Paths of Civilization

[X] [Main] New Settlement - Southern Shores
[X] [Secondary] Copper Mine
[X] [Secondary] Copper Mine X2
[X] [Kick] The Garden

Provinces - Megaproject x2

Stallion Tribes - [Main] New Settlement, [Sec] Build Walls, [Sec] New Trails

The People had kicked disease in the head before, had pushed back against the demons of the underworld and the lowlands, and had struck major blows against two of their ways of plaguing humanity. As such, was it any surprise that the demons would concoct something new? Something terrible and insidious in its method of killing?

So the demons sent a cough. A painful cough that lingered and lingered, such that it could not be adequately contained by quarantine, not without crashing the economy as everyone stayed isolated from everyone else. It killed adults to be sure, their bodies sometimes wracked with coughs so potent as to break ribs, but as the disease spread through the population, the brunt of the reaping fell upon the most vulnerable, and there seemed to be no way to stop this latest iteration of a killer. Where for generations the shamans had fought to keep three out of six children alive, it was now more like two out of seven or even eight that made it to adulthood. It wasn't always the new cough, just as often it was the old familiar killers, but now there was something new that the People couldn't fight to weaken tiny bodies and leave them susceptible to something else.

As such, while the completion of the new changes to Upper Valleyhome was met with much praise over how it definitely improved things, it was ultimately still a bittersweet moment as many were left to weep at tiny graves. For Magwyna, the newest and most vigorous Artisan Chief, the opening of the gates and the flowing of water was marred by the taste of ash in her mouth from the loss of her two youngest, a rambunctious girl of seven and a bright boy of four. Her face was stone for she had already cried out her tears and needed to focus on the project that had first brought her to prominence in the first place. Work had begun when she was a child and her father a stonemason - now an elder enjoying his retirement whittling and telling new stonemasons what to do - and she had discovered a talent for organizing and directing the work. She had simply been able to see the patterns of movement among the workers, the rhythm to it all and where things got snarled and how they could be smoothed. Then she had precociously charmed her father and the other workers into following her advice, and after they started to recognize that she had good advice they had realized that they had a born administrator on their hands.

By the time of her being declared a woman she had an assignment from the Artisan Chief with royal backing to travel to the Green Hill and apprentice under the clerks and chiefs doing the process of expanding the quarry into a mine and smelting site, transforming the coloured stones into shining copper and poisonous wastes. She had thrived there and got the mine up and running early, and had also met her husband Yldod, a potter, there, and had soon found herself sent on to the new Southshore settlement, where they not only needed a skilled admin but someone who could handle the fact that there were people from the Southern Hill Tribes - now being called the Hathatyn after the city that seemed dominant in the overall region, Hathaya - who were also starting to settle the region. Through adroit diplomacy she had managed to keep the fighting to a minimum; mostly just interpersonal things that would have happened regardless of language or beliefs, but she kept it from spiraling out of control into anything larger conflicts, for the time being.

And then she had returned to the place of her birth to see the project coming to fruition, and for the new disease to begin its outbreak. If only the gardens could help with the coughing plague, but as it was they "merely" helped prevent other infections and gave people a greater chance of fighting it off without picking up something else along the way. It was a remarkable piece of work too, consisting of both an elevated ramp and watertight sections of brickwork that allowed the water to move uphill. The outflow was at the top of the hill, and then it cascaded down through more canals to water the whole city, including large areas with trees and bushes to provide shade and bring healthy spirits of nature into the city. Waste water was also carried away with a section of the outflow, taking it to fields where lined pits and specially selected plants slowed down, collected, and filtered the waste. Upper Valleyhome would create less black soil the traditional way, but the farms and forests throughout the province rarely needed a fresh infusion, and burning off winter top cover before planting seemed to adequately renew it anyway.

Megaproject Completed!
The Garden
Through the careful channeling of water, the People have created a garden within a city, a well watered domain of pleasant shade and efficient sewage disposal. Unlocks the aqueduct extended project, provides an aqueduct for the city (increasing available living space). Opens up the True City status

Local Copper Supply Acquired!
Econ cost of all megaprojects and extended projects reduced. Opens up new innovation possibilities.

