Chronicles of Nations Redux - Civ Quest

[X] [Cadlon] Blodwyn the Explorer is elected as Cadlon. (-1 Legitimacy & -1 Stability)
[X] [War] Reach out to the Forluc and try to launch a joint invasion with them.
[X] [Passive] Trade = Free Trade Expedition each turn.
[X] [Passive] Agriculture = +4 Temp Econ per turn.
[X] [Province] Megaproject = Focuses on building megaprojects.

It was Blodwyn who was ultimately chosen to be Cadlon despite the objections of the northerners. The Merntir don't like it and while it causes some upset and unhappiness, the Arthwyd are still Arthwyd at the end of the day and they would stand united under the guidance of Arthryn and her Daughters.

Yet there was still tension and uncertainty amongst the Arthwyd. Cadlon Blodwyn the Explorer hadn't done anything wrong, but her election took a blow to the myth of infallibility around the position of Cadlon since it was first created. The Cadlon was still obeyed and highly respected, but she was no longer seen as some kind of semi-divine figure.

With a crisis at hand, Cadlon Blodwyn quickly got to work. Deciding that the Forluc would make for useful allies, Blodwyn personally reached out to the barbarians. As expected, the Forluc were responding to the Caradysh attack on them like the Arthwyd were and with her position so insecure, Farke Galdae was rather pleased to have the aid of the Arthwyd.

Yet the cultural differences and sheer distance made things harder to truly coordinate with each other. In the end, it came down to the Forluc telling the Arthwyd to deal with the Raradysh while they invaded the Cursed Forest. It wasn't ideal, but it is useful to have a two-pronged attack on the undead monsters, forcing them to divide their forces to avoid defeat.

Over several seasons, the Raradysh were slaughtered. Their revenant rulers and wight defenders might have been enough to protect the Raradysh from neighbouring barbarians, but the abominations were steadily hunted down by the Catclaws and Cateyes of the Arthwyd. It was slow at first, but by the time that the second winter of the campaign had come, the Arthwyd had figured out how to best kill the undead defenders and by the time the third winter came about, the Raradysh have been burnt to the ground for all intents and purposes.

The Arthwyd were ready to continue their campaign and march into the Cursed Forest when news of the Forluc campaign reached them. Just as the Arthwyd had attacked the Raradysh, the Forluc had invaded the Cursed Forest with all of their warriors. Hundreds of men from the Forluc, Forden and Fornn entered the Cursed Forest.

Nobody knew what happened in the evil forest of the Caradysh, but less than half of the Forluc expedition returned home. The Forluc army had halved by most accounts whilst no noteworthy number of warriors returned to the Forden. The Fornn had fared best with only one in three failing to return to the Cursed Forest. Worst of all, Farke Galdae was not amongst the survivors.

Having suffered such heavy losses, the Forluc were out of the war for all intentions and purposes. Things were bad for the Forluc beyond the sorry state of their military as their new Farkas was an idiot by all accounts. Farkas Kadden was the cousin of Farke Galdae and had an even worse reputation amongst the Forluc than Galdae did. Kadden is an insecure fool who flipflops between being certain of his superiority and being envious of others being better than him.

While her warriors were still eager to invade the Cursed Forest, Cadlon Blodwyn was far less keen on that idea without her allies, especially after the Forluc got so thoroughly thrashed. Instead, she preferred to bide her time and build up the Arthwydish forces before invading the Caradysh on her own.

This strategy proved highly unpopular amongst the Arthwyd with most viewing it as a cowardice and a failure on her part to properly deal with the Caradysh. As the years went by, more and more people began to see Blodwyn's preparations as her being a coward and it became increasingly popular sentiment to denounce her election to Cadlon as a mistake.

Things hadn't quite gotten to the point of rebellion or a refusal to obey the Cadlon's commands, but they were close to it. There was a tension amongst the Arthwyd and the chosen people of Arthryn and her Daughters were heading towards an unprecedented crisis.

Yet success can forgive a multitude of mistakes and can be the difference between committing a sin and carrying out your sacred duty. For all the ill will sent her way, successful defeating the Caradysh and making them pay for their misdeeds would vindicate Cadlon Blodwyn and restore matters to a degree.

Of course, that was just the matter of the war with the Caradysh. As important as it is, life did not revolve around it and the Arthwyd and their subjects continue to improve. Some of the Arthrynite villages in the northern parts of the Maradysh decided to copy their brethren in the Arthwyd by connecting their villages with trails.

Meanwhile the Caermyr pulled in the real prizes of this generation. Whilst the military benefits failed to materialised in the matter that they were hoped, diplomatic relations with the Forluc did have some other benefits. While the Arthwyd had tamed lesser animals to leave amongst them, the Forluc had done the same with larger beasts. The barbarians weren't happy to part with their animals, but copper tools proved useful enough that the Forlucans found trading tamed animals for copper goods to a worthwhile deal.

