Cacophonous Interlude is NOT active
(the QMPC does NOT hear what you write right now)
Next story update : Sometime in July would be nice
Next vote closing : TBD
Progress toward next update : 3,146 words
Code:
Anything I post that's not in text blocks or in spoilers
may be understood to be said by the QMPC, with the
exception of the Collaboration Post
(see Collaboration Post for details on itself)
Code:
Players do not need to use code blocks or spoilers
outside of cacophonous interludes
If you use code blocks, please limit yourself to 32 lines
and your lines to 57 characters, so that people on mobile
can read them without scrolling within the code block
Code:
This is not meant to be Plagiarism Quest.
You're not discouraged from using outside reference
material or quoting other sources. When you do, please
cite your sources in spoilers or a code box.
Code:
I have added some players who contributed a fair amount
the last two times as thread collaborators who can update
the collaboration post. If you'd like to update the
collaboration post too, contact me by PM and we'll talk
about it.
Check the Collaboration Post and read the latest story post in the Threadmarks to get a rough idea of where things are at.
If you're not already involved in the game, portions of either of these may be difficult to follow. But you can skip to the line that says "B R E A K" in the latest threadmarked story post and skim from there to get an idea of what's going on.
If there's no corresponding Closing The Vote post in the Informational threadmarks for the latest story post in (normal?) Threadmarks, then the game is in a cacophonous interlude and the QMPC will hear what you post, unless you do so with spoilers or code boxes. The NOTICES portion at the top of this post should also tell you if the game is in a cacophonous interlude.
So you can engage with other players, make suggestions, ask questions, and propose plans and you can compose a message to the QMPC all whether or not the game is in a cacophonous interlude. And once it is, you can vote and/or send a message to the QMPC by creating a post in the thread.
If you want to vote, simply do so as you would in other quests on this board. You may look at other players' votes to see how yours should be formatted. And you may check the tally to see that yours are counted as you intend them.
If you want to send a message to the QMPC, though, keep in mind that they are a creature of their time. They may not understand what you mean if you don't take the time to make it clear. This game rewards and demands work from its players. When a player wants to introduce a concept or tool or technology to the QMPC, that player will probably need to expend effort to explain it carefully, and take into consideration the limits of the QMPC's understanding of the world.
I think this is similar enough to Graeber's 'interpretive labor' that we can use the term colloquially to describe what is being asked of players. Put yourself in the mind of the QMPC and ask yourself how such a person can be made to understand what you want to tell them.
The QMPC has different values than we do. They have different assumptions about the world and objects and forces within it. Their goals may not align directly with number-go-up or color-get-big gaming agendas. But they want something, and will listen most attentively to players that tell them how to get more of or closer to what they want.
The Quest Master posts story updates that have 3 parts.
Quest Master Player Character responses to player posts made during the last cacophonous interlude
An update by the QMPC following a break of varying length but usually some number of years, covering what the character believes is worth mentioning
Requests by the QMPC for direction on a number of issues, which the players will provide in the form of votes
Following each story update, players posts are audible to the QMPC until voting is closed.
This is the cacophonous interlude.
Players may convey any information they can represent in text.
No images, sounds, or hyperlinks will get through (this is my limitation, not a limitation of the game, so please do not try to transcend it with clever protocol tricks).
Players may use spoilers or code blocks to communicate with each other without doing so in ways the QMPC can hear.
When votes are tallied, the QM collects player posts so that it may be known what the QMPC heard.
Votes are tallied in the conventional fashion. So only votes in the most recent post by each player are counted. [X] marks what the player is voting. And only identical write-ins accumulate.
Some votes are querying the players for their preference, in which case the only suboptimal answer is that which does not accurately reflect the preference of the players who nonetheless chose it (I don't think these kinds of misunderstandings can be helped).
Other votes are intended as puzzles where there is a choice the QM believes would best meet what they believe to be the goals of the players.
However, in these sorts of votes the QM has in mind a choice that would provide the players with what the QM thinks they most want, but which is not listed in the available votes.
In this way, clever write-ins are encouraged.
QM reads player posts, researches their suggestions, checks notes for precedent, determines what the QMPC thinks they already know on the topic, what they're right or wrong about, how likely they are to engage with the topic, how likely the QMPC's followers are to follow-through in the matter, and finally what the result is going to be later on.
QM composes QMPC's responses to player posts made during the cacophonous interlude and updates their notes.
When narrative benefits from uncertainty and chance, QM devises tests for QMPC or other characters and makes those tests using die rolls on a post made just for that purpose.
Skill or attribute tests will be made with a largely undocumented homebrew modification of the Burning Wheel system, mangled to suit the format of this game. (The Burning Wheelis a good system and I encourage you to check it out.)
Tests may be a contest between two characters or against a static target with tiered results.
The rules being used and followed will be described in each post in which tests are made by die rolls.
Normal mortals count 7s and better as successes.
Heroic characters and characters who are otherwise innately magical count 6s and better as successes.
Demigod characters and characters who otherwise possess some spark of divinity count 5s and better as successes.
New gods and characters who have otherwise stolen the power of Old Gods count 4s and better as successes.
Old Gods count 3s and better as successes.
Sorcery and other magic skills lower the threshold of success by 1 to a minimum of 3 only when they are the skill being tested, not when they provide a bonus to other skills. Players may note that Old Gods' threshold of success does not improve when they use magic.
Bonus dice provided by Kahl's Warhorses and any incendiary devices more complicated than a burning arrow reroll 9s & 10s and keeps successes. These same bonus dice cancels successes on 1s & 2s, rerolls those, and additional 1s & 2s cancel additional successes. More 1s, 2, 9, or 10s mean more rerolling and more successes or cancelations, but only in the manner of the original die. That is, a 1 or 2 that comes up when a 9 on a bonus die is rerolled don't cancel successes or lead to further rerolling.
Research project results are determined by percentile dice with results falling into 5 tiers.
Uh oh: something has gone horribly wrong
Nuh uh: failure, but the boring kind
Huh: partial success
Uh huh: full success
Whoa: superior special case success
When players expect a test to be coming up -- for example if they vote for an invasion or to send a diplomat to manipulate a foreign leader -- they can improve the odds of the test turning out the way they want by providing the QMPC with advice specific to that matter. If the advice is not mistaken or outright bad, there will be at least a chance it will help. That is, decent advice adds dice.
QM composes the QMPC's post-break update, player vote questions, and player vote options.
GOTO 1
The QMPC is intended to be the only character the players will interact with in this game. (It's kind of possible that the players could maneuver the QMPC to surrender control of the Astute Cacophony to another character, but unlikely.)
The QMPC is a small, evil woman who knows magic and has not died, despite looking like she probably should have at some point. She goes by the name Bianca the Undying. Her early life took place in the Paleolithic, in which she has said that she traveled around quite a bit and came to understand the malleable nature of populations of people and animals and even the land itself. At some point she was trapped underground, to her displeasure. She remained trapped for a very long time.
When Bianca got out, she found her way to a community of eight tribes living pastoral and agrarian lifestyles in the local Copper Age. She made these people hers and they relied on her for magically enriching their fields so that they did not need to slash, burn, and move around a bit, unlike their neighbors. Bianca and her followers formalized their relationships into the Eight Ways Pact. Later, another tribe joined Bianca's followers bringing small horses and the Bronze Age and their pact was updated with a ninth directive.
Bianca has an agenda that requires her to have more power than she does right now. She believes that achieving divinity will get her that power.
If I understand right, one of my fellow Voices, do you think that our improvements are not widely used in practice? I partially disagree, for example icehalls surely are used, and there is a surprisingly decent road network, but there is a point. I proposed changes to the ways-of-thinking (philosophy, ideology) that could speed up the pace of beneficial changes, I think.
They know more FARMING theory than peasants before like XIX century machinery. Stubborn stupid tribal primitives refuse to implement new methods.Without tribal idiots there would be more food than BIANCA can imagine. Prove me wrong
They know more FARMING theory than peasants before like XIX century machinery. Stubborn stupid tribal primitives refuse to implement new methods.Without tribal idiots there would be more food than BIANCA can imagine. Prove me wrong
Firstly, thank you to those of you who have already
signed up for my Patreon. I'll starting putting
additional (but non-critical, to be fair) content there
next week.
Secondly, I put the wrong end-of-vote date in last week
and didn't notice until yesterday. The vote is still
open. The vote closes at 1700 PDT on Monday, 0000 GMT
Tuesday.
Please continue to address Bianca and get your votes in.
Oh yeah, voting. I didn't completely forget to do that...
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
[x] [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten Nations
[X] [Witch] Teach him secrets known to no other living witch
Who may have been heard
1 Boost: liberty90
1 Boost: I Just Write
1 Boost: Demonic Spoon
0 Boosts: Kiba
0 Boosts: Ciber
0 Boosts: devilgirl666
0 Boosts: KeinNiemand
She knows well about fertilizers. Could you explain, for example, threshing machine?
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
[X] [Witch] Raise him above others, that people should serve him all his days
[x] [Witch] Give him gifts from Bianca's hoard
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
[x] [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten Nations
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
[x] [Bianca] Learn to read
This is Black Cat, again with more advice. Welcome Leader Bianca, Great Undying One, Glorious Leader or, as I said a very long time ago, Your Divine Majesty.
A way of thinking about the world: as I said 20 years ago, I will say again, and there should be more evidence for that now, with the need to introduce more widely our many improvements, with written records and with people finally seeing changes during their lifetimes: permanence is a bad way of thinking. It's better for you and your power if people believe that there is change for the better that occurs thanks to you, wise Bianca, and thanks to science, science that is obviously invented by you, because no human would be wise enough. If and when there are occasionally changes for the worse, it's thanks to your evil enemies, or bad understanding of your words. You should direct your singers to slowly change details of relevant songs to reflect this way of thinking instead. With better farming, horse-riding, sails, conquest of a city, iron, glass and tons of other changes, only idiots believe in permanence. Promotion of obvious idiocy is bad, and even if this was a way-of-thinking that was once useful - it's no longer useful.
If you want to lie, then lie that you invented even fire or agriculture hundreds of years ago. Not that such lies are needed in my opinion, iron is impressive enough as change for the better and true enough.
It's good that you keep us as secret and that you can say that our improvements are your own wisdom. It's good for your power and respect.
Uses of scientific research are not always obvious at first, but often results can be applied to practical engineering later, when somebody figures out how.
And besides, in the nations that I can remember/see/imagine, scientific experiments were often done in the giant places of learning, Universities. Some few among table-rulers and wise people for a few more years studied more than only reading and writing but also things like healing, surgery or engineering. They had building with many tablets, scrolls and books to help with that, and during their studies over existing wisdom they could conduct also new experiments and try to invent new machines. Yes, this is yet another place that wouldn't produce it's own food and would need to be supplied, but benefits of more education and sharing of techniques among for example healers are pretty obvious, and new research could be something that is done in addition to such a basic function. Eh, we must give you much more food production again, I understand that.
There are many alternative ways to conquer, I shall now present you with yet another one: total destruction of the outsider tribe. I recently thought about a interesting way of conquest. Instead of making outsider tribe servant of the Nine, that would rebel from time to time, you utterly destroy their villages and make all of their people into bond-servants of the Nine. You distribute these bond-servants equally among the Nine, to destroy their unity, to destroy their families and tribe utterly, and settle now empty land with people of the Nine. There is no permanent slavery, so bond-service of captured people would end, but then what could they do? You destroyed their home. You destroyed their unity. Perhaps many would leave to their probable deaths among the wilds, but others would join marriages of the Nine, as their home is not only conquered, their home is destroyed and settled by people of the Nine. More people and more land for you, no long-term discord as two or three generations later last remnants from the ways-of-thinking and customs of the scattered conquered tribe would be utterly destroyed, maybe besides a few truly useful pieces of wisdom.
This way is obviously harder to do than usual conquest. Utter destruction of a tribe and stealing their land comptelety like never settled wilds is a hard work. But outsiders around the Nine are greatly weakened anyway...
The most dangerous or useless people from the destroyed tribe, like bold warriors that would forever hate you or elders, could be of course worked to death, or maybe to worse health - so that they are not in condition to cause discord after their bond-service ends. Copper mines and roadbuilding are nice for that, but remember to use much smaller and easier to control camps. Beware of yet another haunting and killing too many people at the same time and in the same place.
I disagree with some of my fellow Voices and with you about sharing baubles with outsiders. I would like you to wage wars with them and conquer them all anyway, so their desires to attack are not very problematic in my opinion, and with outsider desire for baubles the Nine could buy more metals for weapons and plows. There is never enough metals. But, well. At least share only shiny baubles? Less visible inventions, inventions that produce more food, like the black soil, teach only to people firmly conquered. So that there is always more food and people under your power than under power of your enemies. I hope that this sounds reasonable?
Custom of throwing unwanted or bad or weird family members to winter sounds to me as terribly wasteful the more I think about this matter. Maybe they could be offered to you instead? These that are useful despite opinions of their family you could use as servants, while truly dangerous ones you could use in experiments/tests or work dangerous enough to often end in death.
Meritocracy. You could devise tests of cunning and wisdom to decide who should be raised over other people as inquisitors, or guards, or chosen table rulers, or other such people. In such a way people who are truly better than average person at hunting crime or at ruling over others or at guarding things would be selected. This way provides much higher quality of such people than simply raising everyone from one tribe over another, idiots included. This way somebody would need to be truly unusually good, and people could believe that sooner or later somebody from their own family may be good enough. Some people could even try to improve their skills or skills of their children, perhaps. They should answer correctly hard questions that would be impossible for idiots to answer, solve correctly hard riddles, be better with numbers than average table-ruler, and similar. Obviously guards would need different tests than inquisitors, and table rulers with more power would need yet different tests; this should be properly designed to provide truly the best people for a given work.
Advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination and tests or demonstrated achievement. Those who govern should do so because of merit, not of inherited status.
Criminal schemes of chosen table rulers are a problem and inquisitors should look into evidence of any crimes or schemes, obviously. Sometimes Provocateurs can be used, people who would falsely suggest to a table-ruler that they want to help with schemes or crimes, but in truth would only gather evidence and bring table-ruler to justice if he admits to illegal actions. In this same way some inquisitors should check other ones. It should be known among servants that such "tests" exist: your servants chosen over other people wouldn't ever know whether somebody truly wants to scheme with them or test their honesty, so they would do less crime.
My examples of the inquisitor work were just that, examples of a way-of-thinking useful for a inquisitor. Not always there are pieces of cloth or blood, but these are nice examples to show that inquisitors should search for evidence and criminals, like hunters for animals. Sometimes there are footprints that suggest who is guilty, sometimes there are reliable witnesses, sometimes there is something else. Inquisitors should never assume that somebody is guilty only because they don't like him, or that somebody is innocent only because he looks pretty.
You asked: "How is your inquisition separate from the guards or the enclosed judges, Black Cat?". Inquisitors always search for crimes and evidence, while guards: help Inquisitors to bring criminals before judgement, protect your singers and various servants, protect property against theft, and similar tasks. Inquisitors need more wisdom and may be old, while guards should be younger.
Inquisitors should never judge, this should be done before the enclosure of judgement, with objective examination of both Inquisitorial evidence of crime and words of the suspected person. This, among other things, should ensure that people see Inquisitors as less tyrannical - they only search for truth, somebody else is tasked with judgement.
You said: "Perhaps later raise up some people to all of these roles together. But in separating them out I expect that it will only make more and more people who do not bring in food or make tools or do anything else the people know and understand are needed." These tasks are much better separated and specialized, but you are right that if we want to apply such ideas to many people, more food may be needed. Especially if we add full-time Armed Forces as yet another non-farming work. We constantly try to improve your food production. But there is no need to instantly apply such ideas everywhere: you can always start with only a few guards or soldiers, and see how their training works.
Identification parchments: your singers and perhaps table-rulers or other important servants may be provided with a special piece of parchment with their name, approximate year of birth, a unique number recorded also in your great house, fingerprint and words that would say that they serve you. During travels they could use this parchment to show that they indeed are your people, not foreign spies that try to pretend or frauds. Even if they are killed, nobody would be able to use a piece of parchment with obviously different age and fingerprint, or at least not for long.
They may also don't know what number of their parchment would be proper, as there may be order also in regards to that. Decent forgery would be hard if not utterly impossible.
You have a new First Table-Ruler, right? Then his fingerprints could be also included on all identification parchments, to make forgery even more difficult.
Even if a liar or foregin spy could manage to have a piece of parchment, ink, and basic knowledge about how to write false identification parchment - then he would still have only his own hands and his own fingers.
While parchment is far from common, one additional piece per lifetime of a singer and servant looks perfectly doable and worth resources used.
Cities should not only take what they need from villages, they should also give back, or trade for food and supplies, manufactured goods. Not only full-time guards or warriors or inquisitors or table-rulers should live in a city, but even more full-time craftsmen, often with complicated machines that would be too hard to have in villages. Cities are also places where people, both outsiders and villagers, go to trade. While there is inequality, some benefits from existence of cities exist even for the poorer people, as I said many times before.
You once asked what permanent guards should do when they would guard important doors, like these in the walls around your great house. It's slightly depends on the particular place and security needs, but mostly... They should check whether only people who are allowed to enter, enter; whether only people who are allowed to leave, leave; and most importantly ensure that no stolen goods are transported outside. They should also raise alarm and close doors if they see enemies. Everyone should be obligated to show contents of their bags to these guards, to be sure that nothing is stolen from your hoard. Even your singers should show their things, trust but verify to be absolutely sure.
You can test such guards-of-doors with training, false thieves and false dangers. Regularly test how they would act in the case of theft, whether they are effective and truly guard.
It's a pretty boring work when nothing happens, though. So they should be relieved by the another group of guards after a few hours.
About nails... I thought about things called that, not literal parts of the human anatomy. Nail is a small object made of metal which is used as a fastener, as a peg to hang something. Generally, nails have a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other. Nails are typically driven into the workpiece by a hammer, you hammer the nail head.
There are many uses of nails in construction, but you can also use nails to fasten horseshoe to a horse hoof for a long time. Because large parts of the horse hooves are made out of non-living tissue. Some skill and experience are needed to do that properly, too long nails can easily damage a horse.
Some time ago you asked, I think, why some people are born lame. Maybe sometimes there are magical reasons and curses, but I know only non-magical reasons: mistakes in instructions for life (how cells should build the body) sometimes happen randomly. Other possible causes are bad diet of the pregnant mother, or drinking strong alcohol while pregnant. Or simply difficult delivery that damages the child. Most often mother is not guilty of anything, though drinking alkohol is exception. Usually there is no cure, though there are rare exceptions, types of damage are very diverse, like causes.
Ah, and having children with relatives is highly unadvisable, and can greatly raise risks, but this is known to you and present in customs.
When I think about alcohol and children: children also shouldn't drink any strong alcohol. What is more, small children shouldn't even drink beer in ideal conditions, though in practically existing conditions weak beer may be lesser evil than dirty water.
Hugging small children and infants improves their health. Yes, this sounds slightly weird, but it's true. Without any gentle touch and hugs bodies of children work improperly and germ attacks are much more often succesful. This doesn't mean that small children should be only hugged and do whatever they want.
For older children and adults it's much less important, but there are still some positive effects. And of course people cannot and shouldn't be ordered to hug everyone, this is mostly good advice for families and marriages.
There are also benefits for health of the mind, though no, sadly you cannot heal serious madness with hugs.
There are mechanical ways to fly, to answer another of your old questions, but these ways are mechanically complicated. And you had issues even with waterwheels. Not that this is your fault: it's hard to explain very complicated matters with only words, and it's partially our fault. We shall try to improve your machinery slowly and then maybe, after a long time, we would be able to explain mechanical flying machines big enough to be used by you and your soldiers.
Mint is weak enough herb that it would be almost impossible to use too much mint. So mint can be safely used as a tea by healthy people, and thus encourage people to boil their water. Other voices were right about proper and consistent doses of truly strong medicines. I'm not sure whether to call mint "medicine" at all, it's more like beneficial food, like honey, that can also heal but the word "medicine" is not exactly proper. Strong medicines are often poisons when used too much, mint thankfully is not.
Cancer and sunlight... Sunlight is needed for health in moderation, something very hard during winters, but truly excessive exposure increase risk of dark-looking skin cancer after a few years. During hot days of the summer, something like light hats woven out of straw and wearing light clothes instead of working with naked chest - should be good enough. You can scientifically research this if you want, but effects are rather subtle and not too great, so I'm not sure that results would be obvious soon.
What is probably more important is the fact that such a simple measures, along with drinking more water, decrease also risks of the heat stroke, a much more common and immediate issue. That is, illness caused by overheating of the body. This can the most often happen when people work outside during the peak summer heat. Confusion, red skin, weakness and headache are symptoms, and cooling of the body with for example colder water is a nice treatment, while straw hats and drinking more water can often prevent the problem.
Also, some salt is removed from the body with sweat, so a small amount of salt can be well-advised - along with water of course - when people tend to sweat truly excessively. This cure, also with honey, is well-known to you, it's only yet another use.
Scurvy, scurvy and alternative cures... Well, edible green plants, or berries, or fruits are the best, but other than that... Let me think, how small tribes of the forever frozen far north survive... Eh, fresh meat, not overcooked? Fresh horse meat, especially. But I see a problem here, undercooking meat causes risks from worms and other such stuff. A much worse way in my opinion, concerns would need to be very wisely balanced... Fresh horse meat... Fresh liver of various animals... Lightly fried seal meat and liver... But I'm not enthusiastic about this way, a worse way in my opinion.
In regards to the biggest Burgeck icehall that collapsed: maybe additional support for weight of the roof in the middle of the icehall, support pillar, could allow such design to stand for much longer. Especially with a good and deep foundation for the pillar.
In regards to building bridges: a cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry work environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Enclosed coffers are commonly used for construction or repair of bridge piers/pillars.
Roman cofferdam was effectively a large, watertight barrel made of rows of timber which were bound by metal. Additionally, in order to provide water resistance, the "barrels" could be lined with pitch or clay. These would then be lowered into the river, and allow the water to be diverted from the place of work in order to dig down to build foundations.
What is a deep foundation? Deep foundation systems go unseen by the majority of our population, but make the modern world possible. Such systems are employed for...
madridengineering.com
The foundations of the bridge pillars could be lain directly onto hard rock if it was found, or onto wooden piles which were driven deep into the river bed. This last solution is relatively durable. The wet mud and the lack of oxygen prevents the action of the bacteria which would in other cases destroy the wood.
Pasteurization: people can enjoy much safer milk, and be able to store milk for longer, if you kill some germs with some heat. Only a short while and with heat slightly below boiling, because this is preservation method, not redewing, and we want to retain most of the milk properties and taste. Far from all germs would be killed at these mild temperatures, but this number of killed germs should be sufficient to extend safe storage time by a few days, such milk would be also much safer to drink. You should test that and develop the best method, of course, as proper time and keeping milk slightly below boiling heat may need some skill and experience.
Safety benefits are also important, as sometimes germs in the raw milk are very harmful. Far from always, but often enough to make pasteurization worthwile for health benefit alone, some very basic preservation is only additional benefit.
This measure is designed for milk that people or children will drink. Raw milk should be still used to produce cheese, and cheese is safe.
Mushroom farming. Mushrooms are not plants, plants need sunlight to grow, while mushrooms could be grown even on rotting trees in dark caves, or under living trees where it's too dark for crops. Some mushrooms are poisonous, but many species are perfectly edible. So how to farm mushrooms? Mushrooms reproduce in a weird way, there are no seeds, but... There are much more mushrooms in places where the waste good for growing mushrooms is watered with the water in which mushrooms were washed. Such water contains germ-sized mushroom spores, mushrooms weird method of reproduction. So you can try sprinkling the waste with such a water, leachate from ripe edible mushrooms. Preferably kinds of waste without too many germs harmful to humans: so rotting leaves or wood, NOT human waste. Maybe wooden logs, to not compete with the black soil compost. This is simplification, but may be enough to start farming some mushrooms. Instead of water, try also scrapping a mushroom cap's tissue. You sadly cannot feed too many people that way, but it's a nice addition to variety of the human diet without competing with more productive crops. I would like to hear back about effect of these efforts, or any unfortunate issues.
As far as I understand, the First Chief of the Nine Nations is now also King of Enonl, lives in luxury in Enonl, and all people of the Nine that come to Enonl are raised above locals.
I'm... Unsure that this sounds like the ideal way of doing things.
My fellow Voices. Hot air balloons? Possible theoretically, but... Huh. I predict that more than one would burn and waste valuable cloth before this is perfected. And maybe kill someone. Well.
Likewise, experimentation with the black powder can be deadly. Well.
Thank you, my fellow Voice, but I politely disagree. For example I feel pretty satisfied with the current speed of time. If anything it feels too fast.
I think that Bianca should talk with us more often, not less often.
We need to explain more agricultural machinery. You cannot introduce what you don't know or understand. Threshing machine, when explained properly, would be nice.
There is no way that I could be better. English is not my native language and I'm better with basic ideas than with detailed technical descriptions. But surely you wouldn't be properly understood at first. I argue that this is not a reason for a time skip.
Somebody could also explain treadle-powered wheels.
