Chronicles of Nations Redux - Civ Quest

[Oshha]

Conservatives = Conservatives is the default position for Arthwydish politics. It is support for the current status quo. They support contact and trade with foreigners, limited exploration, a strong military combined with only waging defensive war and otherwise not supporting any major changes within Arthwydish politics. The vast majority of the Arthwyd can be considered to be Conservatives.

Elderly Reactionaries = Elderly Reactionaries are a radical fringe group that support a return to the ancient past where it was the village elders that ruled over the Arthwyd and not the priesthood or the Cadlon. Mostly commonly supported by ambitious elders and their followers along with those that find themselves dissatisfied with the Arthrynite priesthood

Priestly Reactionaries = Priestly Reactionaries are a fringe group that support a return to the ancient past before the position of Cadlon was invented and the priesthood directly ruled over the Arthwyd. Mostly commonly supported by ambitious members of the priesthood and their followers along with those that find themselves dissatisfied with the leadership of the Cadlon.

Cadlonists = Cadlonism is a commonly held position where there is support for a singular leader at the top to have overall authority and have the final say in decisions. While it refers to the Cadlon of the Arthwyd, it can also refer to the Cadlon of the Maradysh, the Forlucan Farkas or Farke and the lowlander Zandis. Cadlonism has widespread support within the Arthwyd Empire and is accepted to the point that it is usually folded into the position of Conservative.

Centralists = Centralism is a popular ideology that supports having a centralised authority to have strong leadership at the top to rule over an entire people. While often going hand in hand with Cadlonism, it doesn't exclusively do so as that strong leadership could be a group of some kind rather than a single individual.

Localists = Localism is a mildly popular ideology where decentralised leadership is desired and leadership comes from the local community rather than the greater community. While not a fridge group, it is still a minority position within the Arthwyd Empire if one with a decent amount of support.

Isolationists = Isolationism is a radical fridge belief where its adherents blame outsiders and barbarians for causing trouble and feel it is best if the Arthwyd have no contact with them. The belief can range from simply cutting off trade to having no contact with anyone outside the Arthwyd Empire to expelling all non-Arthwydish out of the Arthwyd Empire. This ideology is held by very few, consisting primarily of either individuals that have no actually contact any foreigners or those that had exclusively bad experiences with foreigners.

Explorists = Explorism is an ideology that champions exploring the unknown. They believe in sending out expeditions into the wilderness to make new discoveries to further the knowledge of the world. Currently highly popular within the Arthwyd Empire to varying degrees, especially within the upper leadership.

Traderists = Traderism is an ideology based around trade. They support and encourage trade both domestic and foreign as something that all benefit from. Very popular throughout the known world, especially within the Forluc Empire.

Internalists = Internalism is about focusing within your own territory. Not to be confused with opposing outsider interaction, internalists belief that the most important thing is to build up the existing foundation over bringing in new things from outside.

Militarists = Militarists are an minority political group that desires a stronger military and for the Arthwyd to engage in a greater degree of warfare, primarily focused around dealing with the evils committed by their neighbours. Many within the Arthwyd Empire consider militarism to be unwelcome barbarian influence that is corrupting Arthwydish society.

Pacifists = Pacifists are a popular political group that opposes warfare and other forms of violence as unnecessary. While the majority consider the military and waging defensive wars to be necessary evils, a fridge sub-belief considers even those to be something to avoided.

Purists = Purism is a radical fridge belief where Arthwydish individuals consider foreign beliefs and individuals to be a bad thing on the grounds that barbarians and their savage ways don't belong in civilised society.

 

[Oshha]

While strong in many ways, the Arthwyd Empire does have some potential weaknesses that have a very real chance of bringing it down.

Extreme Retaliation
As you will be aware of by now, the Arthwyd do not react kindly to their own being harmed. While it applies especially for actual members of the Arthwyd, it applies to non-Arthwydish members of the Arthwyd Empire to a lesser degree. If anyone harms one of their own, the Arthwyd will expect the aggressor to suffer retribution for their deeds and their leaders will feel obligated to do something to bring about that retribution. While this hasn't been much of issue before due to the relative strength of the Arthwyd Empire, it is entirely possible for the Arthwyd to find themselves into cycle of warfare that they are unable to untangled themselves from or it could lead them into getting into a fight that they would rather avoid or cannot win.

Since you have been able to handily crush anyone who has provoked you so far, this hasn't been an issue, but if you get an enemy who aren't able to decisively defeat or they keep retaliating in response to your retaliation, you could get yourself trapped in an unwanted war.

Universal Welfare
The Arthwyd provide housing, food, water, clothing and other basic stuff for all of their people. While this is certainly a good thing and massively improves the quality of life for the average person, it means that the Arthwyd needs the resources and logistics to provide all of those things. If the Arthwyd for whatever reasons lacks the ability to provide for their people, it could very easily break them and even a short, temporary resource shortage would be painful.

