the disloyal metal beast. Many new areas of land are in prime locations for drilling oil, which the Phoenicians immediately get to doing, setting up wells and pumping out the black gold, before processing and exporting it. Demand is still somewhat low and taking a while to rise, but it is hoped that when the infrastructure is in place and the costs of automobile manufacturing drops, that the demand for oil will skyrocket.
-The navy begins to introduce anti-submarine nets, consisting of large nets hung over the side of ships to stop torpedoes before they hit the ship. While ungainly, cumbersome, and only useful against slow moving blunt torpedoes, they do bring peace of mind to those fearing the sinking of capital ships by torpedo attack. Large versions of these nets and booms over the mouths of rivers and harbours are used to deter submarines and torpedoes as well, in case of threat of attack.
-The Phoenician state begins plans to split the southern possessions of their African dominions into carefully-researched independent states. Surveys are done with an eye to making sure that no opposing ethnicities occupy the same nation and escalate conflict. The plans so far are for them to be nominally independent with their own government and laws, but their foreign relations and trade controlled by the Phoenician foreign office. How the military is resolved is still not clear yet, and these plans will take a while to come to fruition. The intended course of action is for the rising middle classes of the colonies (composed of Phoenician immigrants and uplifted natives) to take power, but there are many administrators who argue that setting up semi-independent kingdoms to run themselves might be better than relying on democratic institutions, at least, for the time being.
-The national telegraph network continues to grow, linking up vast distances and bringing information from and to all parts of the world as quickly as an operator can tap and write. To speed up transmission rates and simplify the system, a national code called the Telegraph Alphabet is adopted. Under this system signals are translated automatically into typographic characters. Each character is assigned a unique code based on the sequence of just five contacts. Operators have to maintain a steady rhythm, and the usual speed of operation is 30 words per minute. Engineers and other technicians are hoping to double this speed in several years. Automated printers and keyboard which can take a keyed message and print it at the other end are also being developed, but they tend to be horribly slow and unreliable.
-As turbine and compound engine ships (and some smaller diesel ones appear) become more common among merchant shipping, speeds are improving and crude refrigeration units can be powered onboard. Ships can take fresh food and other perishables across oceans in record time, and travel times continue to shrink. Shipping companies are starting to introduce cross-Atlantic and cross-Mediterranean trips for heavily reduced prices. This is the final step which begins to remove clippers from the picture. These ships are still heavily tied down by coal however, with a lot of space reserved for coal storage, water tanks, and labourers needed to stoke the boilers and maintain the engines. Suggestions are made for using oil instead, but most of the engines currently in use are too weak and feeble to power many of the larger ships.
-Of course, all of these major investments cost a great deal of money, and since Phoenicia took up a lot of debt held by La Plata and sent them a lot of equipment and machinery, there is the pressing issue of debt for the current administration. The Phoenician government decides to sell Bali, the Marshall Islands, the Marianas, and Wake to the Greeks in return for unlimited free access through the Suez for their ships, and basing rights in the Indian Ocean. Somewhat unpopular (especially in the navy, as a lot of their power in the Pacific has been reduced and ship patrols go elsewhere). It is applauded by the businessmen however, who begin to sail directly to India and China to conduct trade.
Scottish immigrants in the Florida colony drilling for oil
Griffster26 – Kingdom of Scotland
Capital: Dùn Èideann
Culture: Scottish (Celtic)
State Religion: Christian (Iberian)
-The Scottish have become interested recently in acquiring oil for some reason, and have managed to create an industrial process that takes advantage of their vast coal reserves. It is discovered that when manufacturing coke, the “waste” products can be collected for additional uses. These products are usually a thick tar like sludge and a mixture of gases. The gases are first split up into separate fractions (the gases being converted into a fuel gas and the other into ammonia), while the coal tar is turned into lubricating oils or bitumen. Through further treatment, one can break up the long chain molecules to produce shorter chain ones to create lighter oils and gases, increasing yields and profits. Of course, most oils and gases are still used for cooking, lighting, lubricating, heating, and several other uses. Nobody has thought of using it in an engine though, for they tend to be far too volatile. That is of course, if you think of using external combustion.
-Naval fortifications are expanded, rebuilt, and generally have their equipment updated. Heavier breechloading artillery pieces, thick masonry walls, and equipment to aid in observation and calculation are introduced, allowing for heavier shells to be delivered more quickly and accurately to further away targets. Of course, this is immensely costly, and only really useful on targets upon the sea.
-During this time, three baseball teams are formed, often competing with the Greeks and those of other nations. These are as follows: male Scottish Highlanders, the female Scottish Nessies, and the Little League Scottish Selkies.
-As a way of offloading a problem and moving it elsewhere, the Scottish introduce a new policy which gives free tickets to colonists to move to Florida. Florida is a desolate and swampy land, filled with hostile animals and diseases, not to mention inhabitants whose economy is dependent upon foreigners visiting. A number of Muslims take up the offer, and several thousand travel to Florida, whereupon they discover it is completely shit. The heat and humidity is unbearable, while the diseases fell many. Quinine and other medical supplies are often in short supply, while the natives constantly raid them. Later, they have managed to set up several sugarcane and tobacco plantations, although their profitability is not impressive. Many more decide to turn the main colonial port into a busy trading town, acting as an intermediary between the native nations and the European powers. The rest of the colonists simply ignore where they are told to settle, and instead move north into the more hospitable areas.
-More colonies are set up and established with assistance from the Scottish government. One colony on the Horn of Africa is set up (presumably to profit from trade in the area), with mixed success. It is not yet large or prestigious or well supplied enough to assist the coal steamers which have begun to regularly ply the waters there, but it is able to become a decent place for many traders to stop off by. The Scottish also sail all the way to the Northeast of Siberia nearby the Wapanese Empire in hopes of setting up a colony. To their dismay, they find that the Wapanese are in fact already there, and politely inform them that they cannot set up a colony where the Wapanese are already established.
-Edward the 5th of Scotland dies giving a speech talking about how old he is and how he will die soon. He is then succeeded by his Iberian Christian son David Moresby II also known as the "Black Prince" for his love of the colour black and his military prowess. He begins a process allowing the voluntary deportation of Muslims dissatisfied with his father's rule and changes the flag to a much more modern one. David Moresby II then surprises everyone as he brings out the exiled leaders of the Misiryaban Caliphate and they all put on their respective fascist armbands while he shouts 'Hir yn byw y Wladwriaeth yr Alban a'r Mwslimiaid!' (Long live the State of Scotland and the Muslims!), as the leader of Misiryaban shouts out afterwards: 'Hir yn byw y Islamaidd Califf Lloegr!' (Long live the Islamic caliph of England!), David then says to the crowd: 'Nemo me impune lacessit' (No one "cuts" (attacks) me with impunity).
