From Stone to the Stars

[Redium]

[X] [Priit] With blood! (Raid: Northlands) (+1 Stability)
[X] [Aeva] Claim the Case is different: Aeva's situation is different from that of other childless women. (???)

Grasping claws dragged slowly down his flesh, digging in and drawing shallow rivulets of blood. Wrapping around his throat, they stole the last of his breath. Drowned with a wintery kiss. Fire bloomed in his core, aching, scourging, draining. Everything that knew it's touch was left a little bit dead by its passing, forever lessened.

Black pitiless eyes loomed.

Priit woke uneasily. The pre-dawn hours had never been kind to him. At least, they never had for as long as he could remember.

Already, the faint sounds of warriors stirring as they woke and broke their fasts. It was a familiar tableau, but in a very unfamiliar location. The People were further north than they had ever been in the past, pursuing the Northlanders into the depths of their territory. After Priit had turned The Hunt on the invaders, the fight had virtually gone out of them and they retreated, near constantly for the last five years. It wouldn't be much longer before the war ended.

"You're awake?" Nihkuko asked.

Turning his head to he could focus on, and behold, the former Peace Builder warrior, Priit shrugged. "Sleeping further isn't going to bring us back the dawn." Carefully setting aside the obsidian knife he kept in his pillow, Priit unrolled the bundle and started to pull on his clothes.

"That just means that we need to sleep more." Nihkuko grinned. "If you are too lazy, then the day wastes away and you're left with another night. One that will only give way to dawn."

"You haven't been kicked in the head by one of the Northlander's mounts while I wasn't looking, have you?" Priit asked. "That's the only way your reasoning can possible make sense."

"Ah, but it's my reasoning," Nihkuko said. "And it has always been so. If I had been kicked in the head, wouldn't my behaviour only be recent?"

"Perhaps," Priit allowed, "But I have not known you forever. It's possible that you'd been kicked in the head before I met you. I've seen more than a few injuries that never heal..."

Nihkuko had nothing to respond to that and instead let Priit's words quietly echo and die.

"What do you plan to do after this?" Nihkuko asked, a few minutes later. His statement, whether it refereed to the war, or simply the day, was ambiguous and it lingered in the air. "The war's almost over, isn't it? We've got the Northerners trapped, slowly being pressed against the eastern mountains. There won't be much space for them to run to... Priit?"

When Nihkuko turned around, he realized the People's war-leader was gone. All he saw was the flaps of their tent, fluttering closed behind him. Finished dressing, Nihkuko flagged down one of the younger warriors to take down the tent. It had been one of the concessions that Priit had to make after he was formally acknowledged as a Big Man. In order to prosecute Aeva's war, he needed warriors; even though the People's forces had been mostly gutted alongside those of the Peace Builders. All that were left for her to send to the front were boys and old men.

The cream of Crystal Lake and Hill Guard's youth and the wisdom of their elders feed into a meat grinder to satisfy Aeva's mistakes. Nihkuko had never voiced that last part aloud, but the woman was the one who killed the Northland's High Shaman; she started the war. The war that had taken so much from the Brother of his Blood. All of the deaths caused were on her head.

Little could be done to mitigate the deaths, Nihkuko knew; he'd seen Priit try. In the end, what Priit had done was to harden those few who could withstand it. One of those warriors laughed as Nihkuko walked by. It wasn't a pleasant sound, more akin to flint rasping across dry leather than something that should come from a human throat. All of them were like that. Even he. Especially he. Nihkuko was a competent warrior, but before the war, he wasn't a tenth the killer he was then, now.

The process had been hard and vicious, one refined in blood. Virtually all of the warriors ten to twenty years older than him among the People were dead. Only a handful remained. Those within about five years of his age Priit's ages' were winnowed down to a hardened core. Many were dead; perhaps one in three? The younger generation, children from the ages of ten to twenty were mostly untouched. Even when they finally stepped foot on the field of war, they would not suffer casualties as heavily as their forebearers.

Nihkuko finally spied Priit, overseeing one of the fighting circles, breakfast in hand. The former Peace Builder warrior stopped at the cook to grab his own bowl of rice and greens and hack a generous steak off one of the slowly roasting fish before sitting down next to his Brother. The war leader said nothing, but Nihkuko could feel him subtly shift his weight to offer a subtle comfort.

Both ate quietly, watching the young warriors whirl, dancing in fighting circle. Spears clashed against spears, while others circled, slowly sizing each other up with clubs in hand. Above it all, veterans stalked shouting pointers. War wasn't a thing that could be spoken about, it had to be lived. The pain of blows sliding off the body; of the sounds, screaming, and chaos; the exhaustion of having to run far past the point where it hurts, only to realize that you would need to run for hours more. It was pain, life and death; a crucible and a kiln.

Blood often grew hot within the sparing circles, turning practice into deadly combat. The veterans carried long ash canes for just such a moment. One of the spars grew a little too heated, one of the combatants falling while his victorious opponent raised his spear to strike the fallen. A veteran was there in a flash, ashen cane crashing down on the aggressor's knuckles, sending his weapon flying. Several of the onlookers groaned, food and scrimshawed knuckle bones changing hands quickly as the aggressor was suitable chastened.

It was a fantastic system, Nihkuko realized. It bred for competence, for skill with blood and violence. Each of the young warriors were forced to compete, witnessed by all of their peers, their elders, and their forebearers. Anyone displaying weakness would become immediately obvious and shamed, forcing them to get better. If they did not, they could be sent home in disgrace. If they refused that? There were many who fell fighting in the hit-and-run back-and-froth of the Northland Wars.

Not only that, but the experienced warriors were driven to participate in the training of the young as well. Priit himself had started the games for shells and scrimshaw, encouraging betting amongst the warriors. Often, there was little that warriors could do. Much of the war was mundane, tedious; warriors wandered the territory of the enemy, looking for isolated groups, lone hunters, or opposing warbands to ambush and pick off. It was a stressful situation, one that could easily breed rivalries and spawn violence. Especially at times where the night-war became difficult, with many of the warriors afflicted by the dreams.

By betting over the outcomes of training, it provided an outlet to rivalries and it encouraged warriors to build up selected proteges. There was renown in creating a great warrior, beyond the gains of gambling. Scrimshawed bones required only time to make and was something that many warriors engaged in during their off time. It helped keep the hands supple and the mind refreshed.

"I want to destroy them." Instead of the tongues of the People, Priit spoke in the language of the Northlands. A strange tongue, it was completely divorced from anything Nihkuko had ever heard before. The language of the Peace Builders and the People had some similarities, like distant cousins might share a nose or the shape of their eye. The Northlands were strangers.

"The Northlands? Nihkuko asked. He replied in the same tongue. If Priit was speaking it, there was a reason; likely because it was a tongue very few of the People's warriors could understand. "Or your enemy?"

"...Both," he eventually responded. "I kill threats. Destroy them so that they will never be threats again. That's what I do. All I do."

"Do you think Alloo will approve?"

"Of destroying the Northlands? Yes." Priit sighed. "She left them for us for the exact same reason why I have to deal with the enemy."

"She still has family among them," Nihkuko said. "Sisters last I asked her, perhaps nieces and nephews now, too."

"Yet, she still decided to leave them," Priit said. "She knew what was involved when she came to the People. Didn't she swear herself our Blood Sister after I slew the Ivory-Blooded Chief? What was it she said? 'The People were not the only ones he was cruel to.' She has blood family with us now."

"I suspect that standing over your estranged kin, bloodied spear in hand, will be a different situation than when you are taken captive and in an enemy's care. Would you not do anything to avoid giving a powerful enemy reason to hurt you?"

The Northlanders are on the ropes, beaten into submission. How should the war end? (+1 Stability for winning the war)

[ ] [Victory] Slaughter them. (+2 Stability)
[ ] [Victory] Allow them to run, tail between their legs. (+1 Stability)
[ ] [Victory] Return things to how they were before the war. (Trade Mission: Northlands)
[ ] [Victory] Take the Northlanders into the People as Debtors. (+3 Tiers of Economy)
[ ] [Victory] Take the Northlanders under the People's wing. (???)

Priit flinched at that, his muscles tensing into stone hard bands. "Endic!" he shouted, pointing to one of the young training warriors. "Keep your spear in contact with the enemy's. Your hands move and react faster than your eye. Jaak! Keep your hands further down the shaft. You're asking to lose fingers right now!"

Both fighters snapped to follow Priit's instructions and the improvement was immediate and obvious. Endic's speed vastly increased and Jaak intercepted far more blows. It always amazed Nihkuko how Priit could pick apart those differences so easily. His own eyes could never track the flow of combat as quickly as the two young warriors were moving. The spear was a fast weapon and that was not his forte; he much preferred the crushing power of a club or the range of a bow.

"..Hmm?" Nihkuko asked.

"Was that what you thought when you left the Peace Builders? When you came to join me?"

"No," Nihkuko responded. "It's different. It would be the journey of several moons, but I could always go back to visit my family." He had spoken to his brother, the Skalds, and his war-leader before he departed. They were supportive of his decision to leave —especially the Skalds — and to tie himself to the People. His older brother was torn, but he relented after a promise that they would always remain family. "No one living has walked out of the Otherworld."

"They say great-great-grandfather reached it," Priit said. "He stormed the gates of the Otherworld and forced the spirits to take him, not only as an equal, but a leader. A Great Spirit in his own right. A man who did the impossible."

"Some say your're already following in his footsteps," Nihkuko teased.

"And? Others have followed his footsteps, been put on their path by him directly, and they've erred. Is it that special that I'm the same?"

"It's not everyone they say that about, Priit. Take it from an outsider—" Priit moved fractionally closer to put lie to that last word. "The People are jealous of their honours. You are only one of two people that such a thing is said about."

"And for that, we could not be more different," Priit argued. "My enemy..." He stopped. His muscles clenched. It looked like Priit was boiling, rage bubbling up from the depths of his core. He didn't utter a sound; his voice did not change; his eyes glazed over, focused on memories only he could see. It was evident to all what his feelings were.

"—Is a threat to all the People. A cheat and a trickster. One who's managed to mask herself well enough that others don't see it."

"Is that what you think of her arguments?" Nihkuko asked. "Your rites of passage were not the ones I remembered and participated in. Within the Peace Builders, such things are overseen by the Sacred Council. As long as you reached the proper age and completed a vision quest... "

"Didn't your people have to be six-and-thirty in order to be adults?" Priit asked. There had been a reason, even beyond the urging of the Skalds that so many of the Peace Builder's warriors had settled down within the People. The youngest among them could join the People, accept a generous ration, get married, and have their voices heard. It wasn't enough for many of them, but a sizable minority had been encouraged and convinced to stay.

"Didn't you say it's better than her argument?"

How did Aeva flesh out her argument over adulthood and franchise?

[ ] [Adult] The franchise should be expanded: recognized Shaman (including members of Holy Orders) may speak as adults.
[ ] [Adult] Adulthood has grown beyond hunters and mothers. Let people be recognized by others in their profession.
[ ] [Adult] The current trials, are sufficient but too restricted; recognize adults by parenthood or by food contribution without respect to gender. (+1 Stability)
[ ] [Adult] Gender complex, like the spirits. There are women-who-are-men and men-who-are-women and they should recieve the gender appropriate trial (+1 Stability)
[ ] [Adult] Some positions generate implicit adulthood: the winner of an election to be head of a longhouse or Big Man is automatically an adult.

Priit rolled his eyes.

"Stand up," he finally said. "We need to move today. As soon as we corner the Northlanders, we can go home."

AN: Moratorium is in effect until next post. Note: I've changed how Supernal Symphony works slightly. Instead of giving 1.5x's effectiveness, I've reduced it to 1.25x's. You also earned another +1 Centralization that I didn't include from 17.2, that's been added.

 

[Redium]

[X] [Victory] Take the Northlanders under the People's wing. (???)
[X] [Adult] Adulthood has grown beyond hunters and mothers. Let people be recognized by others in their profession.

"They've not fled back to the south?" Priit asked. "You're certain?"

"Yes, sir," the young scout said. Boy, more like, Priit thought privately. His skin was smooth and unweathered, hands still uncalloused. He was too young to be a warrior. Even a hunter, but that's what he was. It left a bad taste in Priit's mouth when the young were drenched in blood and he didn't know why. Was violence not Glorious? "We noticed because of the Hunt. The animals southwest of the Fingers became unbalanced."

Which was when they found them; refugees, descending down from the southern mountains and crossing where the Valge River narrowed, studded with islands. The group they found there was tired, hungry, desperate. Many of them had been thin, half starved. Many of them bore wounds, half healed bloody cuts and great mottled bruises from recent struggle. Based on how quickly they were reported to circle up and draw weapons, Priit suspected that much of the violence was from outsiders.

"That was when we pulled back, sir," the youth said, finishing up his report. "We didn't stay long and we weren't pursued beyond the point where they were making sure we were gone."

Waving the young man away, Priit tried to order his thoughts. They were like hammers clashing in his head, driving him to move.

There were more of them, from the Mountain Clans, streaming down to the island narrows of the Valge River. There had always been some, but they were a mere handful. They had always been small, subsisting primarily off of the People's trade with the Island Makers, either raiding it, or much more frequently, offering their own meager goods in order to prop up their scarce rations. It seems that the Mountain Clans had never quite managed to unearth the secret of cultivating gourds, corn, or rice. What skills they had with hunting also seemed wildly in appropriate in the low lying regions surrounding their mountain range.