First of all, I hope that my words are not agressive or something xd I simply disagree. Because I can imagine tons of machinery that somebody could explain and try to apply and spread now. Sadly I'm not good at machinery (details of design).
We still have problems with as basic things as collapsing buildings and bridges.
Problems with the Burgeck waterwheel were caused also by incomplete description of details, I'm pretty sure. I'm bad at explaining complex machinery properly (I tend to cite other people and sources almost without changes).
But trying to explain properly is half of the fun, so.
Demon. I believe that you are slightly wrong about spirits. It was mentioned that all death of people and animals produce spirits in the underworld. Some of these spirits travel to the, I'm not sure what words to use, to the world of the living.
Well, it's nothing new to us to say that there are many worlds. What is more interesting is the fact that deity known as Hare reportedly created this underworld - I wonder whether this is true, or maybe Hare simply lies to appear more powerful.
Back to spirits, besides the very weird exeption among the Forest People - as their spirits are able to understand complex matters of peace negotiations and help to rule the Forest People, if I understood this right - the vast majority of spirits seems to be forever obsessed with either thoughts and emotions from the time of their deaths, or with dominant theme of their lives.
Understanding of the world and changes that happen in the world, and wisdom, and ability to solve new problems, or ability to creatively attain goals... are thus radically limited among spirits in comparision to the living, again, possibly with the weird exception among the Forest People. You can sometimes talk and bargain with spirits, but you should remember their obsession about one theme or one thing.
If I understand right, one of my fellow Voices, do you think that our improvements are not widely used in practice? I partially disagree, for example icehalls surely are used, and there is a surprisingly decent road network, but there is a point. I proposed changes to the ways-of-thinking (philosophy, ideology) that could speed up the pace of beneficial changes, I think.
Bianca. I have heard your questions regarding the finer points of glassmaking and lens production. I also have some more unsolicited advice regarding the improvement of farming. Specifically, labor-saving machines to make bringing in the harvest require far fewer people to harvest and thresh the same amount of food. Also, I will teach a basic method of hoisting a man or woman miles into the air and safely returning them to the ground. Lastly, I will end with how to create a powder that when lit in an enclosed container will violently explode outwards, shattering stones, flinging projectiles at extreme speeds, and which will provide the barest beginnings of the principles used to send ships to the moon or beyond.
Making Clear Glass
Regarding glassmaking, a fairly simple and reliable formula for making clear glass requires crushed Quartz, Soda Ash, and a small amount of the metal Manganese, though the Manganese need not be in pure form; the oxide found naturally in Manganese-containing rocks will suffice. I will now explain each ingredient in sequence, along with the necessary processing for each ingredient.
First, the Quartz is used in the place of common sand. To be suitable, a piece of Quartz must not have any yellow or black veins inside, and if struck with a piece of steel must produce sparks. Quartz that passes this selection process should be heated to the point when the crystals start glowing, then dumped in water. The resulting cracks from the sudden cooling will make the Quartz very easy to crush and grind to the requisite size.
You already know the basics of producing Soda Ash, but the particular type to make clear glass needs to be particularly high in Sodium Carbonate. Generally, the whiter the ash, the better; try different plants until you find one that works. Repeated gentle boiling with constant mixing, followed by drying in shallow pans will eventually purify the Soda Ash to a suitable state. That said, if such plants are unavailable there is a method for the artificial creation of Sodium Carbonate at high purity which I will describe in just a bit, though be aware that it is somewhat complex, and requires a few crucial ingredients of its own.
The Manganese will need to be mined or prospected. Most Manganese-containing rocks are dark grey to black in color, and are moderately shiny, though not as much as a refined metal. Additional steps to identify Manganese-containing rocks are to try breaking them, and scraping them against a surface. Most (though not all) Manganese-containing rocks are brittle, and will shatter if hit against a hard surface enough to break. In addition, most common Manganese-rocks will produce a dark reddish-brown (or just dark brown) streak when scraped against a surface, though I know of one that will produce a bluish-black streak. The Manganese rocks for use in glassmaking should be ground into a fine powder.
The process is fairly straightforwards from this point onwards. Melt the crushed and ground Quartz together with the Soda Ash as normal. With constant mixing of the batch, skim off the top of the batch. This removes most of the unwanted chloride and sulfate impurities from the glass, but there is still enough in there to ruin the batch. Once the skimming is done, ladle the molten glass into water. This will gradually remove more of the aforementioned impurities as the process of melting and ladling is repeated. Once this is completed to the glassmaker's satisfaction, the glass must be moved to a furnace heated to the highest possible temperature for multiple days, and stirred continually to remove bubbles and other defects.
This refined mixture is almost complete, but one final round of letting the glass set, re-melting it, then skimming it one last time. At this point, the powdered Manganese should be added and mixed in thoroughly, though the instructions I found were frustratingly vague on exactly how much Manganese to add. The recommendation for the first few batches is therefore to start with a very small amount of Manganese, and slowly add more until you have reached the correct amount to remove unwanted tints and colors from the glass. Don't forget to anneal the glass during the final cooling stage, of course.
Making Sodium Carbonate
Anyway, the process for making Sodium Carbonate will now be described. The ingredients you will need are salt, water, limestone, and ammonia. The ammonia will be the hardest to acquire, but fortunately this process allows you to re-use the ammonia required. As such, once the process starts you will only need a supply of brine and limestone to keep it going.
The easiest way for you to acquire ammonia will be to use a variety of a redewing apparatus loaded with plant matter; alternatively, load it with urine and lye, as another suggested. For ease of handling I would recommend placing the lower pot on the inside of a specially constructed ice house that attains extremely cold temperatures, since the point at which ammonia boils into a gas is far colder than the point at which water turns to ice. To keep the ammonia liquid for longer once removed from the ice house, I would recommend a double-layered pot with the gap containing some sort of filler; sawdust should serve well enough at the present time. The best possible filler would actually be to remove every single bit of matter between the layers, air included, but you lack the capability to do that right now. It is worth noting that ammonia is also useful for a lot of other chemical processes, so the equipment to make it should be retained.
Once you have the ingredients, you mix the salt and water to make brine, then add the ammonia. A special oven will then be required to make the last ingredient: carbon dioxide. This oven should have two chambers, completely separate from each other. The bottom one is for the fire, which needs to be able to heat the top chamber to temperatures that make iron glow red hot. The top chamber meanwhile should be mostly sealed save for a tube leading to the bottom of the vat containing the brine-ammonia mix. Though honestly, a very tall tube for the reaction would be better; in our history such an apparatus is referred to as a gas-absorption tower, and can be taller than many buildings for best efficiency. As the bubbles of gas released by the super-hot limestone flow up the column of ammonia-brine, a material will start settling on the bottom of the tube. This is Sodium Bicarbonate. Also, the limestone turns into quicklime, which can be useful in applications outside of making Sodium Carbonate; it's perhaps wise to use a bit more Limestone than strictly necessary, just to have a surplus of quicklime.
Anyway, Sodium Bicarbonate can be turned into Sodium Carbonate by heating it up in a pan, which is a fairly straightforward process as long as you don't accidentally set it on fire. The trickier part is recycling the ammonia, which has now reacted with the chlorine in salt to produce ammonium chloride. Once you've filtered out the Sodium Bicarbonate, add quicklime to the remaining liquid while still hot. This will convert the Ammonium Chloride back into Ammonia and salt. Just add the liquid mix back in, top up the tube with more brine, add more limestone to the oven, and you'll be ready for another batch of Sodium Carbonate. Occasional replenishment of ammonia will be required, but not very often.
As a side note, Sodium Bicarbonate (NOT Sodium Carbonate, the stuff you heat up to MAKE Sodium Carbonate) can actually be used to prevent dental issues. Add a bit of water to the dry version of the substance, and you can get a thick paste. Use a moderately stiff (not TOO stiff, though) brush dipped in this toothpaste to scrub your teeth on a regular basis, and it will both clean plaque and kill many of the bacteria living in the mouth, making it far less likely for someone's teeth to rot and cause them problems. It is possible to add mint flavoring to toothpaste without compromising its effectiveness, which may make it more palatable. Under no circumstances add sugar to toothpaste. A batch of Sodium Bicarbonate toothpaste will remain effective for a bit less than a ten-day after being mixed, with more exposure to air making it lose potency quicker. Swallowing toothpaste is probably unwise, but is unlikely to be fatal.
As another side note, this process will also result in the production of Calcium Chloride, a substance somewhat related to salt. It can be used for melting ice through chemical action, or as a food additive. Calcium Chloride tastes extremely salty, but contains no Sodium, meaning that it is not a total substitute for salt. Since the body needs Sodium. That said, the body also needs Calcium, specifically for making strong bones and proper muscle function.
Calcium and Sodium are both metals, though the pure metallic forms don't have anywhere near as many uses. Pure metallic Sodium will explode violently if tossed into a container of water, which though amusing is not terribly useful, since there are far better explosives that can be more easily produced. I will be explaining the creation of one of these explosives at the end of my message.
Lenscrafting Details
The grinding sand for making a lens should be as fine as possible; the chemical properties of the sand don't matter much, but the physical characteristics are rather important. You want as fine a sand as possible to make the surface as smooth as you can achieve through simple grinding, so that less polishing is required after the fact.
As for the polishing, that's apparently best achieved with an abrasive method, though the exact details are frustratingly evasive. This goes similarly for the resin used to hold the lens in place during grinding. I apologize.
Cat Breeding For Socialization
As you have noted, it is currently rather difficult to keep several cats around a village, as they are rather territorial. This can probably be corrected with selective breeding, though it will take some time to fully take effect. Simply round up a bunch of cats into holding pens, and on a regular basis test how well they get along with other cats when not in heat. Out of every hundred cats in each generation, select only the ten or twenty least likely to claw each other's faces off or otherwise come to blows to birth the next generation of cats. After several generations, the cats will generally be far more willing to tolerate each other's presence. Indeed, they may even seek each other out for companionship and support.
Farming Machinery
There are two devices which I will be explaining the principles behind, namely the mechanical reaper and the threshing machine. The former is a wheeled device designed to be pulled across a field, reaping crops it is pulled over. The threshing machine is meanwhile exactly as the name implies, a machine for threshing. Of the two devices, the mechanical reaper is generally simpler, but both are useful enough to warrant explanation. By this I mean that if both devices are used, the mechanical reaper and threshing machine can free up more than two thirds of the people who would normally be required to take in the harvest and process it into an edible form, allowing them to take up other useful skillsets.
The general idea of a mechanical reaper is that as it is towed over the crops, it automatically cuts them down, and collects the cut crops on a platform towed behind the cutter. The cutter in this case is composed of two parts, which can be summed up as a very large comb and a large number of knives lined up next to each other. The general idea is that as the reaper pulls forwards, the tines of the comb hold the grain-stalks in place, while the row of knives moves back and forth, acting like a set of shears thanks to the comb keeping the grain-stalks from escaping. This effect can be achieved with two or three angled gears attached to one of the wheels of the reaper.
The first gear is directly attached to the wheel, the second is at a square angle, such that it is level to the ground. To the second gear, attach a rod hinged at both ends; one end attached to the edge of the second gear, the other attached to the row of knives. This way, when the wheels are spinning, they also cause the row of cutting blades to rapidly slide back and forth. It is possible to make harvesting machines for most other crops, but the precise design used for a mechanical reaper is not the best option for most other crops aside grain.
Threshing machines do not strictly need to move in order to be of use, but you'll probably want to be able to haul them around on a wagon just for convenience purposes. At your current development level, any threshing device will need to be powered by either a large crank (to be operated by either a team of men or a Lesser Giant), or a treadmill. Aside from the chute that the unthreshed grain is dumped in, there are three main moving parts in a threshing machine that the grain will interact with. Aside from that, there are all the various gearing and belt assemblies required to actually transmit power from the crank or treadmill to the machine's various moving parts in order to actually move them in a useful fashion.
First, the grain goes through a pair of rapidly spinning rotors perpendicular to their axis of rotation. These rotors should have tines on them to rub the wheat between the rotors, subjecting it to more than enough force to separate the wheat from its stock, for the most part. For best effect, the rotors should spin fast enough to be visibly blurred.
After this, both the grain and the chaff are dropped onto a sieve; a grate of wires sized to allow a typical grain of wheat passage, but prevent any chaff from going through. This sieve must be mechanically moved back and forth in a reciprocating motion for best effect. This can be achieved using a similar setup to what was applied on the mechanical reaper to make the cutter move back and forth. The grain will fall through the sieve, where you should really have a bin of some sort set up to collect it if you'd rather not have to shovel it off the floor.
The last part is a fan, made out of angled paddles attached to a rotating central hub. The idea is that as the fan spins, the angle of the paddles forces air forwards in a continuous stream. This fan should be aimed at the area just above where the grain lands on the sieve; the idea is to blow the chaff away so that it never lands on the sieve in the first place, while the grain will continue downwards onto the sieve and into the collection bin.
It is possible to merge the two devices into a single machine that does both tasks, which is a device referred to as a combined harvester. However, I will not describe the method to achieve this, for the specific purpose of encouraging engineers within the lands you rule to actually innovate, and start coming up with ideas on their own.
Hot Air Balloons
Not all methods of mechanical flight are extremely complex. The method known as a hot air balloon merely needs a steadily burning flame that is unlikely to spark, a basket sturdy enough for a man to stand in as it is hoisted, a very large amount of cloth, a large amount of rope, and a fan similar to the one I described for use in a threshing machine.
The idea is to make the cloth into a very large bag with a hole at the bottom; to lift a single man the bag will need to be larger than most houses when fully inflated. This bag should be firmly affixed to the basket, since said basket will be hanging below the bag, and is where anyone riding a hot air balloon is to be located. The fire brazier should be affixed to the ropes holding the basket such that it is above the basket, but below the balloon. Then, you need to fill the bag with hot air, as the name hot air balloon implies.
To achieve this, have a couple men hold the balloon's opening up, then blow the fan inside in order to inflate the balloon. Once it's almost completely full, haul the opening of the balloon over the burner. The balloon will quickly become buoyant, floating in the air over the burner and the basket. Eventually, it will become hot enough to hoist the entire basket, with passengers, into the sky. The reason this happens is because hotter air is less dense, therefore all the colder air around it pushes it up.
To come back down, just put out the flame in the burner and the balloon will slowly cool down, letting the whole craft slowly descend. These hot air balloons should probably be kept tethered to an anchor on the ground unless the one aboard can control the winds, since otherwise there is no way to direct the balloon's path in any direction aside from up or down. Uses for a hot air balloon can include aerial scouting, or transport for a small number of people across nearly any terrain. I would not recommend using a hot air balloon to drop unpleasant things on your enemies, simply because of the craft's low weight capacity and the fact that those able to actually steer it will be few in number. That said, there are other types of aircraft quite capable of being used for such a purpose; you just won't be able to build them for some time.
That said, I do have an important warning about hot air balloons: The higher up someone goes, the thinner the air. If a man flies too high without some means of bringing more air to breathe with them, they will not be able to breathe. Therefore, keeping hot air balloons from flying excessively high is critical for the safety of those riding in one.
Black Powder and Guns
Black Powder is the term for the first explosive material our world ever discovered. The ingredients to make it are fine-ground charcoal, Sulfur, and potassium nitrate. As you are already capable of acquiring fine-ground charcoal, I will instead explain how to acquire the other two ingredients.
Sulfur is an element, and therefore cannot be made. It can however be found. You probably already know what the pure form looks like; yellow powdery rocks. It can of course be found near hotsprings and other volcanic locales.
Potassium Nitrate is the trickiest part to obtain. The most readily available source is bat poop collected from the caves they roost in. Immerse the bat poop in water for a day, then filter it, and collect the crystals of potassium nitrate left behind.
Either way, once you have the ingredients, there are two possible recipes, used for different purposes.
Gunpowder is used for propelling projectiles at extreme speeds; the optimal recipe is 75% potassium nitrate, 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur.
Blasting Powder is used for mining, demolishing structures, and otherwise creating massive explosions. It is made from 70% potassium nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur.
Either way, these ingredients should be ground together, either with a specially-made millstone, or with a mortar and pestle. This produces an extremely fine-grained powder which will explode if lit by so much as a single spark, but is not the final product since the ingredients are prone to separating, and it will not blast with as much force as the final product.
The next step is to dampen this fine-ground powder with water, and place the dampened powder into a press. The goal is to squeeze all the water out of the black powder to produce a hardened dry cake. This cake is then to be broken into grains by any means you deem suitable; for blasting powder the size of the grains does not matter so much, but for the purpose of launching projectiles the bigger the gun (term for a weapon that uses gunpowder to launch a projectile) the bigger the grains you want. Too small grains of gunpowder in a large gun can actually cause the weapon to burst. Sieves of varying sizes can be used to sort the grains of gunpowder into categories as suits your purposes.
Making a gun meanwhile is relatively simple, but at the same time prone to danger. Simply make a sufficiently sturdy tube sealed at one end save for a small touch-hole, ram a charge of the appropriate gunpowder to the back, then ram in the projectile of your choice, which can be anything sufficiently durable and dense; solid balls of iron or lead, sprays of smaller metal balls, or explosive bombs full of blasting powder and wounding pellets are all popular choices for gun-fired projectiles. To shoot the gun, simply apply a flame through the touch-hole by any means. There are all sorts of ingenious mechanisms possible to make this easier, including spring-loaded flint-and-steel spark strikers known as flintlocks, but the simplest is known as a matchlock, in which a burning cord laced with a slow-burning powder recipe is applied to the touch-hole by a simple lever.
The main advantages are the sheer speed and lethality of the projectiles, ease-of-use on par with crossbows, and much easier projectile manufacturing once you've got a large enough capacity to produce gunpowder. The main disadvantages of a gun are explosion risk and much slower loading compared to a regular bow, though with sufficiently ingenious loading mechanisms the latter disadvantage can be removed entirely, to the point of firing tens of shots in the span of time it takes to blink. A gun the size of the mechanisms of hurling already shared with you is commonly known as a cannon, and is capable of being mounted on sailing ships to cause great havoc among enemy vessels and those ashore alike.
Incidentally, guns are the reason that one of my fellow voices mistakenly referred to shooting arrows as 'firing' all those years ago. They were thinking of guns, and the internal quick-burning flames these weapons use to propel their shots.
Citations in a bit, if no-one wants to do them for me.
Yes, there are always hazards associated with exploring new technologies, particularly when those new technologies have a significant chance of going 'BANG' if mishandled. However, once properly understood, these technologies confer immense advantages to any society that adopts them.
For example, hot air balloons allow far more accurate maps to be produced, aid in searching for missing people, predict the weather, and spot incoming threats from much further away.
Black powder meanwhile can drastically increase the scale of feasible mining and construction projects, and a group of cannon loaded with grapeshot could easily rend most of an army's front ranks into red mist and gore with a single salvo.
Yes, there is plentiful opportunity for misadventure when these technologies are first being explored, but the long-term benefits for taking them up is more than worth it.
Hey, I explicitly included instructions for harvesting and threshing machinery SPECIFICALLY to address those complaints about taking labor away from farming. With those machines, the number of people who actually need to be involved in food production is greatly reduced, freeing up labor for other projects.
The mechanical reaper I described has four moving parts! FOUR! That is not a large number; there are more moving parts in a typical Ballista, which the Nine or Ten Nations have proven quite capable of producing.
I am saddened to hear that Wrul was lost to our clutches, though it is a great victory nonetheless. I am glad and doubly glad that my advice to take all steps possible to avoid famine were followed, and worked so well. What happened to the Liavint should be a stark lesson to us.
[x] [Cacophony] Demonic Spoon
[x] [Witch] Offer the Witch seclusion
As the witch desires peace, offer it to him. Let him live undisturbed, called on only rarely when someone of his great skills is needed. If still this is not enough for him, then let him leave peacefully, as he has completed his bond-service. Perhaps this will encourage others to not so carelessly forsake their oaths in the future. Surely you can afford to let one witch live and leave?
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
While stealing the children of the northern giants is tempting, ultimately it merely petty spite with little gain. It takes many years for children to grow into adults that can bring worth, and in this time you may need to suffer attacks from enraged giant parents. It is easier and safer to seek other wandering giants and families and invite them to settle among the Ten Nations.
[x] [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten Nations
Ultimately, it is these that will best benefit us, without hopefully being overly onerous upon Enonl. If possible, suggest that the ruler send the most rebellious Magicians, to cement his own powerbase. While you may have a harder time managing such magicians, exiled far from their homes and without a supporting network of relatives and friends to call upon, should hopefully discourage them from doing anything too dangerous.
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
It is good to visit Enonl now and firmly establish your authority while the memory of you is still fresh. Further, as my larval caretaker always used to say "You can never have enough cities". Of course, she was later assassinated, but I believe the advice is still sound.
Bianca stop being an illiterate cavewoman
Bianca, you can speak with people and understand what they say yes? Language itself changes overtime, and clearly you can keep up with those changes. The advantages of the phonetic system of writing is that, if you take the time to learn the letters and which sounds they represent you can read most words pretty easily, even if the words and language itself changes, as long as the letters themselves remain the same and represent the same sounds.
Personally I view it as imperative that you do take the time to learn these letters, and preferrably the numerals as well. Someone of your status being illiterate is a bit... embarrassing yes. Plus, you cannot always trust people to report written information to you accurately. As the ancient bloodstorm sages always say, "Trust, but verify"
And what are you to do in a situation where you need to read something but do not want others to read it? Perhaps a secret ciphered report from one of your singer-spies.
[x] [Bianca] Learn to read
On Branding and Gifts
To answer you Bianca, there is no intrinsic quality of dogs that makes them particularly suited to raising your prestige, and indeed all the things you mentioned can do so. Cattle, horses, bowyers and so on. The quality that is best to focus on however, is uniqueness. Novelty is in the end the ultimate commodity, and that which is hum-drum and commonplace is often seen as not noteworthy.
In fact, it might be a good idea to gather fine bowyers under your name and a fine herd of horse and of cattle perhaps, and at times, send gifts to your distant subjects as signs of your favour. For example, once every decade you may send the ruler of Enonl a fine Bianca Horse, unlike anything he has, or a Bianca bow that only his strongest warriors can pull.
And then he will be greatly gratified by your favour, and your own prestige will be increased, and his subjects will marvel at the splendors of his distant liege, and not whisper to him to rebel. Instead they will say "Truly Lord, the Lord you serve is mighty, to be able to possess such fine bows, such fine horses, such fine hounds, and to be able to gift them away"
On Soda Ash and the Quality of Glass
The degradation that soda ash causes is that it make the glass more water soluble, that is to say, it is leaky and leaks. It should in other aspects, be as other glass, as best I can divine from the currents of the bloodstorm.
Saltwort
Referencing the instructions of another voice, Saltwort is incidentally also a good source for soda ash, but I don't think it is native to this region. For the creation of ammonia I recommend substituting saltwort with whatever form of soda ash seems to work best for making glass.
Prosthetics
Regarding those missing feet and hands Bianca, their afflictions can be somewhat alleviated through the use of prosthetics, of the attaching of false feet and hands made from metal or wood to their limbs. As an example, a cup could be tied to the end of a man's arm, with a metal hook pointing out, which he can use to hook things, like a doorhandle or a bag. Similarly a length of wood can be attached to a leg, to allow a person to walk again, though more clumsily of course.
More sophisticated prosthetics are possible, but such are beyond my knowledge.
Hemp
Bianca, what is Hemp currently used for? Is it used like flax?
Meaningless Babble
To answers your questions about the pivot stars and lodestones, I would first like you to explain what exactly the pivot stars are. With my initial ignorant assumptions however, that the pivot stars are stars in the northern part of the sky that remains largely unchanged by the passage of time, the alignment of the pivot stars and the magnetism of the planet is merely coincidence of the stars than based on some deeper underlying mechanism.
Imagine the earth as a giant ball, perhaps a berry or eyeball or some other spherical object. It spins around its own axis, and the field of magnetism aligns with the poles of this axis of spinning, the extreme north and extreme south. You should be closer to the extreme north, based on some of your descriptions of your environment. As such, unlike the other stars which move and change as the earth moves and turns, the pivot stars should remain relatively static, similar yes to a pivot upon which the world turns.
As to getting to this molten iron it is both simple and difficult. Simply dig straight down for about the depth of two million men stacked atop one another, and you will eventually get to this iron. This is probably impossible, but I know not the ways of your magic. Oh yes and partway through the digging process the rock will become so hot that it is in fact molten liquid.
We are currently in anachronistic bronze age verging on the iron age. If you can think of any applicable advice that would improve the lot of the average ancient bronze ageian nordic/germanic type, then feel free to share. Systematic and thorough advice on increasing food production would especially be appreciated by me.
I've tried to make a summary of advice that has been successfully applied, which I can repost if desired. I have made no such of advice given but not successfully applied, because clearly if it hasn't that means someone else needs to explain it again, and better.
Some potential topics to go over:
- Papermaking
- How not to have molotov cocktails/firebombs blow up in your face
- Ghostbusting!