Misiryaban revolutionaries marching on a Spanish military base
KingArcher – The National Socialist Misiryabanni Workers Party
HQ: Misiryaban
Culture: Turkish
State religion: Islam (Sunni)
-The people of Former Misiryaban are bitter at the loss of their great country, the birthplace of the industrial revolution now sweeping the world. A radical political party, built around the ideas of the book “Benim mücadelem” (already banned by the Spanish) has formed recently. This book describes their party leader's life and how it wasn't their fault that the once glorious empire fell. It was the damned Welsh and Scottish traitors that strangled industry and crippled the nation. It's a call to action and nationalism to liberate Misiryaban from the Spanish and take revenge out upon those who fought to destroy the country years ago.
-A party newspaper is established, spewing vitriol and publishing detailed accounts of the injustices of the Spanish who occupy the country. Heavily suppressed at first, the decline and instability of Spain is making it more difficult to keep the country controlled. Economic depression, the weakness of industry and agriculture in general, the presence of foreign merchants in great numbers, and the poor treatment of Muslims have only increases unrest. Support for the party grows.
-Eventually, an uprising is declared by the party. Supplied with air rifles and suspiciously modern usual rifles, they declare general uprisings in several cities, pushing out the demoralized and underpaid Spanish soldiers. The Spanish state responds with usual lethargy, pulling back soldiers into Wales (they were expelled from England, and Spain is unwilling to embroil themselves in a conflict with the English), where the Welsh are passing desperate measures to keep the Muslims of the southern part of the country under check.
-An interesting new technology has appeared as well. Some chemicals become darkened on exposure to light, and by using a pinhole camera and various other pieces of equipment, one can produce photographic copies of the scene beheld to the viewer rather accurately and realistically. Despite taking a while for the pictures to take and develop, the costs being somewhat high, not to mention the fact the photos are in black and white, they have become popular in Misiryaban. In particular, they are being heavily abused by the National Socialists. Many cameras are often hidden in positions overlooking protests and rallies. Whenever trouble strikes up, the teams are quick to work at taking photographs, before printing them in papers and spreading around pictures of “Spanish atrocities”. These pictures often have dead bodies deliberately moved into different poses for dramatic effect. The party paper is soon established as the only legitimate paper in the country, with all other papers banned.
-With the revolution underway, most of the urban areas and the south of the country have been lost. The Irish are the first to recognize this new state, and begin to immediately send those arms, supplies, and other goods to aid in the removal of the Spanish. Many Welsh and Scottish people are forced to flee the country, or are otherwise arrested and put to work in factories and work camps to support the revolution. Many of these enslaved prisoners die from disease and overwork, and are often the subject of abuse from Misiryabani guards.
Afro-Asia
Troops in Akihabara, shortly before the assault on the royal palace and the deposing of Battoshitto
YogiTheWise - The Weeaboo Empire
Capital: Akihabara
Culture: Wapanese (Japonic)
State Religion: Waifuism (Classical)
-With more innovations from Europe flooding in, the Wapanese have been very adaptive and clever with them. Particularly, the advance of steam power and engineering has yielded fruit. By taking propeller blades and arranging them inside tubes through which steam is forced, one can efficiently convert heat into kinetic energy (and by extension, electrical energy). The steam turbine has already been around for some number of years in the more industrialized and modern parts of the world, but the modernizing Wapanese Empire has not only managed to import and redesign several models, but to build up facilities to manufacture them themselves. The main advantage of the turbine is in electrical power generation, although equipment and infrastructure necessary for electricity is heavily undeveloped, a power plant is eventually built in Akihabara. It struggles to break even, on account of poor electrical infrastructure and lack of electrical machinery. Most turbines are instead used in ships, allowing them to cover vast distances in short time periods. Several records are eventually set for trans-Pacific crossings, and when the Wapanese buy Greek ships, they refit them with the new turbines and generally make them slimmer and easier to manoeuvre. The Wapanese modernization programme extends to firearms and artillery as well. Buying new models from the Greeks, they begin to build facilities for their manufacture and begin outfitting the army with the new bolt action rifles and heavy steel artillery.
-After Emperor Battoshitto II Desunoto stepped onto the throne in 1061 it became immediately clear he was batshit insane. He authorized massive atrocities towards the people of Manchuria; clung to power, gave out conflicting orders, and executed anyone who would show even a hint of disagreement. He was often seen consulting loudly with his pet macaque and attempting to eat silverware. People soon became tired and furious with having someone so inadequate at the helm of the country. Massive protests soon degenerated into riots. An organized faction was assembled, led by Battoshitto’s older sister Mai, who promised people representation and clarity in the government. Battoshitto tried to exile his sister, forcing her to take direct action. With the bulk of the army away committing war crimes in Manchuria, Batoshitto’s bodyguard crumbled quickly when rebels lead by Mai bribed them. The coup culminated in October of 1066, when the Imperial Palace was besieged and broken in. Battoshitto himself was found in muttering madly the corner of his bedroom, in a puddle of his own urine and faeces. He was beheaded on the spot. Legend claims that during his funeral, his own macaque let out a single sigh of relief.
-Following these events, Mai became Empress, and according to her promises established a parliament and constitution. Parliament handled legislative power, but the Empress still held executive power, appointed ministers and had the right to veto laws. Elections to the parliament were to be held every 5 years. Thus, with the constitution and the establishment of a new political order, Wapan left the rule of the Emperors and entered the rule of the masses.
-One of the first things the new Empress approved after the revolution was a massive electrification project. A private Phoenician company was contracted to electrify Wapan, and in exchange they would have a monopoly on dynamite exports to Phoenicia. She also approved the establishment of a sanitation board and an energy board. The sanitation board is responsible for the surveying of all the old sewers and streams in the cities, the hiring of architects and engineers to plan out modern sewer systems, and the creation of the sewers themselves. The first project begins in Akihabara, where the outbreak of cholera cases have steadily risen
-The sport of baseball spreads from the Eastern Empire and becomes popular in the country. Many prominent teams appear, such as the Akihabara Cats, The Satsuma Samurai and the Katawa Drag Queens. A national league and championship are organised as well, with a national team being assembled from the best Wapanese players to take part in the championship in the Eastern Empire.