Pests was what they were. Irritants, things to be ignored, rather than something that actually affected the decision making of their neighbours. What little contact they had was usually in the form of small, low-intensity raids; they came seeking young women and food, primarily the latter. The Mountain Clans had swollen, years ago, due to the wars of of the south while his great-great-grandfather was still Kaspar-In-Flesh. Their resources had stretched beyond the point where their mountains could support and they had been forced to start taking what they had needed.

That was a mistake.

Oh, it had worked, for a while, but it doomed them. The Mountain Clans were a hardy folk, but they lacked the professional warriors that most of the lowlands had ended up adopting. As soon as a born warrior engaged them, they would lose. Their only hope had been to strike while their opponent was off balance and escaping to the mountains before they could be intercepted. Supposedly, the Mountain Clans had seen some success preying on a tribe far to the south in years gone by, but that time had ended.

Now, they were driven out of their mountains, not by the feared Stonecrushers of the Island Makers, but by the inhumanly blessed militias of Arrow Lake. At first, Priit hadn't believed the reports. Several of warriors of Arrow Lake had even told him to his face, that they had secured crushing victory after crushing victory against the Mountain Clans. Arrow Lake's militias were pathetic; ad hoc groups chosen by lot and sent against the enemy. They were weaker, slower, smaller; worse in every way compared to the professional warriors of the other tribes; but they won. Despite every conceivable strain of logic, they claimed to have won an unending chain of victories longer than even his great-grandaunt had been alive.

It was impossible. It should have been impossible. When even Aeva, distant as she was at Crystal Lake, remarked on how Arrow Lake had changed, he stopped ignoring the signs. Sure, she had gone on about how remarkable it was that their production of lapis luzili skyrocketed, but that was just a symptom of fundamental change.

It was only when he took advantage of an opportunity to travel down there and visit some of his ostensible comrades from the War of the North that he saw the poison which had seeped into their souls. It was a simple routine mission of trade and good will like the People had always done, and he wasn't truly required, but he was curious. What he saw filled his belly with fire.

Dozens of men and women, even some children, dug in the shallow sandy soil of the mountains that surrounded Arrow Lake. Underneath the gaze of harsh-eyed taskmasters, they dug for the brilliant blue stones that were the tribe's main trade good. When one of the workers paused to stand up straight and stretch out aching muscles, the task masters were there, hardwood cane in hand and discipline in mind.

The workers were on the ground again soon after, rooting through the soil again with their digging-stick. Women and children too, on the rare occasions they stopped. A closer look showed numerous molted bruises fading from blue to green and yellow-brown. None of them were free of injury.

Priit felt his grip on the blacksword at his waist tighten enough that the ash haft let out a groaning crack.

The realization cast a pall over the entirety of the trade mission. When a group of raiders returned to Arrow Lake, surrounding an empty-eyed, emaciated group, Priit looked to the elders of the tribe. It was the way things were to be, they said at last. Most Ancient? Her title should instead be Most Cowardly. Arrow Lake was ruled by the elders, and they simply countenanced atrocity. They watched as men were rounded up and sent up to the mines while women and young mothers were pushed around by a group of madly grinning raiders. Warriors bearing stout canes came out to enforce discipline before distasteful things could occur in front of him, but he did not need much imagination what was happening just out of sight.

How could the tribe that he once fantisized about running away to have fallen so far?

His anger did not go unnoticed. The Most Ancient herself tried to justify what he was watching. "Do the Twin-Souled People not have Debtors?" she had asked.

If Priit had been a younger man, he knew how that conversation would've ended. Instead of a polite agreement, followed by an explanation of the rules of being a Debtor and the protections that should be involved, it would've ended with his blacksword swinging straight through the Most Ancient's body. He only had twenty companions with him, but Priit estimated they likely could've recovered their canoes and escaped into the night without too much trouble.

He wasn't that younger men, however. Leadership, responsibility; it had changed him. As a young man, he crushed skulls and tore out throats; reveled in it, like his hounds did. Hate and rage had been an old and comforting cloak, one he could easily pull around his shoulders when he was lost or scared. He couldn't do that now. Ten years of leadership had changed him. Transformed him. Wasn't that what the Ember-Eyes always went on about? Transformation through the Crucible? He snorted at that wisdom.

There was something that the Ember-Eyes were good for, he had to acknowledge. Their efforts among the Pearl Divers over the last generation had lead to the creation of two new slaterns, doubling the Pearl Diver's capacity to produce Salt. The new level of production was enough to fulfill the People's demands for the substance with some left over. That little bit left over was enough to be traded on to the People's other trade partners, which sparked a booming demand in them. It was enough that the Pearl Divers asked for the Ember-Eyes to stay with them longer and build more Salterns.

Aeva had objected somewhat, saying that salt was displacing the People's maple sugar as the food preserver of choice. If the People were to help the Pearl Divers, they should invest in further managing the forests around them to cultivate more maple trees and produce more sugar. The worry mostly went over Priit's head. The People were still going to be the intermediaries of the Pearl Diver's salt. If tribes failed to trade for their sugar, they would trade for salt. What was the issue?

Allow the Ember-Eyes to stay with the Pearl Divers for another turn?

[ ] [Salt] Yes
[ ] [Salt] No

The Ember-Eyes who spent time with Pearl Divers were, of course, in full favour of the proposal. It expanded their remit and brought them in contact with new tribes and forced them to innovate new techniques. There was event word of a discovery, far to the south of the Pearl Divers' easternmost settlement. It was more rumour than fact, but the Ember-Eyes reported a beach that was made entirely of Black Sand. Beyond that, there were rumours of a place where the sand was the colour of blood and sang when walked upon. It was a place obviously beyond the People's reach, but it had sparked a greedy lust in the hearts of many. They wanted it all.

While interesting, there was little that Priit could do about those far of places. What he found far more interesting were the reports that the Ember-Eyes made about their impact on the Pearl Divers.

Status: Magical Advisors

Spoiler: Magical Advisors

The People have begun providing advisers in their most esoteric arts to an external faction. Being in close contact with the People's spiritual leaders, these foreigners pick up many tidbits of lore, but they also pick up on other, more fundamental philosophies as well.
Effects: Each turn a faction is reviving Magical Advice, they may take one additional Art action with bonuses to technology gain in areas where their advisers excel. Additionally, they also have the chance to randomly take on one of their Adviser's Values each turn, with the chance growing each turn without a new value gained. The recipient may elect to choose any of the Adviser's Values and gain that automatically.

Their insight on the Pearl Diver's status was deeply interesting.

Pearl Diver Values

Spoiler: Pearl Diver Values

Social:
Retributive Justice: (Taken from the People)
Bring Me the Horizon: Whenever the Pearl Divers lose Stability, gain Econ and a free Explore action. For every 3 Stability lost, gain a new settlement. Vastly speeds cultural divergence.
Honour:
The Other Quality: Conscript workers to fight in war! Gain bonus Martial for high Econ!
A Word, A Bond: Individual feel a deep desire to abide by their word. Increases internal stability. Need to honour external obligations if it wouldn't threaten the tribe.
Spititual:
Fruitful Family: All members of the tribe desire to have large families, increasing Econ and expansion speed. Increased nepotism.
Whole Hearted: The tribe believes that all hearts should be whole. All fulfilled and in accord. Increased social unity, increased united effort, discordance is shunned.

The Ember-Eyes had embedded themselves within the heart of the Pearl Divers. It wasn't much now, but it could prove useful in the future.

That was, of course, if the People solved their little problem. After Aeva's refinement of the Trials of Adulthood, clarifying that Kaspar-In-Flesh had meant merely that problems had started to crop up. By delegating authority from the Big Man towards a looser confederation of skilled teachers had left many in confusion. In order to be recognized, apprentice learners had to have the majority of members of their craft acknowledge them as a peer. That in turn often meant working with, learning from, and showing off to countless other craftsmen. That quickly lead to a proliferation of skill amongst all of the People's skilled workers.

While obviously a good thing that was already starting to pay dividends, there was one complication: the People were quickly becoming too skilled. There was so many techniques; things from pottery that could be applied to masonry, how the Ember-Eyes and woodcutters could better support each other, or how fishermen could boost the crops of rice growers; that interlaced. The downside was that there was suddenly a boom of interrelated information that had to be remembered. Many people who once thought themselves masters had ended up scrambling for years.

Those who were just learning, however, were completely lost. It took significantly longer to understand all of the connections, the different techniques, and how they could be best applied. It often took too much time. Outside of those with very large families or friend networks willing to support them, they could not spend enough time away from finding food in order to learn. The problems were severe enough that they had nearly caused a food short fall and starvation one year. Too many people were focused on learning, refining their skills, taking in Debts and planning to pay them off later with the fruits of their labours.

The chaotic system also often produced the wrong type of specialist. There were far too many stonecutters and potters while lumberjacks and fishermen were too rare. It was a fluke, chance circumstance, but one that would need to be accounted for in the future.

Aeva had pushed the Big Men to crack down after that. Based on what she estimated, the People were simply not capable of allowing people to pursue learning indiscriminately. The chaos simply left the People too vulnerable to unexpected disruptions; all it would take is for one unexpected disruption or an excess of Debt for the People to suddenly find themselves without food. Someone people needed to collect food in order to ensure that everyone was feed. They needed potters and woodcuters, stonecutters and traders just as much, but only a few. Reform would be needed.

How should the People reform their teaching practices?

[ ] [Teach] Empower the Big Men. Given them the ability to formally direct the labour and resources of others.
[ ] [Teach] Develop a group whose responsibility it is to ensure enough specialists are trained without wasting food.
[ ] [Teach] Delegate authority to longhouse leaders, make them responsible for organizing and training labourers.
[ ] [Teach] Have teachers take apprentices by finding promising children, like the Holy Orders do.
[ ] [Teach] Discourage taking Debt for education so that another food bust will not sneak up on the People.
[ ] [Teach] Limit the amount of skill needed to be an adult, numerous dilettante can serve just as well as a specialist.
[ ] [Teach] Do nothing yet.

Lastly, there was the situation with the Northlands.

Priit had decided, at long last, to take them under the People's wing. It had been a hard choice, one that seemingly went against his every instinct. He was a killer, someone that ended threats. Everything that he had learned growing up, from the slow strike-and-counter-strike of war on the northern front, to the mess that was his great grandaunt's opaque politics, his near death at the hands of the Big Man he'd ended up slaying in defense of his own life, and the trials that came after it. All of it was a series of struggles that nearly ended him, only for him to succeed.

Despite being one of the Fangs, he felt a connection to the underlying thoughts behind the Ember-Eyes. Contemplating the mysteries that they studded, even if he didn't understand the magic behind it, calmed him. Not as much as attending to the needs of his pack, or working with his Blood Brothers, but it the dark moments of the night where he had only his thoughts, it could help.

Still, Alloo prevailed on him, and he could not deny her desire to protect family. He had expected that working with the Northlands and integrating them into the People would be nigh impossible. There was bad blood on both sides and a generation of war. Warriors who had been stalked for hours, even days, through the thick underbrush of the northern lands. People who had been wounded; whose family and friends were hunted down, isolated and murdered; who had declared feuds that could only be washed out with blood.

Everything... went well. At first, the tension was thick enough that it could've been cut with a knife, but Alloo came through. A few whispered words were enough to gather a collection of her family, friends, and their Blood Brothers. By some miracle, they were an enormous faction; the largest that was left in the Northlands tribe. They had been unable to take the field against the People and Alloo once they knew that the People held her. They had to withstand ridicule and calls of cowardice, but they preserved. Someone needed to follow the herds and hunt game in order to feed the tribe. It was as valid a way of supporting the war and the calls of cowardice quickly trailed off after they dragged back the carcasses of numerous mammoth and orkers.

When Alloo returned with food donated by the People, enough so that no elders would be forced to starve and no children would be lost to hunger, she became akin to a goddess. The lack of food wouldn't have annihilated the Northlandres, but it would've reduced their numbers to the smallest they had ever been.

Alloo was known and respected amongst the People. Not to the degree of Priit, or even Aeva, but she was perhaps Priit's most well known subordinate. Someone he respected, which caused others to respect her in turn. When Priit backed her, many of the People were at least willing to give the Northlanders a chance to talk. After all, with the war now over, had Justice not been served?

Once the knives were set down and the axes buried, it suddenly turned out that the People and the Northlands had a lot in common! Their appreciation of Justice, demands of Excellence, appreciation of the natural world, and views on violence were largely in accord. It became immediately obvious that the People and the Northlanders agreed at least as much as they disagreed!

That spark of friendship was then fanned into a flame by the advice of Alloo and Nihkuko. Priit had never been the best about talking through his problems, but both of them assured him that closer connections could easily be built. The only questions was, how should that be done?

[ ] [North] Work the Northlands' hunters into the People's training program.
[ ] [North] Encourage the People to marry into the Northlands' who are desperately in need of more husbands.
[ ] [North] Increase trade, far past the point that it was historically to keep ties fresh.
[ ] [North] Put the People's shaman in with the Northlands as advisers or leaders to their new High Shaman.
[ ] [North] Try and take the Northlands into the People fully, adopting them through new Blood Ties.
[ ] [North] Keep the relationship simple, just continue subsidies for them.

The final message of the year came late at night, crossing the People's network of fire relays. The Peace Builders were embroiled by war, Aeva had signaled, and they called for aid.

Actions (Pick 2 and a Tribute Focus + 1 Admin, 1 Martial, and 1 Art)

Spoiler: Actions

Annual Festival [Art] - The People deserve to party! Build morale by opening up the stockpiles and having a night of feasts, dancing, music and fun.