This is not currently a problem, but it will definitely be a major one if you get a resource shortage. Your civilisation is built with the assumption that resources will be plentiful and you will want to keep things that way.

Reliance on the Priesthood
There is very little difference between the Arthrynite priesthood and the Arthwydish government and the two things are effectively the same thing. Not a bad thing on its own, but something bad happening to the Arthrynite priesthood would be just as harmful for the Arthwydish government and vice versa. Furthermore, the Arthrynite priesthood has unchecked influence over the Arthwyd Empire as a result. If they decide that they want something, there is no one who can effectively push back against them for good or ill.

This is also currently not a problem, but if the Arthrynite priesthood desires something that the players do not, you will have little recourse to push back against the priesthood.

Multicultural Empire
Over the centuries, the Arthwyd Empire has expanded beyond just the Arthwyd while the majority of it is still culturally Arthwyd and the Arthwyd have uncontested leadership over their empire, there are a few different cultures within it that differ from the ruling Arthwyd. The Arthwyd themslves, Merntir, Grythwyd and Caermyr are all culturally Arthwydish, but the rest of the Arthwyd Empire are not. The Maradysh are mostly Arthrynite, but they have their own distinct blend of Arthwyd and lowland culture while the Raradysh, Tordysh, Zaradysh and Cernn all their own cultures that greatly differ to the Arthwydish culture. Attempting to force them to switch your radically different ways is asking for a revolt and while they may consider themselves part of the Arthwyd Empire, they rightfully refuse to view themselves as being Arthwyd.

So far, this has not been a problem as you have ensure high loyalty, given them plenty of autonomy and have not tried to enforce your ways upon them, but this would change if one of the three things I just listed changes.

Outdated Warfare
As some of you might have realised, your military kind of sucks and you have only been successful as you have been by leveraging allies and/or having overwhelming superiority. Your army is basically hunting packs of hunter-gatherers working towards the same mutual goal.

This hasn't been a problem because you tend to avoid warfare, have plenty of allies and have other advantages, but your military has a very sup-par setup going for it.

Excessive Legitimacy
To put simply, the Cadlon can do no wrong as far as the Arthwyd are concern. The Cadlon is an unquestioned leader who is clearly favoured by the Goddesses. A Cadlon could push through radical reforms and get away with it by burning the excess legitimacy that position currently has and these reforms could be good or bad depending on how you view things. For example, implementing a militia system or switching from an elective monarchy to a hereditary one with a royal family.

This hasn't been a problem due to the lack of radical reforms and in some ways it can be good if you want a radical, but popular reform. But like with the priesthood, you have limited recourse to push back against a Cadlon doing something you don't want.

Victory Disease
Tying into the above two things, the Arthwyd are in danger of victory disease. Their centuries of undeniable success and without any clear failure have left them with a basic assumption of success and they take victory for granted. So far this has led to a perception of the Cadlon being infallible while their military doctrine hasn't developed beyond that they came up with in their second war. The only real way to deal with this is to get some defeats to break you out of this whilst also ensuring said defeats don't also break the Arthwyd Empire.

 

[Oshha]

I'm going to answer this with an info post on how Arthwydish employment works when I've got the time to write it up.

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And here it is as I briefly cover how the Arthwyd do their training, workforce, recruitment and all that.

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The communal nature of the Arthwydish civilisation combined with their long lifespans results in some unique values. To start things off, the Arthwyd consider childhood to be the first two decades of an individual's life. The initial decade is the "Early Childhood" where kids learn the basics of life and generally be kids with either the local community or the family of the child looking after them. The second decade is the "Late Childhood" where the individual is still a child, but they are old enough to start receiving proper training and the various adults begin to start looking for future apprentices to recruit and train. In the latter half of this decade, an individual will find themselves being recruited for a certain career path and their formal training begins.

The third decade of an individual's life is their training period where they get a lot of extensive training as a sort of apprentice until they are deemed old enough to get about on their own. It should be noted that there the Arthwyd don't have a formal difference between an apprentice and a master as we know them. Instead, they are considered to be the same rank and such except it is universally accepted that you are still in training until your fourth decade. It is also within the third decade that an individual can switch career paths if their current one isn't working out. You got a bit of leery in your fourth decade, but by the time that you are approaching your fifth decade, you are locked in your current line of work.

Barring exceptional circumstances such as being crippled, a member of the Arthwydish will work up until their ninth decade, including taking upon new trainees from younger generations. With the vast majority of Arthwyd passing away of old age in their tenth decade, an Arthwydish individual will spent the last two decades of life in "retirement" as an elder of the local community. In addition to helping the local priesthood run the village or neighbourhood, the elders will usually look after the current children by passing on their wisdom and ensuring that they are being taught the basics of life. There are exceptions to this as some Arthwydish will continue working until their death such all members of the priesthood and the Cadlon while others will just relax and spend their retirement doing minimal work.