-The colony in Papuja (what the Bohemians call it) continues to expand, with the colonists and the governor careful to mark out the border with Bohemia. Spices grow well here, and plantations to grow everything from Nutmeg to Cinnamon for export. With good profits to be made (and natives to convert), the population expands and large ports with solidly built stone housing is erected. A far cry indeed from the wooden shacks occupied by sickly colonists a few decades back. Cartographers and surveyors are commissioned for the final major task of charting the Pacific. They map out all of the available islands, and submit reports to the homeland on suitability of colonization. Most notable is the archipelago of Hawaii, to the east of the islands already claimed by European powers. The islands have been settled relatively recently, within only the past three to four hundred years. Much of the land is still unsettled, and the various small chiefs are happy to allow the Wapanese to build a fort and port in return for manufactured goods.
-The completion of the Suez Canal is a huge boon for Wapan, who has only now begun to exploit the opportunities presented by it. Many Wapanese businesses set up subsidiaries and contacts in Europe, while some isolated Wapanese and Waifu communities manage to keep constant contact with the homeland now. Some of the more wayward re brought in line with the Orthodoxy of Wapan, and missionary efforts are increased. The religion has become a sizable minority within the Greek Empire, with most communities in Egypt and parts of Arabia. Further small communities prosper in Bohemia.
-Attempting to improve and modernize the Titisuc people, the Wapanese are sending even more advisors, equipment, supplies, and missionaries to lift them out of their state of savagery and to make them upstanding citizens. Recently however, the Titisuc ruler died, and being childless, most of his responsibilities were taken over by the Wapanese advisors and administrators, who kept the machinery of state running. The native population is somewhat annoyed, but are happy nonetheless at the improvement in material and social wellbeing. Those conquered by them or the Wapanese are less happy.
Zulu soldiers heading north on the new railway
Satansick – Zulu Empire
Capital: Bulawayo
Culture: Zulu (Bantu)
State Religion: Waifuism (Classical)
-With more artillery pieces being imported, and the need to make the arguments of their Emperor heard, the Zulu state has decided to introduce a formal ordnance board. This board will set up foundries that will facilitate the construction of foundries to manufacture their own heavy artillery pieces (reducing dependence on trade), and improve existing designs as well, in addition to training artillery crews. This goes successfully, with a number of foundries set up and many new heavy guns being made. In particular, there are now three main models of gun. There is the light mortar, intended to lob shot short distances, the field gun, intended for pounding a position and units in a clear line of fire, and heavy artillery, intended to use indirect fire to shell far-off areas where artillery crews and camps may be located. Many of these guns start to be built, weaning the Zulu off the foreign guns slowly. By 1080, they are capable of manufacturing their own if needs be, but often they prefer to import and retrofit existing guns to reduce costs.
-As the Zulu continue their expansion into the heartland of Africa, they are moving faster and conquering more effectively with the use of new modern weaponry, infrastructure, and military reforms. Wars gradually transition into “pacification”, with subtle blackmail and military forts being employed to further military power instead of set piece battles and sieges. The Zulu expand into Kenya and finish at the borders of Somalia, while also securing the lands between the coasts. Wide variations in terrain, climate, and peoples make control tenuous at times, but the Empire has come prepared, starting to build roads and using telegraph cables and railways (when possible) to aid rapid deployment of troops. Further expansion starts to become more difficult when they arrive in the jungles, where disease and slow travel impede progress. Zulu, go north is the creed associated with Glaring Finality, which is the widely held belief in the Zulu Empire that the Zulu were destined to expand throughout the continent, and which drives this rabid expansion north.
-The new Zulu emperor starts his reign with the intention of creating a strong navy to rival the Phoenican and Eastern empire's navies, and to mark the Zulu Empire as a truly global great power. The emperor decides to expand the navy slowly, justifying enlargement through speaking of the growing size of the Empire and her growing global influence and presence. The emperor also reorganizes top level control of the navy by creating a Navy Cabinet equivalent to the Zulu Imperial Military Cabinet which had previously functioned in the same capacity for both the army and navy. The Majestic class of ships is developed into a new class of ships that can be built in the shipyards that the Zulu currently have, be maintained with their existing facilities, and be retrofitted with the new artillery.
-The government raises import controls on consumer goods but relaxes them on capital goods. While helping to stem the import of drugs and other related luxury imports, it tends to annoy many merchants and common people in the towns and cities. More money chases fewer goods, causing inflation and the Zulu government responds by introducing a national bond scheme. By having people buy up government debt, they can buy capital goods from Europe to aid in industrialization. Machinery to manufacture everything from nails to soap and cigarettes are imported, in addition to railway locomotives, rolling stock, telegraphy equipment, and specialized engineers. Railways continue to expand; at a somewhat faster pace as now many countries are starting to produce well trained and sizable classes of engineers and other specialists. Within the Empire, the prices of raw minerals are kept low to encourage the development of native industry and as a form of subsidy to manufacturers. The output of manufactured goods slowly rises, if with some expense, most notably with the government taking on a lot of debt to fund all of these projects. A lot of machinery that looks suspiciously like those in Europe is noticed as well, many of them appearing to be prototypes or brand new models clouded in secrecy. Several Greek and Phoenicians complain and attempt to sue factory owners in the Zulu Empire for breaching their patents.
-Zulu delegates visit Weissen and sets up formal diplomatic relations, with embassies in each other countries. The Zulu begin to provide Weissen with money (the drop in mineral exports is reducing revenue) and have begun making stronger relations. Eventually, with a lot of grease, they successfully sign a military alliance.
Khakistani soldiers on campaign, being paid their weekly wage
Milkdiary - The Kingdom of Khakistan
Capital: Aktobe
Culture: Khakistani (Arabic)
State Religion: Islam (Tihrawardiri)
-Khakistan has been rapidly expanding in the past few decades, largely through sending groups of settlers and soldiers to set up an outpost in the middle of nowhere, “claiming” the area. Of course, the land is heavily underdeveloped, and a halt has been put to expansion for now. Until recently, Khakistan has incredibly backward regions in terms of industrial production. Several nobles have travelled into Europe, and brought back several ideas on how to reform the country and ultimately improve the economy. Steel and iron manufacture has historically been costly if you wished to do it on a large scale, but a new technique has been introduced to cut costs. By storing heated air (produced as a byproduct from the blast furnace) in spare chambers before blasting it into the furnace, one can massively reduce fuel costs and improve efficiency. The savings allow for an increase in production and subsequently iron production. Only the large foundries are able to adopt it however due to the actual size of the furnaces required. The overall lack of industrial development in Khakistan and poor transport means that iron is still by and large produced on a small scale for local areas. Internal colonization is a top priority however, and after twenty years many small settlements have been established throughout Khakistan.