Expand Hunting (Dogs, Orkers, Traps, Herd Animals, Prize Animals) [Martial] - Improve upon the hunting techniques of the People. Work to increase the amount of meat that is available to consume and empower the People. A risky activity and one that requires a great investment of skill and energy, this provides the largest gains of food.

Expand Agriculture (Quinoa, Gourds, Corn) [Admin] - The People have come to realize the bounty of the world is often not enough. They need to tame it and carefully manage the foods that are so important in sating their appetites.

Expand Aquaculture (Wild Rice, Mussels, Fishing) [Admin] - Most of the People live close to a river and are able to gather one of numerous sources of food. Often much easier to obtain than food from hunting and much less risky, these sources of food are much more vulnerable to shifts of the seasons and that of the weather.

Explore (Specify?) [Martial] [Diplomacy] - There is much to be found in the world. Countless things, often placed by the hand of the spirits themselves. It is up to the People to find them.

Found Settlement (includes: Brick Wall, Shrine, Sugar Shack) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] - While the People build homes where they will, often where food or resources can easily be found, these places are settled without organization or care. By founding a formal settlement, it becomes possible for central authority to exert itself before the People become too fracas. (Requires: 2 tiers of Econ and excess population. Available locations: North Bay, River Fork, River Bend, Wide River. 1 settlement possible to found.)

Manage Forests (Sugar, Timber, Medicine, Gathering) [Admin] - While the forests provide the least of the People's food, they have provided that which is most useful. Sugar is wonderous in taste and highly sought after as a trade goods. Evergreen tea soothes aching bodies and quiets headaches. There is much to be found in the unknown, perhaps rare, but of significant value.

Promote Folk Wrestling [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] - The People are fracas and have a tendency towards physical confrontations and violence. By carefully channeling this tendency, it's possible to develop further skill at war and turn hunters into skilled and deadly raiders.

Raid ((Mountain Clans, Arrow Lake, Pearl Divers, Island Makers, Peace Builders, Enemies of the Peace Builders)) [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Retributive Justice] [Martial] - The hunting of beasts turns now into the hunting of men. Strike down those who oppose the People so that we may be kept safe.

Study Travel [Art] - Invest time in learning how most effectively to travel. The world is harsh and strange, learning how to traverse it will save the People much in effort and food.

Study Fire [Art] - The greatest and most capricious of spirits, fire is of immense use to the People. The recent discovery of lime and the founding of the Ember-Eyed has spurred substantial interest in developing understanding of this forceful spirit further.

Study Stone [Art] - A solid and stable spirit, the People have found numerous type of stone with different properties. How these properties can be best served to support the People is unknown. Learning to work the material will likely pay enormous dividends in the future.

Trade (Arrow Lake, Peace Builders, Pearl Divers, Island Makers, Northlands) [Wondrous World] [Diplomacy] [Martial] - It is clear that the People do not hold all that is significant within the world. There are other tribes that hold interesting, useful or beautiful objects. By offering up some as gifts, things that the People do not have will be provided in return.

Train Warriors (Warriors, Holy Order) [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] [Admin] - The People have warriors well trained in the art of killing. By diverting more young people into these professions, preparations for war can be established. In a way, it is like knapping obsidian into a knife. An action that takes deliberation and planning, forethought, to be useful.

Prepare for Ordeal [Trial By Fire] [Admin] - The spirits test the People, always. These tests are ones that require careful preparation and forethought. The People will be prepared. A crisis well managed is a sign of spiritual favour, one that's botched causes the People to further suffer.

Tribute Foci

Defense - Walls, Defensive Structures, Trails, Folk Wrestling
Food - Agriculture, Aquaculture, Herding, Hunting
Magic - Study Fire, Study Stone, Study Travel
Megaprojects - Current Megaproject
Rural Infrastructure - Settlements, New Trails, Manage Forests
Spirits - Temples, Ordeals, Festivals
Urban Infrastructure - Temples, Walls, Festivals, Trade
War - Raids, Train Warriors, Folk Wrestling
World - New Trails, Exploring, Trade, Hunting

Megaprojects:

Artificial River [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The Dam [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Inspired by the feats of ingenuity demonstrated by a large, but common, rat, the People have decided to emulate their creations on a more massive scale. By blockaded a river, it would be possible to accumulate an enormous amount of water, something that could easily be put to use.

The World, A Shield [Supernal Symphony] [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] [Admin] (12 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The World in Miniature [Supernal Symphony] [Diplomacy] [Admin] (7 actions) - The world is a grand place, seemingly endless in scope. The People's exploration and search for wonders has pushed them to find a way to more effectively communicate discoveries with each other. Trail markers are a start, but they are not easily portable. More can be done.

A Temple, Grand [Supernal Symphony] [Art] (8 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The Sisters Three [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

A Field of Gold [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

Extended Projects:

Archaic Charcoal Kilns (Crystal Lake, Hill Guard, The Fingers) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] [Art] - The Ember-Eyes have discovered a secret of wood and fire. By carefully burning it, they can render it blackened and fragile. Somehow, this makes fire burn far hotter. How is it the elements dance when burning wood is not the same as wood cooked by fire?

Extend Fire Relay (Hill Guard) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (1 Action) - The Fire Relay has served as the backbone of the People's communication and movement between The Fingers and Crystal Lake for longer than memory. With the recent founding of Hill Guard, the vaunted relay no longer stitches the People from one end to the other. This oversight must be corrected.

Raise Temple (Crystal Lake, The Fingers) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] [Art] (2 Actions) - A ritual place where the spirits and those they touch can work. Special facilities for magic, resources, teachings and the spirits themselves are included.

The Hill (Crystal Lake, The Fingers) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (2 Actions) - A hill made by man. A simple construct, but one that greatly raises the defensive value of a settlement.

New Trails [Wondrous World] [Admin] (9 or 12 Actions) - Inspired by the Fire Relay, these small trails are cut into the innumerable forests that surround the People. Serving as akin to veins in the body, they promote the free movement of goods and people.

Actions that could be locked in this turn: ???

Automatic Actions: Trade (Arrow Lake, Northlands, Pearl Divers), Expand Aquaculture (Rice, Fishing), Prepare for Ordeal, Manage Hunting

Special Options for this turn: Raid (Mountain Clans), Trade (Mountain Clans), Raid (Enemies of Peace Builders)

Note: Failing to Raid the (Enemies of Peace Builders) will result in Stability loss and aggravate Priit's Warriors! Failing to take a [Supernal Symphony] action will cost 1 Stability! Can Double Down at cost of 1 Stability on an action by adding a sub tag to that specific action.

AN: Moratorium is in effect until vote is unlocked. Vote will be done by plan. Front page is not up-to-date (Stability and Legitimacy should be the same) and Leaderboard will be finished tomorrow.

 

[Redium]

[X] Plan Learn Our Ways
-[X] [Salt] Yes
-[X] [Teach] Have teachers take apprentices by finding promising children, like the Holy Orders do. -> Formal Apprenticeships
-[X] [North] Put the People's shaman in with the Northlands as advisers or leaders to their new High Shaman.
-[X] [Action] Expand Agriculture (Quinoa) -> Organized Plots LOCKED IN
-[X] [Action] Trade (Mountain Clans)
-[X] [Admin] Manage Forests (Sugar) -> Spigot Collection
-[X] [Martial] Raid (Enemies of Peace Builders)
-[X] [Art] Raise Temple (Crystal Lake) -> Decorative Pillars
-[X] [Tribute] War (Train Warriors: Warriors -> One Handed Wicker Shield, Holy Orders -> Bone Armour, Horns)
-[X] [Automatic]: Expand Aquaculture (Rice, Fishing), Manage Hunting (Dogs), Prepare for Ordeal, Trade (Arrow Lake, Island Makers, Pearl Divers, Northlands)

Twirling his fingers, Priit sighed at what he saw; grey hairs already graced his temples. His father was still alive, over sixty winters in age, and his shock of hair maintained all of its sunny colour. It was rare for any of the People to go grey. Those that did were universally ancients, perhaps only a few years from death. A decade at most.

To the petitioner kneeling before him, he probably looked close in age to Aeva, even though she was close to twice his age. She was weathered and shrunken, skin wrapped loosely around stick-thin limbs. But her eyes... they maintained all of the bestial cunning and savage wit that marked their line. It was impossible not to look upon the grandmother-but-not and recognize the power that rested there.

The third Big Man completing their triumvirate was an old sack of bones. An old man that had been forced into the position while those younger than he competed over it viciously. He was a placeholder and it was likely that he knew it. Priit had only paid minimal attention to the silent struggle for support — just enough to plan for the future campaign in defense of the Peace Builders — but he expected that one of the young warriors competing over the prize would win it.

The petitioner spoke brokenly through two translators; one of the People who could speak the dialect of Arrow Lake and one the Mountain Man's own who could speak the 'Cursed Tongue'. He had come back along with a small party; only four people, all of whom were clearly expendable, after the People's traders brought them baubles and other trade goods. Those were mostly ignored, it was the stores of food that the caravan had brought for themselves that the Mountain Clans literally fought over.

It was... wretched listening to the elder speak.

"Most wise elders of the Twin-Souled Clan," he spoke. "This lowly dirt-walker would ask for a moment of your time. A consideration fair of the words which I am about to speak to you. The Mountain Men of the south are a people adrift, fleeing starvation. War. Slavery. We are weak and you are strong. As a father teaches his children and as a mother shepherds hers, we would ask that same benevolence."

The man spoke at length, his plea cut down several times between the two translators he spoke through. Priit could speak the tongue of Arrow Lake and knew a smattering of the Mountain Clans' grunting speech. Both the Mountain Clans' and the People's translators added flourishes, slightly altering the meaning. The gist was there, but the shear degree to which the elderly petitioner debased himself was lost. He praised the People, emphasizing how high they were in the sky, while also claiming to be mud they could find underfoot.

"We have always known a harsh existence. The stone mountains of our homes rise high, thrust up into the sky. They rise so high that, in places, they remain uncrowned by soil and plants. Scalped of life. Between these mountaintops are countless dells and other, hidden places. But they are small, unsuited to the great fields that the Mud-Mired Tribes use to grow food. We do not know how to tend to endless forests to make them yield up grain and succulent fruit. The ways of hunting are different down below, and the waters do not yield fish of the same type. Things have changed and they can no longer be as they were."

Mud-Mired. It was a term that Priit had heard before. The Mountain Clans believed that the lowlands around their mountain homes weighed down the spirits of those that dwelled there. Only the thin soil and hard rock of their homelands could support the immense weight of a proper spirit. He wondered how the Island Makers took it; the soil in their homes was thin, less than the distance from the end of a man's hand to his elbow before solid bedrock was struck. Where did they fit in among the soulless hierarchy? It must burn the old man something fierce to come begging of those they though soulless.

"We would join you now by the warm fire as distant kin. We are refugees such as you had once saved in the time of Kaspar-In-Flesh. This is a foreign world for us, one to which our lowly knowledge is ill equipped. If things do not change, then the Mountain Men shall cease to exist. Your knowledge and your magic is known to all. Your halls incomparable, a wonder to all the world. The spirits have touched you, entrusted you with great boons and endless bounty."

The old man slowly stood before lowering himself to his knees and pressing his face directly to the floor. "We ask humbly that you share this bounty with us. Share with us the blessings we would need to survive in this harsh world. The knowledge necessary to grow crops and thrive." His speech done, the elders words echoed in finality in the temple at the Cave of Stars.

Priit glanced over at Aeva. Her gaze, as always, was unreadable. Her dark eyes stared pitilessly at the grandfather sitting before the triumvirate. He wondered what numbers beat through her brain, the calculations on how to make this work and turn to the People's foremost advantage. Not that the decision was really hers to make; the Fingers was closest to the Mountain Clans while Crystal Lake was far away. It was her right to speak first, as the leader of Crystal Lake.

The moment stretched uncomfortably.

Slowly, Aeva raised and hand and split the air with a snap of her fingers.

Immediately, the beat was taken up by the shaman surrounding the delegation; pounding their staves against the stone floor of the temple. Drums were brought out and bundles of tinder affixed to staves and lit into impressive torches despite the daylight. Every corner of the temple was filled with light as soft orange flames cascaded across the faint, glimmer mica ground into the walls. Flutes started to whistle near silently and Priit relaxed as the beating of drums reached deeply into this soul.

The wizened elder from the Mountain Clans had sprung to his feet at the sudden cacophony and the young translator at his side thumbed through his belt for where a knife would normally be kept. Straining muscles and darting eyes slowly relaxed as Priit called for calm in the young man's tongue. All of the shaman around the Cave of Stars were skilled warriors, trained obsessively to guard the entrance to the spirits' home. They were safe as could be anywhere within the People's lands; both the People from the Mountain Clansmen. Star Shaman wouldn't brook any violence upon the temple's stones, regardless of who started it.

Two of the Star Shaman walked the length of the temple, one of the oldest women that Priit had ever seen and a young man, little more than a boy. There was supposed to be some symbolism in that, a spiritual significance; whatever it was, Priit hadn't a clue. At the Ivory Door, the two of them reached into pouches simultaneously, and smeared sacred oils across the door. They traced each of the spiritual totems; bear, orker, wolf, caribou, rabbit, and bird. Below them were the spirits of the ground and above, the sky. Each was anointed in turn.

It had supposedly taken the better part of a decade for the door to be carved and fitted together from over a hundred tusks. It was a monumental tribute to the spirits; worthy of guarding their home.

