What power has a king before the gods, before the forces cosmic? Hertythyn didn't decide immediately, he went through the details as best he could with his background, he went to other priests to decide, before finally he came to the decision to take this matter to the council and push it forward.
Well, at least when listening to prophecy our king double and triple checks everything first...
he council was not happy, not happy at all, and the warriors had to be called in more than once to break up a few fights
Hey
@ManusDomine you got a cameo appearance as a collective batch of warriors, congrats
In the end though the king put his foot down and got the situation rolling. The Highlanders would be sent an official missive declaring that the People had sworn before their gods that they would not declare war upon them while their current king or current heir lived
That's a pretty long time considering our Hero's supposed to live another 1-2 turns...
the Red and Dragon Banners would be summoned forth to press into Harmurri territory to push the Thunder Horse back and out. The Txolla were actually quite pleased by this announcement, as it suggested the possibility of seizing more territory for them in the process of beating back the Thunder Horse.
Txolla really needs some influence subordinates...
While not entirely controversial, getting Yenyna out of retirement was a bit of a different process, in that time had not been kind to the Dragon General - already decided to be a position assigned by the king after her death. While it was known that warriors joints had a tendency to seize up latter in life, Yenyna was a particular major example as she had essentially lost the use of her limbs to arthritis by her late forties, and was now carried into battle upon a palanquin, her husband and son at her side.
Huh... I guess the speculation that she was basically overclocking her muscles to keep up in combat was accurate, and that fucked up her limbs. Thats really sad
Her son, Eckhyrt, had been born unusually late in her life, and was thus only about ten when the king swept into the quiet life he and his family had been living, insisting that not only must his mother leave her quiet retirement, but that he had to accompany them far from home as well. Of course, given how well his mother was treated by the warriors, it was not like the boy was in a bad place.
This doesn't sound like a very healthy upbringing for poor Eckhyrt either... half of me wants him to be bad at military stuff, so they maybe leave him alone and let him live his life, but the other half says that would just lead to more pressure on him...
Of course, the rumour of the Dragon General and her son being brought forward to lead the armies had run ahead of their movements, and the Thunder Horse had enough warning to begin redeploying to counter the movements they expected.
Turns out the Thunder Horse still remember what she did to their forces last time
Camped out on the river separating their territory from the Thunder Horse, Yenyna sat upon her chair watching the opposite side as twilight ate away the last of the red of sunset in the world. All of a sudden she began to scream, gazing up at the sky in terror. An attendant ran to her, and he managed to get from her lips:
"crows, a sky full of them"
Then she went quiet and gazed up in horror, looking to the western sky.
To the rapidly brightening western sky.
...This is ominous
(Also, for the magic debate, i'll note that my immediate guess for how she had warning was noticing the glint of the light from the west in stuff to the east; something like the spearheads of the warriors in front glinting in the newly bright sun)
It was like a shooting star, but like the sun was to a campfire. A tremendous streak of fire and light, it cleared the horizon in an instant, leaving an orange smear across the sky and smaller shooting stars trailing like courtiers in a king's retinue.
...Oh dear. Bolide strike!
Several heartbeats of terrified staring upwards and those who had been in their tents scrambling out to find out what had just happened, and a wall of sound crashed into their position. Tents were knocked over, and ears, eyes, and noses bled at the tremendous volume. More than one person was permanently deafened, and even those who regained their hearing knew that it had been diminished by the event. Many horses were also lost as they broke free from where they had been tied and ran away in blind panic at the cacophony.
This isn't even the impact. this is just how ridiculous the sound from it passing by is
Also, no, our horses! we need those to keep breeding them! D=
A short time later, just as the camp was desperately trying to put out what fires had been set by knocked over torches and lamps and the first people were running to consult the confused and terrified priests, everyone nearly jumped out of their skin again when another whipcrack wall of sound passed them by, coming from the east rather than from above like last time. Looking to the east, they could see an ugly early dawn sitting there for far too many heartbeats before the sky faded to a strangely muted version of its usual brilliance.
And
there's the impact...
The scouts that pressed forward the next morning were still concerned for the enemy, but they were perhaps more terrified by the prospect of the unknown and the working of the gods.
They found no resistance.
Said impact was apparently rather effective... also, can i just mention how we like never manage to actually guess how long wars will take? Everytime we expect a long drag out fight it takes way less time, and every time we expect an easy mopup its super hard
The army spent days picking forward into Thunder Horse territory through a haze of dust and ash, finding confused and terrified survivors who were far more interested in the fact that they had found humans rather than the wrath of the gods.