-Military reform is another nagging problem, which requires resolution if the country is to become strong enough to not only defend her lands, but carry the fight abroad. European dress is introduced, with strong leather boots and cotton clothing for uniform, while standardized muskets are also made common. Soldiers are relentlessly drilled, firing a volley or two before following up with a bayonet charge. While military doctrine is out of date by about half a century, this is more than enough to take on the Asiatic Khans and Siberian tribes with, along with being sufficient enough to break up undisciplined rebels. Tax reform also manages to provide a steady line of revenue to support this new army, with soldiers paid enough that they don’t loot peasants houses for food.
-Much of the rural life of the country is still pretty peasants toiling for subsistence. Gathering together, they in kolkhoz (a type of rural commune). The land is largely held in common, preventing peasants from selling it off and moving to the cities as has happened in much the rest of the world in recent decades. The country is nominally Muslim, for the vast bulk of the population still follows many pagan customs practiced since the Neolithic. The monarchy have been strong in stating that Islam is a serious and strong religion to follow by, often arresting and exiling people who refuse to follow Allah. The cry “Glory to Khakistan. Allahu Akbar!” is frequent among the evangelized masses, mostly in the bordering or ethnic minority regions. Many exiles choose to flee into the Siberian wastes when the state tries to crack down on them, setting up separate small settlements throughout the region. While not a threat, their connections to the networks of traders and trappers mean that as the population grows, they could block off further expansion, and become a threat in the far future.
Shanghai revolutionaries
Telepethi – The Shanghai Confederacy
Capital: Shanghai
Culture: Han
State Religion: Confucianism
-After centuries of near stagnation in the Heavenly Kingdom, China has begun to open up, as European merchants and businessmen flood her shores, bringing many new exotic inventions and ideas. The Yuan dynasty, a successor to the Mongols of old, continues to cling onto power in wake of the collapse of the great Khanate. The state has been in longterm decline, with many outlying provinces and their governors gradually withholding tax revenues and the quality of the national army diminished. A “Self-Strengthening” movement rises out of this, wishing to preserve the power of the dynasty and strengthen China before foreigners tear her apart (the Greeks have been flexing their muscles and the rise of the Wapanese is another cause for concern) or she herself is plagued by revolutionaries. Signing a treaty with the Greeks, the Chinese export tea, silk, and other luxury goods to a monopoly virtually held by the Greeks. In return, they buy their machines, and some important modernization is made in the dying years of the regime. Most new factories are located in the busy southern and eastern ports, where cheap labour and ready access to resources makes their development ideal. However, the vast interior of the countryside is still largely unaffected, with most of the inhabitants still living as their forefathers did. While internal markets, toll roads, canals, and farms are all well developed, migrants gradually push east and north (supported by firearms to ward off nomads) due to population pressures and rising land prices. Communications are poor, weakening central government control even further, and making quashing rebellion more difficult.
-A number of revolutionaries, called the “Shanghai conspiracy” begin secretly plotting to overthrow the corrupt Yuan dynasty. They are so named because they are based out of Shanghai. Educated in the west and often members of radical political organisations, working secretly together with other revolutionaries to overthrow the dynasty and declare a republic. In 1062, October 9th, a bomb went off in the office of the revolutionary socialist party. The local police arrived and discovered a membership list, with which they began to raid multiple party offices and meeting places. They shoot four publicly, one of them being a soldier in a local garrison. The soldiers mutinied and occupied the local armoury, where they then began a firefight with Mongol soldiers and ousted them from the city of Wuhan. The revolution soon spread to Shanghai, where the conspiracy declared itself to be the new and legitimate government of China. Unfortunately, it is hardly very revolutionary. Composed of a thin sprinkling of revolutionaries, the remainder consists of an alliance of military men and landed gentry, with little connection to the rest of the people of China or taste for radical change.
-As the Shanghai confederacy consolidates power in the city of Shanghai, a Han military commander takes control of Wuhan, organizing the defence of the city. He repels an Imperial counterattack, which causes the whole of Hubei to break into rebellion. By 1064, the rebellion spreads to seven provinces, some of which are loyal to the republicans, some to the Shanghai confederacy. The merchants in Canton later reject the Imperial government, and with little support, the Mongols flee north. By the end of the 1060s, China gradually breaks down as a patchwork of various states grows like tumours within the Empire. In Bejing, the Yuan still claim the mandate of heaven, taking advantage of the fact the Mongols are next door to act as allies (both rulers are cousins), promising to remove the Republicans, Confederacy, and the Guangxi from power and restore imperial control.
-The Shanghai Confederacy declares the Mongols to have lost the mandate of heaven, and begins to immediately round up Mongol ethnics and send them to slave in industry and mining to support the revolution. They promote the idea of an "Ideal Chinese Individual" as Han Chinese and urge that all Chinese should strive to be this. Despite a lack of nationalism, it does not stop the Confederacy from trying to define it in their terms and impose it upon the Chinese. They say that a strong China is a unified China, and the only way to achieve that is through hard work, perseverance, and loyalty to the Confederacy. Slaves and labourers are immediately put to work building railways and importing foreign arms, and expanding the national army. The Republicans and Guangxi are unwilling to work with them however, and refuse to go to war on basis that they hate the Mongols more. Soon after this events, the Koreans rebel and declare independence, and begin pushing out the Mongols.
Hanajia/Emerika and Pacific
-Carufonia has completed another major project to shrink the world. The shopkeepers who built a railway line to the Sierra Nevada (with the aid of explosives and armies of labourers) managed to extend even further. Racing through the salt flats and then over the Great Plains of the continent, they eventually hit a slight problem when the line runs into a country now more organized and developed than the surveyors 20 years prior had discovered. Further construction of the transcontinental railway is unable to continue, prompting the Carufonians to focus efforts back home and to discuss areas suitable for colonization. Border disputes are also causing problems with the Laurentians.
