Well, our Blackbirds have been subverted in a fundemental.

So theoretically our Blackbirds are our Village Hidden in the Leaves and the Shadow Kingdom is our ROOT/ANBU

...that

sounds a lot worse than I thought ._.
I have been having that exact thought running through my head since the idea was brought up.
 
I mean, I already switched to a 4x study vote but it seems pretty obvious especially with the hint from AN a day or so ago (about our limited palace slots)
On the other hand if it'd happen on it's own he wouldn't drop the hint in and just leave us to be pleasantly surprised?

In the case of Annexes after all, it's best to have players make the decision. The Great Hall is already preselected by the players, but since there's limited exclusive slots, I imagine a lot of the playerbase would be rather outraged if the AI decided to build Fortifications for instance, without asking.

I think our iron scale armor might be about as much as we can do without getting steel, and is already almost as good? Someone ask AN how our acale armor compares to the khemtri bronze armor inhe morning, since I think he went to bed already
Bronze actually makes better armor than iron at first, because bronze is cast, you could form breastplates and helms quite easily, while producing scale, chain and ring was very costly with bronze by comparison, while since iron is forged, making breastplates of any strength was difficult compared to scales.

...but with hammer mills, we now have Plate Iron, so we could develop plate armor, if we scaled our smelters up to take advantage of mechanized hammering by using much bigger blooms.
 
[X] [Main] Build Annex - Arsenal
[X] [Secondary] Study Metal
[X] [Secondary] Support Artisans

An Excerpt from the Tales of the Twin Bards Conaywn and Conwyna: the Riddle of Steel.

'And lo did the noble king cry, for the ways of war were not his ken.
When the desperate message came, through blood and woe, that the River people, the People of Sand and Gold had bested and clashed with and matched the Iron-Blooded Forest People did the Wise King Desdydyn weep, for he could not Use his appointed and acclaimed Wisdom to guide and marshal his Loyal Soldiers to victory.
When the Servants of the Trickster through treachery, pain, and sorrow learned that through neglect and inattention that their secret Guardianship of the Weapons of the Gods and spread to the unworthy who would turn their cruel ways onto the People of Trees and Iron for withholding its terrible power for so long from those would fall prey to its curse, Did the Wise King Desdydyn Grieve for the strength of the gods needed to defend his People would become his enemies.
When Night Fell, the Worries of King Desdydyn grew without cease or answer, turning to with the dark thoughts upon his brow he turned to the palatial Shrinehold and began to pray: Firstly to Fythhagyna the Sacred Protector of Life and to her untamed Consort, the Spider-Eyed Crow, And Lastly to the God of Kings, the Wise Advisor for for help.
When He had finished his prayer and opened his eyes, he found himself in a dark and untamed forest, he felt and saw a strong Gnarled hand, wearied from toil and time upon his shoulder. Turning to find the owner of hand he instead saw the form of his beloved consort. Opening his mouth and beginning to ask what was happening he felt a cool and Censoriously finger on his lips, bidding him be silent. Stepping forth into the Shadows of trees via a secret and unmarked trail the Strange spirit who had be now taken the form of his younger Brother bid him to follow.
When the Good King Desdydyn and his Spirit Guide reached the end of the Trail of shadows he found a Glade half filled with life, bounty, and sunshine and other half filled with death, bones, and moonlight. In the very middle he saw an old and gnarled tree, under which rested two figures: a young woman a large black bird, bigger than the greatest eagle, upon a blanket laid over grass half lively and decaying. A firm hand pushed him to the where they were murmuring softly in the wind.
When King Desdydn reached the audience of the two spirits, he introduced himself as the King of the People. The Young woman met his Eyes and queried softly why he had come to their Glade. "My People are Suffering in war and I know not on how to salve their pains, The Enemies of the People have Stolen the Secrets of the Terrible Star-Metal and I know not on how to salve their fears" Said the King. "Well then it is good you have came to our Home to ask then," Said the Young Woman, "For their are many Secrets we could tell you: for I am Fythhagyna and here is my boon Companion the Three-Aspected Crow." Quickly the King fell to his Knees and lowered his eyes.
When after he felt to be an appropriate amount of respect had been given and no answer given to his plea, he slowly raised his gaze and unfortunately met the Gaze of the Spider-Eyed. Terror filled the King, Peering into the Abyss of Madness and Chaos that was the Black Birds Soul-Windows. He recoiled and would have fled, if the Spirit he Now knew to be Mathulmyn, had not held him steady in a Firm Grip. "Few indeed are the Beings who would meet my Gaze whether by choice or chance" Mused the Great Bird Crow. "Please, oh Great Teacher, tell me of a way to help my People maintain their Divine Stewardship with our secrets of the Weapons of the Gods stolen by our foes" Begged the King after he regained a Semblance of his wits from the terror they had fled to. Spider-Eyed Crow remained for a time, quiet in internal debate.
When the Corvid spoke next, it was with a Grimace and a scowl and humor from a joke well-played. "For meeting my Eyes I will grant you a boon and lay your fears to rest," intoned came the sound from the Beak of Crow "For in truth you need not worry about losing the Weapons of the Gods, for you never had it, merely our Metal. Go now when you return to your body and leave swiftly to the Forge with my blessing learn how our Metal is truly forged into Weapons."
When the King finished hearing Crow's words he woke from his vision with a start, he immediately left to the nearest forge in hopes he would make it there before the inspiration left him. Unnoticed by him in his haste his black hair had become Pure-White from the Echo of His Spiritual Terror from looking into the Abyss...