- Wtf are nails
- Remedial class on Crop Rotation
- Better furnaces somehow
- Glassblowing maybe
Bianca clearly isn't married to the idea of perfect equality, because table-rulers, first chiefs, singers and various other figures of authority and higher status exist. But she rightly sees the widespread massive social inequality of primitive cities as a highly unstable recipe for disaster. She isn't actually wrong, but we need to take our bitter medicine and just tough through the rebellions until we can get something actually civilized.
Basic steam engines are a complete waste of time and resources at this point. Trying to make waterwheels and windmills a reality is both far more feasible and has far more utility currently.
Hot Air Balloons don't have massive utility but are a perfectly valid vanity project and can help with mapmaking, so I'm all for it. By all means, suggest the making of balloons of hot air to Bianca.
I sincerely doubt that the current Ten Nations has the mechanical sophistication to make reaping or threshing machines, but crank-powered fan winnowing machines can be pretty simple and should hopefully be possible.
Bianca, how do the people of the Ten Nations currently thresh their crops? Do you know of flails and of threshing boards, or simply trample them?
Flails are two staves of wood attached to each other with a chain. You hit the stalks of grain with the flail to separate the seeds from the stalks.
Threshing Boards are wooden sledges with sharp stones, such as flint, embedded into their bottom, which can be dragged over reaped stalks of grain on a threshing floor by horses or oxen or other livestock to thresh them. Stones can be placed onto the threshing board if it is not heavy enough, or children or such can ride on it since it is apparently fun. The threshing floor being a flat, hard space, preferably cobbled or lain with bricks or stone, with good drainage, and situated somewhere windy to let some of the chaff be blown away.
While threshing boards seem to have been around since mesoptamian times, Germanic people, being the worst, apparently never heard of them until well into the middle ages. Why no fertile crescent.
Finally, the Senbakoki, or Thousand-Tooth Thresher. Make a wooden frame with several wooden or metal teeth or spikes arranged in a row too close together for the seeds to pass through, essentially resembling a giant comb. Stalks of grain are then lain down into the comb so that they lie down in between the various teeth. Then the stalks are pulled towards the person doing the threshing, the seeds being trapped by the comb teeth, and falling down onto rug or into a basket that you place next to the Thousand-Tooth Thresher.
The Thousand Tooth Thresher does not actually need a thousand teeth. It's one of those idiomatic things.
Source: Reading too many Isekai novels
I believe Bianca herself understands that other professions are just as useful as farmers. We've previously had discussions about how in some larger villages people can focus more on a singular craft like bowmaking, and thus become more skilled and make finer bows that others. She understands the benefits of specialization, but by my understanding, the current food surplus of the Ten Nations is insufficient to support large amounts of specialization. That is the bottleneck. Most people have to be farmers, otherwise the people will starve.
So far Bianca has refused to explain many of the specifics of magic to us, but we have gained somewhat of an understanding of spirits, which I will try to summarize, no doubt wrongly:
- Sometimes, when people and animals die, they leave behind spirits in the world of the living
- This is more likely if the living creature was more powerful and noteworthy in life
- The obsessions of the being before their death, their manner of death and their skills and their professions are likely to have an effect on the spirit after death and their powers. Someone who died of the cold in winter might become a spirit of the cold, which can be used to make icehouses colder. A skilled archer might become a spirit of accuracy that can possess someone to make them better at using the bow and arrow.
- Through certain unknown means, it is possible to command these spirits to do tasks for you, or to curse objects with spirits by killing someone in a particularly cruel way, or to appease spirits to not harm you, or to strike bargains with spirits to bless the field with bountiful harvests.
Further datapoints:
- Some forms of magical power have apparently declined over time, lightning bolts in particular becoming more difficult to call upon.
Why are we talking about gunpowder, guns, and balloons instead of talking about organizations? These are terribly complex technical projects that required long horizon for pay off and even more labor not dedicated to farming.
Meanwhile, we still don't have a mean lean professional military organization.
Blanca, I suggest that if you can easily afford it, form a small permanent group of men(500 to 1000) to be trained as full time warriors. They will be recruited from tribes of the 9N and those from cities you conquer. You will to train in the art of marching, setting up fortifications, formation warfare, road building, and other skills needed to win military campaigns. They will do this as a full time job and they will not do any farming, very much like the soldiers of Wrul.
Their advantage against your warriors is that they are closest group to professional soldiers. While your warriors are at once farmers, hunters, rulers, herder, etc, the soldiers of Wrul are only dedicated to fighting and getting good at it. Their terrible leadership and your generalship are how you trumiphed over Wrul, despite their advantages.
If your armies were more experienced, they would be even more successful. However, due to inexperience, they were unable to execute maneuvers to encircle the enemies. They would be more disciplined in exacting punishment for those who work on the road of lamentation instead of creating a new problem and an incomplete road. Overall, you would have greater success and less death on your side.
If you have an annual festival or a festival every few years, you could organize contest and war games, and you can test if your permanent army is working against those of the 9Ners who are only part time warriors. If done right, they should proved superior to the general population of warriors.
Take it slow, though. We don't want a bloodbath and we want contests to actually measure skills needed to wage war. Adjust and test as you see fit.
Some of the contests you could create are archery contests, wrestling, which test individual skills. Group skills can be tested through war games in which battlefield maneuvers could be tested. Also testable are fort building skills, road building skills, and other skills not traditionally warlike but vital in waging military campaigns.
The festival allowed you to test out how well your professional army as well help warriors of the 9N test their skills. Otherwise, the skills, experience, and knowledge will simply atrophy due to time. The festivals aren't a substitute for actual wars to truly test the military might of your people, but it will leave your people prepared for the next war.
They barely can work iron, and they had a waterwheel that was worth more trouble than it's worth. What we should be doing is help guide the development of their ironwork and wait until they perfect the waterwheel before we move on to building farm machinery. Right now, they don't have the skillsets to do the sort of work needed to be done.
Instead of trying to describe really complicated things to them, we should guide them to develop the expertise needed so that we can talk complicated details to them or just give hints without having to convey so many words to describe designs.
I would focus on the glass & fertilizer
Also, how to tell what elements soil is lacking.
FIRST!!!
Hmm...
Me against my brothers.
My brothers and I against my cousins
My brothers my cousins and I against strangers
[X] [Witch] Teach him secrets known to no other living witch
ALSO
[X] [Witch] Just ask him to stay; and if he refuses, kill him
Give him your oath. He may have peace in death or peace as your servant. Having one who can assist in the magicking of the fields in years when you are not available could be invaluable, and if my reading is correct then he will not likely claim power for himself.
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
Though their craft is weak, they may yet be useful in the building of roads and mining of metals. Though I am uncertain on this precise course of action. Could result in dead traders.
[X] [Levy] Let the city folk decide what and who of their best they should send
Use this as an opportunity to test Kuwuzt. He aught well know what tribute would be appropriate, and should he fail then you will have learned where his loyalties lie. Besides, we will have a better idea of what the city has to offer once it has been visited.
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl
Now is the time to finally see a city because it serves the dual purpose of surveying that which you already control. I would also make a point of spreading our improved farming methods to the cities vicinity. Additionally, the type of pump which is just taught you is ideal for wells within a city because it allows less surface contamination reach the water table. Oh, the water table is sort of the way that underground water is shaped depending upon the arrangement of various levels of permeable or impermeable layers of stone, clay, and soil.
#Wikipedia
[Ammonia] is a pungent gas given off during the reaction of urine and [Lye].
[Lye] is a highly [Caustic] white solid which my be produced by repeatedly passing water through a mixture of the ash of the [Saltwort] and [Quicklime].
[Saltwort] is an edible, flowering plant that can be found in salty areas such as beaches. Sometimes the plant takes on a reddish hue, its leaves have been described as 'scale like', and its stem has many branches.
[Quicklime] may be produced by burning chunks of [Limestone] in a kiln. Some trial and error will be needed to determine burn time, as it is possible to overburn the [Qucklime], causing it to lose its effects.
[Limestone] is a very common, soft stone composed of the shells of tiny ocean life that fell to the sea floor in ages long past.
[Caustic] describes a material with very high [Acidity]. [Acidity] is a measure of a property of substances which ranges from zero to fourteen. Substances with an acidity of seven are [Neutral], less than seven are [Acidic], and more than seven are [Basic]. [Acidic] substances react with [Basic] substances to produce salts. Highly basic or acidic substances also tend to be more 'reactive', where 'reactive' means dangerous to touch.
I will now list some common materials and their acidity.
Stomach Acid : one and one fifth
Lemon Juice : two and one fifth
Apples : three
Beer : four
Spit : six and two fifths
Rain : six and a half
Absolutely Pure Water : seven
Human Blood : seven and two fifths
Ammonia : eleven
Quicklime : twelve and two fifths
Lye : fourteen
Seriously, Lye has many uses but will literally cause burning style injuries on skin contact.
For military reform, I think that it would be better to implement some sort of time tax. Say every citizen of the Nine Nations must at some point in their life spend a moon being drilled in proper marching. We could have them do that thing where you run around an obstacle course with the crawling through mud and the sheer wall that you have to form a human pyramid to get over.
Oh.
How many people live in the conquered city?
Should we consider the city & surroundings as a separate tribe?
Hah! I love it. Bianca will be so confused.
To be clear, I found what I Just Write wrote to be one of the few non-story posts that was interesting to read, but you must acknowledge that there is so much information missing that Bianca's reply shall be but a thousand questions.
Hey Kein, by explaining the nature of the time-skip, you have achieved the opposite of your goals. If the same time passes between updates on our end regardless of when they happen on her end, then it is in her best interest to commune with us as often a possible that we might have more time to work relative to her. Unless that makes not sense. The language is not built for differential time gradients.
People I see a problem hello hello. Invention invention and invention. XVII century peasant would know less.And they cannot reliably feed cities. Thats nonsense. But I see why. Idiots.Next time Bianca needs to use 2 or 5 years persuade people to APPLY METHODS. Without that 60 years until idiots die.
They know more FARMING theory than peasants before like XIX century machinery. Stubborn stupid tribal primitives refuse to implement new methods.Without tribal idiots there would be more food than BIANCA can imagine. Prove me wrong
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
[x] [Witch] Give him gifts from Bianca's hoard
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
[x] [Bianca] Learn to read
We need a way to convice and explain to Bianca why it's a good thing if not everyone is farming for their own food. Also we need to properly explain that people who don't directly produce anything (guards, scientist, ...) are not useless and that people who aren't farmers aren't necessarily risen above others, just because they don't make their own food. Bianca has the same issue every time more specialized people are brought up. We need to address the core issue (I think she thinks that more specialized people are above others, I may be wrong with that tough because most of the times this was brough up they kinda are in case of soldairs, police (city guards) but they kinda aren't really they just have a different job, ... and introducing table rules was obviously successful). I'm not exactly sure if that's really the core issue but we if we want bianca to use soldiers or other things like that we first need to address the core issue behind all of this.
We also need convince bianca to tell us more about magic. If there are consistent rules about magic, then there might be ways to exploit them. It might be possible to automate it or there might even be an infinte power loop or any other overpowerd exploits in the magic system. We also potentially could use magic to skip some requirement and speed up progress.
If magic isn't consistent then it just turns into a plot force and does whatever is convenient for the plot at the time.
We will need some larger time skips (A time skip happens if you don't talk to us voices for some time, we perceive time differently then you do. For us the same time passes whather you talk to us after only one year passed or wait 50 (or any other number of) years ) pretty soon there are more and more things and changes that need a lot of time to happen (like selective breeding or an increased population) and there are a lot of improvements that require things like a larger population/population density. Sure there are a lot of things that we can still introduce now, especially since we now have a city, but eventually progress will slow down without a large time skip to let some things take effect and to increase things like the population/population density that take time.
Your are kinda right should I edit my post to be OOC?
Or maybe it might be a good idea to also explain that unlike her we only have a limited time (this quest ending eventually, getting bored eventually, limited human lifespan) to communicate with her and that she can better use our limited time by talking to us less frequently and get more overall progress that way. Since our time is limited it would be better to talk to us less frequently or at least doing a big time skip whenever progress slows down then to waste our limited time on small advancements (because larger once will eventually require a lot of time or other tings that require a lot of time like a larger population)
I didn't say we should do a time skip right now, just sometime soon. I also think that we should focus on things like better farming/more food or other stuff that provides major benefits after a time skip or other stuff that we can start doing now but take time to really work (things like selective breading) (the better the farming the more population for example) and do a time skip once we reach a point where that stuff slows down. Also the goal isn't to advance her as quickly (in her world) as possible. While a Time-Skip would obviously slow down progress from her perspective, it would speed up progress from our perspective.
There are already a few change that require a lot of time to really payoff (like selective breading, population increases, longer term cultural changes(the tribes might be more willing to test new things after they are used to advancements being mate) there will be more and more things that require time to happen.
The amount of progress we would get from a time skip and is already pretty large (we should focus on stuff that increases this) and eventually it will be worth doing a time skip just for the huge amout of progress we could get from it, especially since progress without a time skip will slow down.
Do you at leat agree, that there as to be a time skip eventually, if we want to ever reach modern ages? There is also the problem that things are getting more and more complex and eventually we won't be able to fully describe everything so they will have to find out more details on their own.
There might be a way to transmit images. We could just tell her the color of every single pixel and the resolution of an image and could theoretically encode any images into words and transmit any images. Unfortuanly we are limited by the amount of colors bianca has acces to and by how small bianca could make the pixels, but extremely low resolution (pixelart), very low color (maybe just black and white I don't know if she has access to any colors) should be possible right now. But even then it's inpractical to tell her the color of every single pixel(it could probably be automated but she would still need to color every pixel on her end). This could be used if we really need to transmit a really simple image. If you think it's a good idea I could try to transmit somthing really simple
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
So, next turn, maybe somebody could explain wooden bicycle known as chukudu?
Steering mechanism is rather hard for me to describe.
Obesity and exercise.
While diverse diet is ideal, it's possible for a person to eat too much with too little physical work or exercise. In such case the body tries to store excess food as body fat, causing obesity.
Excessive body fat can easily lower mortal lifespan by 20 years. Obesity is a disease.
On the other hand, muscles, physical strength, and exercise of the body are beneficial and can slightly slow aging, though effects are far from great. A few more years of life can be expected.
This means that even when some people are raised above others and enjoy more food than needed, they should still do some light menial work or exercise bodies with for example running, otherwise their health will suffer.
I would like to remind those of you who contributed to my
Patreon or who plan to do so to please select a rewards
tier before the end of the month.
Right now three of you have pledged but are not on a tier
and that is something that Patreon doesn't allow me to
change. You have to move to a tier yourself.
And thank you, again. I truly appreciate your patronage.
I want to determine how much the gathering of young lesser giants as spouses causes the Galugur grow.
This is going to be a test of the traders' ability to persuade strangers in far off places that they should leave for an uncertain future based on the promises of people they can barely understand. Language barriers mean that skills like oratortion or temptation take second place to whatever skill actually gets the message across. The thing is, the skill used to do that could be any one of a number of different skills for different methods, so this is going to be about choosing the right skill and is therefore a test of wisdom.
In the 9N the wise do not become traders or, having acquired wisdom, stop trading and pick something less hazardous and more fulfilling, like farming, so your average trader may be cunny and savvy, but they're not that wise (2). These missions are supported by accomplished singers, who are both rather clever and possess specialized skills of communication (2). The 9Nites are visibly healthy and don't look like people who've starved much in the past few years (1). The lesser giants who accompany these missions look like the kind of lesser giants that other lesser giants would like to marry (1). These trade missions are making a show of their wealth, to demonstrate success beyond their health (1).
The traders will be rolling 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7d10. They are normal people, and so they only counts 7s and better. The result of this roll mostly determines what method of communication gets used the most over all, because each mission will be learning as it goes.
1 success = brute force communication; LOUDER AANNND SSLLLOOOOWEEEERRRRR: ineffective
2 successes = crude pantomime; it's the pelvic thrust that really drives them insane: some marriage, but mostly accusations of pimpery and slave-mongering
3 successes = sequential art; a picture is worth up to a thousand words: the offer is well communicated but not exceptionally tempting and Galugr grows notably but modestly
4 or 5 successes = staged play; drama is life with the dull bits cut out: total understanding, much temptation, many, many additions to Galugr tribe
6 or 7 successes = theatre; people are stories: all that and a Heroic Playwright
Code:
There are more Galugr, but not enough to save them.
Also, the 9Nites have acquired a reputation for
lasciviousness and particular tastes.
I want to determine how Bianca's visit to Ekhaicvint goes. (Liavint is foregone, as will be apparent from the text of the next installment.)
Bianca has no siegecraft herself and won't be stepping back to let people who know sieges take charge because of course she won't. Instead, she will be testing her intimidation (4). The people of Ekhaicvint have heard about the fall of Wrul and what happened to Liavint (1). Most people in Ekhaicvint haven't eaten super well in years (1). There are people who possess siegecraft with Bianca, even if they're a bit less effective when following her direction in the matter (1). Bianca will use magic and spirits to bolster her argument (1). Bianca is offering something like mercy, and is not demanding food (1).
So Bianca will be rolling 4 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 9d10. Bianca is herself magic and so will count 6s and better as successes on this roll.
The ruling class of Ekhaicvint are going to try to bluff Bianca, her escorts, the warriors of the 9N, their subjects, and each other into believing they don't need to give in to the small but scary army at their gates. They have a lot of practice with lying to outsiders, underlings, and each other (5). Their warriors, if gathered, would outnumber the army outside by kind of a lot (2). But they don't really have much else going for them.
So the great houses of Ekaicvint will be rolling 5 + 2 = 7d10. They are mortal and so only count 7s and better.
Bianca wins by more than 4 successes = The lords of the city slay their king and ask Bianca who she would have rule
Bianca wins by 3 or 4 successes = The king concedes to Bianca's demands, so long as she agrees to leave and not come back for fifty years
Bianca wins by 1 or 2 successes = Fearful members of the labor class open the gates, the city is modestly sacked
Tie = city suffers, but stands
Ekhaicvint's ruling class wins by 1 or 2 successes = city prospers
Ekhaicvint's ruling class wins by 3 or 4 successes = Bianca's non-9Nite followers defect to the city
Ekhaicvint's ruling class wins by more than 4 successes = defection and a Heroic Heir
Code:
Ekhaicvint holds off the 9Nites and their accompanyment.
The city actually comes out ahead because the surrounding
villages gain a better understanding of why they need the
city to protect them in the coming years. Also, river
trade was never interrupted and the siege, such as it
was, gave the city a change to 'clean house.'
I want to determine how successful the 9N as a whole are at integrating the unnamed people whose lands were recently taken by Bima Nolco.
This is going to be a test of the strength of will of the 9N as a whole against a graduated target based on the strength of will of the unnamed people.
As a consequence of what you might mistake for selection pressure but which is actually survivor bias, the people of the 9N are not weak willed (4). The unnamed people are scattered (1). The unnamed people are (newly) landless (1). The 9Nites have Bianca to look to (1).
The 9N will be rolling 4 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 7d10. They are normal people, and so they only counts 7s and better.
1 or fewer successes = Insurgency!
2 or 3 successes = Easy come, easy go; no meaningful change
4 or 5 successes = Codification of the process means more expansion for other tribes
6 or 7 successes = Codification and Heroic Logistician
Code:
Denied their past, denied control of their future, the
Unnamed wreck their revenge from within the Nine Nations
by instigation, sabotage, and murder.
5 [Integration] Send traders and travelers out
specifically to find grooms and brides
5 [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and
Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as
the years are warm enough that the land should support
traveling in such numbers
3 [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten
Nations
3 [Bianca] Learn to read
2 [Witch] Teach him secrets known to no other living
witch
2 [Witch] Give him gifts from Bianca's hoard
"Bah. Fine. I will learn to read. But I will not write. And in that way it may be known that any written thing was set on clay or hide by another who may have erred.
"The years have been hard for everyone. So I have no doubts that promises of sufficient food and membership is a mighty nation will sound very appealing. That should be enough to inspire lesser giants from wherever traders can reach to come and join the Galugr.
"Whether their own seasons have been lean or not, magicians of Enonl will also be happy to come to the Nine or Ten Nations, in as much as they are happy to keep breathing. And I will have maps, such as can be had, and any seed not already known and grown in these lands. And perhaps mapmakers, too.
"Likewise, I will favor the hero with some secrets the knowing of which does me no harm, and with some of my hoard goods, as may interest him. And if that is not sufficient to keep his interests here in the Nine or Ten Nations, then I will allow him to leave. I do not care for this gamble, but he will be dead soon enough in any case.
"And, yes, I will travel to Enonl. I will see what a city is, how people live in it, and they will see me and know fear."
This is Black Cat[/B], again with more advice. Welcome Leader Bianca, Great Undying One, Glorious Leader or, as I said a very long time ago, Your Divine Majesty.
A way of thinking about the world: as I said 20 years ago, I will say again, and there should be more evidence for that now, with the need to introduce more widely our many improvements, with written records and with people finally seeing changes during their lifetimes: permanence is a bad way of thinking. It's better for you and your power if people believe that there is change for the better that occurs thanks to you, wise Bianca, and thanks to science, science that is obviously invented by you, because no human would be wise enough. If and when there are occasionally changes for the worse, it's thanks to your evil enemies, or bad understanding of your words. You should direct your singers to slowly change details of relevant songs to reflect this way of thinking instead. With better farming, horse-riding, sails, conquest of a city, iron, glass and tons of other changes, only idiots believe in permanence. Promotion of obvious idiocy is bad, and even if this was a way-of-thinking that was once useful - it's no longer useful.
If you want to lie, then lie that you invented even fire or agriculture hundreds of years ago. Not that such lies are needed in my opinion, iron is impressive enough as change for the better and true enough.
It's good that you keep us as secret and that you can say that our improvements are your own wisdom. It's good for your power and respect.
"There is value in consistency, Black Cat. People who are more sure that things will not change are more sure that they are safe. Even if songs might dissuade them from thinking this way for a time, it would creep back into their being. But things do change. There live no few people in whose youth there was no cursed woodland to the east, no roads, no procession of crops. And glass and even iron are now well thought of but were not known only a few summers past. The people will deal with the changing world. They will not cease to complain about such things, but they will deal with them."
Uses of scientific research are not always obvious at first, but often results can be applied to practical engineering later, when somebody figures out how.
And besides, in the nations that I can remember/see/imagine, scientific experiments were often done in the giant places of learning, Universities. Some few among table-rulers and wise people for a few more years studied more than only reading and writing but also things like healing, surgery or engineering. They had building with many tablets, scrolls and books to help with that, and during their studies over existing wisdom they could conduct also new experiments and try to invent new machines. Yes, this is yet another place that wouldn't produce it's own food and would need to be supplied, but benefits of more education and sharing of techniques among for example healers are pretty obvious, and new research could be something that is done in addition to such a basic function. Eh, we must give you much more food production again, I understand that.
"This sounds little different from the ways that table-rulers are taught at my great house. There are no trials of new ideas, no. It is important, both I and the table-rulers know, that students adhere to the lessons and practices of their teachers. If they were to go off trying every new thought that occurs to their youthful minds, they would be not students but fools.
"There have never been enough table-rulers to take the measure of all the lands whose people are mine. Most years there are more than the year before. The year of Wrul's end was not one of those, as more table-rulers died on the journey to Wrul and in the uprising in the road-layers' camps than completed their learnings. Some others see very little increase for this or that reason.
"Should I say that even fewer table-rulers should be taught so that their teachers can take up the way of trials and errors that Burgeck has set aside in their bitterness and sorrow? Surely not."
There are many alternative ways to conquer, I shall now present you with yet another one: total destruction of the outsider tribe. I recently thought about a interesting way of conquest. Instead of making outsider tribe servant of the Nine, that would rebel from time to time, you utterly destroy their villages and make all of their people into bond-servants of the Nine. You distribute these bond-servants equally among the Nine, to destroy their unity, to destroy their families and tribe utterly, and settle now empty land with people of the Nine. There is no permanent slavery, so bond-service of captured people would end, but then what could they do? You destroyed their home. You destroyed their unity. Perhaps many would leave to their probable deaths among the wilds, but others would join marriages of the Nine, as their home is not only conquered, their home is destroyed and settled by people of the Nine. More people and more land for you, no long-term discord as two or three generations later last remnants from the ways-of-thinking and customs of the scattered conquered tribe would be utterly destroyed, maybe besides a few truly useful pieces of wisdom.
This way is obviously harder to do than usual conquest. Utter destruction of a tribe and stealing their land comptelety like never settled wilds is a hard work. But outsiders around the Nine are greatly weakened anyway...
The most dangerous or useless people from the destroyed tribe, like bold warriors that would forever hate you or elders, could be of course worked to death, or maybe to worse health - so that they are not in condition to cause discord after their bond-service ends. Copper mines and roadbuilding are nice for that, but remember to use much smaller and easier to control camps. Beware of yet another haunting and killing too many people at the same time and in the same place.
"It is true, Black Cat, that even in these hard winters, the numbers of the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations have grown. It may be that they are sufficient to do as you say and take and use lands of outsiders at their borders.