The streets of Uusi piiri
Ruskie – Konfederaation lääneissä Kauppias Mailla
Capital: Uusi piiri
Culture: Taputtaailainen
State Religion: Secular
-A new cultural movement, growing out of a reaction to the enlightenment, seems to be gaining traction within the Confederation. Initially begun by philosophers who sought to define what it meant to be a Taputtaailainen, they continued by asserting that various lands must have ethnicities who have a right to that land due to a shared history, culture, and language. Poets, writers, and composers carry this idea further by emphasizing the importance of emotion to humans (as opposed to reason). Their ideas end up influencing the arts enough to become a movement known as “Romanticism”. The implications of it carry far, as many in the Confederation (especially due to the influence of industrialization and globalization) are starting to see their nation as being under threat. Only by expansion to include their “national” territories will the long term safety of the nation be ensured. This entails expansion in all directions. As the population rapidly rises and agriculture becomes mechanized, this means that a lot of migrants are heading out into underpopulated areas to settle them. Of course, a lot of land is already owned by other people, but that doesn’t stop the Confederation from using the military to enforce control of these lands. This period is one in which the Confederation grows significantly, aided by the recent development of railways and the perfection of cavalry forces within the army.
-The shock of industrialization becomes too much for some politicians in the country to bear. Inflation, which is rapidly rising within the country, begins to be controlled when the Federal Reserve starts to change several policies. They start by reducing subsidies to agriculture, and increasing interest rates. This has a knock on effect of suddenly stopping the rapid expansion of agriculture, as many farmers now have to put more money to servicing loans and have less support from the state. Of course, expansion is still considerably rapid, especially in undeveloped areas. To protect the countries nascent industries from foreign competition, tariffs are placed on various manufactured goods, largely because some of the iron foundries recently established are struggling. Agriculture competes heavily for labour with them, and many farmers find it cheaper to import European iron.
-With displaced farmers and others colonizing new lands, the 'osasto laajennus' [Department of Expansion] is created. This department is tasked with charting unexplored land, giving colonists the required information and goods, and lastly expanding official government control to these new areas. They more or less legitimize a process already underway, setting out parcels of land and selling them to farmers. They then follow up by sending soldiers with colonists to enforce these claims to land, often removing native populations in the process and forcing them to move elsewhere. Road and railway expansion follows later, although the development of heavy industry is still somewhat stifled. The focus on agriculture, while bringing a great deal of wealth to the Confederation, has left industry in a doldrums that finds it difficult to keep up. What’s worse is that the Europeans collapse of agriculture has forced them to focus heavily on industry, with the result that the Confederation has found it nearly impossible to develop their own industry beyond the most basic facilities needed to maintain railways and manufacture firearms.
-The 'Kasvatustieteiden laitos' [Department of Education] is created. Setting up schools around the nation, they teach students how to read, write, how to manage finances, the history of the nation, and outdoor skills (largely for those intended to colonize or be soldiers). It is a costly endeavour, and many question the value of the new education. As it covers only young children (up to the age of 14) and is provided for free, most parents are willing to send their children off to school. Those who are in desperate poverty, the criminal underworld, and isolated rural communities, tend not to go to school however. The quality of education itself is also considerably poor, with hundreds of students packed into classrooms where teachers order students to copy down lessons on plates and having trainee teachers assist them in running classes. Long term however, it is an important first step in the creation of the education system. By 1080, most people under the age of 20 have some experience with the new system, with the main improvement noted being in the increasing circulation of newspaper and pamphlets, indicative of a growing literate population.
-Finally, various merchants, companies, and other individuals have begun to travel to Europe. Always on the lookout for a profit, they gradually manage to wiggle their way into many markets and sneak out various inventions or ideas. Sometimes they set up good deals with foreigners and manage to buy industrial equipment and machinery for use back home. While industry in the Confederation still often suffers, there are some areas with significant and rapid improvement. The first locomotive workshop is set up in 1074, and several shipyards to build and maintain clippers are spreading throughout the country. Making use of the country’s vast forests and the availability of cheap foreign textiles and metal, fleets of cheap clippers are being bought, outfitted, and built. Exports of farming products continue to expand (although more slowly as increased competition forces down prices), with many ports swelling into huge aggregations of warehouses and manufactories. Europeans continue to buy cheap agricultural products in bulk, selling industrial equipment in turn. Most industrial equipment tends to be farming machinery and railway locomotives, and this period can be seen as one where the expansion of railways began to take off. Coal mines have also rapidly expanded, and have done considerably well. It is cheaper to mine the vast coal reserves at home than to import it, with the result being that by 1070, the country has managed to push European coal merchants out of the Confederation. By 1080, steamships have begun to appear among private individuals and companies, largely using obsolete European vessels and cheap domestic coal. They mostly ply rivers and lakes for the time being, and Atlantic crossings are rare.
Coffee pickers in Xerxes
Crossu88 – Xerxes
Capital: Ulysses
Culture: Xerxes
State Religion: Titus
-Seeking to further improve their abilities in warfare, Xerxes develops a new form of uniform intended to blend in with the local environment. Called camouflage, it consists of colouring clothing with dirty or dull colours that match those of the environment you are fighting in. Green may be used in a wet forest, while yellow is used in more arid location. Complementing their military strategy, it is immensely useful in attacking isolated or small units, skirmishes, raids, and other such small conflicts. The Bohemians however are very wary of this already, and most of the time tries to entice Xerxen soldiers to come out of hiding into the open, where they can be shot. Since either side are often unwilling to budge, this more than often results in stalemates, minus in border raids where farms, villages, and supply depos are usual targets.
-To assist modernization and to bring the military on par with the Bohemians, they continue to buy Greek weaponry with money raised from drugs and agriculture. Heavy steel artillery pieces, rifles, and cartridges are all being bought up in huge quantities, lining many a businessman’s pockets and making many holes in people. Reforms complete the process of breaking up soldiers into small and mobile mutually supporting groups, armed with rifles and using encirclement to force an enemy to rout or be taken prisoner.
-The transportation corps is formed, with the curious task of transporting troops by wagon instead of marching, which slows down the army when the number of pack animals, wagons, and good quality roads needed is shown to be lacking. Wagon trains also generally travel slower, and the poor state of roads (especially in borderland regions) makes moving supplies and soldiers worse. The military reverts to marching most of the time, moving slowly but discreetly. Unfortunately, mobility is little improved, making rapid assaults difficult, for while the first wave can move quickly, reinforcements and supplies take longer. The cautious approach of many generals and officers means they are also unlikely to exploit opportunities that present themselves too.