"You have asked for the wisdom of the spirits," Aeva said. "It shall be provided. In full. After you receive their judgement."

On cue, the Ivory Door split open and the gaping Pit at the Heart of the Cave of Stars was revealed.

Priit shuddered at the sight. Inky darkness reached into his soul.

The two shaman flanking the door flinched before their torches flashed; gouts of flame reached high enough that they scorched the ceiling before being extinguished in an instant. A ghastly cry echoed throughout the temple.

Priit hesitated. Something gripped his heart, crushing it within his chest. His vision blurred. Stopping and starting, everything moving before freezing as if everything was replaced by statues. A grinning face learned down at him, hand stroking along his cheek. Laughter echoed through out the temple; high and haunting, low and guttural both. The sound intermixed; growing in intensity.

The images started to flash faster and faster and faster. A shaman collapsing to the ground. Aeva, seated in her throne of stone, her eyes rolled so far back in her head that she was clearly seeing her brain. The young man from the Mountain Clans standing before them seized up, his muscles becoming rock hard as everything spasmed.

Stars felt to earth, emitting flashes of blue and white and orange to beat back the encroaching darkness. The air itself seemed to shimmer, light wavering and then merging with the darkness in ways that made Priit ache. From his brains to his marrow, all was pain.

As he crashed to the floor, Priit could barely keep a single eye open: his other was ground into the stone below. As the dark encroached and took everything, a single image burned itself into his eye. An orb of gold, clasped in talons three.

Everything after that was reduced to a collection of images. Sounds. Sensations. A woman's laugh. A man's scream. A child's cry. Blood dripping off an obsidian edge. The clash of flesh on stone. Wood and rock. Oblivion.

When the world finally made sense again, Priit found himself staring up at the sky. Above him, the spirits danced in the sky, broadcasting their emotions and joy for all to see. Streaks of green, yellow, and purple danced in between the stars. The presence was undeniably felt. It was already night, Priit wondered? When had that occurred?

Priit felt a small, final weight leave his shoulder as a near silent click cut through the air. The Way to the Heart of the Cave of Stars was now shut.

"The spirits have spoken," Priit mumbled. He glanced over at the trembling, collapsed forms of the Mountain Clansmen. Now, if only they could keep the two negotiators from bringing back tales of absolute terror regarding the People.

The spirits have obviously spoken in favour of supporting the Mountain Clans, almost egregiously so. How should that occur?

[ ] [Clan] Provide the Mountain Clans regular supplies of food until they find their feet. (-2 Econ tiers)
[ ] [Clan] Teach the Mountain Clansmen the ways to grow food.
[ ] [Clan] Provide the Mountain Clans with a detailed understanding of The Hunt megaproject.
[ ] [Clan] Solve whatever it is that's driving the Mountain Clans from their home?

After the clansmen were sent away, loaded with enough gifts to help them in the short term, Priit's attention wandered back to matters closer to home. The Ember Eyes had been busy among the Pearl Divers, building more Salterns. It had been the work of two generations so far, but by their best estimates, all of the possible sites for Salterns would be fully constructed in another generation.

Spiritual Advisors Triggers: A Word, A Bond -> Blood of my Brothers

Apparently their efforts among the Pearl Divers had fermented rich rewards. Ideas from among the People and the Northlanders had flourished among them. The Pearl Divers valued, quite intensely, the fact that an adult should be willing to stand by their word, even to the point of death. It was similar to the People's own value on oaths binding individuals together as family. After all, wasn't in the nature of family to support each other in everything? It was considered crass, at best, to keep track of favours and debts among the closest of friends and family. There was a certain acknowledgement if one was a wastrel and should not have trust extended, but family were those people whom you know would have your back the second that you needed it.

Family would not betray you. For everyone else, could you really be sure? The Pearl Divers had betrayed the People, at least in part, when they refused to come against the Northlanders. There was an undercurrent of doubt among the youngest Pearl Divers in the worth of their bond given that realization. The People came to help the Pearl Divers, but did they help in return?

No.

Their honour impinged, the young cast off the old and tired value of their fathers and mothers, following instead what felt right. What their fathers and mothers had actually done. They recognized the People's wisdom and taught it to their own children in turn.

In recognition of the gift of wisdom, the Pearl Divers had responded with several generous gifts. The first was a small pot of singing sand. It no longer sung, but for a while, the red sand babbled like water whenever Priit held it. It was... strange, and the realization had made many shaman uncomfortable. Still, the sand was so far east and south that it took the better part of a year to travel there and back. Whatever magic could be found in the Singing Sands, it was beyond the People. The mystery of what made the magic vanish would also go unknown.

As for the second gift...

"Auk!" the creature chirped, happily munching on a few smaller fish. It had mystified Priit when he first saw it: small, black and white; the thing looked like a bird, but lived like a fish. It made no sense, but Priit could admit that watching it waddle back and forth on the floor of his longhouse was entertaining. It was surprisingly fast for its small size! His children and family had loved the little creature.

It was a curiosity, Priit admitted, but seeing the small flock they'd captured... softened something inside him. There were nights in the heat of summer and in the depths of winter where he'd found himself with a smile bared for all to see. Nothing like the baring of fangs that was he was capable of normally.

But speaking of the Fangs... it would be time for them to head west soon, to Hill Guard and then south to protect the Peace Builders.

A few years of seasoning had done wonders for the People's warriors, bringing their strength up greatly. They still weren't as numerous as they had been at the beginning of their war with the Northlanders, but their numbers had greatly increased. The drive to increase the number of warriors had, however, discovered something of interest: if a warrior was killed in battle, it was extremely unlikely for any of their children to grow up to be warriors themselves.

It took a bit of investigation to find out why, but the problem was rather obvious in hindsight: dead men received no pay. A warrior was richly rewarded with meat and grain for the risks they took in the forests of war. They were allowed to eat twice as much as normal and received twice over that in goods to trade for the weapons they used. Some of that excess had a tendency to end up within the stomachs of a warrior's close family and friends. They also had a strong tendency to train their children or their friends' children in the arts of war. Combined, those two advantages meant that the choosen children would grow up to be exceptional warriors.

If the warrior died, his family and those they patronized would not be able to grow in the same way.

Many were troubled once they made that realization. Priit knew that warriors fought for their friends and their families first. It was a good life, if dangerous; but it also served to keep everyone and everything you loved safe. If your death meant that your loved ones would suffer and not have the opportunities that they should have had, how could you be asked to die on behalf of the People. It was... wrong.

So Priit would not let it stand.

How do you address the issue of widows and orphans of fallen warriors?

[ ] [Fall] Set aside extra resources for the families of fallen warriors.
[ ] [Fall] Increase the prominence of Holy Orders; their training is taken care of by shaman, not other warriors.
[ ] [Fall] Reorganize the warriors into groups to build bonds between them and teach the fallen.
[ ] [Fall] Allot formal apprenticeships for those who want to be warriors.

There was one final thing that had to be addressed: the Northlanders. The shaman sent by the People had been well received by the tribe. Apparently, they had even won the recognition of their spirits; the lights of blue, green, and purple that dueled in the night sky had surged at the People's presence. It was auspicious, many of them thought and it was enough for them to allow them to work with and train their High Shaman.

A very distant sworn-blood relative of the long dead Ivory Blooded Chief, the girl was nothing like her infamously bloody ancestor. She was quiet and almost sullen, divorced from the physical world and drawn into the realm of the spirits deeply indeed. Her training went well, if unexceptionally, until a relatively new shaman fresh from the Cave of Stars was introduced to her. It was like the sun broke out on the girl's face the very moment that she met him. She was smitten.

It was a promising sign. The representative of the Northlander's spirits instantly fell in love with someone who trained in the heart of the People's spiritual domain.

The growing positive feelings between the People and the Northlanders was going to cause problems, however: the Northlanders wanted to march to war alongside the People and they were not going to take no for an answer. Everything that Alloo whispered in Priit's ear and all of the advice the shaman sent back warned him that refusing their offer of aid would be a terrible idea. The Northlanders were well on the way to considering the People sworn-blood. To reject their offer of aid would be a grievous insult.

The issue was that even a minimal level of help was likely to break the Northlanders. Their warriors were hunters and herdsmen; if they went to fight, then that meant that the tribe would be gathering significantly less found than it normally would. Even the two dozen Horn Riders that they planned to send would mean that some of the tribe would starve.

How should the People respond to this damaging generosity?

[ ] [Give] Provide the Northlands with enough food that they won't be in danger of starving. (-1 Econ tiers)
[ ] [Give] Allow the Northlands to come. (A few Northlanders starve.)
[ ] [Give] Forbid the Northlands from coming. (Noticeably damage relations)
[ ] [Give] Send some of the People's hunters and other skilled workers to help them meet any shortfalls.
[ ] [Give] Given the Northlands knowledge of The Hunt.
[ ] [Give] Begin trading preserved food so they can buy if needed.

AN: Moratorium until the vote is unlocked. Map will be updated tomorrow with more information on what's south of the Peace Builders.

 

[Redium]

[X] [Clan] Provide the Mountain Clans regular supplies of food until they find their feet. (-2 Econ tiers)
[X] [Fall] Reorganize the warriors into groups to build bonds between them and teach the fallen. -> Phylai Warfare
[X] [Give] Send some of the People's hunters and other skilled workers to help them meet any shortfalls.

With the last of his affairs in order, Priit bid his family goodbye and headed to the west. In his absence, he was confident that things would be handled. Alloo had been left in charge of those returning north to aid her people. The delegation sent was ultimately small, but even a hundred extra pairs of hands would go far for the greatly diminished tribe.

Other supplies had been organized and set aside for the Mountain Clans. A mix of simple corn, rice, and salted meat, they were very well received by the People's new southern neighbours. Once a moon, they would come up from their island on the Valge River; every member of the troop was old, ancient and wizened. All of them were silent when they looked upon the People, struck by a quiet awe.

It was eerie.

It also only occurred when the elders came to pick up supplies. When traders from the Fingers stopped in with them on their way to the Island Makers, the Mountain Clans were happy to talk and invited the traders to sup with them for the evening, plying their own few wares in turn. There wasn't much that the Mountain Clans could offer, but they occasionally turned up stones of lapis lazuli or intricately carved stoneware. Everything that they had was exchanged for more food, salt and other necessities and used in turn to fuel the growth of their settlements.

Their places were small, haphazard things, but there was one interesting aspect; how they built. The Mountain Clans dwelt in strange houses that seemed to float above the ground instead of the traditional longhouses used by the People or other lowlander tribes. Their dwellings were made of cut and stacked timbers, shaped at the ends so that they would hold together while any gaps were packed with moss. Instead of their home's living area being on the ground — as was sensible — the Mountain Clansmen built raised platforms into their homes. It meant that the roof had to be much higher, but it kept the main chamber out of the snow and off of the cold ground in the middle of winter.

It was a tradition of building that was utterly alien to the People. As neighbours, they were quiet; their strange ways were set aside as mere curiosities.

Not all neighbours could be such, however, Priit acknowledged. The Northlands had been hostile once and the lands south of the Peace Builders were seldom peaceable at all.

That fact would change.

In Priit's wake, the People slowly gathered in dribs and drabs, forming up as droplets of water would turn into mighty rivers. It was a grim mood that overtook the warriors as the moved in the direction of the dying sun. The People marched to war yet again. All but the youngest of warriors remembered the conflict with the Northlands. It was a brutal and bloody time. Many had been cut down like wheat before ever reaching their prime. Others had bathed in so much blood that it seemed to seep into their souls. They cracked, laughing madly while chasing the Northlanders off into their forests. When they eventually returned, it was a smiling corpses dancing atop an ivory tusk.

Above it all, the spirits danced in lights of green and purple. The Coloured Winds were familiar to the People, not something that they saw every night, but common enough that only the smallest had yet to see them. The waxed and waned, gusting constantly across a back drop of stars, as was the way of the spirits; showing pleasure and displeasure in ways that were unknowable. There was a pattern there, the People knew, just not one that they could see. It made many nervous to see the work of the spirits be so obvious, but impossibly inscrutable.

When the Horned Riders that followed the People looked up at the Coloured Winds, they responded with excitement. To the Northlands, the Coloured Winds were a constant in their lives. Every night, they kept watch over their tribe and guarded them through the endless nights of winter. For those over looking guardians to disappear, it was unnatural. The fact that the spirits kept watch over the warriors, even as they moved far south of their traditional range, excited many. They would be protected, the Horned Riders promised.

At Crystal Lake, Priit ordered a stop for a quarter moon, just enough time for the last stragglers from the People's greatest settlement to file in. Warriors were normally dispersed, spread around the population to respond to dangerous animals or violent bandits. Concentrating force was deeply unusual, it simply left too much unprotected. It was often better to cover more ground, to slide into weak points and cut off the enemy before they could reach vulnerable settlements.

It didn't have to be that way, Priit realized. Things could be done differently... if they were done correctly. That would require organization however, and new ways of thinking. Ways that were just out of grasp, on the tip of Priit's tongue, but still unknown.

He would need to speak with someone who knew the subject better than him and that was a very short list. One with only a single name.

"I didn't expect that this was how we would last meet," Priit said. He'd found Aeva laid up in bed inside her longhouse. The old woman reeked of death. Her glassy eyes and cheeks were sunken and flesh was stretched paper thin across all of her bones. She must have lost a quarter of her weight from the last time he'd seen her.

"And what was your expectation?" she finally whispered.