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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.

 

[Oshha]

@Oshha, what do we know about Urth in this quest?

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This is a bit of a long thing due to how long Urth has been around whilst being an active player in world affairs so it gets its own post and

Urth was the second Martial Hero after Vryn herself, being born about a century and a half Vryn died almost two thousand years ago. He conquered the original Zaradysh on the behalf of the Forester Shamans and the Forest Spirits back when the Arthwyd were discovering how to make rope and fishing nets. He was also the first undead and paved away for the Foresters becoming undead though he remained a loyal subordinate to the shamans until the Lowland Collapse.

He would later lose to Voryn in the latter's Zaradysh uprising almost a century later before defeating him and conquering the Zaradysh again before making Voryn into an undead revenant like himself. But with the aid of Zaranna, Voryn broke free of the Caradysh and led the Zaradysh in another successful uprising before going onto make Zarannism the dominant religion of the Lowlands. He and Voryn would fight back and forth for control of Zaradysh with Urth being able to conquer parts of the Zaradysh with Voryn never letting him conquer all of it.

About a thousand years ago, the Lowland Collapse took place and in it, Voryn disappeared and has yet to be seen again while Urth toppled the old Shaman leadership of the Foresters and turned the Caradysh from having a mix of living and undead to being solely undead. It was about this point that he started to be a Mystic Hero in addition to being Martial Hero from all of his magical studying adding up. Urth went on to conquer the northern Lowlands and the newly formed Maradysh in the Lowland Collapse.

Urth then decided to take a swing at the Arthwyd and almost made it to Rockbay after killing many Arthwydish warriors including Evalyn's husband Cadyn before being defeated by Evalyn. It was here that the Arthwyd got their hatred for Urth and undead in general thanks to the backstory of their war-goddess heroic fighting against the undead and their evil leader Urth in addition these events being the Arthwyd's formative encounter with the undead and necromancy in general.

Urth was believed killed in the fighting and the Caradysh withdrew to the Cursed Forest for some time. What remained of their empire in the Lowlands fell apart and the First Forluc Empire arose. About three centuries later, the Caradysh returned with Urth at the helm as the Caradysh attacked the leadership of both the Arthwyd and the Forluc. This led to the War of Three Powers which resulted in a bloody victory for the Arthwyd, the decimation of both the Caradysh and the Forluc and the Caradysh willing becoming vassals of the Forluc whilst simultaneously puppeting the Forluc.

The War of Three Powers was a mixed affair for Urth as he achieved his initial goals and beat back the first Arthwydish offensive only to see the second Arthwydish offensive obliterate the northern half of the Caradysh while Urth personally crushed the Forluc and installed a puppet queen on the Forlucan throne whilst officially submitting the Caradysh as a vassal. After this affair, Urth spent the next couple of centuries laying low, paying tribute to the Forluc whilst personally devoting the Caradysh to the study of magic with his only notable act being giving refuge to Laithyche following the failed Zarannist Uprisings.

This changed with the Grand War where the Caradysh supported their nominal overlords against the Arthwyd Empire and the Boarfolk Tribes. They let the Forluc launch a surprise attack on Rockbay via Rock River and then directly aided the Forlucan expedition after the Arthwyd drove it back. They also attacked and conquered the Raradysh, completely wiping out any Arthwydish presence within the Raradysh. The Forluc Empire would ultimately lose the war and the Arthwyd drove the Caradysh out of the Raradysh. Urth's major part in this war was halting the Boarfolk offensive. When everyone else in the Forluc Empire failed to stop the Boarfolk, the Caradysh used cunning tactics to swarm isolated Boarfolk forces with overwhelming numbers.

Throughout his war and the resulting peace, the Caradysh collected up as many corpses as they could. They easily made up for their losses at least three times over and got over ten thousand Boarfolk corpses along with their dire boar mounts. After the conclusion of the Grand War, the Caradysh returned to their solitude until the Ice Age. When the Ice Age got really bad, the Caradysh came to the southern lowlands and offered survival to those that would have starved otherwise. They sent revenants to use magic to help their crops grow and provide their homes with heat and in return, all the lowlanders had to do is give up the bodies of their fallen to the Caradysh. Between this and conquering half of the Forlucan heartland, the Caradysh formed their second empire in what is currently known as the Caradysh Empire.

 

[Oshha]

Due to a mix of writer's block and RL keeping me busier than normal, I'm going to put this quest officially on hiatus until I get things sorted out.

 

[Oshha]

So my muse for this quest is currently gone so I'm putting it until hiatus while I work on other projects until I regain my interest in the story of the Arthwyd.

Sorry about any disappointment, but I can assure you that this quest is not dead, merely asleep.