-With drug abuse starting to slowly rise, the state has hit upon the clever idea of encouraging the industrialization of the drugs industry, in particular, for high end drugs. The land is further cleared (with little regard for the wildlife or native inhabitants), plantations expanded, warehouses built, and chemistry labs built to extract and refine these drugs. Domestic consumption does not fall, but rather, rises. Real wages slowly rise for industrial and urban workers, but small farmers are starting to feel the pinch as agriculture gradually mechanizes and output increases. Many of them start to fall into poverty, either joining the army or moving to the cities. The army expands to a huge 350,000 (most of them with poor morale), armed with the latest in guns bought with drug money. Propaganda continues to be printed, children enrolled in schools, and patriotism encouraged. This is the first generation to see a significant proportion of the population literate, and living in or around urban areas or industry.
-To encourage the native tribes to join Xerxes, many missionaries and soldiers are sent into villages and towns scattered in the lands between Brazil and Xerxes, speaking loudly of the threat posed by colonialist white men who raid defenceless farms. Xerxes then gives the natives firearms and tells them to raid defenceless farms owned by white people. While moderately successful at bringing over some tribes, it horribly backfires when the pressing need for land becomes acute. Population growth and migration is pushing farmland gradually in the direction of Brazil (the Brazillians are expanding likewise towards them). Caught in the middle, the natives often join and fight both sides in an increasingly desperate struggle. They demand their own land to live in, and to live in peace. Both sides are unwilling to give in, and the borderlands become increasingly turbulent. The most notable disparity is in infrastructure. While the Bohemians use railways all the time, Xerxes is forced to rely on dirt roads or rivers.
-With still no means of getting rid of all of the money the new moneyed farmers now have, they continue to pour the money into real estate. Land prices begin to skyrocket throughout the 1070s, in conjunction with rents. Many smallholder farmers are pushed even deeper into poverty, the cost of rural labour drops, and many migrate to the cities, further inflating rents. By 1080, real estate prices have reached ridiculous levels, with many people starting to buy land and waiting for prices to rise before reselling it. Land is concentrated into the hands of less people, and many risk their lives enough to set up home in the borderlands, filled with much warfare and misery.
-The expansion of railways, industry, and schools has led to Xerxes starting to catch up with the European powers, much of it fuelled by expansion into virgin lands and exploitation of natural resources. Agriculture is still the backbone of the economy (particularly drugs, fruits, spices, and sugar), but a slowly growing industrial sector built around maintaining and expanding the railway network, in addition to the military-industrial complex, is coming into being. High land prices have encouraged deforestation and land reclamation projects on a massive scale, with the land chocked full of freshly planted crops.
-Xerxes decides that a large invasion in response to the Bohemians is a good idea. Using tricks to inflate the apparent number of soldiers on the march (by pitching extra tents, lighting more campfires, etc) they are able to initially trick the Bohemian army into thinking that a major assault was to take place on the capital of Brazil. However, to get the mock invasion force nearby, this required taking out or bypassing several outposts. At the first outpost however, an airship team was able to take off before the Xerxes soldiers could catch them, the airship carrying vital information on Xerxen army movements. Realizing that letting them go would ruin the plan, an advance guard chased after them to stop the crew before they reached a telegraph station. This lasted for several days, with the airship team taking turns and dodging bullets. Leakage of gas became a major problem towards the end of the flight, with two men landing to sacrifice themselves. They reached the telegraph station in time and messaged back about the phony invasion plan due in three days. The Bohemians quickly put their men back onto the railways and sent them to the border outposts.
-Xerxes invades a wide stretch of land in the northwest of the colony, unaware of the reinforcements. Many of the frontline soldiers are gunned down by Bohemians, and their cavalry devastated. Forced to retreat, the Bohemians press the advantage by moving out of their trenches and fortifications out into open sugarcane fields. There, the Xerxen forces shell the Bohemians with their famous Relámpago strategy being employed. Cavalry and infantry forces broke through shortly afterwards and pushed back the Bohemians, although with severe losses. The war comes to a stalemate, although the borderlands are suitably devastated. The Xerxen attempts to break through are often foiled by the Bohemians use of railways and airships to give forward information. The Xerxen focus on decentralized warfare and rapid movement is good for warfare in the homeland, but as a way to push the fight into enemy lands it is exceedingly lacking. The plan requires that the Xerxen forces can resupply and convey orders faster than their foes, and unfortunately, the Bohemians have superiority in both. Railways and telegraph favour the defensive, and the use of airships is cited by many as helping to save the Bohemian colony.
-A conglomerate of businessmen, also in contact with Greek businessmen and several other industrialists have petitioned to the government of Xerxes. On account of the major success of the Suez canal, and wishing to develop the naval and economic power of Xerxes, they have petitioned the government to grant them a lease of land in Panama or Nicaragua, with the intention of constructing a canal. This will allow trade to pass by easily and allow Xerxes to develop her naval capabilities.
German immigrants working in a meat packing plant
VOSK – La Plata
Capital: Nova Vista
Culture: Platean (Latin)
State Religion: Christianity (Iberian)
-The residents of La Plata are trying to find ways to make up for the lack of coal and timber in their country for fuel. While oil can be used for lighting, cooking, heating, and a multitude of other uses, locomotion evades them. Petroleum burns far too quickly for it to be useful as a fuel, until a forgotten old toy is re-examined. An engineer once built a toy gun, which once filled with a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, was ignited with an electric spark to push the cork out. Taking this concept further, a piston has petrol squirted into it, where in the form of gas it can be ignited and produce a small explosion. Refined gradually further and down, several years of experimentation has managed to perfect the firing mechanism. In turn, several of these cylinders are lined up next to each other and used to drive a crankshaft, in turn producing motion. Called an internal combustion engine, it is a smaller and more efficient means of converting fuel into kinetic energy than the steam engine. These small and powerful machines are initially put to work in factories, workshops, and boats that are too small to have a large steam engine. The fact that petrol is lighter and you don’t need to heat up water is another advantage too. Several other variants are also developed (some using lighter or heavier fuels), and some models can also operate on coal gas, making them viable in coal producing nations without access to oil. All of these early internal combustion engines are noisy, unstable, prone to breaking down, and dirty, but they hold a lot of hope. One engineer even bolts one into a cart, and attaching a driving belt and a steering mechanism, he drives a cart around at a speed of 6km/h, before arriving at a hill, where the machine fails him. Other models have been tried on bicycles and railway wagons with similar results.
-A diplomatic treaty is signed with Phoenicia, after they see the potential of such a machine. Buying up various rights to manufacture it at home, and to sell it abroad, the Phoenicians also acquire the rights to oil pumping machinery and refining techniques. In return the Plateans receive extensive material and financial support. Firstly, all of the debt held by Phoenicia is cleared, and then vast quantities of railway track, locomotives, rolling stock, etc are sent directly to La Plata, where the railway network grows rapidly. In the space of 20 years, the network has now grown to cover almost the entire country, cutting down travel costs immensely and speeding up travel. Some lines have begun to be built in unprofitable areas, and now the focus is switching from expansion to refinement of existing lines. There are demands now for short lines and tram networks to be built in the cities, so as to take suburban residents into the cities quickly.