Note that "days". The effect was so bad it left resistance broken for days and days of travel.
Eventually they made their way to what had been one of the great cities of the western portion of the Thunder Horse territory. It was vaguely recognizable by what was left of its walls and the knowledge that a small river had run nearby, but of the tens of thousands of people or their major structures... naught but a few charred poles of wood amidst ash and pulverized stone. Several people began to shake in terror and disgust when they started to work out that logically some of the ash in the air had to be human.
knowledge that a small river had run nearby
Wow... not only did it annihilate a city (though i'll note not a True City, AN said if they had one it would be on their eastern side, iirc), it destroyed or rerouted a river completely, by all accounts
Logically, from what they already knew of Thunder Horse disposition, not only had they just lost one of their largest centers of trade and administration, they had also just lost the majority of their warriors. All that was left was the local militias in the far eastern cities, and with the catastrophic damage to a huge chunk of everything they were no doubt going to be staring down famine in short order.
And it looks like the hit damaged a lot more than just the city; looks like the whole city-state equivalent was taken out...
It took the better part of a moon for this to get back to the king in Valleyhome and the priests in Sacred Forest
Travel time info: Most of a month from the destroyed city to home. Just so you know that administrating this will be a
pain
but they had experienced the event, and they had known since that night that the predictions had not been prophecies but warnings. The gods were irritated with Man and had a divine sized thunderbolt prepared for the most quarrelsome lot among them.
...I can't tell exactly who the People think are the most quarralsome...
Declaring an extension of the truce with the Highlanders, moving to protect the Harmurri, calling for Yenyna and her son... these were not steps to prevent the gods wrath or call it down, but to move it far enough away. Gods were not subtle, and even them declaring that for their treachery they would be smote... the People would have been struck a terrible blow simply for standing next to them.
Ok, so it sounds like they were thinking the most quarralsome was the Highland Kingdom, because they were our nemesis and so our cultural lens right now says they're the worst. By declaring peace and marching on the Thunderhorse, we were basically showing the Gods who we thought the worst were, by the People's reckoning ?
No, they had to move to break up the quarrel in the lowlands, and with the rumours of Yenyna and her son running ahead of the army, the disharmonious mass of the Thunder Horse army had repositioned into their heartland.
and of course, having Yenyna there to concentrate the TH helped...
The astrologers shook in terror that first night, and then again once their fears were confirmed by wide eyed couriers. This could have been them, and their predictions only gave vague warnings!
<+4 Religious Authority"
By the end of the season all significant neighbours had sent envoys to the People that basically amounted to "Please don't kill us!"
And so we see, much like with the Spirit Talkers, how easy it is for rumors to grow to the point that they think we caused this, instead of just being there to see it and maybe predicting it, maybe having a lucky coincidence in prediction.
The gods have ripped the heart from the Thunder Horse, and an army stands at their doorstep. How much is conquered?
[] [Conq] The land is cursed, pull back (Thunder Speakers break away, rest of the Thunder Horse fragment into desperate city states)
[] [Conq] Just the western parts (Thunder Speakers become vassal, Txolla annex additional territory, rest of the Thunder Horse fragment into desperate city states)
[] [Conq] Take the northern lowlands (Thunder Speakers become vassal, Txolla annex additional territory, gain Ruined Thunder Horse as vassal, remainder fragment, -4 Econ and 4 temporary Econ damage from supporting wrecked vassal)
[] [Conq] Push to the East (Gain all previously listed territories, forces actively fight with surviving Mountain Horse cities, -8 Econ and 8 temporary Econ damage from supporting wrecked vassals and distant war missions)
Wow, thats a lot of potential land...and a lot of vassals we dont have the actions to wrangle. So while it looks clear that we're going to be overextending with the northern option, i'm just gonna push personally for the western option...