"But if they take outsiders as bond captives, those will not spread throughout the people without some manner of intervention from myself. I did take all of the bonded captives taken in the great battle against the Hosts of the King of Wrul as my own in tribute from the people. But in the claiming of all livestock and unripened foods from the lands around those of the tribes, many more bond captives were taken. Outsiders are not much more often fools than are the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations. And there were no few of their number that saw their deaths in the theft of their livestock and the razing of their fields. And some fair number of these offered themselves as bond captives without being ran down. But many others were ran down as well. And of the people of Wrul and the scatterings of that city's hosts there also have been some number taken as bond captives.
"That is to say, there are many bond captives among the people now. Their numbers are not so great that starvation is assured. But if one family has five bond captives they will not turn to a family with fifteen and say, 'Your family has so much while mine has so little and only you can right this wrong.'
"But while this landtaking occurs because I direct it to, I may direct that as many bond captives should be taken as can and that they should be given to me in tribute. And, following this, I may distribute them as measures of my favor throughout the lands of the free people.
"I will ask my singers and table-rulers if any one tribe most overflows their lands, and of the disposition of the outsiders at their borders. It may be that we can evaluate this plan of yours, oh voice."
I disagree with some of my fellow Voices and with you about sharing baubles with outsiders. I would like you to wage wars with them and conquer them all anyway, so their desires to attack are not very problematic in my opinion, and with outsider desire for baubles the Nine could buy more metals for weapons and plows. There is never enough metals. But, well. At least share only shiny baubles? Less visible inventions, inventions that produce more food, like the black soil, teach only to people firmly conquered. So that there is always more food and people under your power than under power of your enemies. I hope that this sounds reasonable?
"Black Cat, you sound as though you have the sense of battle that is found in nearly all the youngest of the chosen and also in fools young and old both. Yes, there is glory in battle as cannot be found elsewhere. And yes, the greater the battle the greater the glory to be had. But just one more victory in battle so great as what we fought against the Host of Wrul might ruin the Nine or Ten Nations. They might not fall in the same year, or the next or the one after that. But they are already weakened, even if it is not visible.
"These are the things that can be seen when you see what goes on over the course of many lifetimes. Many things are only clear in the years or generations that follow.
"Were it not for the countings of the table-rulers, for example, we would not know that nearly all the best and strongest mares died in that battle or what came after. The horses of all of the Nine or Ten Nations will be lessened for that loss, and permanently. Many, many warriors fell also or were made lame. And their absence or diminishment also weakens the people, though the taking of bond captives might match or exceed that loss in the years that have since passed. In metals the returning warriors with Kahl of Lan have made a plentitude. But hides and rope and wood as less plentiful, everywhere.
"Such a great battle has a great price and I do not wish that one should occur again for so easily undone a reason as, 'They have pointless precious things I do not.' And so I have already sent traders to the known cities and beyond to sell the secret of glassmaking as dearly as they can manage. They take with them small pots of sand and those particular ashes and what all is needed to make glass. And there are with them kiln-makers for my new First Table-Ruler is clever and said, 'what if the people of some city cannot make kilns hot enough?' Let no people look to invade my lands for some pointless frippery they cannot find anywhere else."
Custom of throwing unwanted or bad or weird family members to winter sounds to me as terribly wasteful the more I think about this matter. Maybe they could be offered to you instead? These that are useful despite opinions of their family you could use as servants, while truly dangerous ones you could use in experiments/tests or work dangerous enough to often end in death.
"I thought this also, at one time. But for the most part it is all too much trouble. I do not have time to look after people who cannot manage to make their own family not want them dead.
"However, there are times when my singers bring to my attention some person or another with singular skill and a dangerously off-putting manner, by birth or by fever or by blow to the head. Once or twice every generation, I think, one of these is worth the bother to bring to the lands around my great house, provided they can look after themselves to at least some degree. And if in winter they are cast out from whichever family around my great house they join to, they may shelter with my singers. And if my singers cast them out then they really are too much trouble."
Meritocracy. You could devise tests of cunning and wisdom to decide who should be raised over other people as inquisitors, or guards, or chosen table rulers, or other such people. In such a way people who are truly better than average person at hunting crime or at ruling over others or at guarding things would be selected. This way provides much higher quality of such people than simply raising everyone from one tribe over another, idiots included. This way somebody would need to be truly unusually good, and people could believe that sooner or later somebody from their own family may be good enough. Some people could even try to improve their skills or skills of their children, perhaps. They should answer correctly hard questions that would be impossible for idiots to answer, solve correctly hard riddles, be better with numbers than average table-ruler, and similar. Obviously guards would need different tests than inquisitors, and table rulers with more power would need yet different tests; this should be properly designed to provide truly the best people for a given work.
Advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination and tests or demonstrated achievement. Those who govern should do so because of merit, not of inherited status.
"Black Cat, I will put in a place a system by which those who are best at ruling do rule with some share of my authority if you can tell me how to judge who is best to rule. What hard questions should they be asked? What hard riddles? And, still, there are not enough table rulers. How can I know in each village who is the best ruler?
"Now the people in each village follow village leadership that they choose for themselves, even if they do not know it. Here in one village all respected elders rule. In another all respected elders gather to choose one person who is fully grown to rule for so many seasons. In another place the same choice is made for life. And in yet another each ruler chooses who should rule after them. And in all these places if a poor choice is made then there is some strife and some messiness and then another is chosen, possibly by a different means.
"When I have found especially impressive singers, I have at times appointed them to take charge of a village in strife. And in some cases that singer would direct the affairs of that village until their venerable years. But these who are obviously suited to authority are rare, much rarer than the foolish mortals of a single lifetime think they are. More often a mortal thinks, 'This person should lead,' when the thoughts of their innards are more accurately, 'This person is tall and proud and good to look on and also wishes to have authority.'
"So, yes, obviously rule by those best suited to ruling is ideal. Tell me how to test them, Black Cat."
Criminal schemes of chosen table rulers are a problem and inquisitors should look into evidence of any crimes or schemes, obviously. Sometimes Provocateurs can be used, people who would falsely suggest to a table-ruler that they want to help with schemes or crimes, but in truth would only gather evidence and bring table-ruler to justice if he admits to illegal actions. In this same way some inquisitors should check other ones. It should be known among servants that such "tests" exist: your servants chosen over other people wouldn't ever know whether somebody truly wants to scheme with them or test their honesty, so they would do less crime.
"Every person who schemes has reason already to distrust any other person who schemes, for what they take can be taken, and such. I do like the idea of building that distrust further. Even if I have little need of inquisitors-of-table-rulers at this time, I may compose with my singers a song of jape and tension on the subject."
My examples of the inquisitor work were just that, examples of a way-of-thinking useful for a inquisitor. Not always there are pieces of cloth or blood, but these are nice examples to show that inquisitors should search for evidence and criminals, like hunters for animals. Sometimes there are footprints that suggest who is guilty, sometimes there are reliable witnesses, sometimes there is something else. Inquisitors should never assume that somebody is guilty only because they don't like him, or that somebody is innocent only because he looks pretty.
You asked: "How is your inquisition separate from the guards or the enclosed judges, Black Cat?". Inquisitors always search for crimes and evidence, while guards: help Inquisitors to bring criminals before judgement, protect your singers and various servants, protect property against theft, and similar tasks. Inquisitors need more wisdom and may be old, while guards should be younger.
Inquisitors should never judge, this should be done before the enclosure of judgement, with objective examination of both Inquisitorial evidence of crime and words of the suspected person. This, among other things, should ensure that people see Inquisitors as less tyrannical - they only search for truth, somebody else is tasked with judgement.
You said: "Perhaps later raise up some people to all of these roles together. But in separating them out I expect that it will only make more and more people who do not bring in food or make tools or do anything else the people know and understand are needed." These tasks are much better separated and specialized, but you are right that if we want to apply such ideas to many people, more food may be needed. Especially if we add full-time Armed Forces as yet another non-farming work. We constantly try to improve your food production. But there is no need to instantly apply such ideas everywhere: you can always start with only a few guards or soldiers, and see how their training works.
"I will see how such things are done in Enonl, I think. And perhaps I will better understand your advice then. Still I do not see how either the inquisitor or anyone who passes judgement should be anyone other than whoever is already the local authority, or whoever already represents me, or me, myself. And I see little need for guards in any case.
"And, still, there remains the problem of evaluation. I could direct my table-rulers and singers to choose one person from each village who they find wisest and call them Inquisitor of Judgement, or really anything. And I could then direct all the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations to obey that person when they are determining or judging. And when there is failure we might learn to do better.
Identification parchments: your singers and perhaps table-rulers or other important servants may be provided with a special piece of parchment with their name, approximate year of birth, a unique number recorded also in your great house, fingerprint and words that would say that they serve you. During travels they could use this parchment to show that they indeed are your people, not foreign spies that try to pretend or frauds. Even if they are killed, nobody would be able to use a piece of parchment with obviously different age and fingerprint, or at least not for long.
They may also don't know what number of their parchment would be proper, as there may be order also in regards to that. Decent forgery would be hard if not utterly impossible.
You have a new First Table-Ruler, right? Then his fingerprints could be also included on all identification parchments, to make forgery even more difficult.
Even if a liar or foregin spy could manage to have a piece of parchment, ink, and basic knowledge about how to write false identification parchment - then he would still have only his own hands and his own fingers.
While parchment is far from common, one additional piece per lifetime of a singer and servant looks perfectly doable and worth resources used.
"The hero who currently serves me as bond captive has already shown me how, with a fine knife and an edible root and time and skill and a good example, a fingerprint can be faked in ink on parchment. I think that skill may be rare. But I think likewise the need for identification as you describe it is also rare.
"If such a need arises more regularly, though, I will see that we test who is the more clever at any moment: the faker or the people who are mine."
Cities should not only take what they need from villages, they should also give back, or trade for food and supplies, manufactured goods. Not only full-time guards or warriors or inquisitors or table-rulers should live in a city, but even more full-time craftsmen, often with complicated machines that would be too hard to have in villages. Cities are also places where people, both outsiders and villagers, go to trade. While there is inequality, some benefits from existence of cities exist even for the poorer people, as I said many times before.
"Yes, so I have heard. But it does not matter what a city has to offer if food is scarce. People cannot eat tools or pots or anything else that is better made in a city. And so when food is scarce as it inevitably is, the city must take food from the surrounding lands where it is grown, raised, or caught."
You once asked what permanent guards should do when they would guard important doors, like these in the walls around your great house. It's slightly depends on the particular place and security needs, but mostly... They should check whether only people who are allowed to enter, enter; whether only people who are allowed to leave, leave; and most importantly ensure that no stolen goods are transported outside. They should also raise alarm and close doors if they see enemies. Everyone should be obligated to show contents of their bags to these guards, to be sure that nothing is stolen from your hoard. Even your singers should show their things, trust but verify to be absolutely sure.
You can test such guards-of-doors with training, false thieves and false dangers. Regularly test how they would act in the case of theft, whether they are effective and truly guard.
It's a pretty boring work when nothing happens, though. So they should be relieved by the another group of guards after a few hours.
"You see, Black Cat, what you are describing are needs that do not exist yet. Why do I care who enters or leaves the walled lands around my great house? Any who wish to sneak into my hoard will be much less challenged by sneaking past guards. Should I have guards at the gates checking the bags of each person who leaves for gold? Surely there is not so great a need as to require not only two warriors, one to search and one to watch, but two warriors for each of, what? Five or six times a day?
About nails... I thought about things called that, not literal parts of the human anatomy. Nail is a small object made of metal which is used as a fastener, as a peg to hang something. Generally, nails have a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other. Nails are typically driven into the workpiece by a hammer, you hammer the nail head.
There are many uses of nails in construction, but you can also use nails to fasten horseshoe to a horse hoof for a long time. Because large parts of the horse hooves are made out of non-living tissue. Some skill and experience are needed to do that properly, too long nails can easily damage a horse.
"I think you are describing a stake as one might drive into the ground, but made from metal. And in the case of fixing a shoe to a horse, perhaps also much smaller. Though we have more bronze than ever before and iron is more plentiful every year, still I think that is a waste of metal. Perhaps it would not be so in the case of fixing an iron sole to hooves of a warhorse.
"That is just one case you mean them for, I think. Tell me what it is you mean to be done with metal stakes, voice."
Some time ago you asked, I think, why some people are born lame. Maybe sometimes there are magical reasons and curses, but I know only non-magical reasons: mistakes in instructions for life (how cells should build the body) sometimes happen randomly. Other possible causes are bad diet of the pregnant mother, or drinking strong alcohol while pregnant. Or simply difficult delivery that damages the child. Most often mother is not guilty of anything, though drinking alkohol is exception. Usually there is no cure, though there are rare exceptions, types of damage are very diverse, like causes.
Ah, and having children with relatives is highly unadvisable, and can greatly raise risks, but this is known to you and present in customs.
When I think about alcohol and children: children also shouldn't drink any strong alcohol. What is more, small children shouldn't even drink beer in ideal conditions, though in practically existing conditions weak beer may be lesser evil than dirty water.
Hugging small children and infants improves their health. Yes, this sounds slightly weird, but it's true. Without any gentle touch and hugs bodies of children work improperly and germ attacks are much more often succesful. This doesn't mean that small children should be only hugged and do whatever they want.
For older children and adults it's much less important, but there are still some positive effects. And of course people cannot and shouldn't be ordered to hug everyone, this is mostly good advice for families and marriages.
There are also benefits for health of the mind, though no, sadly you cannot heal serious madness with hugs.
"Hah! It is, I think, more often the case that people grasp the bodies of those who are troubled, children or not, with the idea that holding them will solve their problems. It is a comfort, yes. Anyone can see that. But one who is held while they wail for the loss of a loved one, or for heartbreak, or for knowledge that they will die, does not find their troubles unmade by being held.
"Of course children are so often troubled. And of course they are grasped in comfort, if they are not too disliked I suppose. Who does not hug their children? And why wouldn't they?
"But you have told me that some are born lame because their mother consumed something she should not have, others because they were injured in their birthing, and others still because the instructions by which life builds life were flawed and followed nonetheless. So for the first it may be that pregnant people should not eat first, so that their food is tasted for poisons and such. And for the second there may be better ways of birthing, I suppose. That would be a hard test to make. And for the third I take you to mean that there is nothing that can be done. It is simply poor fortune. Fine. Some things will fall to chance, always."
There are mechanical ways to fly, to answer another of your old questions, but these ways are mechanically complicated. And you had issues even with waterwheels. Not that this is your fault: it's hard to explain very complicated matters with only words, and it's partially our fault. We shall try to improve your machinery slowly and then maybe, after a long time, we would be able to explain mechanical flying machines big enough to be used by you and your soldiers.
"If first we build your water wheel, and make it to work, then next some other thing, then another after that, how many mechanical masteries must the people have before they can build a flying machine? Tell me the steps so that I can decide whether or not it should be pursued and with what urgency."
Mint is weak enough herb that it would be almost impossible to use too much mint. So mint can be safely used as a tea by healthy people, and thus encourage people to boil their water. Other voices were right about proper and consistent doses of truly strong medicines. I'm not sure whether to call mint "medicine" at all, it's more like beneficial food, like honey, that can also heal but the word "medicine" is not exactly proper. Strong medicines are often poisons when used too much, mint thankfully is not.
"I think perhaps this may only be known by evaluation. If I am wrong, if there is some means by which it may be known that this herb should be taken in small doses only for illness or injury while this other may be boiled in water and drank every day for life, do tell me, voice."
Cancer and sunlight... Sunlight is needed for health in moderation, something very hard during winters, but truly excessive exposure increase risk of dark-looking skin cancer after a few years. During hot days of the summer, something like light hats woven out of straw and wearing light clothes instead of working with naked chest - should be good enough. You can scientifically research this if you want, but effects are rather subtle and not too great, so I'm not sure that results would be obvious soon.
What is probably more important is the fact that such a simple measures, along with drinking more water, decrease also risks of the heat stroke, a much more common and immediate issue. That is, illness caused by overheating of the body. This can the most often happen when people work outside during the peak summer heat. Confusion, red skin, weakness and headache are symptoms, and cooling of the body with for example colder water is a nice treatment, while straw hats and drinking more water can often prevent the problem.
Also, some salt is removed from the body with sweat, so a small amount of salt can be well-advised - along with water of course - when people tend to sweat truly excessively. This cure, also with honey, is well-known to you, it's only yet another use.
"Do not tell me, Black Cat, only that some sunlight is needed by people in winter. Tell me also how it may be known that they get too little. I could tell the people to stand naked in the winter sun for strength and they would do it as much as they have time and can stand to do so. But at the same time you say that too much sun will canker their flesh.
"Light cloth is cloth that tears and wears through. Cloth is rare and precious, though the spinning wheel and the loom of weights are making it more available. So the cloth that is made and the cloth that is worn is sturdy and durable. And it is heavy enough that working in the summer sun under cloth will sicken a person with heat. There are not so many cankered, though. So I think straw-woven hats will need to be sufficient.
"Or perhaps carrying drinking water and salt and honey out to the fields or to lay roads will answer that heat and allow the wearing of cloth in the sun? I will find out."
Scurvy, scurvy and alternative cures... Well, edible green plants, or berries, or fruits are the best, but other than that... Let me think, how small tribes of the forever frozen far north survive... Eh, fresh meat, not overcooked? Fresh horse meat, especially. But I see a problem here, undercooking meat causes risks from worms and other such stuff. A much worse way in my opinion, concerns would need to be very wisely balanced... Fresh horse meat... Fresh liver of various animals... Lightly fried seal meat and liver... But I'm not enthusiastic about this way, a worse way in my opinion.
"There may come a day where the properties of certain foods to oppose certain deficiencies are evaluated. But I think that would take years. And it would mean many sick people. That is not what I wish to discover. But if scurvy is found already existing, we will try green plants known to be eaten safely, then berries and fruits, then raw or near-raw meats, but not hog."
In regards to the biggest Burgeck icehall that collapsed: maybe additional support for weight of the roof in the middle of the icehall, support pillar, could allow such design to stand for much longer. Especially with a good and deep foundation for the pillar.
"The whole point of the arch was that support piles would not be necessary. How is force transferred to the pillar if the stones of the arch transfer force to the stones to either side?
"It may be, though, that the foundation of that great hall was not as deep or a solid as it was thought to be. For now, the Free People of Burgeck Tribe believe that the weight of snow was like many more stones atop the hall, so that it was too great. Nonetheless, they have dug it out already and rebuilt it, even wider and higher. Where previously they made each work of stone or other effort in my name, begging for my approval, now they build in their own names. There is a bitterness there. But it will pass. And if in the meantime they learn the building of great works out of some spite toward my refusal of them, all the better. It is all written down."
In regards to building bridges: a cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry work environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Enclosed coffers are commonly used for construction or repair of bridge piers/pillars.
Roman cofferdam was effectively a large, watertight barrel made of rows of timber which were bound by metal. Additionally, in order to provide water resistance, the "barrels" could be lined with pitch or clay. These would then be lowered into the river, and allow the water to be diverted from the place of work in order to dig down to build foundations.
What is a deep foundation? Deep foundation systems go unseen by the majority of our population, but make the modern world possible. Such systems are employed for...
madridengineering.com
The foundations of the bridge pillars could be lain directly onto hard rock if it was found, or onto wooden piles which were driven deep into the river bed. This last solution is relatively durable. The wet mud and the lack of oxygen prevents the action of the bacteria which would in other cases destroy the wood.
"It seems, nonetheless, that building the enclosure out in the water would be nearly as difficult a task as would building the bridge pillar. It need not last as long, nor be as sturdy, though. So I suppose it is a matter of steps, and that the earlier are more easily done than the latter. I would like bridges over water that roads meet. I would like those bridges to be made of stone and to last as long as the road or longer. For now the people make do with boats and fordings.
"I do not think a bridge could be made, or that exclosuring could be well-learned without either my own presence driving the work or some group being as fixated on winning my favor as were the Burgeck."
Pasteurization: people can enjoy much safer milk, and be able to store milk for longer, if you kill some germs with some heat. Only a short while and with heat slightly below boiling, because this is preservation method, not redewing, and we want to retain most of the milk properties and taste. Far from all germs would be killed at these mild temperatures, but this number of killed germs should be sufficient to extend safe storage time by a few days, such milk would be also much safer to drink. You should test that and develop the best method, of course, as proper time and keeping milk slightly below boiling heat may need some skill and experience.
Safety benefits are also important, as sometimes germs in the raw milk are very harmful. Far from always, but often enough to make pasteurization worthwile for health benefit alone, some very basic preservation is only additional benefit.
This measure is designed for milk that people or children will drink. Raw milk should be still used to produce cheese, and cheese is safe.
"Is milk not safe as it is? What signs will tell us that a disease is from milk, that these steps are neede? Preventing a few days of spoilage seems of little use, really."
Mushroom farming. Mushrooms are not plants, plants need sunlight to grow, while mushrooms could be grown even on rotting trees in dark caves, or under living trees where it's too dark for crops. Some mushrooms are poisonous, but many species are perfectly edible. So how to farm mushrooms? Mushrooms reproduce in a weird way, there are no seeds, but... There are much more mushrooms in places where the waste good for growing mushrooms is watered with the water in which mushrooms were washed. Such water contains germ-sized mushroom spores, mushrooms weird method of reproduction. So you can try sprinkling the waste with such a water, leachate from ripe edible mushrooms. Preferably kinds of waste without too many germs harmful to humans: so rotting leaves or wood, NOT human waste. Maybe wooden logs, to not compete with the black soil compost. This is simplification, but may be enough to start farming some mushrooms. Instead of water, try also scrapping a mushroom cap's tissue. You sadly cannot feed too many people that way, but it's a nice addition to variety of the human diet without competing with more productive crops. I would like to hear back about effect of these efforts, or any unfortunate issues.
"Wise folk already know which mushrooms may be eaten… Though they are sometimes wrong. This may be better understood, I think, with some trial and error. And if one or more mushrooms are reliably known to be safe and may be reliably grown from their wash or scrapings, then the people will know for certain that this or that mushroom is safe and others are not. We shall see."
As far as I understand, the First Chief of the Nine Nations is now also King of Enonl, lives in luxury in Enonl, and all people of the Nine that come to Enonl are raised above locals.
I'm... Unsure that this sounds like the ideal way of doing things.
"By the Nine Ways Pact the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations are raised up higher than others. Most greatly, they alone will not make tribute to other peoples or gods, but only to me. In many other ways they are raised up by the manner in which they will and must treat each other, too.
"I will see what excess Kuwuzt enjoys when I visit Enonl."
My fellow Voices. Hot air balloons? Possible theoretically, but... Huh. I predict that more than one would burn and waste valuable cloth before this is perfected. And maybe kill someone. Well.
Likewise, experimentation with the black powder can be deadly. Well.
Thank you, my fellow Voice, but I politely disagree. For example I feel pretty satisfied with the current speed of time. If anything it feels too fast.
I think that Bianca should talk with us more often, not less often.
We need to explain more agricultural machinery. You cannot introduce what you don't know or understand. Threshing machine, when explained properly, would be nice.
There is no way that I could be better. English is not my native language and I'm better with basic ideas than with detailed technical descriptions. But surely you wouldn't be properly understood at first. I argue that this is not a reason for a time skip.
Somebody could also explain treadle-powered wheels.
First of all, I hope that my words are not agressive or something xd I simply disagree. Because I can imagine tons of machinery that somebody could explain and try to apply and spread now. Sadly I'm not good at machinery (details of design).
We still have problems with as basic things as collapsing buildings and bridges.
Problems with the Burgeck waterwheel were caused also by incomplete description of details, I'm pretty sure. I'm bad at explaining complex machinery properly (I tend to cite other people and sources almost without changes).
But trying to explain properly is half of the fun, so.
Demon. I believe that you are slightly wrong about spirits. It was mentioned that all death of people and animals produce spirits in the underworld. Some of these spirits travel to the, I'm not sure what words to use, to the world of the living.
Well, it's nothing new to us to say that there are many worlds. What is more interesting is the fact that deity known as Hare reportedly created this underworld - I wonder whether this is true, or maybe Hare simply lies to appear more powerful.
Back to spirits, besides the very weird exeption among the Forest People - as their spirits are able to understand complex matters of peace negotiations and help to rule the Forest People, if I understood this right - the vast majority of spirits seems to be forever obsessed with either thoughts and emotions from the time of their deaths, or with dominant theme of their lives.
Understanding of the world and changes that happen in the world, and wisdom, and ability to solve new problems, or ability to creatively attain goals... are thus radically limited among spirits in comparision to the living, again, possibly with the weird exception among the Forest People. You can sometimes talk and bargain with spirits, but you should remember their obsession about one theme or one thing.
"The spirits of the Forest People are special and different, Black Cat. It is true. The Forest People as a whole have a different relationship with the underworld. Hare called First People to herself in the forest. And from them and with Wolf and Leopard and Deer she made them into the Forest People. So the Forest People have a connection to the underworld that no other people have in their very making, for they were called by Hare and were surely given some unnamed gifts from her that no other people were.
"Further, when the business of New Gods was all about, the Forest People asked Hare to assist them and she did, taking many of them into the underworld. And a moon or so later Hare returned to the surface with three of those many who had set forth, and they were the New Gods of the Forest People: Noj, Uhn, and Sywel.