Ignoring the few ever present guards, Priit slowly withdrew an obsidian knife from his belt. The volcanic glass was over six inches in length and sharpened to a prismatic edge. It was a beautiful knife, far more so than any weapon the People would normally make; the jaw of a wolf formed the base of the hilt underneath a loving wrapping of leather strips. "I fashioned this dagger when I was nineteen-years-old. Working with the pine resin glue to bind everything together, I burned myself at least three times. A careless caress along the edge was enough to cut my flesh right down to the bone."

Aeva said nothing. She simply stared at the beautiful knife resting gently on the ground.

"I never had occasion to use it," Priit said. "Fighting against the Northlands required spears and arrows. Something with reach to counter the enemy's advantage in speed. I hear in the west, in Hill Guard, they carry great maces with round shaped rocks for heads. Each has enough weight and heft so that it can break through the wooden armour so favoured by the Peace Builders and their neighbours. This was a weapon without an enemy to use it against."

"Then why was it made?" Aeva asked.

"A hold out weapon; something made in preparation for use in an extreme case." Priit shrugged. "It's said that the People learned the arts of violence from the Three-Fold-Stag, Brother Wolf, First Bear, and the Orker."

"The Stag as patron of the Ember-Eyes, the Wolf for the Fangs, the Bear for the Frost-Scarred, and then the Orker for the orphan warriors." Aeva recited. "It was an old story, one that was old when my father was young."

"What if — hypothetically — there was an enemy who had learned at the foot of a different spirit?" Priit asked. "The coyote or the fox? A crow or raven? They could require a very different tool to dispose of them since they attack in ways that are utterly unexpected."

"Have you found such an enemy?"

"I had thought so," Priit responded. "You remember the reports that filtered back from the Northlands war? Dreams plaguing people every night, men going mad enough that they would rather slit their own throats than live another day. The experience was worse. Everyone lost friends, not only to the cruel madness of the Ivory-Blooded Chief's war, but to the demons that came in the night. Even to this day, the Northlands are unsure how they managed it. The Ivory-Blooded Chief had anointed himself with dark and bloody magic. He cloaked himself in spiritual secrets gleaned directly from his blood-sworn sister, the High Shaman. Out of every High Shaman the Northlands had, she was the most spritually touched."

"So much so that it twisted her in body," Aeva agreed. The corpse that had been delivered back to the Northlands had not been human. Warped beyond belief, it's body was wrong in fundamental ways: joints that twisted when they should have stretched; thin-spider like limbs; and glassy, bulging eyes.

"For many, the dreams didn't end after the Ivory-Blooded Chief died at my hand. For some, it did, but not for others. When the Northlands were brought to heel, the dream-terrors ceased in a few more people. As years of peace drifted by, others escaped the dream demons. Some never did. They died, at their own hands or at the enemy's, but some lived. Plagued. Every. Single. Night. There were so many questions of how the Northlands with their weak spirits could lay such a Curse upon us. Whomever laid it upon the warriors would need to know them personally. Their weaknesses. Their strengths. Blood ties, history, spiritual totems, all of the countless little things that go into making a proper Curse."

"Did you uncover the source of the spiritual malaise?"

Priit grunted, a half-hearted smile almost ready to break out on his lips. "It was a long investigation," he started. "But the answer is no."

Signaling to one of Aeva's aids that it was okay to approach and bring the mid-day meal, Priit hesitated when he saw exactly what Aeva received. Boiled black rice, mixed berries and mashed pumpkin, sweetened perhaps with a little too much maple sugar. It was a common meal for the elderly and the ill. The amount however... There was perhaps only a few mouthfuls of food in the elderly woman's bowl. Was that all she had been eating? Between the corn-and-apple stuffed turkey, quinoa bread, and berry paste set before Priit, he had to have at least four times as much food. He was unused to eating more than others, but that much? Only a child could eat so little.

"I looked hard, but found nothing in the end," Priit finally begun again, "At first, I looked in the wrong places. The Dream Curse was wielded with terrible efficiency against the People. It was a fearsome weapon of war that couldn't be escaped or defended against; it struck nearly at random. It was a perfect work of subtle magic geared for war. The Ivory-Blooded Chief and the Northlands were the obvious first suspects. When he died and the war ended, the Curse remained. How could that be? How could the enemy still live? It was obvious the enemy wasn't what I had expected. They were far more subtle and had an intimate knowledge of the spirits and a great font of power to enact such a black miracle. Whoever must have cast the Dream Curse was a wizened shaman of great power."

"How were you certain that this Curse was cast?" Aeva asked simply.

Priit barked with laughter at the response.

"That was what I didn't understand for the longest time. The spirits are capricious. Careless for whom they hurt. I was so used to fighting against other men and women that something without direction was impossible to grasp. Violence is a pure language; consumed with point and counterpoint between warriors dancing in opposition. There are always partners there — symmetry — and intelligence guiding actions. Not like the spirits and their secret ways. The Dream Curse was a disease, if extremely subtle. Men and women who had never raised a weapon for war could become afflicted, if much rarer. It's analogous to the Wracking Cough; the spirits punish those who stay outside in the rains and snows, a time where there should be no people. The Wracking Cough also affects a small number of those who are innocent of the crime and deserve no punishment. The spirits aimed the arrows... and they missed."

"The spirits are not unknowable," Aeva said. "Difficult to comprehend? Yes. Opaque? Even more so. There's much more to the work of curses and disease than them being punishments for crime. You're losing a lot of nuance. Speak to the shaman and the spirits can speak through them. "

"The spirits may seem understandable to one such as you, but not many are of your caliber. What little I've learned of the spirits has suggested to me that they are fallible. If the spirits are fallible, then what does that say about old women?" Grinning, Priit picked up the obsidian dagger at his side and returned it to its sheath. "Or middle-aged men. Mistakes, even terrible ones, are natural. There are a few thoughts I wish to discuss with you; a solution to the problems we've noted with the orphans of warriors."

When night finally fell, Priit and Aeva finished hammering out the few final details of the reforms to the warrior system. If families were too small to ensure that a warrior's children were protected and looked after, then they would need to work and be supported by something greater than families.

Priit left then, to return to his men, feeling lighter than he had since he was a boy.

How should the warriors be organized into interrelated tribes?

[ ] [Tribe] Based on descent from prominent children of Kaspar.
[ ] [Tribe] Based on extended kinship of warleaders who distinguish themselves in war.
[ ] [Tribe] Grouped based on common membership in a group of longhouses.
[ ] [Tribe] Grouped based on auspicious, but unclaimed, spiritual totems.
[ ] [Tribe] After they complete their training, assign warriors and their families to a tribe by lot.
[ ] [Tribe] Randomly assign tribes to all current warriors where they will reside permanently.

When the People's warriors finally made their way to the south, there was a silent horror in what they saw. The Peace Builders had fared extremely poorly in the years since the end of the Northlands War. Nihkuko had gone half mad at the devastation; at the half-empty longhouses and the abandoned tents. The list of friends and family members that he went to visit only to find an empty spot at the evening fire was ever growing. Others were said to be still alive, but beyond anyone's reach; the Cracktooth had taken them.

From the stories the Skalds relayed to the People, the Cracktooth tribe were a vicious group. From what Priit could gather, they were as bad as South Lake had been rumoured to be in times long ago. Each of their warriors carried a belt of teeth taken from slain enemies; skilled warriors carried even more. The bones of their kills were broken and stacked in great piles, a warning to those who fought against them. As a result, the People could see the touch of war nearly everywhere in the south; seeing a full battlefield ceded to their control or even worse, the sack of a settlement, was macabre beyond compare.

It was by far the worse fate to be captured by them. Women were taken as was often the case with raiders, but the children... They had a tendency to show up many years later, scarred and half-mad at the front of the Cracktooth's ranks. Distantly familiar faces, they were driven to kill those who had once called them kith and kin. Almost never did they respond to calls for surrender, to be reunited with their old families.

East of them resided the Bitter-Water tribe. A group consumed by madness, they would charge into conflict headless of death. Arrows and spears seemed to do nothing to them. They had no fear of fire or cold. All that seemed to work against them were crushing blows that smashed their skulls. Anything less was laughed off. One of the Peace Builders even insisted that he'd seen a Bitter-Water warrior pull himself up an impaled spear so that he could tear the throat out of his killer with his teeth.

West of the Cracktooth were the Roundstone tribe. Methodical warriors, they relied heavily on a unique weapon the People had never seen before. It was a long strap of braided leather, cupped in the center so that a smooth river stone could be set inside. The contraption was whirled above the head and released, sending the river stone hurtling. Somehow, the braided leather seemed to massively amplify the power of a throw like a spear-thrower would increase a hurled javelin. It was clever: unlike arrows or javelins which often took hours to make, river stones could simply be picked up anywhere. It was a fantastic hunting tool. In war, however? It seemed to lack the punch needed to tear through wood or bone armour. It would maim or even kill unarmoured warriors, but the People and most of the other southern fighters bore armour. They seemed to be compensating for that, if the rumours of them beginning to carry great, stone-headed clubs were true.

The last threat that the People could encounter were the Catseye. Incredibly distant, only small numbers of them were ever encountered at any one time. They often struck quickly from canoes, darting in like knives and the retreating with captives and loot. They were noteable for too reasons: first, was their weapons. Hard flint knives, they were cursed things. The slightest cut was almost certain to inflict devastating wound-rot. The Catseye would often be happy with inflicting a few simple wounds before retreating and allowing their magic to do its work.

The second, was something that People considered near blasphemous: they had sunstone! Or at least something that looked like it. It wasn't quite the citrine that the Ember-Eyes were so profoundly protective of, but something similar. The stone was more yellow than amber in colour and appeared to be cleft by a white line. It wasn't a crack; it was something intrinsic to the stone.

There were rumours of another tribe, one found north and east of the Peace Builders, but those were mostly just rumours. There had been no war in that direction for generations, the Peace Builders noted. Whoever had once thought to contest the southern peninsula had retreated and not returned.

It was into this carefully organized web of balanced tribes that the People arrived. And arrive they did with all the force of a thunderstorm. The constantly glowing Coloured Winds seemed to cow the southerners. They were unused to their nights being bathed in spiritual light; many of them hid behind their walls and ceded enormous amounts of territory without contest. The People, however, were familiar and further egged on by Horned Riders in their midst. The Coloured Winds were auspicious omens, not doom-driven.

A masterfully executed series of raids against the Cracktooth tribe terrified their warriors. The hounds of the Fangs filled the southern woodlands with barking growls promising a grisly end to whoever crossed the People. Echoing horns called in unison, promising a much faster, but just as fatal end. Each of the bone piles the Cracktooth were so proud of were dismantled; cracked open for marrow by the People's dogs. Their morale seemed to collapse a little bit more each time one of their ghastly totems was destroyed.

The Horned Riders served as the perfectly compliment to the wolves. While ultimately too small to really capitalize when the militia was put to flight, the caribou riders inflicted greatly disproportionate losses. Even when a large portion caribou overheated and died in the summer months, those that survived continued to prove their worth.

The sudden reversal in the war was great enough that Priit managed to successfully capture one of their settlements! The enemy's morale had fallen far enough that when the baying hounds surrounded their settlement, they had thrown open the palisade's gates and tried for a desperate escape. Weighed down by valuables and protecting vulnerable dependents, the great force of warriors surrounding the settlement's inhabitants failed to flee. It was a good idea, to concentrate force and then punch through the thin net that the People had laced through their territory, but it failed to taken into account the helpfulness of the Fangs and he skill of Priit's war planning.

Most of the warriors were slain in battle, but the survivors were quickly bundled up. As per tradition, they were sent back to the People's lands as Debtors. It strained supplies in the short-term, but it was either taking them as Debtors or slaughtering them wholesale. It was not a proper choice.

In the years following the victory against the Cracktooth, Priit moved his forces east against the Bitter-Water tribe. The war bogged down against them, but that was only to be expected; the Cracktooth had taken damage much more quickly than anyone could have expected. Priit expected that it would take a few more years before the People had whittled down the numbers of the Bitter-Water warriors enough that they could safely sack their westernmost settlement. If they didn't continue to attack, it was likely the Bitter-Water would swing at the Cracktooth tribe, they could see the weakness in them just as much.

On the other hand, the devastation in the south had lead to a re-emergence of the tribe the Peace Builders had forgotten about. Their first forays into the south were mostly tentative exploration, but they would be returning to the scene quite soon. That could either turn the situation even more chaotic, or be a grand boon. It would just have to be carefully managed.

How does Priit plan to continue the war? (Gained +1 Legitimacy due to war rolls and astrological phenomena)

[ ] [War] Continue to hammer away at the Cracktooth.
[ ] [War] Move to sack a settlement of the Bitter-Water tribe.
[ ] [War] Strike at the new Lakeland tribe.
[ ] [War] Try to reach out to the Lakeland tribe for an alliance.
[ ] [War] Help the Peace Builders to rebuild from the damage they previously took.

The Debtors sent back to the People have brought an enormous amount of free labour. How should they be used?

[ ] [Debt] Put them to work in the fields. (Expand Agriculture: Corn x3)
[ ] [Debt] Have them finish the half-built temple. (Raise Temple: Crystal Lake)
[ ] [Debt] Moving dirt builds character. (The Hill: Crystal Lake x2)
[ ] [Debt] The lands of the south are much better organized, use that. (New Trails x2)
[ ] [Debt] Found a new settlement for them. (Found Settlement: River-Bend)
[ ] [Debt] Take them, but let them be as much as possible. (???)

AN: Moratorium until tomorrow morning.