Bleaugh my grammar probably sucks and it is unbeta'ed, but I hope people here would like my first Omake.
That's awesome.

*mighty and many claps*
 
So theoretically our Blackbirds are our Village Hidden in the Leaves and the Shadow Kingdom is our ROOT/ANBU

...that

sounds a lot worse than I thought ._.
We don't have the same sort of social values as the canon Naruto Hidden Village in Leaves, just have faith in our people. No Shadow King of ours would be as bad as Danzo.
 
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We don't have the same sort social values as the canon Naruto Hidden Village in Leaves, just have faith in our people. No Shadow King of ours would be as bad as Danzo.

One of their social value would be Will of Fire, similar to Symphony? Leaf is known for its teamwork, care for its civilians, and regarded as tree hugging weakass, yet strong.

Wait, that's from a Naruto quest, not canon.
 
In particular they had particularly dark skinned scouts that were peers for the Blackbirds, and while they did not have access to iron they had an almost alarmingly ridiculous amount of bronze. While apparently rare, there were tales of heavily armoured nobles who were clad in bronze thick enough to bounce arrows off of.
This needn't imply that everyone is well-armoured in bronze. It could merely entail that a proportion of their nobles have invested heavily into personal armor.

By all accounts they had massive armies of spearmen and bowmen
W/ most of their soldiers being spearmen and bowmen, armor isn't very essential for the average levyman.

Wait, that's from a Naruto quest, not canon.
we all suffer from the leakage of the fanon compartment of our brain
 
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I'm just thinking that, given it has a leader in the "Shadow King" and operates independently, there's an actual chance that the Shadow Kingdom is being lead by a Nega-SV.

... Hopefully we're their chosen waifu.
 
I'll work on the Shadow Kingdom negaverse omake sometime next week. Anyone have any suggestions?
 
[X] [Main] Study Metal
[X] [Secondary] Build Annex - Arsenal
[X] [Secondary] Support Artisans

I trust your guys' judgement on the vote, but Secondary Study Metal only has a small chance of innovation and we're going for steel here.

It won't synergize as well, but if we still need a second Arsenal in the Palace we can build it next turn, or maybe one of our provinces can do the action for us this turn.
 
I wonder what the negaverse looks like at the moment.
Some variant of gygo.

The HK are probably on one side happy as all hell to have iron, but also terrified that the Hill Dragon is moving.

The East of the Lowlands is probably some particular facet of annoyed.

The Trelli are quietly waiting in the background, hoping to all their deities they don't get squished.

The Nomads are full of people going WAAAAAAAGH! As usual.

No clue about the Swamp Folk. Maybe still salty about how their war with the Thunder Horse went.

And DocMatoi is working on the Khem.

Put it all together and you get a mess. And we ain't much better.
 
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