"So the spirits of the Forest People are more like people and less like spirits than any other spirits are. I have had many years to watch, and to measure without much counting, though. And I have found than many, many more spirits of Fisher People and Giants and lesser giants return from the underworld than do spirits of Forest People. I once met a sorcerer from a very distant land, who carried tiny carved images of Fisher People's faces in a manner of stone I had never seen before. He told me that in his land it was said that the same force that prevented all but a very small number of Forest People from returning with Hare from the underworld as New Gods also prevents all but a tiny number of the spirits of Forest People from returning. Others say that most spirits are trouble and the troublesome spirits of Forest People are restrained in the underworld -- though that conflicts with what goes on in the nearby cursed woodlands. I have also heard that it is a punishment of some sort. Erweh was said to be responsible, but I do not think he ever claimed that himself."
If I understand right, one of my fellow Voices, do you think that our improvements are not widely used in practice? I partially disagree, for example icehalls surely are used, and there is a surprisingly decent road network, but there is a point. I proposed changes to the ways-of-thinking (philosophy, ideology) that could speed up the pace of beneficial changes, I think.
"You might consider, Black Cat, that people do what they do for reasons. That there is a better way of doing things does not make the reasons people do what they already do vanish.
"So when farmers are told of the procession of crops and that they must follow them, there are some who balk. They say that they do not have time to plow fields and to sow crops and to turn the field again at harvest if it will not feed their families. So they would rather grow grains on the same field year after year, as they have for as long as they know, and benefit from my blessing.
"It was only by threatening the withholding of my blessing and the ruin of families by starvation -- a threat I followed through on to the doom of five or six families depending on how you count them -- that I have forced farmers to adopt the procession of crops. Even this I do not have the time to do throughout all the lands of the Nine or Ten Nations in a single year. There are still places that do not follow the procession of crops, in fact, which I have not taken the time to threaten into obedience. I hope that the terror of stories of my wrath which precede me will persuade them, as that will save me time and trouble.
"The same is true for the black soil and any other benefit of similar subtlety. The people see the benefit of water-driven lever devices to crush grains or break up ore. And the people see the benefits of iron and glass and saddles and stirrups, too. So these they take up. But boiling water and cloth for wound care is only spottily practiced. It is like any other word of wisdom, some follow and some suffer.
"Improvements like the turning plow not only require a willing plower, but also a willing and capable maker-of-plows. Growing of hemp or another other new crops has required much work in the gathering of wild seed and the preservation of crop seed. Some of these will, I think, fail in time as the extra work is not worth the benefit, now that Burgeck no longer leaps to my every desire like a smitten suitor.
"Warriors do not care for the sideways bows, so their making will likely cease unless I order that it continue, which I will not. But case-hardening iron tools and weapons is well regarded when it can be made to work. And every table-ruler holds a dear place in their innards for their abacus and wax tablet. On the other hand, armor of heavy and layered cloth is seen as a waste of precious cloth when armor of leather and such is more effective. The results of the advice I get from all you voices fall here and there like seeds sown by drunken fowl."
Bianca. I have heard your questions regarding the finer points of glassmaking and lens production. I also have some more unsolicited advice regarding the improvement of farming. Specifically, labor-saving machines to make bringing in the harvest require far fewer people to harvest and thresh the same amount of food. Also, I will teach a basic method of hoisting a man or woman miles into the air and safely returning them to the ground. Lastly, I will end with how to create a powder that when lit in an enclosed container will violently explode outwards, shattering stones, flinging projectiles at extreme speeds, and which will provide the barest beginnings of the principles used to send ships to the moon or beyond.
Making Clear Glass
Regarding glassmaking, a fairly simple and reliable formula for making clear glass requires crushed Quartz, Soda Ash, and a small amount of the metal Manganese, though the Manganese need not be in pure form; the oxide found naturally in Manganese-containing rocks will suffice. I will now explain each ingredient in sequence, along with the necessary processing for each ingredient.
First, the Quartz is used in the place of common sand. To be suitable, a piece of Quartz must not have any yellow or black veins inside, and if struck with a piece of steel must produce sparks. Quartz that passes this selection process should be heated to the point when the crystals start glowing, then dumped in water. The resulting cracks from the sudden cooling will make the Quartz very easy to crush and grind to the requisite size.
"What 'requisite size' is that, voice? Do you mean that these stones -- some of which the people find quite fine on their own -- should be ground down to sand before making glass of them?
"I have some works of hard and angled stone in my hoard that may be what you speak of. And of course I desire lenses that I may look on tiny life more than I desire these trifles that must be withheld from the people for the sake of peace. But there is much more failure than success in glass-making and often the finer works of glass are only made from subsequent attempts with ground and reground products of failed attempts. Will the remains of failures which started as quartz make clear glass or should the particulars of this process be reserved for first-time attempts?"
You already know the basics of producing Soda Ash, but the particular type to make clear glass needs to be particularly high in Sodium Carbonate. Generally, the whiter the ash, the better; try different plants until you find one that works. Repeated gentle boiling with constant mixing, followed by drying in shallow pans will eventually purify the Soda Ash to a suitable state. That said, if such plants are unavailable there is a method for the artificial creation of Sodium Carbonate at high purity which I will describe in just a bit, though be aware that it is somewhat complex, and requires a few crucial ingredients of its own.
The Manganese will need to be mined or prospected. Most Manganese-containing rocks are dark grey to black in color, and are moderately shiny, though not as much as a refined metal. Additional steps to identify Manganese-containing rocks are to try breaking them, and scraping them against a surface. Most (though not all) Manganese-containing rocks are brittle, and will shatter if hit against a hard surface enough to break. In addition, most common Manganese-rocks will produce a dark reddish-brown (or just dark brown) streak when scraped against a surface, though I know of one that will produce a bluish-black streak. The Manganese rocks for use in glassmaking should be ground into a fine powder.
"How can it be known that the soda ash has reached its 'suitable state?'
"I do not know stones as well as do those who direct their gathering, crushing, and such. If your directions here are sufficient, then we will have this rock added as well. Your naming of it as a lodestone without describing the properties of lodestones is strange and I will direct another to locate it. But should the grindings of brittle, grey-black, brown-marking stone and soda ash be reapplied to failures which have been ground back up for another go?"
The process is fairly straightforwards from this point onwards. Melt the crushed and ground Quartz together with the Soda Ash as normal. With constant mixing of the batch, skim off the top of the batch. This removes most of the unwanted chloride and sulfate impurities from the glass, but there is still enough in there to ruin the batch. Once the skimming is done, ladle the molten glass into water. This will gradually remove more of the aforementioned impurities as the process of melting and ladling is repeated. Once this is completed to the glassmaker's satisfaction, the glass must be moved to a furnace heated to the highest possible temperature for multiple days, and stirred continually to remove bubbles and other defects.
This refined mixture is almost complete, but one final round of letting the glass set, re-melting it, then skimming it one last time. At this point, the powdered Manganese should be added and mixed in thoroughly, though the instructions I found were frustratingly vague on exactly how much Manganese to add. The recommendation for the first few batches is therefore to start with a very small amount of Manganese, and slowly add more until you have reached the correct amount to remove unwanted tints and colors from the glass. Don't forget to anneal the glass during the final cooling stage, of course.
"When remelting the glass after dropping it in water and again after skimming it after the days of stirring, should it be ground back to sand first? And what is about burning the glass at the end, 'of course?' Does this differ from the stewing steps? Is it to be held to the flame like roasting meat?"
Making Sodium Carbonate
Anyway, the process for making Sodium Carbonate will now be described. The ingredients you will need are salt, water, limestone, and ammonia. The ammonia will be the hardest to acquire, but fortunately this process allows you to re-use the ammonia required. As such, once the process starts you will only need a supply of brine and limestone to keep it going.
The easiest way for you to acquire ammonia will be to use a variety of a redewing apparatus loaded with plant matter; alternatively, load it with urine and lye, as another suggested. For ease of handling I would recommend placing the lower pot on the inside of a specially constructed ice house that attains extremely cold temperatures, since the point at which ammonia boils into a gas is far colder than the point at which water turns to ice. To keep the ammonia liquid for longer once removed from the ice house, I would recommend a double-layered pot with the gap containing some sort of filler; sawdust should serve well enough at the present time. The best possible filler would actually be to remove every single bit of matter between the layers, air included, but you lack the capability to do that right now. It is worth noting that ammonia is also useful for a lot of other chemical processes, so the equipment to make it should be retained.
"So redewing, but instead of starting with beer we start with piss and soap lye and keep the pots in an ice hall? I think that customs of hospitality may accommodate this and similar business. I can see to it myself, even."
Once you have the ingredients, you mix the salt and water to make brine, then add the ammonia. A special oven will then be required to make the last ingredient: carbon dioxide. This oven should have two chambers, completely separate from each other. The bottom one is for the fire, which needs to be able to heat the top chamber to temperatures that make iron glow red hot. The top chamber meanwhile should be mostly sealed save for a tube leading to the bottom of the vat containing the brine-ammonia mix. Though honestly, a very tall tube for the reaction would be better; in our history such an apparatus is referred to as a gas-absorption tower, and can be taller than many buildings for best efficiency. As the bubbles of gas released by the super-hot limestone flow up the column of ammonia-brine, a material will start settling on the bottom of the tube. This is Sodium Bicarbonate. Also, the limestone turns into quicklime, which can be useful in applications outside of making Sodium Carbonate; it's perhaps wise to use a bit more Limestone than strictly necessary, just to have a surplus of quicklime.
"I do not see the sense of this. If there is a pipe running to the bottom of a pot, then the contents of that pot will run down the pipe. Is this what is meant to happen? And do you mean that limestone should be placed in the flameless chamber? When should the seawater and ammon-stuff be poured down the tall pipe? And how tall does that pipe need to be? And how can a fire be made hot enough that iron will glow when held outside the fire, even? And if the boiling mixture of seawater and ammon-stuff and living lime in the lower pot causes stuff to form on the pipe, how is that stuff gathered? It is by scraping with long-armed tools or by rinsing the pipe out and drying the wash?
"The people know the making of your living lime by baking limestone, too. And I think even if the ammon-stuff and water do boil away, the salts in the seawater will make this quicklime different."
Anyway, Sodium Bicarbonate can be turned into Sodium Carbonate by heating it up in a pan, which is a fairly straightforward process as long as you don't accidentally set it on fire. The trickier part is recycling the ammonia, which has now reacted with the chlorine in salt to produce ammonium chloride. Once you've filtered out the Sodium Bicarbonate, add quicklime to the remaining liquid while still hot. This will convert the Ammonium Chloride back into Ammonia and salt. Just add the liquid mix back in, top up the tube with more brine, add more limestone to the oven, and you'll be ready for another batch of Sodium Carbonate. Occasional replenishment of ammonia will be required, but not very often.
"What madness is this? The living lime is already in the pot with the seawater and ammon-stuff that ran down the pipe from the upper pot! What is the desired substance filtered out of? And how? By cloth? And if the top pot is filled with seawater it will only spill out of the bottom! Madness!"
As a side note, Sodium Bicarbonate (NOT Sodium Carbonate, the stuff you heat up to MAKE Sodium Carbonate) can actually be used to prevent dental issues. Add a bit of water to the dry version of the substance, and you can get a thick paste. Use a moderately stiff (not TOO stiff, though) brush dipped in this toothpaste to scrub your teeth on a regular basis, and it will both clean plaque and kill many of the bacteria living in the mouth, making it far less likely for someone's teeth to rot and cause them problems. It is possible to add mint flavoring to toothpaste without compromising its effectiveness, which may make it more palatable. Under no circumstances add sugar to toothpaste. A batch of Sodium Bicarbonate toothpaste will remain effective for a bit less than a ten-day after being mixed, with more exposure to air making it lose potency quicker. Swallowing toothpaste is probably unwise, but is unlikely to be fatal.
"I do not need a table-ruler to tell me that this bizarre ritual, if it somehow succeeds, will never be followed so much that there is enough stuff for each of the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations to scrub at their teeth with it each day. Mark again, voice, that I will not have some of the people raised up above others by petty distinction. And if some have always better teeth than others because the paste is theirs alone, there will be discord.
As another side note, this process will also result in the production of Calcium Chloride, a substance somewhat related to salt. It can be used for melting ice through chemical action, or as a food additive. Calcium Chloride tastes extremely salty, but contains no Sodium, meaning that it is not a total substitute for salt. Since the body needs Sodium. That said, the body also needs Calcium, specifically for making strong bones and proper muscle function.
Calcium and Sodium are both metals, though the pure metallic forms don't have anywhere near as many uses. Pure metallic Sodium will explode violently if tossed into a container of water, which though amusing is not terribly useful, since there are far better explosives that can be more easily produced. I will be explaining the creation of one of these explosives at the end of my message.
Lenscrafting Details
The grinding sand for making a lens should be as fine as possible; the chemical properties of the sand don't matter much, but the physical characteristics are rather important. You want as fine a sand as possible to make the surface as smooth as you can achieve through simple grinding, so that less polishing is required after the fact.
As for the polishing, that's apparently best achieved with an abrasive method, though the exact details are frustratingly evasive. This goes similarly for the resin used to hold the lens in place during grinding. I apologize.
"How? Is it only enough for a voice to say that they do? Strange. I have no interest in your defenses. If you or some other voice can tell me how to make a polishing tool, good. That is the manner of thing for which I speak with all you voices. If not, so be it. The people will manage or they will not. Already they fiddle with many things to bring luster and shine to their little beads and stones. And it is of some use, I suppose, to know that the sand should be fine.
"Glassmaking already requires the collection and sorting of sands and the people undertake it will vigor for the sake of the infuriating trifles they make of it."
Cat Breeding For Socialization
As you have noted, it is currently rather difficult to keep several cats around a village, as they are rather territorial. This can probably be corrected with selective breeding, though it will take some time to fully take effect. Simply round up a bunch of cats into holding pens, and on a regular basis test how well they get along with other cats when not in heat. Out of every hundred cats in each generation, select only the ten or twenty least likely to claw each other's faces off or otherwise come to blows to birth the next generation of cats. After several generations, the cats will generally be far more willing to tolerate each other's presence. Indeed, they may even seek each other out for companionship and support.
"Cats, voice, don't even get along when they are in their seasons without generous amounts of catmint, often crushed and spread liberally around the breeding pens. They fuck in the wild readily enough, as is obvious to anyone, especially those who happen into earshot. But I will direct my table-rulers to query the cat-keepers of their villages to find if any are more tolerant of the company of others."
Farming Machinery
There are two devices which I will be explaining the principles behind, namely the mechanical reaper and the threshing machine. The former is a wheeled device designed to be pulled across a field, reaping crops it is pulled over. The threshing machine is meanwhile exactly as the name implies, a machine for threshing. Of the two devices, the mechanical reaper is generally simpler, but both are useful enough to warrant explanation. By this I mean that if both devices are used, the mechanical reaper and threshing machine can free up more than two thirds of the people who would normally be required to take in the harvest and process it into an edible form, allowing them to take up other useful skillsets.
The general idea of a mechanical reaper is that as it is towed over the crops, it automatically cuts them down, and collects the cut crops on a platform towed behind the cutter. The cutter in this case is composed of two parts, which can be summed up as a very large comb and a large number of knives lined up next to each other. The general idea is that as the reaper pulls forwards, the tines of the comb hold the grain-stalks in place, while the row of knives moves back and forth, acting like a set of shears thanks to the comb keeping the grain-stalks from escaping. This effect can be achieved with two or three angled gears attached to one of the wheels of the reaper.
The first gear is directly attached to the wheel, the second is at a square angle, such that it is level to the ground. To the second gear, attach a rod hinged at both ends; one end attached to the edge of the second gear, the other attached to the row of knives. This way, when the wheels are spinning, they also cause the row of cutting blades to rapidly slide back and forth. It is possible to make harvesting machines for most other crops, but the precise design used for a mechanical reaper is not the best option for most other crops aside grain.
"It is hard to tell with you voices, just what is madness and what is sense. For example, how are the knives drug backward without fouling the stalks in the comb? Or is the comb meant to be rather narrow, like half or a third of the span of an adult's arms outheld?
"But these basics are clear: that there should be a comb which aligns the stalks, that there should be knives which push the stalks against the back of the comb and there cut them, and that the knives should be driven by mechanisms which are in turn driven by the rotation of one of the wheels on which the device rolls along.
"Oh, and a platform on which the stalks lie for a moment before falling to the ground for some reason. Whatever.
"If that is right enough then I may resolve this with false prophecy. Or do I have a singer playing at being a seer now rather than a century ago? It can be difficult to keep track. I have table-rulers for counting and keeping such things. But I do not allow them to make note of lies they or my singers tell, or at least not make note of them as lies."
Threshing machines do not strictly need to move in order to be of use, but you'll probably want to be able to haul them around on a wagon just for convenience purposes. At your current development level, any threshing device will need to be powered by either a large crank (to be operated by either a team of men or a Lesser Giant), or a treadmill. Aside from the chute that the unthreshed grain is dumped in, there are three main moving parts in a threshing machine that the grain will interact with. Aside from that, there are all the various gearing and belt assemblies required to actually transmit power from the crank or treadmill to the machine's various moving parts in order to actually move them in a useful fashion.
First, the grain goes through a pair of rapidly spinning rotors perpendicular to their axis of rotation. These rotors should have tines on them to rub the wheat between the rotors, subjecting it to more than enough force to separate the wheat from its stock, for the most part. For best effect, the rotors should spin fast enough to be visibly blurred.
After this, both the grain and the chaff are dropped onto a sieve; a grate of wires sized to allow a typical grain of wheat passage, but prevent any chaff from going through. This sieve must be mechanically moved back and forth in a reciprocating motion for best effect. This can be achieved using a similar setup to what was applied on the mechanical reaper to make the cutter move back and forth. The grain will fall through the sieve, where you should really have a bin of some sort set up to collect it if you'd rather not have to shovel it off the floor.
The last part is a fan, made out of angled paddles attached to a rotating central hub. The idea is that as the fan spins, the angle of the paddles forces air forwards in a continuous stream. This fan should be aimed at the area just above where the grain lands on the sieve; the idea is to blow the chaff away so that it never lands on the sieve in the first place, while the grain will continue downwards onto the sieve and into the collection bin.
It is possible to merge the two devices into a single machine that does both tasks, which is a device referred to as a combined harvester. However, I will not describe the method to achieve this, for the specific purpose of encouraging engineers within the lands you rule to actually innovate, and start coming up with ideas on their own.
"How are the spikes prevented from striking each other as the rotators from which they stick out spin against each other so fast as to blur in vision? And how important is the grate of wires, which would be a work of great craft for anyone to make? The winnower of spinning oars driven by mechanisms driven by a crank is a good idea all on its own, though. And I will have one built to see how that may improve the winnowing."
Hot Air Balloons
Not all methods of mechanical flight are extremely complex. The method known as a hot air balloon merely needs a steadily burning flame that is unlikely to spark, a basket sturdy enough for a man to stand in as it is hoisted, a very large amount of cloth, a large amount of rope, and a fan similar to the one I described for use in a threshing machine.
The idea is to make the cloth into a very large bag with a hole at the bottom; to lift a single man the bag will need to be larger than most houses when fully inflated. This bag should be firmly affixed to the basket, since said basket will be hanging below the bag, and is where anyone riding a hot air balloon is to be located. The fire brazier should be affixed to the ropes holding the basket such that it is above the basket, but below the balloon. Then, you need to fill the bag with hot air, as the name hot air balloon implies.
To achieve this, have a couple men hold the balloon's opening up, then blow the fan inside in order to inflate the balloon. Once it's almost completely full, haul the opening of the balloon over the burner. The balloon will quickly become buoyant, floating in the air over the burner and the basket. Eventually, it will become hot enough to hoist the entire basket, with passengers, into the sky. The reason this happens is because hotter air is less dense, therefore all the colder air around it pushes it up.
"That sounds like it will require quite a lot of cloth. And while it would surely be a wonder to hang high in the air for some time, I don't see the use."
To come back down, just put out the flame in the burner and the balloon will slowly cool down, letting the whole craft slowly descend. These hot air balloons should probably be kept tethered to an anchor on the ground unless the one aboard can control the winds, since otherwise there is no way to direct the balloon's path in any direction aside from up or down. Uses for a hot air balloon can include aerial scouting, or transport for a small number of people across nearly any terrain. I would not recommend using a hot air balloon to drop unpleasant things on your enemies, simply because of the craft's low weight capacity and the fact that those able to actually steer it will be few in number. That said, there are other types of aircraft quite capable of being used for such a purpose; you just won't be able to build them for some time.
"Scouting is of little use if the scout has little choice in where they go and must haul a huge basket and bag and brazier back with them. The same is true for moving people, I think. It would only be if people want to go from one place to another place where the wind leads. Is that so often the case as to justify such a use of so much cloth? I doubt it. And in battle the enemy would only be as visible as the flying bag is, making it as much a target as anything else.
That said, I do have an important warning about hot air balloons: The higher up someone goes, the thinner the air. If a man flies too high without some means of bringing more air to breathe with them, they will not be able to breathe. Therefore, keeping hot air balloons from flying excessively high is critical for the safety of those riding in one.
Black Powder and Guns
Black Powder is the term for the first explosive material our world ever discovered. The ingredients to make it are fine-ground charcoal, Sulfur, and potassium nitrate. As you are already capable of acquiring fine-ground charcoal, I will instead explain how to acquire the other two ingredients.
Sulfur is an element, and therefore cannot be made. It can however be found. You probably already know what the pure form looks like; yellow powdery rocks. It can of course be found near hotsprings and other volcanic locales.
Potassium Nitrate is the trickiest part to obtain. The most readily available source is bat poop collected from the caves they roost in. Immerse the bat poop in water for a day, then filter it, and collect the crystals of potassium nitrate left behind.
Either way, once you have the ingredients, there are two possible recipes, used for different purposes.
Gunpowder is used for propelling projectiles at extreme speeds; the optimal recipe is 75% potassium nitrate, 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur.
Blasting Powder is used for mining, demolishing structures, and otherwise creating massive explosions. It is made from 70% potassium nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur.
Either way, these ingredients should be ground together, either with a specially-made millstone, or with a mortar and pestle. This produces an extremely fine-grained powder which will explode if lit by so much as a single spark, but is not the final product since the ingredients are prone to separating, and it will not blast with as much force as the final product.
The next step is to dampen this fine-ground powder with water, and place the dampened powder into a press. The goal is to squeeze all the water out of the black powder to produce a hardened dry cake. This cake is then to be broken into grains by any means you deem suitable; for blasting powder the size of the grains does not matter so much, but for the purpose of launching projectiles the bigger the gun (term for a weapon that uses gunpowder to launch a projectile) the bigger the grains you want. Too small grains of gunpowder in a large gun can actually cause the weapon to burst. Sieves of varying sizes can be used to sort the grains of gunpowder into categories as suits your purposes.
"Oh, yes. I can see why bursting with force would be useful for mining. There is sorcery for such things, but I have found capable sorcerers too rare to balance encouraging them to learn it, as the practice tends to foreshorten their lives."
Making a gun meanwhile is relatively simple, but at the same time prone to danger. Simply make a sufficiently sturdy tube sealed at one end save for a small touch-hole, ram a charge of the appropriate gunpowder to the back, then ram in the projectile of your choice, which can be anything sufficiently durable and dense; solid balls of iron or lead, sprays of smaller metal balls, or explosive bombs full of blasting powder and wounding pellets are all popular choices for gun-fired projectiles. To shoot the gun, simply apply a flame through the touch-hole by any means. There are all sorts of ingenious mechanisms possible to make this easier, including spring-loaded flint-and-steel spark strikers known as flintlocks, but the simplest is known as a matchlock, in which a burning cord laced with a slow-burning powder recipe is applied to the touch-hole by a simple lever.
The main advantages are the sheer speed and lethality of the projectiles, ease-of-use on par with crossbows, and much easier projectile manufacturing once you've got a large enough capacity to produce gunpowder. The main disadvantages of a gun are explosion risk and much slower loading compared to a regular bow, though with sufficiently ingenious loading mechanisms the latter disadvantage can be removed entirely, to the point of firing tens of shots in the span of time it takes to blink. A gun the size of the mechanisms of hurling already shared with you is commonly known as a cannon, and is capable of being mounted on sailing ships to cause great havoc among enemy vessels and those ashore alike.
Incidentally, guns are the reason that one of my fellow voices mistakenly referred to shooting arrows as 'firing' all those years ago. They were thinking of guns, and the internal quick-burning flames these weapons use to propel their shots.
Citations in a bit, if no-one wants to do them for me.
If you're copying from another source, please cite as you
go so that you don't end up forgetting to do it later.
I don't want to find that I am running Plagiarism Quest.
"So the black dust of the first mixture is packed into the nearly closed end of a pipe, then pellets of iron or lead. And when flame is applied to the fragments of black dust cake, it bursts and casts the pellets out of the end of the pipe. Is that correct?
"And this pipe can be made to cast lumps of iron as great in size as the stones thrown by the hurling devices which tore apart Wurl? Grand.
"I shall have these built of the stoutest hardwoods."