-The deficiencies of the Platean military are duly noted when it is discovered many soldiers perform poorly in the field, often due to a lack of experience and training. The response is to hire more officers and increase the time spent training before going into action. With a stable supply of officers ready, pay is set up accordingly for rank and military division (Navy or Army) and the lower non-officer ranks are expanded and fleshed out with new recruits. The Platean military continues to grow, although lack of experience impedes progress.
-The government gives a short, but simple statement on the draft-dodgers: "You have come to this new land for freedom, to be free of oppression, to practice your religion, to exercise your freedoms. All we ask is three years in return. You aren't doing it just for us, you are doing it for your family, and friends, every Platean citizen, and you are doing it to keep our nation and everyone in it safe.” To sweeten the deal, new recruits are offered a draft bonus. As the culture there becomes more accustomed to the idea, the draft bonus helps convince the remaining population to serve in the military. Only a few small numbers such as those in isolated rural areas, the criminal underworld, and conscientious objectors remain.
-The reformed army receives its first operation, to break up the troublesome natives. Fearing that they might decide to form their own nation and secede, the Platean military moves in to break up existing tribes, and to assimilate them into "Civilized" Platean society. They are moved by force to Raymundo Valdez or Nova Vista, and sent to special schools designed to teach them Portuguese or German. All trouble-makers are dealt with accordingly. The policy is called “save the man, kill the savage”, whereby the old tribes and cultures are purged, while efforts are made to integrate the native into modern society. Over two decades, the military marches into various reservations, tribal lands, and petty chiefdoms, where they remove people and send them to the larger cities of La Plata. Those that remain and fight are shot at by the army and fight an increasingly desperate struggle, eventually with the army being replaced by the police, and the rebels being sent to prison. As the 1070s draws to close, vast scores of native reservations within La Plata have been systematically purged. While many integrate into the new society, many more die of preventable diseases or in poverty on the land they used to own.
-Expansion deeper into South Hanajia is halted, along with needless spending on the Governments part on such expansion. Settlers and Pioneers are still encouraged to expand in the name of La Plata, but they are warned they will not receive government support for the time being. Of course, many native groups take advantage of this by attacking border settlements (often these groups have bought guns from Xerxes or Bohemia) and conducting raids to steal cattle. The military experience of many recruits means many ends up forming militia groups to defend the borders and conduct revenge attacks (some with a lot of brutality involved such as scalping and torture). Atrocities mount on both sides and railway companies feel obliged to hire mercenaries to defend their lines.
-A new project is started to help the budget crisis. Using the surplus cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, fish and chicken, large meat packing plants are set up by the government to pack all of these meats for consumption. Choice cuts are taken from the animals and cured in various ways, and offered at a premium at home and abroad. The left-over parts of the animals that are still edible are packed into greasy tins and cans with "Made in La Plata" stamped on them. These meat chunks, along with a surprisingly tasty gravy made from animal fat are sold at home and abroad en-mass, being very cheap to make, and are sold to Europe and around the world, especially to the poor and war-torn regions of Europe and the world. Even meat extracts are saved, with it being mixed with yeast extract to produce a meaty stock being tinned and sold as well. La Plata quickly becomes a choice place to buy meat from, and exports are well timed as the improvement in transport and communications means markets in Europe can be easily reached. To keep the exported food fresh, large ships are converted to Ice-Ships. These ships are packed with large amounts of ice and snow to keep the meats and food cold and fresh on the voyage across the ocean, and some even make stops in the warmer areas to pick up exotic fruit. Bananas are readily available for the first time in La Plata, although some confused consumers eat the skins as well, assuming those are meant to be eaten.
-Copying the recently imported modern bolt-action weaponry, cannons, ships and other military equipment, the government encourages the development of the Platean military industry. Rifles and artillery are the easiest to produce, but the lack of steel and coal, along with large shipyards impedes progress on replicating the Majestic class of ships developed in Greece. Steel imports expand considerably, with much of it going towards building the new ships, railways, artillery, and rifles. Although costly, much of the bill is footed by Phoenicia and additional funding is derived from taxes on agricultural exports.
-As the Naval and economic power of the nation continues to grow, The Platean Merchant Marine is founded, given many ships paid for by the government. They are the driving force behind the La Plata-Europe trade route. This trade route becomes a hive of activity as La Plata becomes a major agricultural exporter, in return importing steel and capital goods. This trade route begins to be known as the "Silver Causeway" because of the large flow of money over it (silver is usually one of the standards used in this time period), and because of the colour of the meat cans that La Plata exports.
-German is accepted as the second language of La Plata, due to the large number of German immigrants. Within mere years, the average Platean isn’t most likely a Portuguese descendant anymore, but is also likely to be German or Portuguese. With this change the language gradually changes as well, with German phrases and words entering the vocabulary.
The transcontinental railway under construction
[Seed Eater] – Federation of Laurentia
Capital: Timberhaven
Culture: Lakeish
State Religion: Lakeish Paganism
-As Laurentia is further brought into the modern world, one of the most important assets to have is access to coal and mineral supplies. Thankfully, they happen to sit on a lot of land which has both. Unfortunately, it’s all buried underground. To facilitate exploitation of these resources, several pieces of mining equipment and machinery are imported from Europe and the Konfederation next door, along with advisors. Native Laurentians also work together with the new technologies and techniques as well. By expanding on the simple idea of mining ores that lay on the open ground, you can increase production by scraping away layers of soil and rock before simply digging out the ore. To facilitate this, the Laurentians manage to introduce a crude form of steam shovel, a machine which uses large serrated buckets to scoop up the soil and carry it away. Although expensive to buy, they help to increase production and make digging projects easier too.
-As outside forces press upon Laurentia and encourage her to modernize, a decision is finally made by all of the villages and towns of the region. They all meet in Timberhaven to sign a constitution, based upon models adopted in Europe and elsewhere, it affirms basic human rights and lays out how the federation is to be governed. A popular assembly, composed of delegates voted in through democratic means, is established. Furthermore, the actual state begins to be built up and established as something unique and separate from the individual, intended as an entity to rule over Laurentia.