The body of the Thunder Horse dissolves, leaving behind the flesh of its people
[] [Refugee] Take as many who run to you (4 temporary Econ damage, -4-5 Econ Expansion, +4-5 Econ next turn, chance of stability drop)
[] [Refugee] Send out runners that you have food and intact farmland (6 temporary Econ damage, -6-8 Econ Expansion, -1 Stability, chance of further loss, +6-8 Econ next turn)
[] [Refugee] Use the military to evacutate as many as possible (8 temporary Econ damage, -9-11 Econ Expansion, -2 Stability, chance of further loss, +9-11 Econ next turn, incompatible with most ambitious conquest option)
Our new PiA boost is very clear here, with what would have been a 4 stab drop back before CA now being a -2.5 drop. I'm too tired to figure out the overflow and expansion math, so i'll leave this to other people i guess. I'll say that narratively the full option seems like it'll either be best (if it works as planned) or worst (if things go wrong), and that we really dont need the stats so this is almost entirely a question of narrative, stability and how many statswe can actually eat...
AN: In Service of Order has not yet triggered this turn due to the fact that a natural disaster has actually increased confidence in the king.
XD Well i guess thats one advantage of saying yes...
ou only suffer one point of Stability drop if temp Econ damage exceeds current Econ
Good to know.
"So... where do you want the Temple of the Stars, Black Mirror or Horse Valley?" Hertythyn asked the Spirit Chief the next time they met after the reports were in.
Yeah that sounds about right... notsure if "temple of the stars" is an actual difference/upgrade relative to "place to the stars", or just another name for it...
e already felt like years had been shaved off of his lifespan through reflecting upon the fact that he had almost taunted the gods into smiting him via refusing to listen to their portents, and he was not going to let this ever happen again.
Almost sounds like Hertythyn lost some of his longevity, but AN confirmed that it was just that he'll be really busy.
Reaction for this turn: Beginning construction of the Place to the Stars. Where should it go, and should any stability be kicked into it?
[] [PttS] Black Mirror
[] [PttS] Horse Valley
[] [PttS] 0 Stability
[] [PttS] 1 Stability
[] [PttS] 2 Stability
Ok, so "temple" and "place" are just interchangeable, no upgrade/difference it seems. This option has been argued very frantically and i really dont know enough to give input, so i'll abstain from it personally
Kicking would only be worth it imo if we were going to take minimum refugees, and even then only potentially.
Soon enough there was also news from the Heaven's Hawks about their trade to the east. The nomads there had recently been united by a great chieftain, and he had been somewhat unsure about the offers of trade from the People, but when the God Fist had struck and then it had come out that the People had a hand in where it fell the response by the nomads had been a definite "You know what, let's take the offer of trade and go elsewhere." Where exactly they might next turn was still unknown, but that would probably depend upon where the People stopped their military advances. This did however raise the question of how exactly to engage with their neighbours.
And so we accidentally terrify yet another group into leaving us alone
Everyone around you is a little terrified right now, how to engage diplomatically?
[] [Diplo] Send out reassurances (Sec Trade Mission to Khemetri, Trelli, and Harmurri)
[] [Diplo] Victory lap (Main Salt Gift)
[] [Diplo] Let's maybe spread out in case the gods throw another bolt (Found Far Northern Trade Post)
[] [Diplo] Stay home, write panic driven poetry (Main Build Theatre)
Trade missions are always good, and it would give the best action economy, since its 3 secondary missions. Total -6 Wealth, +3-6 Diplo. Among other things, we could get more info on those reforms the khemetri are doing, hopefully...
Victory lap is just asking for people to get pissed at us, and not very People-y in my opinion. About the only good thing is it would probably max out tech and maybe diplo if we roll well enough, and give some more prestige. Terrible narrative though.
Northern trade post would be nice... but i think i want the merc companies both close for now, in case things go south with our likely 2 new vassals and one much stronger one...
Theatre is interesting, because we keep having the option...i can't tell if thats just that we keep doing exciting things, or if AN is trying to tell us that we should take the Theatre because it will unlock new mechanics or be really helpful or the like... We really should take that one of these days...
At home, there's a whole lot of religious gardening going on...
[] [PSN] Push forward forests (Sec Expand Forests, -1 Centralization)
[] [PSN] Majorly push forward forests (Main Expand Forests, -2 Centralization)
[] [PSN] Bit more black soil (Sec Black Soil, -1 Centralization)
[] [PSN] Lots more black soil (Main Black Soil, -2 Centralization)
[] [PSN] Push forward farms (Sec Expand Econ, -1 Centralization)
[] [PSN] Massively push forward farms (Main Expand Econ, -2 Centralization)
[] [PSN] Keep it under control (Do not activate this turn)
Turns out that "the gods almost killed us" leads to a lot of personal stewardship to help please the gods
This also has been part of the major discussion on Expansion slots and the like, so i'm abstaining here as well.