 

[Redium]

[X] [Tribe] After they complete their training, assign warriors and their families to a tribe by lot.
[X] [War] Try to reach out to the Lakeland tribe for an alliance.
[X] [Debt] Moving dirt builds character. (The Hill: Crystal Lake x2)

Priit slowly stood, carefully leveraging himself out of of the canoe until he could stand securely on dry land. He had never liked the smaller travel canoes and with his advancing age, that dislike was turning into a stronger and stronger distaste. The war canoes the people used up and down the Great and Valge Rivers or in Rahu Bay were superior in pretty much every way. They were larger, more stable, and could carry far more. Travel canoes capsized with a single shift in weight and could carry a mere three people. As his age crept on him, the delicate maneuver of getting in and out was becoming more and more difficult.

It was, however, necessary. The Lakelands were rough terrain, the lands rising and falling unpredictably in an ever expanding patchwork. For every step forward, you were more likely to have to take a half step up than not as well. The Lakeland tribes seemed to take an almost perverse pleasure in the inaccessibility of their land. More lakes dotted the region than there had ever been children born amongst the People; all of them were tangled in a mess of connecting rivers and portages. The only reason that they managed to find this place at all was the local guides that accompanied them.

As it was, Priit had to squint in order to see the shore so far away. The lake that he now stood on was definitely the largest that largest upon which he had ever stood. The sweetwater seas that surrounded their homes or the great salt to the east were likely larger, but they were different. To compare this lake, largest of them all, to either of those would be like comparing a mound to a mountain.

The Komuaspaiik as their guide had termed it, was a meeting place for the Lakeland tribes. The guide wasn't exactly clear why it was a meeting place for the Lakeland tribes, but all of their people had come together since time immemorial to talk and resolve disputes on the great island on the great lake. While it was a place central to the Lakeland, it wasn't centrally located. Instead, it was near the southwestern edge of their territory. It was convenient for Priit, coming north from battles against the Bitter-Water tribe, but it also left him concerned. The place would be particularly vulnerable for the raiders that could be following in his wake if negotiations went well.

It had taken the People years to get to this point; the Lakeland tribe had been deeply skeptical of the Fanged Folk wanting to talk to them. Many had said that it was more likely the People were planning to devour them and their children! It had taken gentle coaxing, gifts exchanged and long days spend in negotiation after negotiation had all led to this moment. It had not been a work of Priit's own. His presence was merely the maple sugar sprinkled on top of the work of a dozen cooks. Putting himself within the heart of the Lakelands' power was a concession; he would be at their mercy, even as he was able to address their congregation.

For the People, governance was simply a matter of finding the one individual, the Big Man, that could cajole the rest of the tribe to go along with their wisdom and wishes. Leadership between settlements was profoundly weak; it was an insult at best for one Big Man to intervene within the following of another. Even if it was an insult that happened all the time, if to little success.

The Lakelands were almost the complete opposite. Their government was ultimately driven by consensus. Everyone, no matter how great or how small, was permitted to speak their peace, to sway others with their honeyed words. It seemed to be impossible for them to find any one Big Man to fall behind. Instead, they had countless Little Men who would lead a band of one or two dozen at most, usually kith and kin.

The only exception to that was the Congregation.

Occurring once every five years, it was an absolutely enormous gathering of the Lakelands' disparate bands. Everyone attended. Without exception. It was at these Congregations that the great needs of the Lakelands would be addressed. The debates could last for many moons as everyone argued ceaselessly. Eventually, however, the winter's winds would begin to blow and the Lakelands would be forced to cease their debates. Questions of war, peace, building, settlements, marriages, everything would be settled. To refuse would invite reprisal; no one wanted to be trapped far from their homes when the lakes and rivers — the only way the bands had to move — froze solid.

The Congregation was absolute. To defy it was unthinkable. Priit's guide has explained once the word they used for individuals who opposed the Congregation's will. It meant to his understanding 'The Ones Offered', in the exact same context that an Ember-Eye would 'offer up' an amethyst to the kiln for purification to citrine.

Renegades were offered to the lakes that had birthed the tribe, but forbidden from actually joining the holy bodies as was proper at death. Instead, they died on land with their remains burned; drowned in a shallow bucket.

Once the Congregation was declared open on the longest day of the year, Priit was in his element. He was not the greatest speaker, even amongst the People, but there was one area in which he excelled: stories of glory and bloody songs of victory. The tales the would inspire young men to act and to war. The months that the Congregation took to decide anything allowed him to speak to countless groups of young, ambitious men. It was a careful act, to stoke the passions of those who felt ignored by the greater group. All of them were hunters; providers for kith and kin; but they were always sidelined. The elders preached the values of caution. Mothers thought of equity and shaman preached values of serenity and unity.

Those were not the things that filled a man's belly or kept his bed warm at night.

Further, they were shamed for their desire for glory. Hunting a great beast meant that it was likely some would die, wasting their lives and harming their families by their absence. Those that did manage to bring down bear, moose, or orker, were disparaged. 'The meat is near rotten,' the elders would say, 'Barely enough fat to justify cutting it off the bone,' they would add as they greedily took their own portion. When the hunters went out into the snowy depths of the Cursed Time, they were treated as... Debtors, and even that comparison was incomplete. Debtors were never so lowly. Women with whom the young men had discovered themselves were torn from them, given over to 'proper men' twice their age!

There was an angry hunger simmering just under the surface of the Lakeland tribe. All it needed was just the right spark; the hardest part was in ensuring that the conflagration didn't go off too early.

As the moons rolled by and the winter's winds drew ever closer, Priit knew that his course of action was the correct one. Negotiating with the elders, the matrons, and the band leaders would have gotten him nowhere. They as a whole seemed to disdain martial pursuits. There would be no talks of alliance with them. Not when they spread tales of what it had been like, once, to fight in the south; they were stories full of grief. The closest that they allowed the Lakeland tribe to come to violence was in their occasional flights from Bitter-Water raiders.

It was a belief that only hardened and hardened as young men (prompted by Priit) spoke about the horrors of the Bitter-Water tribe. Of the indignities done to the women that the enemy took and the mutilated remains of brave hunters they had left for the Lakelands to find. It was subtle, but there was a definite up-ticking as the moons passed. It culminated in an impassioned speech given by a young man who had lost everything. His parents, his siblings, his entire band had simply been wiped out or taken south by the Bitter-Water tribe. He had nothing left to live for.

"I will go south to join them," the young man promised. "One way," he hefted a heavy set of bow and arrows, "Or another."

"If you're set on going, you will join your family," one of the elders promised. Two guards approached with obsidian-pointed spears. "This Congregation will now allow any to go south and bring another disastrous war. Death and disaster is all that comes of such foolishness." The boy seemed to wilt. "You do not wash out blood with more blood. Begone. Return once you've aged and gained enough experience to know how the world works." The two guards reached out to grab the outspoken boy.

"No."

The boy seemed to start as every eye in the Congregation focused upon him. It took seconds more for him to realize that he was the one that had spoken.

"No," the boy said again, voice gaining in volume. "I refuse. I refuse you and I refuse this entire damned Congregation! You decry again and again and again the use of violence and force. When questions, it's the first tool that you reach for! When hunters spill blood to bring down moose and deer to fill your bellies, you denigrate us. When we stay behind to fight, to provide a few more desperate hours for the women and children to run from the maddened warriors of the south, you shake your heads and cluck your tongues. When the forests need to be burned so that we can plant crops, who is it the stays on land with torch in hand while everyone else retreats to the water?"

The young man was huffing, corded muscles swelling as if he had just run from dusk to dawn. His skin was flushed and his voice had risen to an echoing clarion call. "I name you hypocrite! Fool! Blasphemer and traitor!"

"Guards," the elder said simply, "Fetch the bucket."

They move to comply, but froze as soon as the young man knocked an arrow. It wasn't pulled back, yet, but it was clear the young man could loose it and hit one of the guards before the got close enough to use their spears. The second guard would run the young man through, but neither of the guards wanted to chance that they would be the one shot dead.

Everything seemed to freeze.

A second later, another young hunter stood up, drawing his bow and pointing it at the guardsmen. Three seconds later and another five had risen to join them. Within minutes there were more hunters standing than Priit could count.

He had picked his demagogue well. The young man had been nervous, but beneath that facade was a born leader. The type of person who could slap a friend on the back and get them to follow him into the teeth of the enemy with a grin on their face.

Priit gave the dog at his feet one last belly scratch as he stood and allowed the Congregation to 'agree' to send men south against the Bitter-Water tribe, alongside the People. His goal was accomplished. Why was it then that his insides felt rotten?

Regardless of his discomfort, convincing the Lakeland tribes to fight on the People's side proved to be the correct decision. The war in the south had turned noticeably against the Cracktooth tribe. Losing one settlement and having their morale devastated by the People's attacks left them out of position and hurting. Based on the reports of scouts, they had managed to launch one offensive, deep into the Bitter-Water tribe's southern heartlands. They had either found or triggered something there; all of the Bitter-Water tribe's numerous warriors had converged and desperately smashed the offensive before ravaging the Cracktooth's heartlands.

The only thing that prevented them from dealing irreparable harm to the Cracktooth were the intervention of the People and Lakelands. The single minded focus the Bitter-Water tribe had on destroying the Cracktooth left a gap in their defenses. Using that, under Priit's gaze, the People's warriors burned to the ground one of the Bitter-Water isolated northern settlements. The residents there were taken prisoner, some were sent to reward the Lakelands, but others returned to the People as Debtors, swelling their numbers larger than could ever be recalled.

What were the Debtors tasked with doing?

[ ] [Debt] Put them to work in the fields. (Expand Agriculture: Corn x3)
[ ] [Debt] Have them finish the half-built temple. (Raise Temple: Crystal Lake)
[ ] [Debt] Moving dirt builds character. (The Hill: Fingers x2)
[ ] [Debt] Found a new settlement for them. (Found Settlement: River-Bend)
[ ] [Debt] Several of the Debtors captured were makers of the tribe's eponymous bitter water. Make them produce some for the People. (???)
[ ] [Debt] Take them, but let them be as much as possible. (???)

The war in the south slowly settled down as the Cracktooth and Bitter-Water tribe glared hatefully at each other across expanses of forest. Both of them had been injured, the former more than the latter. It was impossible to take advantage of it, however, due to the knife of the Lakelands waiting in the hills north of the Bitter-Water tribe. The Cracktooth couldn't take advantage of that, because of the Roundstone and Catseye tribes hiding in the west. The second that the Cracktooth moved warriors from the west to bring additional pressure on their enemies, the Roundstone would attack viciously.

Throughout it all, the Peace Builders could quietly sit, lick their wounds, and consolidate their gains.

It wasn't a stable situation, however. Already, rumours floated from the west of a warlord rising among the Catseye, pressing the Roundstone harder than they had in generational memory. The second that the Roundstone looked away to deal with them, the Cracktooth would either take advantage of that, or fully turn to the Bitter-Water tribe.

Still, the time of relative peace gave Priit time to finally return home after years in the field.

He was glad he did: everything was a mess.

Aeva had finally died several years before, falling into confusion and weakness before simply falling to the ground dead a few hours later. Arguments sprung up in the aftermath almost immediately afterwards, before her body was even cold. What should be done? Who should lead us? How do we support the war? The People of Crystal Lake were paralyzed by indecision. Numerous pretenders immediately sprung up, trying to claim the title of Big Man and follow in Aeva's footsteps. The problem was, no one was able to fill those shoes. Every attempted leader simply lacked the necessary draw to bull most of the settlement's population into following them.

They seemed to lack some... quality that a leader needed to have. Kaspar-In-Flesh had it and his daughter, Aeva, had it as well. There were rumours that Priit might have it, but they were yet whispers. As a war leader in the south, he was simply too distant to be assessed by the average person, despite the effuse praise from the returning warriors.

When Aeva was finally laid alongside her father, the People spoke about the qualities that made Aeva worthy of the honour. The Cave of Stars was not large; there needed to be some criteria by which people were interred there. Some marker of greatness that set them apart from the common people. Aeva deserved it, but on what merits?

Looking back on Aeva's legacy, why do the People think that she was worthy to be a leader?

[ ] [Aeva] Aeva was an Ember-Eye: always in touch with the spirits.
[ ] [Aeva] Aeva was the daughter of Kaspar and born to rule.
[ ] [Aeva] Aeva was Great within her fields of experience.
[ ] [Aeva] Aeva brought Success to her endevours.
[ ] [Aeva] There really wasn't anything that made Aeva more worthy than any other. (-1 Legitimacy)

There had to be something special, because the old system no longer worked. Violence had erupted at Hill Guard as warriors filtered back up from the south. Several leaders newly acclaimed to their position returned wrapped in glory and overthrew the feuding Big Men that had thought themselves the potential rulers of the settlement. The numbers of murders were small, but they were increasing. If something was not done, then the entire settlement could explode into strife. Violence, the People had learned, could create authority; it just required someone willing to seize it. Most of those attempting to become Big Men in the old style had been slain. Nearly all of the competitors were now long-time warriors. Only a few of the original contenders remained and they rapidly grew even harder and harsher than those who returned from the south.

The only advantage that Priit knew he had was that his dominance of the People was unquestioned. He was acclaimed leader of the Fingers and Crystal Lake bowed to him as a successor of Kaspar-In-Flesh and Aeva. Hill Guard was too disorganized to resist; even if they might have wanted to, most of the warriors aspiring to be Big Men had fought under his command and offered him deep respect. If he were to make a proclamation, none would be able to gainsay him.