-As part of this, the military is overhauled. Firstly, a permanent military force is created. They are paid regular wages and taught various skills to survive both on and off the field. Curiously, the dichotomy between the soldier and the citizen is discouraged as much as possible. Barracks are often full of families, and soldiers are encouraged to actively participate in civilian life. To this end, they focus on militia forces for communities, promote humanism in soldiering, and focus military efforts on development first, warring last. Many soldiers end up doing second jobs and working in construction projects (such as railways). The relaxed attitude to war, lack of conscription, and the part-time aspect means most soldiers generally spend little time actually as soldiers. There is little in the way of professional soldiering, generals, officers, organized units, artillery, cavalry, engineers, medical or transportation corps, etc. At the least however, this includes annual trips into the harsh wilderness, where survivalist skills, such as trapping, fishing, hunting, and tracking are practiced. Soldiers are granted twenty acres of land (or five acres and a free education) in return for their service of five years.
-The major ports (mostly concentrated in the east of the lakes) are opened up to foreign trade, with restrictions on foreigners lifted and their monies and goods accepted. Many merchants in the Konfederation (and a few Europeans who have travelled here) are keen to invest, often buying agricultural produce and selling it in the Konfederation (or further afield). Unfortunately, the Konfederation holds a number more advantages in both industry and agriculture, plus tends to siphon up most European investment. Luckily, Laurentia is able to buy many used or old equipment and machinery, and even end up procuring enough supplies and support to build a single railway, although at some expense and effort.
-A group of Carufonians, Konfederation, and Laurentian businessmen meet to discuss the possibility of building a railway across the country, finally linking both coasts and cutting down journey times to around 8 days. Although costly and eating up much of the limited industrial capacity and financial and intellectual resources of the country for several years, with some outside assistance the gap is closed, with now both coasts of continental Hanajia linked by rail. With this link in place, people and goods can travel rapidly at little expense, opening up vast tracts of land for settling and development.
-The Laurentian government passes a “Homesteading Act”, which grants any individual (or couple or family) 20 acres of land, with the promise they develop the land and raise a large and healthy family. The sparse few printing presses available in the major towns print out sheets of paper, carving up the land and dividing it out to whoever wants it. Given out for free at meeting halls or post offices, many eager families go onboard trains and go west along the railways into the middle of nowhere, ploughing up land, cutting trees, planting crops, and building whole new villages and towns. Disputes with Wapanese colonists often arise, as the railway company is under the assumption it owns all of the land next to the line up to the Laurentian border. For now, the vast availability of land does not cause any major problems, but the Carufonian state still demands that a proper border (in their favour naturally) be established.
-As part of the modernization program recently enacted by the Federal government, multiple schools focusing on trade, agriculture, mining, and manufacturing are set up. Another focusing on art and culture, literature and expression is also set up, in combination with one on philosophy, political sciences, and sociology. These will be funded by the state, and one university dedicated to the liberal arts, one to the humanities, and one to trades and vocations are established in the regional capital of each existing political province. Administrative regions have also been set out, with the regions of Illinois, Sagingaw, Ohio, and Mackinac created. All new lands settled are established as unorganized territories. Most of the recent growth has been in the Fargo and Wisconsin territories to the immediate west, with the southern part of Fargo becoming particularly populated and seeing a lot of development due to the influence of the railway.
-An oversight board is also created by the federal government, with offices in trade cities and towns close to the border with the Confederation to monitor goods and people coming into the country. While promoting visiting, tourism, and trade, the Laurentians aren't particularly keen on citizens of the Konfederation settling in their lands territory and bar entry to those who plan on permanent residence. Those in the nation already are encouraged to settle out west. Many Konfederation settlers often ignore these rules, using the railways to travel west of the settled areas and setting up shop. Of course, this also brings them into conflict with the Carufonians. The customs offices at the borders also monitor drugs and non-native hallucinogens. They attempt to stem the flow of illegal drugs (such as cocaine) with some success, often confiscating a lot of drugs at the border. Konfederation and Wapanese merchants complain, and soon after move to smuggling or heading through the Shawnee Kingdom. Ambassadors from the Konfederation also come to Laurentia to demand the right to sell goods freely.
-A treasury is established for the minting, counting, spreading, and handling of an official currency, made up of copper coinage. It is a loosely enforced law that all trade, barter, and transaction should go through this medium, for the government wishes to promote its use. Unfortunately, since it is loosely enforced and composed of copper, the actual value of the coin is highly dependent on the price of copper (the poor enforcement of laws often leads to counterfeiting as well). As the railways gradually expand here, the demand for copper wiring to make telegraph cables and equipment ends up causing several mines to open and people to pawn off their copper as prices rise. The currency plan ends up with the government spending a lot of wealth trying to maintain prices, and as soon as coins are minted, people immediately rush and sell them off. In the end, most people end up using Carufonian or Konfederation monies.
-Finally, the government makes a public statement, about the area they call "Toledo and Detroit" that is currently occupied by the Commonwealth. It is historically considered to be Laurentian since the day before the speech, due to it being nearby to Laurentia. They claim they won’t make a fuss over this, just merely that they consider it of importance to their people.
Japanese immigrants in Australia
Daniel Smith - Titisuc
Capital City: Hanjob
Culture: Aboriginal
State religion: Waifuism (Dikinbut)
-The Titisuc continue to expand and modernize, especially with Wapanese assistance. Unfortunately, Hanjobs son isn’t a very strong ruler, and being much unable to cope with the task, he gradually cedes more responsibilities to the Wapanese advisors and governors. His vassals are annoyed, but are placated by the Wapanese administration with parcels of land and political concessions. The Wapanese have also managed to introduce a standing modern army, armed with rifles and led by Wapanese officers. Marching throughout the north and east, they expand into the more populated parts and begin to annex more portions of land. However, Hanjobs son isn’t particularly fertile either, so after his death, the Titisuc are largely reorganized and put under the control of Wapanese administrators. By the year 1080, the nascent state had now begun to move on its way towards becoming a protectorate of the Wapanese.
-Attempting to improve and modernize the Titisuc people, the Wapanese are sending even more advisors, equipment, supplies, and missionaries to lift them out of their state of savagery and to make them upstanding citizens. Recently however, the Titisuc ruler died, and being childless, most of his responsibilities were taken over by the Wapanese advisors and administrators, who kept the machinery of state running. The native population is somewhat annoyed, but are happy nonetheless at the improvement in material and social wellbeing. Those conquered by them or the Wapanese are less happy.
Notes: This is the last confirmed turn for Creation of Centuries.
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