Yes, there are always hazards associated with exploring new technologies, particularly when those new technologies have a significant chance of going 'BANG' if mishandled. However, once properly understood, these technologies confer immense advantages to any society that adopts them.
For example, hot air balloons allow far more accurate maps to be produced, aid in searching for missing people, predict the weather, and spot incoming threats from much further away.
Black powder meanwhile can drastically increase the scale of feasible mining and construction projects, and a group of cannon loaded with grapeshot could easily rend most of an army's front ranks into red mist and gore with a single salvo.
Yes, there is plentiful opportunity for misadventure when these technologies are first being explored, but the long-term benefits for taking them up is more than worth it.
"It is obvious how looking down on the land allows the making of a better map. But only of the small part of the land seen from looking down. Can the bag and basket fly high enough to see all the lands of the Nine Nations, or even the lands of a single tribe, without taking the breath from the mapmaker?
"And how can the flying bag predict the weather? Do to mean that being higher up the weather coming from further away can be seen?
"I take you to mean pellets the size of small fruit, voice, rather than small fruit itself. But you are all mad, so I may never know."
Hey, I explicitly included instructions for harvesting and threshing machinery SPECIFICALLY to address those complaints about taking labor away from farming. With those machines, the number of people who actually need to be involved in food production is greatly reduced, freeing up labor for other projects.
The mechanical reaper I described has four moving parts! FOUR! That is not a large number; there are more moving parts in a typical Ballista, which the Nine or Ten Nations have proven quite capable of producing.
"Ah ah, voice. Surely the reaping device has a second wheel, yes? And perhaps it has a third and fourth, as a cart does. Those are moving parts. Still, yes, the one wheel which turns another which pushes at and pulls a rod, which pushes and pulls knives such that, somehow, they cut at the stalks of grain caught between the teeth of the comb.
"You did not say enough, I think, about the movement of the knives. But given time and encouragement, the devisers in the villages around my great house will come up with something."
"Neither, really, was accepted with any glee. The people live as they do and when any sets about living differently the others regard them with suspicion, as is the way of all people. I am fairly sure there would be more small marriages were the practice not regarded as being stunted and strange.
"I have directed that charred coals be made and that they and pottery shards should be ground up and mixed in with the waste of households and farms, which should then let to sit for a year, being turned regularly, before it is finally spread across fields after the leavings of harvest are burned. And this the people do, mostly, but only out of fear of my displeasure. Given another generation or two they may do these things simply because 'it has always been done.' But for now the practice is grudging by all but them who most fervently admire me.
"The procession of crops has been more difficult to encourage or enforce and I suspect it will remain so. It will always, I think, seem more appealing to a farmer to put the crop they eat in the field they know grows best and leave the others to fallow."
I am saddened to hear that Wrul was lost to our clutches, though it is a great victory nonetheless. I am glad and doubly glad that my advice to take all steps possible to avoid famine were followed, and worked so well. What happened to the Liavint should be a stark lesson to us.
"Indeed, Demon. Famine is one more reason cities are such a folly. How can so many survive a single hardship, let alone all the hardships the world has in store for them?
"People should grow and catch and herd food. And when possible, they should throw clay and craft wood and cast metal, so that they can better grow and keep food. And when possible they should study the wisdom of the land and sky, so that they can better grow food. And when possible they should raid and learn the ways of battle, so that they can better keep food. And so on for sorcery and song and counting and all things. If the people cannot eat, no other thing gets done."
Code:
I like to say that the Real First Rule of Economics is
You Cannot Eat Money.
As the witch desires peace, offer it to him. Let him live undisturbed, called on only rarely when someone of his great skills is needed. If still this is not enough for him, then let him leave peacefully, as he has completed his bond-service. Perhaps this will encourage others to not so carelessly forsake their oaths in the future. Surely you can afford to let one witch live and leave?
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
While stealing the children of the northern giants is tempting, ultimately it merely petty spite with little gain. It takes many years for children to grow into adults that can bring worth, and in this time you may need to suffer attacks from enraged giant parents. It is easier and safer to seek other wandering giants and families and invite them to settle among the Ten Nations.
[x] [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten Nations
Ultimately, it is these that will best benefit us, without hopefully being overly onerous upon Enonl. If possible, suggest that the ruler send the most rebellious Magicians, to cement his own powerbase. While you may have a harder time managing such magicians, exiled far from their homes and without a supporting network of relatives and friends to call upon, should hopefully discourage them from doing anything too dangerous.
"It may endanger Enonl to deprive them of any seeds they might otherwise eat. But that is a problem for Kuwuzt of Zouchaud to solve. I will suggest, though, that he do himself favors in deciding which magicians to send, so long as he does so while still paying proper tribute. And the people of Enonl can make themselves copies of their maps to keep for themselves. In that way it is on them to save themselves from want."
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
It is good to visit Enonl now and firmly establish your authority while the memory of you is still fresh. Further, as my larval caretaker always used to say "You can never have enough cities". Of course, she was later assassinated, but I believe the advice is still sound.
"I think that the Free People of the Nine Nations can be made to be well-enough provisioned in a few years time, well enough to once again afford to send the chosen of the chosen to visit a city. I will learn of the promises Kuwuzt of Zouchaud made to the people of Enonl before he overthrew their rulers and I will learn more of the making of hurling devices and I will gather riches to buy warriors as did Kahl of Lan.
"And the people of Liavint and Ekaicuint will have the opportunity to make a series of choices that will be very important within the scope of their brief lives."
Bianca, you can speak with people and understand what they say yes? Language itself changes overtime, and clearly you can keep up with those changes. The advantages of the phonetic system of writing is that, if you take the time to learn the letters and which sounds they represent you can read most words pretty easily, even if the words and language itself changes, as long as the letters themselves remain the same and represent the same sounds.
Personally I view it as imperative that you do take the time to learn these letters, and preferrably the numerals as well. Someone of your status being illiterate is a bit... embarrassing yes. Plus, you cannot always trust people to report written information to you accurately. As the ancient bloodstorm sages always say, "Trust, but verify"
And what are you to do in a situation where you need to read something but do not want others to read it? Perhaps a secret ciphered report from one of your singer-spies.
"It has not always been, though, that I 'kept up with the changes' in tongues, as you say. Before I began to gather my singers to me, I was caught by the change in tongues. After a few generations I found that the people who spoke to me did so in a way that they did not speak to others. They addressed me more like that of their parent's parent's parents, or how their thought their elders spoke, in any case. And I did not keep up, because no one spoke to me in the way they spoke to others. Soon there was a whole way of speaking that most people never used, but only to speak to me.
"And that speech was most like the common speech of the Burgeck tribe, who even then sought my favor more than others. Priesthoods may be made of such things.
"My singers, though, I have always directed to speak both in the most reserved tongue and in the common ways of speaking: high and low. And by directing certain favorites among them in each generation to speak in common tongues with me I have kept up, except with regard to the particulars of the Sleomjash. Until recently I left their tongue alone."
To answer you Bianca, there is no intrinsic quality of dogs that makes them particularly suited to raising your prestige, and indeed all the things you mentioned can do so. Cattle, horses, bowyers and so on. The quality that is best to focus on however, is uniqueness. Novelty is in the end the ultimate commodity, and that which is hum-drum and commonplace is often seen as not noteworthy.
In fact, it might be a good idea to gather fine bowyers under your name and a fine herd of horse and of cattle perhaps, and at times, send gifts to your distant subjects as signs of your favour. For example, once every decade you may send the ruler of Enonl a fine Bianca Horse, unlike anything he has, or a Bianca bow that only his strongest warriors can pull.
And then he will be greatly gratified by your favour, and your own prestige will be increased, and his subjects will marvel at the splendors of his distant liege, and not whisper to him to rebel. Instead they will say "Truly Lord, the Lord you serve is mighty, to be able to possess such fine bows, such fine horses, such fine hounds, and to be able to gift them away"
"I see, then, Demon. I see that if I have something I can bestow as a sign of my favor that has not only quality but also distinction then it is a superior expression of my favor, for all that entails.
"If I had horses so great that any adult warrior could ride them in armor and no one else did, I could give a gelding to some warrior or another and all would know they enjoyed my favor. For surely if I sent a mare or stallion there would soon be many such great horses in their own possession, or that of their children.
"Or, no. I would want such great horses bred throughout the Nine Nations so that all the people would be greater and mightier in battle. And the same is true for bowyers, I think.
"Distinction is the thing, yes. I will think on this."
The degradation that soda ash causes is that it make the glass more water soluble, that is to say, it is leaky and leaks. It should in other aspects, be as other glass, as best I can divine from the currents of the bloodstorm.
"Well that should be fine for lenses, if they can be made. Unless there is some reason that lenses should hold water than I haven't been told, there seems no harm in that.
"The clear stones from the north will burn if applied to flame. So people do not apply flame to them. The same care can be kept with glass and water, I suppose."
Saltwort
Referencing the instructions of another voice, Saltwort is incidentally also a good source for soda ash, but I don't think it is native to this region. For the creation of ammonia I recommend substituting saltwort with whatever form of soda ash seems to work best for making glass.
Prosthetics
Regarding those missing feet and hands Bianca, their afflictions can be somewhat alleviated through the use of prosthetics, of the attaching of false feet and hands made from metal or wood to their limbs. As an example, a cup could be tied to the end of a man's arm, with a metal hook pointing out, which he can use to hook things, like a doorhandle or a bag. Similarly a length of wood can be attached to a leg, to allow a person to walk again, though more clumsily of course.
More sophisticated prosthetics are possible, but such are beyond my knowledge.
"I don't know what people are like where you voices are, but there are always some here among those who lose a hand or foot who devise some substitution within a moon or two and go on their way. Yes, the people know well the worth of a short rod where a foot was and of an angled bit where a hand used to be. They do seem to prefer metal, for various good reasons. And there may be enough now that anyone who needs such should have it, too.
"The wise know, however, that these additions to the mained body are only useful to those maimed who retain the strength of their will. As there are always those who find their own solutions for the new problems of being short a hand or foot, also there are always those who pine for their lost flesh for the rest of their lives. And those are typically short lives, as it happens.
"Tell me, voices, what can be done to make those injured in flesh or in their resolve or their mind resume living when they are not inclined to do so on their own? There is a madness among the warriors of the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations, these days. Warriors who never flinched from pain now cry out at insignificant noises. Others whither in sullen sulks. Still others make dispute where once they were in accord. By the countings of the table-rulers, far more than any ordinary number of previously well-regarded warriors have been cast out in the past few winters."
"The most important use of hemp is now, as it has always been, the seeds for growing more hemp. Taking a plant out of the wilds and into the fields is not as simple as deciding that it should be done. Hemp does not flourish in fields as wheat does, or even as flax may at times. But there are years where I see more plants grown and harvested than the year before.
"We find these fibers make better rope than our flax does. So what hemp is harvested goes to rope."
To answers your questions about the pivot stars and lodestones, I would first like you to explain what exactly the pivot stars are. With my initial ignorant assumptions however, that the pivot stars are stars in the northern part of the sky that remains largely unchanged by the passage of time, the alignment of the pivot stars and the magnetism of the planet is merely coincidence of the stars than based on some deeper underlying mechanism.
Imagine the earth as a giant ball, perhaps a berry or eyeball or some other spherical object. It spins around its own axis, and the field of magnetism aligns with the poles of this axis of spinning, the extreme north and extreme south. You should be closer to the extreme north, based on some of your descriptions of your environment. As such, unlike the other stars which move and change as the earth moves and turns, the pivot stars should remain relatively static, similar yes to a pivot upon which the world turns.
"The lodestone aligns with the flowing iron, which only aligns with the pivot starts because the flowing of the iron happens to align with the turning of the world, which is why the stars appear to turn, and the post around which the world turns must point at some stars and happens to point at the Pivot Stars. The turning of the world is still strange to me and I have my doubts. But if you say this alignment is arbitrary then there is little I can do to learn more of it from you, I suppose."
As to getting to this molten iron it is both simple and difficult. Simply dig straight down for about the depth of two million men stacked atop one another, and you will eventually get to this iron. This is probably impossible, but I know not the ways of your magic. Oh yes and partway through the digging process the rock will become so hot that it is in fact molten liquid.
We are currently in anachronistic bronze age verging on the iron age. If you can think of any applicable advice that would improve the lot of the average ancient bronze ageian nordic/germanic type, then feel free to share. Systematic and thorough advice on increasing food production would especially be appreciated by me.
I've tried to make a summary of advice that has been successfully applied, which I can repost if desired. I have made no such of advice given but not successfully applied, because clearly if it hasn't that means someone else needs to explain it again, and better.
Some potential topics to go over:
- Papermaking
- How not to have molotov cocktails/firebombs blow up in your face
- Ghostbusting!
- Wtf are nails
- Remedial class on Crop Rotation
- Better furnaces somehow
- Glassblowing maybe
Bianca clearly isn't married to the idea of perfect equality, because table-rulers, first chiefs, singers and various other figures of authority and higher status exist. But she rightly sees the widespread massive social inequality of primitive cities as a highly unstable recipe for disaster. She isn't actually wrong, but we need to take our bitter medicine and just tough through the rebellions until we can get something actually civilized.
Basic steam engines are a complete waste of time and resources at this point. Trying to make waterwheels and windmills a reality is both far more feasible and has far more utility currently.
Hot Air Balloons don't have massive utility but are a perfectly valid vanity project and can help with mapmaking, so I'm all for it. By all means, suggest the making of balloons of hot air to Bianca.
I sincerely doubt that the current Ten Nations has the mechanical sophistication to make reaping or threshing machines, but crank-powered fan winnowing machines can be pretty simple and should hopefully be possible.
Bianca, how do the people of the Ten Nations currently thresh their crops? Do you know of flails and of threshing boards, or simply trample them?
"If the Free People of the Nine Nations lack a wisdom of devices, I would suggest you voices impart such wisdom to them through me.
"And the people thresh their grains but foot and by oxhoof and by use of wooden boards fixed together with small flint blades fitted to their bottom.:
Flails are two staves of wood attached to each other with a chain. You hit the stalks of grain with the flail to separate the seeds from the stalks.
Threshing Boards are wooden sledges with sharp stones, such as flint, embedded into their bottom, which can be dragged over reaped stalks of grain on a threshing floor by horses or oxen or other livestock to thresh them. Stones can be placed onto the threshing board if it is not heavy enough, or children or such can ride on it since it is apparently fun. The threshing floor being a flat, hard space, preferably cobbled or lain with bricks or stone, with good drainage, and situated somewhere windy to let some of the chaff be blown away.
While threshing boards seem to have been around since mesoptamian times, Germanic people, being the worst, apparently never heard of them until well into the middle ages. Why no fertile crescent.
[/quote]
"I do not know the people to use tied together sticks to break their grains. As with many other things, it is easily enough tried.
"Many threshing floors are only the most beaten ground but, yes, some are set with stone. But the threshing boards will pull stones apart and grain is lost between them, so stone floors must be carefully made and repaired. Once one pass has pulled a stone loose, each pass afterward will only loosen it more. Flint is harder than mortar or brick, and tears them away in grit and chunks. But now that so many know the laying of roads, there are many more brick threshing floors."
Finally, the Senbakoki, or Thousand-Tooth Thresher. Make a wooden frame with several wooden or metal teeth or spikes arranged in a row too close together for the seeds to pass through, essentially resembling a giant comb. Stalks of grain are then lain down into the comb so that they lie down in between the various teeth. Then the stalks are pulled towards the person doing the threshing, the seeds being trapped by the comb teeth, and falling down onto rug or into a basket that you place next to the Thousand-Tooth Thresher.
The Thousand Tooth Thresher does not actually need a thousand teeth. It's one of those idiomatic things.
Source: Reading too many Isekai novels
[/quote]
"I will have this built, too. When the fields around my great house are harvested, the people will see its use and if it seems wise to anyone it will be known to the table-rulers."
I believe Bianca herself understands that other professions are just as useful as farmers. We've previously had discussions about how in some larger villages people can focus more on a singular craft like bowmaking, and thus become more skilled and make finer bows that others. She understands the benefits of specialization, but by my understanding, the current food surplus of the Ten Nations is insufficient to support large amounts of specialization. That is the bottleneck. Most people have to be farmers, otherwise the people will starve.[/quote]
"That is so, Demon. But it is also so that when bad years come, like these now, if there are too many people who do not make food then everyone suffers. Even if there is plenty, enough to feed a city, there will surely come a time when there is not. And then the people of the city will take food from the farms -- as they must be able to -- the farmers will starve, and then the city will.
"It is an arrangement for certain disaster and the loss of whatever had value before."
So far Bianca has refused to explain many of the specifics of magic to us, but we have gained somewhat of an understanding of spirits, which I will try to summarize, no doubt wrongly:
- Sometimes, when people and animals die, they leave behind spirits in the world of the living
- This is more likely if the living creature was more powerful and noteworthy in life
- The obsessions of the being before their death, their manner of death and their skills and their professions are likely to have an effect on the spirit after death and their powers. Someone who died of the cold in winter might become a spirit of the cold, which can be used to make icehouses colder. A skilled archer might become a spirit of accuracy that can possess someone to make them better at using the bow and arrow.
- Through certain unknown means, it is possible to command these spirits to do tasks for you, or to curse objects with spirits by killing someone in a particularly cruel way, or to appease spirits to not harm you, or to strike bargains with spirits to bless the field with bountiful harvests.
Further datapoints:
- Some forms of magical power have apparently declined over time, lightning bolts in particular becoming more difficult to call upon.[/QUOTE]
"Heh. Wisdom is most of the means by which spirits are compelled or appeased or known. But witches do have other means not available to those who are only wise in the ways of spirits."
Why are we talking about gunpowder, guns, and balloons instead of talking about organizations? These are terribly complex technical projects that required long horizon for pay off and even more labor not dedicated to farming.
Meanwhile, we still don't have a mean lean professional military organization.
Blanca, I suggest that if you can easily afford it, form a small permanent group of men(500 to 1000) to be trained as full time warriors. They will be recruited from tribes of the 9N and those from cities you conquer. You will to train in the art of marching, setting up fortifications, formation warfare, road building, and other skills needed to win military campaigns. They will do this as a full time job and they will not do any farming, very much like the soldiers of Wrul.
"Where will these warriors live, oh voice? Am I to tell them to forsake their families as my singers do?
"I call out people already ready to leave behind their families for love of song and story. Those people come to me ready to be my singers, or close enough.
"There are some, you may be sure, who love fighting more than their family. The better part of these are discord itself in the shape of Fisher People. Those that remain might number as great as you say, in all of the Nine or Ten Nations. But if I called all these to myself I would have all around me people who love fighting meeting people who love fighting.
"There would be fights. Too many fights.
"And that is the case even if I can tell those who can live among people apart from those who are like injured beasts, snapping any whoever comes near.
"Among the hosts of Wrul were many farmers and potters and fuckwrights. But, yes, you are correct that among their number were also people whose business was battle and counting their money and little more. Those were raised above the people around them. If I choose to raise some above their fellows and say, 'This one should not sow or keep the herd or reap or thresh but only march and spar,' where does that leave the family of that one? Are they also raised up? Or are they left behind to grow distant from the chosen that are my chosen?"
Their advantage against your warriors is that they are closest group to professional soldiers. While your warriors are at once farmers, hunters, rulers, herder, etc, the soldiers of Wrul are only dedicated to fighting and getting good at it. Their terrible leadership and your generalship are how you trumiphed over Wrul, despite their advantages.
If your armies were more experienced, they would be even more successful. However, due to inexperience, they were unable to execute maneuvers to encircle the enemies. They would be more disciplined in exacting punishment for those who work on the road of lamentation instead of creating a new problem and an incomplete road. Overall, you would have greater success and less death on your side.[/quote]
"Your words may be true, contentious voice. But I do not see the need to break the Nine Ways Pact to see this done. The battle was harsh, but I won. The warriors of the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations will only get better at fighting in such numbers the more often it occurs. And, more importantly, I will not let such a disparity as caused that great battle to occur again between what can be made in the Nine or Ten Nations and what can be gotten elsewhere. Tsk. That was such greedy foolishness.
If you have an annual festival or a festival every few years, you could organize contest and war games, and you can test if your permanent army is working against those of the 9Ners who are only part time warriors. If done right, they should proved superior to the general population of warriors.
Take it slow, though. We don't want a bloodbath and we want contests to actually measure skills needed to wage war. Adjust and test as you see fit.
Some of the contests you could create are archery contests, wrestling, which test individual skills. Group skills can be tested through war games in which battlefield maneuvers could be tested. Also testable are fort building skills, road building skills, and other skills not traditionally warlike but vital in waging military campaigns.
The festival allowed you to test out how well your professional army as well help warriors of the 9N test their skills. Otherwise, the skills, experience, and knowledge will simply atrophy due to time. The festivals aren't a substitute for actual wars to truly test the military might of your people, but it will leave your people prepared for the next war.[/quote]
"I do like this plan. There were a great many things learned by a great many people when all the warriors of the Nine Nations came together to face the Hosts of Wrul.
"When the winters are as short as they should be and the summers as long, when the time is not so lean and the people return to prospering as they did before I will see that gatherings of joy and contest occur."
They barely can work iron, and they had a waterwheel that was worth more trouble than it's worth. What we should be doing is help guide the development of their ironwork and wait until they perfect the waterwheel before we move on to building farm machinery. Right now, they don't have the skillsets to do the sort of work needed to be done.
Instead of trying to describe really complicated things to them, we should guide them to develop the expertise needed so that we can talk complicated details to them or just give hints without having to convey so many words to describe designs.
"Hah! I suppose you may be right about their curiosity, but the Burgeck tribe did not give up easily in their struggle to become my priesthood. Already they had pursued that for seasons uncounted before ever I called up you voices. I am content with their ceasing, despite the sullenness that has come over all their nation. It would be my preference that fewer of them took to ending their lives, though, as they have been going about it by wasting or by pitching themselves into hazards.
"No matter. In time they will be much like all the others of the Nine or Ten Nations."
I would focus on the glass & fertilizer
Also, how to tell what elements soil is lacking.
FIRST!!!
Hmm...
Me against my brothers.
My brothers and I against my cousins
My brothers my cousins and I against strangers
[X] [Witch] Teach him secrets known to no other living witch
ALSO
[X] [Witch] Just ask him to stay; and if he refuses, kill him
Give him your oath. He may have peace in death or peace as your servant. Having one who can assist in the magicking of the fields in years when you are not available could be invaluable, and if my reading is correct then he will not likely claim power for himself.
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
Though their craft is weak, they may yet be useful in the building of roads and mining of metals. Though I am uncertain on this precise course of action. Could result in dead traders.
[X] [Levy] Let the city folk decide what and who of their best they should send
Use this as an opportunity to test Kuwuzt. He aught well know what tribute would be appropriate, and should he fail then you will have learned where his loyalties lie. Besides, we will have a better idea of what the city has to offer once it has been visited.
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl
Now is the time to finally see a city because it serves the dual purpose of surveying that which you already control. I would also make a point of spreading our improved farming methods to the cities vicinity. Additionally, the type of pump which is just taught you is ideal for wells within a city because it allows less surface contamination reach the water table. Oh, the water table is sort of the way that underground water is shaped depending upon the arrangement of various levels of permeable or impermeable layers of stone, clay, and soil.
"Ah. Was that the purpose of that design? I had thought it was meant to sit alongside an open well. If the pipe is the only part of the well that is known at the surface, then how can you know if the well is dry or if there is simply a problem like a break in the pipe? Do they dig up the whole well anew each time?
"No matter. I will direct that the Lever Lift Pump be put in place of one well in Enonl and when that is shown to work we will replace each of the others as well."
#Wikipedia
[Ammonia] is a pungent gas given off during the reaction of urine and [Lye].
[Lye] is a highly [Caustic] white solid which my be produced by repeatedly passing water through a mixture of the ash of the [Saltwort] and [Quicklime].
[Saltwort] is an edible, flowering plant that can be found in salty areas such as beaches. Sometimes the plant takes on a reddish hue, its leaves have been described as 'scale like', and its stem has many branches.
[Quicklime] may be produced by burning chunks of [Limestone] in a kiln. Some trial and error will be needed to determine burn time, as it is possible to overburn the [Qucklime], causing it to lose its effects.
[Limestone] is a very common, soft stone composed of the shells of tiny ocean life that fell to the sea floor in ages long past.
"I do not know of a plant like the one you describe, voice. But I will send the wise to seek it.
"Some of the tasks you describe will be familiar, I think, to tanners. Still, even if we make the ammon-stuff I do not understand what was meant to be done next with the two chambered oven and the two pots connected by pipe and such."
[Caustic] describes a material with very high [Acidity]. [Acidity] is a measure of a property of substances which ranges from zero to fourteen. Substances with an acidity of seven are [Neutral], less than seven are [Acidic], and more than seven are [Basic]. [Acidic] substances react with [Basic] substances to produce salts. Highly basic or acidic substances also tend to be more 'reactive', where 'reactive' means dangerous to touch.
I will now list some common materials and their acidity.