These animals were quickly sent north along the Green River to be with the Arthwyd. They came into two types, the larger cows with impressive horns and the smaller sheep with their thick coats of hair.

Whilst both animals could be used for meat and hide like wild beasts, the cows and sheep each had a unique ability which made them stand out. The female cow could produce milk like a mother did for their child, something which local communities would find useful when it came to raising babies. Meanwhile the hair of the sheep could be collected and woven into cloth, useful for clothing and other things.

The cows and sheep weren't the only things that Caermyr provided to the Arthwyd during Blodwyn's reign. Within the lowlands there was a very useful plant called redstar, named for the five red petals of the flower looking somewhat like a star in the night sky. While named for the petals, it was the stem of the redstar that made it useful. The stem could be eaten for dulling pain somewhat if one was willingly to endure illness in the stomach. The lowlanders had further refined this process to create herbal medicine that would dull pain and sooth aches.

Whilst not as needed due to the holy magics of the Goddesses, the priesthood of the Arthwyd were still very interested in adding such a potent plant to their arsenal of herbal medicine. The redstar wouldn't replace the healing magic that the priesthood uses but using the flower to create herbal medicine could reduce the duties of the priesthood, freeing up more priests and priestesses for other tasks.

The last noteworthy thing that the came north from the Caermyr was a boating innovation as the traders in Caermyr made a new discovery whilst trying to find the best way to transport goods up and down the Green River.

By attaching supports on either side of a canoe in the right positions, it increases the stability of the boat. This allows for quicker and safer journeys as the canoe can both go faster and whilst being less likely to suffer an accident.

Yet things did not remain all good news as the Caradysh struck once again. The undead monsters marched out of the Cursed Forest into Forlucan lands a few winters after the Forluc invasion failed. The Forluc put up a good defence and would hold off the Caradysh for the first couple of winters, but as the seasons went by, the lowlanders slowly racked up casualties amongst their already diminished forces while the Caradysh were seemingly able to replace all of their losses.

Ultimately, the Forluc ended up having a mixture of too much land to defend and too few warriors to defend it either. The Caradysh breached the defensive lines and like a rock starting a landslide, the undead abominations would overrun the Forlucan warriors before they could re-establish their defence. With a handful of seasons, what was left of the Forluc military was destroyed and the Caradysh had claimed a vast swarth of Forluc land.

More disturbing was the reports of Urth's return so soon after he had last been vanquished, apparently leading the Caradysh armies to victory over the Forluc defenders. Most disturbingly of all was the reports of Cadlon Carys being the one leading the Caradysh, especially when the tales of Carys and Urth overlapped.

In response to Cadlon Carys seemingly leading the Caradysh invasion, Farkas Kadden denounced the Arthwyd, claiming that they were liars who tricked the Forluc into getting their armies killed so they could ally with the Caradysh. Ignoring a good chuck of his people's territory had been conquered, Kadden called for the Forluc to invade the Arthwyd and wanted to organise an attack on Caermyr.

Like almost all of Kadden's commands, the Forluc chiefs ignored this even through some decided to back him on this matter. After the destruction of the Raradysh, no one with common sense believed that the Arthwyd were aligned with the Caradysh and even those supporting Farkas Kadden were just using his beliefs as an excuse to act on pre-existing grudges against the Arthwyd.

Yet none of that mattered to the Arthwyd as the Forluc were crippled and they had their own internal and external issues to worry about before they worried about the delusions of some barbarian chieftain.



You have three Secondary Actions. Two Secondary Actions make a single Main Action. No plan voting or write-ins.
Please tag actions as [SEC] & [MAIN].


This update is a bit of event filled one. Diplomacy with the Forluc went well, but then they got wrecked in the actual fighting by the Caradysh. The Arthwyd burnt the Raradysh to the ground and they were going to continue the war effort by going into the Cursed Forest, but the players in the discord convinced me that the voters wanted to wait until they could sent a Main War Party into the Cursed Forest. So instead of invading the Cursed Forest, you got internal unrest to deal with as everyone is pissed at Cadlon Blodwyn for not going after the Caradysh proper.

In other news, you got cows and sheep from trading with the Forluc and Caermyr got a couple of other techs from their innovation rolls. Redstar is a fictional plant that I made up for this setting so don't try to go looking for its RL counterpart because it doesn't exist.

Please point out any spelling or grammar mistakes that you spot. Please quote them in the thread and explain what you think is wrong so I know what you are referring to. Feel to ask questions for more details and information.