Faction Strife (Priit's Warriors): Resolved! +1 Prestige

The only questions was how to create something, a system that would ensure the People's current disruption would never return. He had seen the spiritual organization of the Northlands. He had witnessed the greed and force used to maintain the system of Arrow Lake. The assemblies of the Pearl Divers were familiar to him. The sacred council of the Peace Builders were close allies that he had fought alongside for years. Even the Lakeland's Congregation was familiar to him after years of negotiations.

None of those systems were perfect. No system, no person, or spirit was.

Priit knew that: his life was a product of mistakes made by the great. To assume that he could do better than Kaspar-In-Flesh or even Aeva was foolish. It was arrogant in the extreme. Profoundly so.

There was only one Priit could possibly see that might make things different: he knew that things would be twisted by successors to suit their needs. He knew that the People would make mistakes. He didn't need perfection, he needed something that would always be good enough.


Pick: 2 Actions, 1 Tribute Focus, and 1 Martial Action.

Spoiler: Actions

Annual Festival [Art] - The People deserve to party! Build morale by opening up the stockpiles and having a night of feasts, dancing, music and fun.

Expand Hunting (Dogs, Orkers, Traps, Herd Animals, Prize Animals) [Martial] - Improve upon the hunting techniques of the People. Work to increase the amount of meat that is available to consume and empower the People. A risky activity and one that requires a great investment of skill and energy, this provides the largest gains of food.

Expand Agriculture (Quinoa, Gourds, Corn) [Admin] - The People have come to realize the bounty of the world is often not enough. They need to tame it and carefully manage the foods that are so important in sating their appetites.

Expand Aquaculture (Wild Rice, Mussels, Fishing) [Admin] - Most of the People live close to a river and are able to gather one of numerous sources of food. Often much easier to obtain than food from hunting and much less risky, these sources of food are much more vulnerable to shifts of the seasons and that of the weather.

Explore (Specify?) [Martial] [Diplomacy] - There is much to be found in the world. Countless things, often placed by the hand of the spirits themselves. It is up to the People to find them.

Found Settlement (includes: Brick Wall, Shrine, Sugar Shack) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] - While the People build homes where they will, often where food or resources can easily be found, these places are settled without organization or care. By founding a formal settlement, it becomes possible for central authority to exert itself before the People become too fracas. (Requires: 2 tiers of Econ and excess population. Available locations: North Bay, River Fork, River Bend, Wide River. 1 settlement possible to found.)

Manage Forests (Sugar, Timber, Medicine, Gathering) [Admin] - While the forests provide the least of the People's food, they have provided that which is most useful. Sugar is wonderous in taste and highly sought after as a trade goods. Evergreen tea soothes aching bodies and quiets headaches. There is much to be found in the unknown, perhaps rare, but of significant value.

Promote Folk Wrestling [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] - The People are fracas and have a tendency towards physical confrontations and violence. By carefully channeling this tendency, it's possible to develop further skill at war and turn hunters into skilled and deadly raiders.

Raid ((Mountain Clans, Arrow Lake, Pearl Divers, Island Makers, Peace Builders, Enemies of the Peace Builders)) [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Retributive Justice] [Martial] - The hunting of beasts turns now into the hunting of men. Strike down those who oppose the People so that we may be kept safe.

Study Travel [Art] - Invest time in learning how most effectively to travel. The world is harsh and strange, learning how to traverse it will save the People much in effort and food.

Study Fire [Art] - The greatest and most capricious of spirits, fire is of immense use to the People. The recent discovery of lime and the founding of the Ember-Eyed has spurred substantial interest in developing understanding of this forceful spirit further.

Study Stone [Art] - A solid and stable spirit, the People have found numerous type of stone with different properties. How these properties can be best served to support the People is unknown. Learning to work the material will likely pay enormous dividends in the future.

Trade (Arrow Lake, Peace Builders, Pearl Divers, Island Makers, Northlands, Mountain Clans) [Diplomacy] [Martial] - It is clear that the People do not hold all that is significant within the world. There are other tribes that hold interesting, useful or beautiful objects. By offering up some as gifts, things that the People do not have will be provided in return.

Train Warriors (Warriors, Holy Order) [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] [Admin] - The People have warriors well trained in the art of killing. By diverting more young people into these professions, preparations for war can be established. In a way, it is like knapping obsidian into a knife. An action that takes deliberation and planning, forethought, to be useful.

Prepare for Ordeal [Trial By Fire] [Admin] - The spirits test the People, always. These tests are ones that require careful preparation and forethought. The People will be prepared. A crisis well managed is a sign of spiritual favour, one that's botched causes the People to further suffer.

Tribute Foci

Defense - Walls, Defensive Structures, Trails, Folk Wrestling
Food - Agriculture, Aquaculture, Herding, Hunting
Magic - Study Fire, Study Stone, Study Travel
Megaprojects - Current Megaproject
Rural Infrastructure - Settlements, New Trails, Manage Forests
Spirits - Temples, Ordeals, Festivals
Urban Infrastructure - Temples, Walls, Festivals, Trade
War - Raids, Train Warriors, Folk Wrestling
World - New Trails, Exploring, Trade, Hunting

Megaprojects:

Artificial River [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The Dam [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Inspired by the feats of ingenuity demonstrated by a large, but common, rat, the People have decided to emulate their creations on a more massive scale. By blockaded a river, it would be possible to accumulate an enormous amount of water, something that could easily be put to use.

The Law [Retributive Justice] [Admin] (4 Actions) - The People have countless stories and man ways of living. How is it that they are to determine the best way that one should live, both as an individual and as a member of a greater family? These traditions are opaque, constantly shifting and at times contradictory. Improvement and codification needs to be made for the People to benefit.

The World, A Shield [Supernal Symphony] [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] [Admin] (12 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The World in Miniature [Supernal Symphony] [Diplomacy] [Admin] (7 actions) - The world is a grand place, seemingly endless in scope. The People's exploration and search for wonders has pushed them to find a way to more effectively communicate discoveries with each other. Trail markers are a start, but they are not easily portable. More can be done.

A Temple, Grand [Supernal Symphony] [Art] (8 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The Sisters Three [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

A Field of Gold [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

Extended Projects:

Archaic Charcoal Kilns (Crystal Lake, Hill Guard, The Fingers) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] [Art] - The Ember-Eyes have discovered a secret of wood and fire. By carefully burning it, they can render it blackened and fragile. Somehow, this makes fire burn far hotter. How is it the elements dance when burning wood is not the same as wood cooked by fire?

Extend Fire Relay (Hill Guard) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (1 Action) - The Fire Relay has served as the backbone of the People's communication and movement between The Fingers and Crystal Lake for longer than memory. With the recent founding of Hill Guard, the vaunted relay no longer stitches the People from one end to the other. This oversight must be corrected.

Raise Temple (Crystal Lake, The Fingers) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] [Art] (2 Actions) - A ritual place where the spirits and those they touch can work. Special facilities for magic, resources, teachings and the spirits themselves are included.

The Hill (Crystal Lake, The Fingers) [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (2 Actions) - A hill made by man. A simple construct, but one that greatly raises the defensive value of a settlement.

New Trails [Wondrous World] [Admin] (9 or 12 Actions) - Inspired by the Fire Relay, these small trails are cut into the innumerable forests that surround the People. Serving as akin to veins in the body, they promote the free movement of goods and people.

Actions that could be locked in this turn: None

Automatic Actions: Trade (Arrow Lake, Northlands, Pearl Divers), Expand Aquaculture (Rice, Fishing), Prepare for Ordeal, Manage Hunting

Special Options for this turn: None

Note: Failing to take a [Supernal Symphony] action will cost 1 Stability! Can Double Down at cost of 1 Stability on an action by adding a sub tag to that specific action.


AN: Voting is currently locked until the morning where I unlock it. The front page hasn't been updated yet (you lost 1 Stability due to civil strife in Hill Guard and gained a bunch of prestige). Further, I have been thinking of changing the game system with the upcoming Law reform. A pure narrative approach isn't offering as much challenge as I wanted. Often times there's little meaningful choice involved; I would like for decisions to be harder. If anyone has any thoughts on possible reforms, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Redium]

[X] [Debt] Several of the Debtors captured were makers of the tribe's eponymous bitter water. Make them produce some for the People. (???) -> Brewing
[X][Actions] Plan Pretty Much Obligatory
-[X][Action] Raise Temple (Crystal Lake)
-[X][Action] The Law [Retributive Justice] [Admin]
-[X][Martial] Train Warriors (Warriors)
-[X][Tribute] Megaprojects - Current Megaproject (The Law x3 [Due to Exceptionally High Dice Rolls])
[X] [Aeva] Aeva was the daughter of Kaspar and born to rule.

As Priit slowly aged into his elder years, he did something that he had never had foreseen himself doing: he set down his weapons. It wasn't that the spear had become heavy in his hand, there were days where it seemed the entire thing had been carved from stone instead of just the tip. No, the fact was that there simply weren't any more wars to fight. At least, there would be no more wars that could be fought with mere sticks and stones.

Instead, in the last years of his life, Priit would devote himself to a war far more subtle and yet far more insidious: that of human nature.

He had been visiting some of the People's outlying farms, speaking to the people there so that he could hear their opinions and learn about their lives. It wasn't something that a Big Man could do often, much less a warleader like himself. Normally, when he needed information, he turned to one of his subordinates who asked one of their subordinates in turn. It was like there was a layer of fog between his eyes and those of the people actually doing things. He hated that as a young man, but he'd needed to grow adept at it as more and more warriors fell under his command.

It was a tricky style of leadership that allowed someone to command a host greater than what should have been possible, but there were also obvious downsides: it placed a film across the eyes. When Priit had spoken to the outlying farmers, he'd heard from them about the Debtors that had been quietly moved out to assist them years ago. They were the survivors of the Debtors who had worked to construct the Hill in Crystal Lake; the fortification had been built on corpses buried under soft earth and mud. Blood and bone had been turned into mortar by the widespread negligence of the People.

At the time, Aeva was dying and could not oversee the project. Priit himself was moons away, fighting in the south. The ones overseeing the project simply lacked the skill to really manage it. They did not appreciate the fact that the Debtors taken from the Cracktooth tribe had no experience working with earth on a large scale. They did not know that the Debtors were ignorant of basic risks like mudslides and hill collapse. It was as if... Priit struggled for a moment to think of an example. It was like a parent forgetting to tell a young and foolish child that stoneware used to cook could remain dangerously hot long after it was pulled from the fire. Normally, no one would make that mistake; only the most uninformed would ever do so. It was such a basic truth of life that it was impossible to expect someone not to know it.

It was an understandable mistake, if profoundly unfortunate; the man trusted to manage was simply not up to the task since he never knew how to be.

When Priit had first heard the truth, however, his reaction had been more... unfortunate. For a time, the red and bloody rage of his youth had returned. His vision had been bolted out by the dying colours of a bleeding sun and his breath had come like bellows in his ears. His heart had drummed; thump, thump, thump, while he acted on instinct and struck the ground in rage. It was only a few moments, but he had felt profoundly weak afterwards, drained by the sheer insanity of the feeling with ebbing, aching pain radiating from his left arm, across his chest and up to his jaw.

He was thankfully far removed from Crystal Lake at the time since it had taken him days to fully calm down from the incident; days before he realized that skinning the manager and nailing his hide to the top of a post was not a solution to the problem.

Reforms were needed: the People could no longer operate as they once had. Their number had simply grown so great that it was impossible for one person to raise themselves to the top of the People with strength and skill and then direct the thousands that made up the population. It was simply too difficult for most to learn how to be a leader. Between the mysteries of the Holy Orders, the divergence between disparate settlements and the magnitude of construction that went on each year, there was simply too much to know for the average Big Man. Securing a position of leadership in with thirty or forty years to their name, left little time before a new, young up-and-comer would come to displace the Big Man. Only the greatest of Big Men could avoid the wasting irrelevance of age; most Big Men were discarded within a decade or two at most.

The People needed to start younger, almost from childhood, like the Holy Orders did with their best and their brightest. Leadership of thousands was a complex task. Ensuring that each person had enough food and supplies, that none of the wrong feathers were ruffled unnecessarily, that the spirits were properly honoured and half a hundred other tasks required extensive experience. With that in mind, Priit simply started to invite some of his young children and grandchildren to accompany him during his duties. They did little, for the most part, but having them sit in to watch supplies being redistributed or plans made to finalize the new temple at Crystal Lake with blocks of quartz, or a mediation to resolve violence between one of the Fangs and an Ember-Eye taught them many valuable lessons.

Priit was initially surprised at how positive the reception was at his decision. Many spoke to him of his vision in seeking to train the next generation of leaders. The fact that the children he selected were close kinsmen was barely remarked upon; wasn't in natural for a father and grandfather to show the next generation the best of their skills? Was this not akin to the apprenticeship system that Aeva had shown Kaspar-In-Flesh intended? The fact that he had picked children sharing descent from Kaspar-In-Flesh only caused the move's legitimacy to soar. Kaspar's descendants had produced great things. Priit and Aeva were foremost, but even Kaspar's lesser descendants had become influential warriors, shaman, and leaders.

Skill was carried best in families; it was obvious to see. It was, perhaps, not direct from father-to-son, or mother-to-daughter, but there was a recurring tie; Kaspar was Aeva's father and Priit's own great-great-grandfather. Based on what Priit could see, one of his Winterborn granddaughters born the same spark as People's past three leaders.