Select a bonus
[] Random Admin tech upgrade
[] Random Construction tech upgrade
[] Free holy site expansion (+2 Mysticism)
[] Reassure the People of their safety and prosperity (+1 Stability)

Unfortunately, while no one quite knew what had caused the coughing plague - most of their sedentary neighbours were also suffering from it, although no one could be sure who had it first - many people were quite convinced that they knew what it was: the mine. Many were now convinced that the superior qualities of metal was because it was the remains of the weapons of the gods, slung across the sky and buried in the ground ages ago. Since gods fought with the primal forces of the world like thunder, storms, the unsteadiness of the earth, and of course the unleashing of demons of plague. The People knew that metals and their wastes could make people sick, but many were now convinced that playing with the weapons of spirits and gods was fundamentally unsound, and while none could deny the utility of having metal tools, many were now against anything to do with the production of those tools.

Baby Boom Ended!
Due to an increase in infant mortality from new diseases, growth rates have stabilized back to near equilibrium levels. -1 Stability due to these new mortality rates not being considered normal

Debilitating Belief Gained!
Weapons of the Gods
Metal and things that come from the heavens are cursed! While the People will use that which is already present or trade, metal mining and open study now costs Stability.

Magwyna was obviously opposed to this belief, but she felt that was because it didn't make sense to her given that the metal barren Xohyssiri seemed to suffer from more plagues than the metal rich people to the far west. Unfortunately, given that she very much had an involvement in setting up the mine, pretty much everyone assumed that she wanted to downplay things for political reasons, which was frustrating given that she was already having problems on the council relating to her relative youth and gender. While the chiefs of Valleyhome and Southshore personally knew and liked her from before her appointment as Artisan Chief, the chiefs of Northshore, Stonepen, and the Stallion Tribes seemed to have a grudge out for her, probably because Attrikwyn, the chief of the Stallion Tribes seemed to have a bug up his ass about her. He liked to cast her ways of being charming, personable, and persuasive as being 'seductive' and challenged the legitimacy of her advice and achievements. Everyone else on the council seemed to have more complex and mixed feelings, but it made getting her points across harder. Some accused her of going after the kingship, and while originally she hadn't, she was now tempted to do so just to clean the situation up. It would be a hard struggle though, especially since Attrikwyn seemed set on the kingship himself and was frankly also a good candidate.

Choose the next heir
[] Magwyna (-1 Stability, other effects, [Poor Martial, Heroic Admin and Diplo])
[] Attrikwyn ([Good Admin, Diplo, and Martial])
[] Someone else (Standard)

Choose a midturn project
[] Grand Sacrifice (-3 Econ, +2 Stability)
[] Study Metal (-2 Mysticism, -1 Econ, -1 Stability, chance of new discoveries)
[] Study Health (-1 Econ, greater chance of new discoveries)
[] New Trails (-1 Econ, +1 Diplo, +1 Centralization, other effects)
[] Focus on Growth (+2 Econ)

And, of course, with a new disease on the scene - and the Thunder Speakers and Xohyssiri getting their faces kicked in by the Eastern Thunder Horse - the lowlands were in chaos. The Highlander king's attempt to unify their laws and bring about changes had also annoyed some of his chiefs, who had taken the coughing plague as a sign of displeasure by the spirits. While it wasn't a complete rupture of order, an group roughly equivalent to a province was trying to break off, resulting in just one more bit of chaos in their southern neighbours.

Refugee policy
[] Take in some (Chance of stability loss, +2 Econ)
[] Let it be known that you have room (-1 Stability, chance of further loss, +4-5 Econ)
[] You have lots of room (-2 Stability, chance of further loss, +6-8 Econ, chance of further effects)
[] Encourage people to come to a safe place (-3 Stability, chance of further loss, +8-11 Econ, further effects)
[] Everyone can come on in! (-4 Stability, chance of further loss, +11-15 Econ, further effects, chance of over crowding, Upper Valleyhome attains True City status)