Stomach Acid : one and one fifth
Lemon Juice : two and one fifth
Apples : three
Beer : four
Spit : six and two fifths
Rain : six and a half
Absolutely Pure Water : seven
Human Blood : seven and two fifths
Ammonia : eleven
Quicklime : twelve and two fifths
Lye : fourteen
Seriously, Lye has many uses but will literally cause burning style injuries on skin contact.
"Hmm… why is rain more sour than pure water and why is blood less sour? I suppose I will tell the table-rulers these things, or those of them that are known and what we will be making soon, and we'll learn as we go."
For military reform, I think that it would be better to implement some sort of time tax. Say every citizen of the Nine Nations must at some point in their life spend a moon being drilled in proper marching. We could have them do that thing where you run around an obstacle course with the crawling through mud and the sheer wall that you have to form a human pyramid to get over.
"I have found it is of little use to push those of the Nine or Ten Nations who do not wish to be a warrior into taking up arms. There are enough who wish to prove themselves as warriors or who want to go raiding for some other reason.
"Still, I do like this rule. And there is another nation being added. Yes, I will consider this as an addition to the Pact that binds the Free People together."
"The table-rulers with Kuwuzt of Zouchaud took count of the city and the villages around it when they were taken. They have said that there were... twenty-four thousand, five hundred seventy three people, discounting the unweened.
"And of course the people of Enonl are separate from the Tribes of the Nine or Ten Nations! Zouchaud could not claim them for themselves. There were more warriors of Zouchaud with Kuwuzt than of any other one tribe, but there were more warriors of other tribes than there were of Zouchaud."
Hah! I love it. Bianca will be so confused.
To be clear, I found what I Just Write wrote to be one of the few non-story posts that was interesting to read, but you must acknowledge that there is so much information missing that Bianca's reply shall be but a thousand questions.
Hey Kein, by explaining the nature of the time-skip, you have achieved the opposite of your goals. If the same time passes between updates on our end regardless of when they happen on her end, then it is in her best interest to commune with us as often a possible that we might have more time to work relative to her. Unless that makes not sense. The language is not built for differential time gradients.
"There are many demands on my time, voices. Some of them are of natures of which you are unaware.
"Also it vexes me to listen to you in all your cacophonous racket. It is very trying to pick out individual voices. And even then I do not know each time if I am listening to sense or madness, sometimes ever."
People I see a problem hello hello. Invention invention and invention. XVII century peasant would know less.And they cannot reliably feed cities. Thats nonsense. But I see why. Idiots.Next time Bianca needs to use 2 or 5 years persuade people to APPLY METHODS. Without that 60 years until idiots die.
They know more FARMING theory than peasants before like XIX century machinery. Stubborn stupid tribal primitives refuse to implement new methods.Without tribal idiots there would be more food than BIANCA can imagine. Prove me wrong
"Many idiots do not even get to live for sixty years, voice. Perhaps most don't.
"Yes, it can be annoying that the people do not do what I know it is best that they do. But one may as well rage at the rain rather than go seeking a roof.
"There is more food grown and kept now than would have been before, I am sure. These winters would have been a great hardship on the people, were it not for the plentitude drawn from black soil and soft neighbors. Still, the paucity of game and the loss of cattle and such in winter have been hardships for which there has been no counter."
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
[x] [Witch] Give him gifts from Bianca's hoard
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
[x] [Bianca] Learn to read
We need a way to convice and explain to Bianca why it's a good thing if not everyone is farming for their own food. Also we need to properly explain that people who don't directly produce anything (guards, scientist, ...) are not useless and that people who aren't farmers aren't necessarily risen above others, just because they don't make their own food. Bianca has the same issue every time more specialized people are brought up. We need to address the core issue (I think she thinks that more specialized people are above others, I may be wrong with that tough because most of the times this was brough up they kinda are in case of soldairs, police (city guards) but they kinda aren't really they just have a different job, ... and introducing table rules was obviously successful). I'm not exactly sure if that's really the core issue but we if we want bianca to use soldiers or other things like that we first need to address the core issue behind all of this.
"When there is not enough food, and inevitably at some point there isn't, anyone who is not making food really is useless. How can you think otherwise? If the people who make food starve, the people who do not make food will also starve. So the people who make food get fed first. And if there are guards and questioners and judgers who do their jobs in my name then they will take food from the farmers when there is not enough food. And then the people who make food are not getting fed first. And more people die than is necessary and also the bonds of family and tribe will break and it's really not worth the trouble.
"Singers and table-rulers and such will stop counting and writing and singing and composing when food is short. My singers know to seek hospitality where it can be found or to leave a village if it cannot. And I have told my table-rulers that they will be among the first to die if food runs out, so that they count and measure and plan with all possible care.
"Tell me how to see more cattle through the winter, voices. Tell me how to bring game back. The Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations grow in numbers and in strength despite the longer winters, but their herds have not grown well or have dwindled. And more hunters have needed to rely on their families rather than the other way around."
We also need convince bianca to tell us more about magic. If there are consistent rules about magic, then there might be ways to exploit them. It might be possible to automate it or there might even be an infinte power loop or any other overpowerd exploits in the magic system. We also potentially could use magic to skip some requirement and speed up progress.
If magic isn't consistent then it just turns into a plot force and does whatever is convenient for the plot at the time.
"If magic did not follow rules, voice, why would the wise study it? How would they study it?
"I know from what you voices have said that you do not know how magic works. And there is enough trouble to be had understanding what you mean when you describe what you do understand to me. Speaking of magic will only waste my time.
"Why don't you teach me of the means by which you would find an 'infinite power loop or other overpowered exploit,' and I will let you know what I find?"
We will need some larger time skips (A time skip happens if you don't talk to us voices for some time, we perceive time differently then you do. For us the same time passes whather you talk to us after only one year passed or wait 50 (or any other number of) years ) pretty soon there are more and more things and changes that need a lot of time to happen (like selective breeding or an increased population) and there are a lot of improvements that require things like a larger population/population density. Sure there are a lot of things that we can still introduce now, especially since we now have a city, but eventually progress will slow down without a large time skip to let some things take effect and to increase things like the population/population density that take time.
"I will speak with you just as often as I mean to, voice, unless, I suppose, the focus of your terrible noise is stolen from me again. I remain angry at thieves I never caught. But they will die and I will not and that will have to do."
Your are kinda right should I edit my post to be OOC?
Or maybe it might be a good idea to also explain that unlike her we only have a limited time (this quest ending eventually, getting bored eventually, limited human lifespan) to communicate with her and that she can better use our limited time by talking to us less frequently and get more overall progress that way. Since our time is limited it would be better to talk to us less frequently or at least doing a big time skip whenever progress slows down then to waste our limited time on small advancements (because larger once will eventually require a lot of time or other tings that require a lot of time like a larger population)
"I'm not sure that waiting to speak with you would be the right choice, voice, were I to believe that the time I have to speak with you is limited as you say.
"It seems to me that the more I learn from you, the more I will get out of the next fifty years. There is only so much that can be done at times, yes. But I know what I want done and I have some ideas of what I want from you and what I can expect to get.
"I could say that you have to trust that I know what I'm doing, but you don't. It just doesn't matter."
I didn't say we should do a time skip right now, just sometime soon. I also think that we should focus on things like better farming/more food or other stuff that provides major benefits after a time skip or other stuff that we can start doing now but take time to really work (things like selective breading) (the better the farming the more population for example) and do a time skip once we reach a point where that stuff slows down. Also the goal isn't to advance her as quickly (in her world) as possible. While a Time-Skip would obviously slow down progress from her perspective, it would speed up progress from our perspective.
There are already a few change that require a lot of time to really payoff (like selective breading, population increases, longer term cultural changes(the tribes might be more willing to test new things after they are used to advancements being mate) there will be more and more things that require time to happen.
The amount of progress we would get from a time skip and is already pretty large (we should focus on stuff that increases this) and eventually it will be worth doing a time skip just for the huge amout of progress we could get from it, especially since progress without a time skip will slow down.
"If you don't want me to talk to you for some years, then I suggest you tell me everything I need to know for those years.
"And, yes, food is important as I and others have said. The farms are strong. I have some idea of what to look for in foreign crops and such. But the herds in the pastures have known no increase from any wisdom of you voices. For now there is little choosing to be done in heifers and ewes; each that can be bred must be allowed to, excepting the lame. And already the keepers of herds chose the greatest and most hale bulls and rams to keep. What more can you voices tell me of herd keeping?
"And game? When the winters are bad there are fewer deer or hare or any other game. What of that food?
"And fish? The better boats do send our fishers further out. And navigation by stars brings more of them home. But what more can you tell me of the gathering of fishes?"
Do you at leat agree, that there as to be a time skip eventually, if we want to ever reach modern ages? There is also the problem that things are getting more and more complex and eventually we won't be able to fully describe everything so they will have to find out more details on their own.
There might be a way to transmit images. We could just tell her the color of every single pixel and the resolution of an image and could theoretically encode any images into words and transmit any images. Unfortuanly we are limited by the amount of colors bianca has acces to and by how small bianca could make the pixels, but extremely low resolution (pixelart), very low color (maybe just black and white I don't know if she has access to any colors) should be possible right now. But even then it's inpractical to tell her the color of every single pixel(it could probably be automated but she would still need to color every pixel on her end). This could be used if we really need to transmit a really simple image. If you think it's a good idea I could try to transmit somthing really simple
If you want to try to force a timeskip you can do that with votes like the one that was used to force Bianca to start learning to read.
She still has some agency, though, so she might not cooperate with extreme instructions.
But there is shit going on in this setting all the godsdamned time. Go too far ahead and you might miss an issue on which you would like to have had some input. It won't be like hitting End Turn on Civilization a few times.
Don't waste your time on the image transmission plan, though. In the end, things like that make this harder for me. And it happens I'm not a masochist.
"I'm not sure what hints you're talking about, voice. I'm quite sure things will go fast if, instead of hinting, you simply told me how whatever clever plan you have should work.
No matter. I have some journeys to plan and a witch to temp."
Code:
B R E A K
"Voices! I speak with you again! When last we spoke it was the Spring of Year Twenty-Nine and now it is the Spring of Year Thirty-Five. The seasons are back where they ought to be, probably, and life has gone on.
"And at your advice, I went on a boat and traveled to Enonl and saw what a city can be. So many people living so close together, busily bustling about, or not. All around the city, the shores have been pounded into flat places for boats to be dragged out of the water or shoved back into it to seek fish. And high on the wall, at the highest point, always one person stands watch for whales. When one is spotted, the watcher blows begins to shout, and all of certain people take up the shout, and down they go to their boats and out into the water after the whale.
"They drown people, there. They make sacrifices of them to Fish and Rorqual. Fish might care, but I am fairly sure Rorqual does not.
"There are two tribes who live in Enonl and in the villages around it. And they speak two tongues amongst themselves though many speak both. Only one goes out in boats. They own those boats. Each one belongs to a person. But the other tribe owns land, including the land of the city, formerly. Now Kuwuzt of Zouchaud sometimes says he owns the land of the city and sometimes says it cannot be owned. I left a table-ruler there to make sense of it and Kuwuzt will listen to her. If he does not, I will stuff clay down the throats of all his children and his children's children and burn their corpses to fire the clay and… Hmngh. I'm not sure where I was going with that. Suffering, in any case. There will be elaborate suffering. And also death.
"No matter. I have returned from Enonl and returned from the sea. I do not like boats.
"We lost a few. But the boat people of Enonl knew that boats go missing, so they make two of anything important and put them in separate boats. No one of the boat people is allowed to be anything alone. The land-owning people make marriages where there is only ever one husband but sometimes more than one wife. For the boat-owning people every marriage starts with two wives and two husbands with neither of either allowed to share a boat. And when one dies they are meant to replace them. But they often do not.
"So we took two copies of every map and divided each kind of seed into two groups of containers and put these on separate ships.
"So now we have strange grains and crawling thorny brambles that make berries and also maps. Some of those maps make no sense. There are two maps that are the same except one shows an island that is known and another shows that there is no island there. Probably it was missed?
"I told the witch that if he would wait for me in the lands of the Ten Nations I would teach him precious secrets and give him wonders from my hoard. But he left the lands of the Ten Nations when his oath to me was complete. He went to the west and south and we do not know what became of him.
"'Peace.' Bah. He won't find that in the world. He'd have come closer to it if he'd have stayed here. But he was not satisfied and so he has lost that.
"Before I left, I consulted my First Table-Ruler concerning which tribe was the strongest and most ready to reach beyond their lands. He left to do his counting and returned to tell me of the great numbers of the Bima Nolco, who have long had the greatest herds and flocks and, at this time, also have the greatest number of people by a great count.
"I directed, therefore, the Bima Nolco to send their warriors into the lands of the outsiders beyond their borders, to gather all those outsiders they could, and to bring them back into the lands of the Ten Nations. At my direction these bond captives were spread throughout the lands of the Ten Nations. And families of the Bima Nolco moved into the lands those outsiders had once had. They marked fields and began to make the black soil and to follow the procession of crops. They made their monjolo and found where the outsiders had once taken stone from the ground.
"Those are Bima Nolco lands, now.
"I spent two winters in Enonl and when I came back I had no First Table-Ruler.
"Before I left, I directed the making of small flying bags with burning oil beneath them. And when the bag was right and watertight and the flame was hot enough without burning the bag, you voices were right. The bag flew.
"But my First Table-Ruler was enamoured of the flying bags. He meant to fly himself. So he had a large one made of stitched together cloth from long looms, and a woven chair to fix below it, and spent his time devising a clever brazier that would remain hot but not catch the bag aflame. He took to the air, and brought oil with him. And he cut the rope that secured him to the ground and flew away to the east, never to be seen again.
"My table-rulers did not know if he would return, and he had named none to come after him. So until I returned and declared my new First Table-Ruler -- and that the previous one was to be killed for wasting so much cloth and time and for failing to do his job -- there was no First Table-Ruler. And it turns out that things get along mostly alright without one, so long as my First Singer is bold enough, which they nearly always are.
"I'll need to make better laws for that.
"Oh, and in the vein of better laws, now that there are Ten Nations there is also the Ten Ways Pact, the same as the Nine Ways Pact but with added, 'that they should present themselves to me within four years of their Coming to Adulthood to spend a summer from sunstead to balance as I see fit.' And so in the Summer of Year Thirty-Two I messed about with making the young people march but didn't find it to be of much use. I'll probably keep them in with the layers of roads.
"But, oh, yes. I went to Liavint. It is mine, now. The Giantess of Liavint pledged herself and her descendants to my service, that all that they have and all those to whom they grant power for service in turn owe service to me. There are some questions of where her lands end and such, but those are mine, too. And she will send carts of goods north to me, beyond what any traders of the Free People of the Ten Nations gather from her in exchange for our own goods.
"And two years later I brought the chosen of the chosen down to Ekhaicvint and called for the Giantess to join me there and paid more for warriors beyond that. And we made camp around the city but it never did fall, so I left it.
"I'll return again, I think, in a year or two. And then I will blast the entire cursed place into the sky!
"The blasting dust is very good at that. With enough of it, and enough workers to haul away the broken dirt and stone, I removed a hillside from where the best iron ores were found. Not much came of it, really. The stones beneath were different of little interest. But now the people point to the place where a hill is broken and say, 'With the power of Bianca's wisdom, we did that.' And that is good.
"I do not know how you meant the reaper blades to move back and forth across the threshing comb, voices. But there is now a device which may be pulled across a field to reap wheat. A wheel above rests against the wheel below and when the wheel below turns against the ground the wheel above turns blades against the threshing comb. Stalks fall behind to be easily gathered.
"I think someone will build a second, and perhaps build it better. This one is a marvel but as its parts pass against each other they do sometimes catch or break. And when the upper wheel slips, wheat is not cut and is dragged under the comb to no good end.
"Similarly, the threshing device is a wonder when it is working. And it happens that the important part of the sieve is not the thinness of the substance between the gaps, but the sizes of the gaps themselves. We use reeds and can make any size of gap between them as is needed, no wire. And for this I am grateful, voice, as these tools are good beyond the device, which does work well enough when it works. But it catches and breaks whenever its keeper is not the one running it. I will have her teach others the way she uses it. And perhaps she can tell someone how to make a better threshing device. The flails are more directly used and I can already see their use spreading.
"Speaking of things that break, voices, you should have told me that wood is not strong enough to hold bursting dust and direct where it should throw stones. I lost some few singers to injury and the sickness of wounds, carvers and table-rulers and others, too.
"Iron, also, does not hold so well. And I have a great deal of bronze now. But not so much that I can make a dust hurler for every boat. And why? I don't see the purpose of it.
"I have made the ammon-stuff. I have seen the peculiar water which does not freeze when it ought to and boils away when it should not. I built the oven of two chambers and the pipe and two pots, also. But all that happened was that the seawater and annom-stuff fell down the pipe and into the lower pot. And much leaked out the sides. There were crusts around, but I do not know what they were. I baked them, but nothing of any great significance came from it.
"The people make clearer glass, but it washes poorly. And it is not clear enough that polished lenses show me tiny life.
"Oh. A strange thing: when the molten glass was dropped in water, the drop that formed was sometimes very resilient against breakage. But no matter how strong, it would all fall to shards if the scraggly tip was broken. Well, 'fall' is not the right word. It bursts like overripe fruit, of glass! So that has been some injury that, once again, I would have liked warning of. Some wound sickness, there, an eye or three.
"The Giantess and her children are building a bridge over the Buraghm, Stoneworkers of Burgeck are with them in Liavint, and direct them in building walls into out into the river in the manner after your advice. They mean to dig down and build up and follow the rule of the hanging rope to span the river. I do not know if it could be done without Giants. But then, there are Giants in Liavint. So that is that.
"The people do not like the spreading of delanded outsiders throughout all of the Ten Nations. My singers and table-rulers tell me that it has caused discord. Many of the bond captive outsiders died before their bonds were finished, which often leaves ill spirits. Some others took to murdering the people who kept them, to whom I had given their bond. Some few even took to breaking houses, fouling wells, poisoning cattle, and worse. Three or more outsiders brought down the greatest ice hall of the Burgeck, and upset the spirit therein. It is unlikely that taking and spreading will be tried again. The people are not happy to be all together bearing the burden so that some families of Bima Nolco can take new lands.
"But the people do want for land, and drive the outsiders ahead of them as they take it. Fewer are taking bond captives. And fewer outsiders come to offer themselves as such, now that the years are fatter. So there are more raids and burning homes around the edges. But it is mostly a good time for the Free People of the Ten Nations.
"Except perhaps for the Galugr, who are so few. More lesser giants came back with those traders who were sent to fetch them than went out with them. But not too many more.
"I will not long stand for the defiance of Ekhaicvint. Some summer soon I will return. How should I crush them, voices?"
[ ] [Pettiness] Raise a whole host of the warriors of the Ten Nations, raze the lands of Ekhaicvint
[ ] [Pettiness] Sneak in and kill the rulers, everything will come together on its own afterward
[ ] [Pettiness] Like before, bring only the chosen of the chosen, meet with the Host of Liavint, travel to Ekhaicvint, but this time with CANONS!
[ ] [Pettiness] Use every bit of sorcerous labor given in tribute to curse the rulers of the city, everything will come together on its own afterward
[ ] [Pettiness] Forment rebellion in the people of least means, everything will come together on its own afterward
[ ] [Pettiness] Write in
"Among the magicians taken from Enonl there is one who is very spry for his wrinkles and grey hair. He claims to know the trick of a very long life and that he is over two hundred years old. As is only appropriate, he will demonstrate his secret at my demand, but the things his method requires are rare and disruptive. He also needs more for himself. Should I grant him the makings of his elixir?
[ ] [Potion] No, but let him try to gather the ingredients for two
[ ] [Potion] Enough for himself, but let someone else gather for themselves
[ ] [Potion] Enough for another, but let him try to gather for himself
[ ] [Potion] Yes. Whatever it takes
[ ] [Potion] Write in
"And whom should I favor with the ages of life the elixir promises?"
[ ] [Extension] Kuwuzt of Zouchaud
[ ] [Extension] The Heroic Charioteer
[ ] [Extension] The Giantess of Liavint
[ ] [Extension] The most promising singer
[ ] [Extension] The most promising table-ruler
[ ] [Extension] Write in
"Before he left, that witch I captured in the great battle against the Hosts of Wrul told me that there are spirits of longing, of reveling in excess in Lan. That they keep these spirits around, and bring them into themselves in secret and to secret ends he did not know. I have no reason to doubt him. But at the same time I do not see the trouble in it he did. What should I do with this?"
[ ] [Cult] Leave the people with their rituals, so long as they keep the Ten Ways Pact
[ ] [Cult] Ask the Lan Tribe what they are doing
[ ] [Cult] Send singers and table-rulers to investigate in secret
[ ] [Cult] Send singers and table-rulers to openly investigate
[ ] [Cult] Investigate personally
[ ] [Cult] Write in
"I find that the time has come to gather together the Free People of the Ten Nations to celebrate and contest against each other. Where should this gathering be held?"
[ ] [Festival] Bianca's Palace
[ ] [Festival] Around the largest building the Burgeck have raised
[ ] [Festival] 'Open' land just beyond the borders of Tash
[ ] [Festival] Liavint
[ ] [Festival] Write in
Code:
Voting will close at 2359 UTC on Monday, October Seventh.
[X] [Potion] See if you can farm the ingredients for the elixir of life, or otherwise produce a more reliable supply
[X] [Potion] Enough for another, but let him try to gather for himself
[X] [Extension] The maker of the best reaping device in the next few years
[X] [Pettiness] Like before, bring only the chosen of the chosen, meet with the Host of Liavint, travel to Ekhaicvint, but this time with CANONS!
[X] [Cult] Investigate personally
[X] [Festival] Bianca's Palace
Greatest ice halls of the Burgeck usually experience if not collapses, then now sabotage. xD
More seriously, situation is far from great, but nowhere near terrible. Hmm. What to do.
This is Black Cat, welcome. Ugh. Recent conquest had much worse results than I hoped for. Still, more land is more land. Land should be useful long after this brief discord dies.
So, there is human sacrifice in the city. Ugly and wasteful custom, especially if benefits of such drowning of people are false, and this is probably the case. Huh.
I fail to be impressed by these cities of your world. Though their weird customs are amusing. I like cities very much, but I like great cities of the machine age that I can remember/see, not these poor dumps of your world that know even less wisdom than we provided to your tribes. Huh.
Still, as we said, cities should develop and grow with time. So this may change.
If your former First Table-Ruler managed to somehow live though his misadventure, then I would advise to show unusual mercy. His action probably killed him, but if not, his story may be amusing.
Elixir for longer life is promising. Though it sounds like something both promising and terrible to make. So what do you need for one? Do you need to, I'm not sure... Kill rare people or whole villages for one? Then it's disturbing, evil and could bring discord, but you could farm outsiders for that, no reason to use people from the Ten Nations. Hmmm. But you said "rare". Hmm. So maybe I'm wrong. Mysterious. Something like that would be disruptive, but not exactly rare, not with the proper use of outsiders. So I have no idea.
Standing outside naked in winter would be terrible idea and would cause much more damage than benefits. Even if we are all mad, I'm not mad enough to suggest something like that. Frankly, I see no need to talk about lack of sunlight during winter anymore, as all solutions seems to be worse than the problem for now. My apologies for even starting to talk about that, irrelevant information can be one of our weaknesses.
Permanence... Ugh. It would be much better for your power if future generations could praise great wisdom of farming that was invented by you, instead of believing that it was always done.
People need safety with comforting thoughts about a few permanent things, I agree. But not everything needs to be seen as permanent. You can claim that you and your power is permanent, that you bring safety to the changing world. Also sometimes you change things, but for the better. Change for the worse come out of bad understanding and from ENEMIES of the People. And only you can protect them. Such a way of thinking would strenghten your power over people.
I assure you, it's possible for people to believe in that after a generation or two of hearing proper stories. You need to strongly consider this way.
More uses for nails, in the sense of metal nails? Quite obviously you can join two pieces of wood together by hammering properly long metal nails into these.
Anyway. A few pieces of general advice, as always. Hopefully useful.
Lubrication of machinery.
Some unfortunate issues with machinery may be caused by lack of precision, skill and experience; but maybe some are caused by lack of lubrication. Use something like olive oil on gears and the machine may run better. This cause moving parts to transfer force more gently and reduce wear.
Lubrication is a technique employed to reduce wear of one or both surfaces in close proximity moving relative to each another by interposing a substance called a lubricant between the surfaces.
Adequate lubrication allows smooth continuous operation of machinery, with only mild wear, and without excessive stresses or seizures. When lubrication breaks down, metal or other components can rub destructively over each other, causing heat and possibly damage or failure.
Insecticides: killing bugs that eat crops.
Do you know flowering plants known to me as Chrysanthemums or Pyrethrum? Powdered flowers of these are poisonous to many bugs, while effects on humans or animals are minimal.
Flowers, typically white with yellow centers, grow from numerous fairly rigid stems.
Besides killing many of these bugs that eat crops, this should also kill lice and fleas.
Production of potassium nitrate, alternative way: no caves with the bat dung needed.
There are a few methods of obtaining and extracting potassium nitrate.
Mix manure with wood ashes, common earth and organic materials such as straw to give porosity to a compost pile.
The heap should be under cover from the rain, kept moist with urine, turned often to accelerate the decomposition, then finally leached with water after approximately one year, to remove the soluble calcium nitrate (something like colourless salt) which can be converted to potassium nitrate by filtering through the potash.
And what is potash? The name derives from pot ash, which refers to plant ashes soaked in water in a pot, the primary means of manufacturing potash.
This may well increase production of the potassium nitrate, and thus black dust. Depends how many caves with the bat dung you have and what is easier.
This reminds me...
Bat dung as fertilizer.
Bat dung can be used to fertilize fields. I consider black soil as better, though. But you can even use both, I suppose.
Too much dependence on the bat dung, that is produced by bats extremely slowly and thus can be utterly exchausted after some time, is unwise. Some use is reasonable, but not too much; table-rulers can consider details of that with their numbers.
And this reminds me...
RIsks of resource shortages: wood.
As our improvements use more and more trees for charcoal and other uses, planting trees both as windbreaks and maybe even as small tree farms may be well-advised. Trees, sadly, needs many years and sometimes decades before "harvest" for wood is reasonable.
Peat.
As was once mentioned, I would urge again - and it's reasonable, because your people use wetlands and probably cut peat for bog iron. Try pressing water out of peat, drying peat and then burning that during winter to save more trees for other uses. Warning: beware of uncontrolled peat fires, never store too much in one place, and other such measures of safety around something very flammable.
There is also black rock that can burn, coal. But coal is pretty unhealthy. And beware of underground coal deposit fires.
Obesity and exercise.
While diverse diet is ideal, it's possible for a person to eat too much with too little physical work or exercise. In such case the body tries to store excess food as body fat.
Excessive body fat can easily lower mortal lifespan by 20 years. Obesity is a disease.
On the other hand, muscles, physical strength, and exercise of the body are beneficial and can slightly slow aging, though effects are far from great. A few more years of life can be expected.
This means that even when some people are raised above others and enjoy more food than needed, they should still do some light menial work or exercise bodies, otherwise their health will suffer.
Medicines and body weight.
I think that it's utterly obvious to us, but I'm not sure that it's obvious to you, as our ways of thinking sometimes differ in surprising ways: proper doses of many strong medicines depend on body weight of the patient. That is, dose that would kill a small child may be proper for a big man.
Despair and madness of warriors even years after the battle...
Yes. I know about such disease of the mind. It can also happen to people after experiencing something other that is terrifying, not always battles. Support and comfort in a marriage or from a family is important, also patience and showing understanding while listening to words of the mad, even if the mad person sounds very meek or weird.
Your singers could try to gently speak with such people, mostly listen with a few gentle questions. It's possible to sometimes heal such a damaged mind in this fashion, not always. There are no easy cures for this.
Something similar can even happen after terrifying accidents, or to children that experience something terrifying for children.
Children and risks of future madness.
This is a good reason to not beat children excessiviely, and be reasonably nice to children, as I once tried to explain already. "Reasonably" is a very important word here and obviously some discipline is needed - but constant fear is damaging to the mind. Quite often a few harsh words is entirely sufficient to discipline a child - this depends.
All physical punishment of children is abuse. But I speak with a bronze age evil ruler and so I don't want to seem even more mad than she already thinks.
Dental care without toothpaste.
People can simply clean their teeth with a wet "moderately stiff (not TOO stiff, though) brush", no toothpaste needed. It would be less effective, but much better than nothing. Bad dental health and especially rotting teeth allows bad germs entry to the whole body.
The brushing motions will remove germs and food particles from the teeth and gums, which is a much better choice than forgoing brushing altogether.
While on vacation, nothing is more frustrating than realizing that a major toiletry item such as a toothbrush or toothpaste has been left behind. This can truly put a damper on an otherwise relaxing getaway, especially if you are vacationing in an area where these items are not readily...
www.dentalone-ga.com
Forceps and removal of damaged teeth.
Tooth that cause significant pain should be removed with forceps. A tool pretty similar to tongs, but much smaller and thus able to properly grasp a tooth, at least in the most cases. Forceps should be clean and sterilized like tools used in surgery, as even though tooth extraction is usually simple, there are some risks from germs.
Without treatment infection can spread to the jaw, or even travel with blood to weaken many internal organs.
Immediately following the removal of a tooth, bleeding very commonly occurs. It's good for a patient to bite on a very small and previously boiled piece of cloth for a while, to stop bleeding and allow blood to clot.
Germs often present in the human mouth love to eat remains of food, especially sweet-tasting things (honey is, thankfully, exception as honey often kills germs).
Without any brushing dental health could suffer from otherwise beneficial plentitude of food, ironically.
Thankfully removal of damaged teeth is a very simple surgery, if this can be even called "surgery" at all. Deaths are very rare, somebody would need to be extremely unlucky with germs. Keeping rotten teeth in the mouth is much more dangerous for health than removal, and of course - often very painful.
Alternative treatment of minor damage?
I can imagine very complicated ways to clean minor holes in teeth with very small drills and then use something to fill that, but obviously removal is much easier. Probably not worth the costs, especially given that it would be hard to find a properly durable thing for fillings.
Dentures.
It's possible, but may need excellent and skilled craftsmen, to create artifical teeth sculpted from animal bone, and fastened with a fine wire, to replace missing teeth. We call such a thing "dentures".
There was also nation that used dentures made out of wood. Softened bees wax was inserted into the patient's mouth to create an impression, which was then filled with harder bees wax. Wooden dentures were then meticulously carved based on that model.
If you are afraid that such a complicated prosthesis of teeth can cause inequality then I understand, but maybe this could be something proper for a very respected elders that lost most of their teeth.
Cities and fires.
It's good to have a few wide roads inside of a city. Not only this makes discord easier to control, but also can serve as firebreak. When all buildings of the city stand one around another, fire can too easily spread.
Also, they should use non-flammable materials in construction, when possible.
Travel during Winter.
Do you know about sleds? Basically carts without wheels but with a smooth pieces of wood that can slide across ice or snow. Pretty much useless during summer, but can allow to travel during snowy winter.
Table-Rulers and Singers after unfortunate deaths, hierarchy of command.
I suggest you to make a position of the Second Table-Ruler, that would help the First Table-Ruler with some tasks. Above other Table-Rulers, but below the First. When First Table-Ruler die, then Second would become First.
The law should demand to always have a Second Table-Ruler selected, even if the First is still young, to avoid recent issue.
If, by some truly great misfortune, both of them die at the same time, then the law could dictate that the oldest Table-Ruler present in your Great Home should act like a First Table-Ruler for a short time, until you could select a new and younger one.
Similar law could concern your Singers.
Feel free to change this suggestion to better suit your needs.
And if there are tasks of the table-rulers than need more specialization, for example teaching, then minor jobs like "First Teacher" can also be considered, as table-ruler below the First and Second but above other teachers, for example. This may be needed especially with increasing population.
Teaching methods.
It's possible for one teacher to teach 10 or even 20 people at the same time, if the teacher speaks loudly and people listen with a proper discipline, and look at everything that their teacher shows to teach them. Though quality of the teaching process suffers with increasing numbers, obviously.
Teacher could write big numbers and letters with a white chalk on a big black slate stone, so that everyone could see. White chalk can be easily washed away.
Meritocracy.
In regards to testing merit... Well, I shall use one example from history known to me. In the Chinese Empire there was a writer of books with wisdom that was very respected thanks to his wise written words for hundreds of years after he died, Confucius. Table-rulers of the Chinese Empire had duty to carefully read and study these books of wisdom, and then were asked complicated questions to prove their proper understanding of Confucius. Then hierarchy among table-rulers of the Empire was determined by quality of their answers.
Of course you have no Confucius, and honestly speaking quality of his work was overrated. But proper questions could ask them about various written wisdom, about maps, about the Ten Nations, and of course about your wisdom and about your achievements. They should also properly understand new machines and inventions. Quality and accuracy of their answers should show how suitable for complicated work they are. These babbling like idiots probably shouldn't be table-rulers at all, while these with proper answers to almost everything should be suitable for the most complicated work.
Personally testing all table-rulers that finish their training is of course not worthy of your time. You can appoint a small council of a few table-rulers and singers that you surely know as wise and order them to do most of this testing.
Checks and balances.
But I must say again, like I said years ago. I'm against giving even the wisest table-rulers full power to judge disputes. At minimum, judgement should wait for a Singer. As far as I understand things, Singers often travel, so pretty soon one should be available, if not at first. Only then dispute should be judged by both of them, and in the case of any significant doubts or differences in opinion between village Table-Ruler and Singer, you should be informed, and the case considered in your Great Home instead. Not always by you, but by the First Singer and First Table-Ruler if you are busy. In this way various servants and Singers would check whether decisions done in your name are truly proper and just. This shouldn't ever depend on only one servant, but people who serve you should check work of each other. Only your power is absolute, some power for your servants can be valuable as your time is limited, but one servant cannot be too powerful. Tests for wisdom wouldn't ever be perfect.
Cities of your world currently lack such "checks and balances" between servants of the ruler and this often cause discord. It's stupid and primitive custom, like cutting off the balls.
Only your power over your people should be unlimited. People below you are useful as your time is limited, but should check decisions of each other. Mortals are fragile and even the wisest mortal can fall into madness, occasionally.
To cite something, quote: "Checks and balances are various procedures set in place to reduce mistakes, prevent improper behavior, or decrease risks", end of quote from the book with wisdom.
Checks and balances are organizational procedures to reduce mistakes, prevent improper behavior, or decrease the risk of centralization of power.
www.investopedia.com
There are cases when leadership decisions need to be done fast, by one person and without any discussion, but these are mainly events like enemy raids, decisions of warleaders and Armies, or disasters like flooding.
Loving the more granular quoting. It makes it more obvious what Bianca is responding to, and really cuts down on the wall-of-text feeling of prior chapters, despite having a similar word count.
Regarding the aerial misadventure of your previous Table-Ruler, I would not be surprised to learn that they died at high altitude from lack of air; either directly from suffocation, or from falling from a great height after passing out. They are probably among the deceased.
Also, it would perhaps be wise to explain some of the context from our world that we have been accidentally weakening our instructions to you by not explaining.
With regards to food production, through the use of highly advanced farming machinery, it is easily doable for one farmer in our world to feed fifty additional people beyond themselves. This is even in the case of truly awful weather depressing crop yields. Which is why we keep making stupid assumptions about cities, and what professions aside from farmer your society is able to support.
In addition, we almost universally learn a great deal about mechanisms, the motion of fluids, the behavior of the force that drives lightning, and a variety of other phenomena, to the degree that outside our initial education we often don't think such things are worth mentioning, because of course that's just how things work. As such, we often forget that you do not have the benefit of such knowledge, and fail to properly explain these seemingly obvious things.
An example of something I forgot to explain due to stupid assumptions would be the Sodium Bicarbonate production setup that did not work as planned; to keep the brine from flowing back into the quicklime chamber, the pipe for the gas needs to go up, over the top of the brine tank, then bend down and go back to the bottom; this keeps the brine from flowing into the oven, since the pressure in the tank is insufficient to push the brine up the pipe over its own fluid level. Meanwhile, the top chamber of the oven full of lime will need to be sealed so no air can enter or leave, in order for the Carbon Dioxide gas it produces to actually build up enough pressure to force the brine back down the pipe, and start flowing into the tank of liquid as bubbles. In addition, both the Sodium Bicarbonate and the false salt would sink to the bottom; the Sodium Bicarbonate when the gas was bubbled through the tank, and the false salt when the quicklime was added to recycle the Ammonia.
As for the issues which you requested assistance with...
[X] [Pettiness] Forment rebellion in the people of least means, everything will come together on its own afterward
-[X] [Pettiness Subvote] Prior to the open start of rebellion, secretly supply those least of means with weapons and advice to increase their odds of success
By and large, the workers of the city are not those who spited you, and do not deserve your ire. Therefore, it is not wise to punish them for the actions of foolish leaders which they also despise. However, if you secretly assist them in rebelling and provide tools that make it easier for them to do so, they will feel a debt to the Ten Nations, and may be helpful to your cause in future. Weapons you stand a good chance of smuggling into the city include bombs of blasting powder disguised as oil flasks, swords and short spears, or anything else that could conceivably be disguised as something a trader is bringing to the city.
[X] [Potion] See if you can farm the ingredients for the elixir of life, or otherwise produce a more reliable supply
While a dose of longevity potion here or there would indeed be useful as an incentive, far better would be the ability to brew up a batch reliably. Thus, you could retain useful people for far longer, while also tempting others to join with the promise of an elongated lifespan. If the ingredients are rare plants, see if those plants can be cultivated. If they are special stones, either locate a spot where they can be mined, or very specifically state what types of stones are needed. Most true gemstones can be made artificially with the correct knowledge, which I would gladly impart to you once I know which stones are needed.
Needless to say, if this plan works, it removes much of the need to pick and choose who receives the elixir of life.
I have no advice regarding the cult.
[X] [Festival] Around the largest building the Burgeck have raised
Hopefully, the sight of such impressive architecture will re-ignite interest in your more ambitious projects. If not among the Burgeck, then perhaps among the other peoples of the Nations.
Greatest ice halls of the Burgeck usually experience if not collapses, then now sabotage. xD
More seriously, situation is far from great, but nowhere near terrible. Hmm. What to do.
This is Black Cat, welcome. Ugh. Recent conquest had much worse results than I hoped for. Still, more land is more land. Land should be useful long after this brief discord dies.
A few pieces of advice, as always.
Obesity and exercise.
While diverse diet is ideal, it's possible for a person to eat too much with too little physical work or exercise. In such case the body tries to store excess food as body fat.
Excessive body fat can easily lower mortal lifespan by 20 years. Obesity is a disease.
On the other hand, muscles, physical strength, and exercise of the body are beneficial and can slightly slow aging, though effects are far from great. A few more years of life can be expected.
This means that even when some people are raised above others and enjoy more food than needed, they should still do some light menial work or exercise bodies, otherwise their health will suffer.
Fellow Voice, I disagree with your opinion. Of course I'm right and exercise matters in controlling weight, as exercise, and menial work for that matter, change amount of energy needed for the body to function.
The I that is Demon greets you once more Bianca. I rejoice in yet another city being added to your mighty empire, reveling in the sweet scents of victory, and writhing with the ecstacy of speaking such delicious madness into your eagerly salivating ears. Or wait, is that earwax? Ewww.
[X] [Cacophony] Demonic Spoon
[X] [Pettiness] Like before, bring only the chosen of the chosen, meet with the Host of Liavint, travel to Ekhaicvint, but this time with CANONS!
* Cannons
[X] [Potion] Enough for another, but let him try to gather for himself
I would appreciate the specifics of the "rare and disruptive" materials of the life-extension elixir Bianca? It almost sounds like you grinding up babies, except babies aren't rare.
[X] [Extension] The maker of the best reaping device in the next few years
I speak of the sort of mechanical wisdom that is difficult to convey with words Bianca, at least my own winding tunnel variety. The best way I can think of to encourage it is to reward those so seem to excel in such mechanical sophistication.
[X] [Cult] Send singers and table-rulers to openly investigate
Those who have nothing to hide have nothing to fear! This sounds suspiciously like them making tribute to gods who are not you, which is of course a violation of the Ten Ways Pact Bianca.
[X] [Festival] 'Open' land just beyond the borders of Tash
This sort of large-scale festival tends to cause a large mess and potentially some damage to the environment. Don't hold it anywhere important. That's not even taking into account the inevitable drunken brawling.
How do you know of sulphur Bianca? Do your trade for it, and if so from where, or is it found within your lands, and if so, could you describe the place where it is gathered to me?
"I will have this built, too. When the fields around my great house are harvested, the people will see its use and if it seems wise to anyone it will be known to the table-rulers."
"I do not know how you meant the reaper blades to move back and forth across the threshing comb, voices. But there is now a device which may be pulled across a field to reap wheat. A wheel above rests against the wheel below and when the wheel below turns against the ground the wheel above turns blades against the threshing comb. Stalks fall behind to be easily gathered.
"I think someone will build a second, and perhaps build it better. This one is a marvel but as its parts pass against each other they do sometimes catch or break. And when the upper wheel slips, wheat is not cut and is dragged under the comb to no good end.
"Similarly, the threshing device is a wonder when it is working. And it happens that the important part of the sieve is not the thinness of the substance between the gaps, but the sizes of the gaps themselves. We use reeds and can make any size of gap between them as is needed, no wire. And for this I am grateful, voice, as these tools are good beyond the device, which does work well enough when it works. But it catches and breaks whenever its keeper is not the one running it. I will have her teach others the way she uses it. And perhaps she can tell someone how to make a better threshing device. The flails are more directly used and I can already see their use spreading.
"Wise folk already know which mushrooms may be eaten… Though they are sometimes wrong. This may be better understood, I think, with some trial and error. And if one or more mushrooms are reliably known to be safe and may be reliably grown from their wash or scrapings, then the people will know for certain that this or that mushroom is safe and others are not. We shall see."
"Do not tell me, Black Cat, only that some sunlight is needed by people in winter. Tell me also how it may be known that they get too little. I could tell the people to stand naked in the winter sun for strength and they would do it as much as they have time and can stand to do so. But at the same time you say that too much sun will canker their flesh.
The signs of insufficient sunlight are long-term and can be difficult to quantify, but poor skeleton development is among them. The most obvious short-term symptom is depression. If you're people are getting an hour of sunlight on the hands and face every other day or so, then that should be more than enough to be safe. The only time your people are likely to get insufficient sunlight is in the deepest winter, and this should not have too much of an impact on their long-term health.
"Is milk not safe as it is? What signs will tell us that a disease is from milk, that these steps are needed? Preventing a few days of spoilage seems of little use, really."
Milk is mostly safe if drinken fresh, that is to say, the same day it was milked. However it can quickly spoil into a disease carrier. The types of diseases spread by milk take a long time to show symptoms and there is no obvious sign that the milk has been spoiled.
Saltwort, glasswort, picklegrass or marsh samphire. It often grows in salt marshes, mud flats, estuaries, generally near to sea or next to salt pans. Glasswort is a smooth, fleshy, salt-tolerant plant grow up to about a footlength in height, with succulent (fleshy), jointed, branching stems. Its jointed stems range in color from bright green to deep red. The leaves are scale-like formations along the segments of the stem. Glasswort ihas fleshy plump stems, resembling asparagus spears. In the autumn, this plant turns bright crimson, adding dramatic beauty to the salt marshes it inhabits.
"The most important use of hemp is now, as it has always been, the seeds for growing more hemp. Taking a plant out of the wilds and into the fields is not as simple as deciding that it should be done. Hemp does not flourish in fields as wheat does, or even as flax may at times. But there are years where I see more plants grown and harvested than the year before.
"We find these fibers make better rope than our flax does. So what hemp is harvested goes to rope."
Hemp is food
Bianca, did you know that hemp seeds and hemp leaves are edible? Hemp is indeed an ideal material for rope, and should primarily be used for that, and things made from ropes like fishing nets, and rough cloth that can be used to make tough sacks to hold grain, or poor clothing for slaves.
"Tell me how to see more cattle through the winter, voices. Tell me how to bring game back. The Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations grow in numbers and in strength despite the longer winters, but their herds have not grown well or have dwindled. And more hunters have needed to rely on their families rather than the other way around."
"There is more food grown and kept now than would have been before, I am sure. These winters would have been a great hardship on the people, were it not for the plentitude drawn from black soil and soft neighbors. Still, the paucity of game and the loss of cattle and such in winter have been hardships for which there has been no counter."
"And, yes, food is important as I and others have said. The farms are strong. I have some idea of what to look for in foreign crops and such. But the herds in the pastures have known no increase from any wisdom of you voices. For now there is little choosing to be done in heifers and ewes; each that can be bred must be allowed to, excepting the lame. And already the keepers of herds chose the greatest and most hale bulls and rams to keep. What more can you voices tell me of herd keeping?
"And game? When the winters are bad there are fewer deer or hare or any other game. What of that food?
"And fish? The better boats do send our fishers further out. And navigation by stars brings more of them home. But what more can you tell me of the gathering of fishes?"
Wildlife Management:
The key to long-term sustainable hunting populations is twofold. First, do not overhunt, limiting the amount of game that may be hunted each season and forbid hunting of a particular type of game entirely in their breeding season to allow game populations to recover. Second, kill off all competing predators like wolves, lions, tigers, foxes and so on, since they're directly reducing the amount of game available for you to hunt.
The second method should only be practised of large-scale responsible hunting will regularly be carried out, as otherwise without the population control of predators the game population will increase rapidly, they will overgraze their available food, and then their population will collapse as food sources disappear.
Salt Licks
Animals need salt. Both wild and domestic. Put out blocks of salt for your domestic animals to lick on, and for wild animals to lick on, and this will help both of them to flourish. Salt Licks also make decent lures to hunt wild game.
Wintering Livestock
There are three things you need to focus on for livestock in the winter, shelter, food and water. Seemingly obvious no?
Shelter: grow tree windbreaks around pastures as was previously mentioned for crops, or put up portable windbreaks made of wood or mudcaked straw or whatever, essentially just two thin walls forming corner for the livestock to shelter in is sufficient for most animals. The windbreaks will shelter the livestock from the cold winds, which allows them to survive the winter more easily. Move the portable windbreaks every week or so to prevent disease outbreaks from keeping the livestock in their own manure.
Their pastures should be kept relatively flat and free of snow.
Some byre, large structures specifically to house your livestock during winter, or at least the coldest winter nights, can also be considered.
Water: Livestock must have access to unfrozen water. Give them water troughs and break the ice forming on the surface every so often maybe.
Feed: Winter pasture feeding will probably need to be supplemented with hay and maybe grains if you can spare it.
The focus of this publication is to highlight alternative practices for consideration as an alternative to winter animal confinement in a feedlot. Advantages and disadvantages are highlighted based on available research.
www.ag.ndsu.edu
Harbours
Fishing with nets is fishing with nets, more or less. I would suggest an alternative focus area, bigger ships.
Ships small enough that they can be easily dragged out of the water is so last decade. You need big ships that always stay in the water, and for that you need harbours to serve as an anchorage for them. A good harbour is surrounded on three sides by land, so the water is calm even in storms, and is relatively deep, so ships don't scrape their hulls.
Find such a location along your coastline, and begin building a dock there, with wooden walkways supported by wooden poles heading into the water for ships to anchor next to and sailors to embark and disembark. Eventually the whole thing should grow into a goodsized town if all goes well.
Dry-Dock
How to actually build these bigger ships? With drydocks! Dig a dry enclosure into the soil near the water of the harbour, making it waterproof with concrete or whatnot, placing properly shaped blocks to support a ships keel along the bottom, pumps to drain water, and with gate at its border with the sea, you can build the gate first and dig out the water side afterwards.
Then simply build your ship in the dry-dock, and open the gates to let the water in, and get the ship out of the drydock. Of course, additional temporary support struts will probably be needed during the building process. Dry-docks are also useful for repairing and maintaining these big ships you will hopefully be building, sailing the damaged vessel into a water-filled dry-dock and using pumps (or buckets I guess) to drain it after the gate is closed.
"So now we have strange grains and crawling thorny brambles that make berries and also maps. Some of those maps make no sense. There are two maps that are the same except one shows an island that is known and another shows that there is no island there. Probably it was missed?
I would like to request that you describe the grains Bianca. The brambles, are their berries black or red, and seem to be made of many smaller berries glued together into a bigger lump? If so, then they are probably some form of blackberry, which is nice.
"Oh. A strange thing: when the molten glass was dropped in water, the drop that formed was sometimes very resilient against breakage. But no matter how strong, it would all fall to shards if the scraggly tip was broken. Well, 'fall' is not the right word. It bursts like overripe fruit, of glass! So that has been some injury that, once again, I would have liked warning of. Some wound sickness, there, an eye or three.
Ah yes the lacrymae Batavicae . An interesting little glass trick. The glass is under tension, which paradoxically makes it stronger. The same principle can be applied to make tempered flat glass plates stronger than normal glass, but heating the plates until they're molten and then rapidly cooling them. While you may not be able to do this technologically at the moment, perhaps magic can do the trick.
Of course exercise matters in controlling weight, as exercise, and menial work for that matter, change amount of energy needed for the body to function.
One study does not make your conclusion correct, and I direct you to this article.
Exercise is good for you, but using it as a tool for weight loss is folly, because at certain level, calories expenditure will remain flat and the body will try to maintain that specific caloric expenditure. This is known as constrained total energy expenditure.
An unhealthy obese person should focus more on diet if they want to to lose weight and be healthy. Exercise is a useful tool for becoming healthy, but we should not misunderstand how our tool function. It's far easier to lose weight by controlling the amount of calories you eat as opposed to burning them off, which is easily undone by a snack.
[X] [Pettiness] Forment rebellion in the people of least means, everything will come together on its own afterward
[X] [Potion] Yes. Whatever it takes
[X] [Cult] Investigate personally
I modified my words significantly with more advice. Now, fellow Voices. Any thoughts? What should we decide? And how terrible or difficult the elixir for life can be to produce, what do you think? Surely the magican was able to once produce his elixir without ruling over a major nation. And yet it's mentioned as extremely hard. Hm.
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