Trait Gained: Bloodline Inheritance!

Spoiler: Bloodline Inheritance

There is something within each person that carries skill and knowledge, this fact is self-evident to the People and it is best to cultivate these unique talents from birth. The best potter is the one who learns at the knee of their father and mother; playing at their side with clay castoffs and helping them fulfill their duties. There are exceptions of course, some individuals do not carry the skill of their fore-bearers. These embarrassments are ruthlessly replaced for the shame they bring to their families. Bloodlines that fail to replace their own are weeded out in turn, just as the master hunter carefully culls the weak in a herd to protect it.
Effects: Increase the Specialization cap by 100%, raise the Hierarchy cap by 50%

With the next generation of the People's leaders slowly being trained, Priit had to ask himself: how should he teach them to lead? There were some obvious answers to that: they should be smart, skilled speakers, good warriors, organizers of men and material, along with a dozen other roles. What they should lead in was obvious, but how should they lead the People?

To Priit, it was clear that the old ways no longer worked. The People could no longer allow themselves to be ruled by Big Men constantly competing and fighting, sometimes literally, for prestige. Hill Guard was a mess, a slow roiling boil of back alley and dark forest murders between those that aspired to lead; it was rare for a moon to go by now without broken bodies being swept out into Rahu Bay. Hunters were no longer willing to travel the deep woods any more. No potter felt comfortable collecting clay from the riverbank and traders were slowly starting to shun the settlement. It was rare for those without aspirations to die, but if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, it was just as easy to slit two throats as one.

The warriors had been powerless to stop the carnage; in some cases they had even been directly implicated! Life was slowly grinding to a halt as the People of Hill Guard found themselves suffocated by fear and uncertainty. There had always been some level of violent problem solving, but as the People grew more and more populous, it became ever easier. No longer would an ambitious Big Man have to overcome the reluctance inherent in plotting murder one of their cousins or a dear family friend. Now they killed people completely unknown to them. It was easy to gather a small group of four or five, arm them with bow and spear, before going on a hunt of a different sort.

With leaders now being limited and trained from childhood, it was the perfect time to nip those problems in the bud. If they weren't... Priit dreaded to think of it. A leader trained from birth could manage things far more effectively than one who picked it up late in life. How much worse could their infighting be?

If things were allowed to stay the same, the future would be an unending time of blood, where kith and kin struck against each other.

[ ] [Gov] The People should deffer now to a single leader.
[ ] [Gov] The People should formalize their Council of Three forevermore.
[ ] [Gov] The People should have a council with a representative of each settlement.
[ ] [Gov] The People should govern themselves foremost locally, coming together for larger issues.
[ ] [Gov] The People's rulers should build ties within themselves so that they no longer fight for power.

With the matter of leadership solved, Priit finally turned himself to his final ambition: the Law. The word itself was strange; Law was a little known way of saying 'something fixed in place'. It was often used to describe the People's building, their Wonders, and their fiercest warriors. Priit wanted to harness that strength, that resilience, so that the rules he laid down today would endure for all time. To ensure that was possible, Priit knew that the Law would need to be known by everyone, regardless of station. Each child was to be instructed on the Law's particulars during the long and idle moons of winter.

Still, he knew stories could change over time. What of Kaspar-In-Flesh? He had been Aeva's father and by the time of her death, could anyone be said to truly know him? He was the first to ascend to the spirits, that was well known, but what of the other stories? Was he really eight feet tall with the strength of ten men? Could he have hacked in half three warriors with a single swing of his Blacksword? Did he really have eyes of purest flame?

It was impossible to know.

It would not, however, be impossible to know the Law. Priit had ordered it carved on the wall of each and every Temple of the People. A new pigment had recently been discovered by the Ember-Eyes: a brilliant red colour. Combined with amethyst, ocher, citrine, obsidian, and plaster, there were more than enough colours to created beautiful murals. Ones that would hopefully stand for all time.

The Law would be depicted:

[ ] [Record] In full, as well as the People could commit it to stone.
[ ] [Record] In metaphour, understood best through study and understanding.
[ ] [Record] As a supplement, a way to expand on the stories that the People would tell.
[ ] [Record] In pictures, demonstrating the proper ways to live.

Priit knew that the Fingers lacked a Temple and would not take the slight lightly that they were unable to have their own depiction of the Law, but he could not wait. Age pressed down upon him. He vowed that they would have one within a generation.

As for the Law itself, that was determined after countless moons, years, of discussion. It was the purification of every story and tradition passed down from the elders to their grandchildren. There had always been parables, half-truths, and other myths that the People believed, but they varied; sometimes even between longhouses in the same settlement! By taking all of the tales, the People could focus on the ones that served them properly. Everyone, from the greatest leader to the lowest farmer, held treasured memories of learning at the knees of the grandparents during the long, dark moons of winter. These tales spoke to each one of the People, forming the basis of their decision-making. None of these tales were strictly the Law, but they built up to that point. By building the Law a top a foundation of these childhood stories, it would influence each one of the People, from now until the end of time.

At their core, the Laws were a command, perhaps the most ambitious one Priit had ever given. They were a collection of truths on how the People should live. A single collection which was universal and would be maintained. It would be impossible, Priit knew, to find something to apply to every situation. All he could do was encode a few truths and hurl them into the future, hoping that future generations would pick up the burden in turn for future generations.

In the end, Priit decided that the core message he would send was:

[ ] [Core] On Behalf of Future Generations.
[ ] [Core] Revere the Spirits
[ ] [Core] Social Unity
[ ] [Core] Balance of People
[ ] [Core] Power in all Things
[ ] [Core] Benefit the Land

Megaproject Completed: The Law (Neolithic)!

Spoiler: The Law (Neolithic)

The People's code of laws are beyond ancient, more of a primordial mien, from a time that's literally lost to time. Primarily, the Law is a collection of codified stories, a canon that shows the People how to build a good life. While still open for further development, the Law goes a long way to creating a uniformity of culture and expectation of internal unity.
Effects: Increase Centralization cap by +1, grant access to Push Unity action, accelerate development of Culture resource, ???

Legacy Gained: Primordial Law

Spoiler: Primordial Law

The People's Law is of an ancient sort, far beyond recorded history. Nonetheless, the mores and values instilled by the stories, myths, and fables, are an enduring part of the People's legacy. In time, they will shift, but the underlying message; that the People's ancestors had entrusted their children with a great covenant of faith to truly make their own and develop with their own wisdom, was greatly reassuring.
Effects: Gain a one time Stability increase when completing a Social Reform megaproject.

When everything was finally done, Priit felt free for the first time in his life. As the years moved on, it seemed like a smile was permanently fixed to his face. Working with children, resolving disputes, none of the difficulties of leadership could possibly bother him. Here he was, an elder, and these few years were the first that he could recall without war. No comrades choking on their own blood, none impaled and left to die over the course of days. No more kith and kin whom he saw leave with a wave confident wave, never to return.

None of the tales coming up from the Island Makers bothered him. The tales of a tribe in the far off west having tamed the unconquered sun and brought the celestial orb to earth were impressive, but far removed. Stories of scarred men slowly showing themselves along the south shore of the Island Makers lake, were also distant. The Pearl Divers returning, having completed the final Saltern that they could within their lands and bringing with them more of the precious substance than the People could ever use, was a happy moment. The fact that the Pearl Divers further realized the People's wisdom in seeking challenge left him nothing but pleased.

Spiritual Advisers Triggers: Whole Hearted -> Trial By Fire

It was only when a young man from Arrow Lake approached him in audiance at the Fingers that Priit's smiled died for the first time in years.

"We know," the young man had said in his own tongue. "Of how you supply the Worker Tribes. This ends. Today. You conspire and enable their crimes against the Bluestone People. In gracious recompense for your crimes of theft, murder, and treachery, the Ancients of the Lake have allowed you a single opportunity to redeem yourselves. The losses you've inflicted on us will be compensated for. For every man, woman, or child harmed, you shall provide one individual to the Ancients so that their lost labours can be made up. You have one moon to begin providing Debtors." The People's word tested almost poisonous on the young man's tongue.

As the boy turned and left, something came over Priit and he felt tears fall from his eyes for the first time in years.

How do you respond to Arrow Lake's ultimatum?

[ ] [Ask] Concede on every point.
[ ] [Ask] Partially concede. Stop feeding the Mountain Clans and raid them for workers to pay off Arrow Lake.
[ ] [Ask] Refuse all of their demands.
[ ] [Ask] Bring it, boy.

AN: Sorry this took so long. You managed to gain an extra action on The Law due to spectacular rolls (100, 98, 89) so I had to rush through the system changes faster than I thought I would need to. They will be up in 20.0, whether that's next update or in two updates.

 

[Redium]

[X] [Gov] The People's rulers should build ties within themselves so that they no longer fight for power. -> Government Upgrade: Ancient Aristocracy
[X] [Record] In metaphour, understood best through study and understanding.
[X] [Core] On Behalf of Future Generations. -> Value Level Up: Blood of my Brothers -> Familialism
[X] [Ask] Bring it, boy.

Aart was a decorated Bluestone Warrior of the Lake, grandson of the Most Ancient and grandnephew to two more. Four captures in war had been made to his credit and last he heard, had risen to the highest consideration for the honour of a third wife. Even the lowly Indebted he had taken from the Worker Clans had all been refined into exceptional specimens. They worked diligently, planting and harvesting fields of corn during the spring and summer months and dug through the Bluestone foothills during the summer. Each of them had earned the Rights of Half-Manhood and, in the distant future, one of them may earn the Full Rights of Man. He hoped their promotion to be soon; it was unheard of for the Captor to remain of equal rank with his Indebted, their promotion would be his.

When the war started against the Two-Soul Tribe, his ambition had been high. The Two-Souls lived north of the Lake, along a gently flowing river where it intersected with half a dozen other tributaries. The location was a good one, easily accessible to numerous different tribes from the frozen north to the southern seawater seas and from the rising to setting sun. They had grown rich and fat off the goods they could trade there; taking salt from the northeast, mica and pottery from the south, and the People's own bluestone.

Above it all, they sat there, waiting; decked out with fine, black sharpstone weapons. For their finery, however, it seemed that the Two-Souls were not as great warriors.

Eventually, the Meat Eaters of the north had gotten fed up with the Two-Souls taking their ivory in exchange for baubles. Aart wasn't sure what the incited the two to war beyond a perfidious murder, but it prompted a vicious cycle of destruction. Aart had only heard stories about that time, but it sounded as if the Meat Eaters had gone mad. Their insanity had granted them strength, however, and they ended up prevailing over the The Two-Souls. The Meat Eaters took slaves from their defeated enemies; hunters, fishermen, gatherers, and numerous other professions.

In the following years, they wisely kept the Two-Souls numbers culled. Every time the People's traders visited the Two-Souls at Riversmeet, they showed fewer and fewer warriors. Their young men were lost or taken away while their weak and their women were allowed to live on. The Most Ancient said that it reminded him of how the People kept the Worker Clans culled of threats. There were always individuals willing to pick up spears and stone with black murder in their minds, but they were few. Warriors needed someone to guide them and encourage them to war. A shining exemplar.

It was with that full confidence that the Most Ancient had ordered his warriors to exert their power over the Two-Souls. The weaker half of the Elder Council demanded an reason for the attack, but a reason was rapidly found. The Two-Souls had become so weak that they were forced to pay off the Worker Clans in food and other plunder. Sheltering and offering succor to the enemies of the People were a just cause for war that even the most cowardly of Elders could deny.

All the spirits under the dome of the sky had shown their favour to the People as they always did. Aart and his brothers of war managed to reap a fantastic toll on the enemy! If anything, the war had gone even further in their father than the one against the Worker Clans. Everything could have gone right, did! The Two-Souls didn't have enough warriors to really contest their raiders; farms and outposts burned, their men slaughtered while women and children were efficiently carried off. The river that led back to the Lake made it nearly trivial to move loot and Indebted back home.

Why had they not done this before, Aart wondered? Fighting the Two-Souls was even easier than fighting the Worker Clans! With them, war parties had to march up and down the narrow passes they called home. At times, the trails narrowed enough that it was necessary to scramble over broken stones. What should have been a brief, easy journey in any other terrain took up half a day!

The only advantage of fighting in the mountains was that it trapped the Worker Clans as much as it hindered the People. Once the clans were defeated, they couldn't flee and everything was ripe for the taking. The rhythm was different with the Two-Souls; there was more maneuvering, running back and forth, posturing, compared to the Worker Clans. Violence was risky. Even a simple injury could mean death if wound-rot set in. With them, violence was explosive; hours trekking through the forest ended in an ambush and only an instant of combat. If an ambush wasn't possible, or one side failed to bring overwhelming force, retreat was inevitable. If after some posturing from the young and hot headed.

Regardless of the strange style of war, the first few years of the war brought a bounty to the People that Aart had never possible imagined. Salt and sugar, once rare commodities were present at every meal. Blackened sharpstone, once so rare that only a handful of the People's best could use it, suddenly became so common that it was used as jewelry. That also ignored the shear breadth of baubles that the haughty Two-Souls constantly adorned themselves with.

Aart exalted in glory. Until, suddenly he couldn't.

The Antlered One arrived.

Aart never saw his face, but the Antlered was old and weathered; most of his hair had gone white and his skin was stretched taught across spotted flesh. Despite his age, the Antlered One he bore a club at his side, one that was carved in detail and studded with numerous sharpstone shards. Despite his age, he was power incarnate.

Whenever one of Aart's kinsmen went up against the Antlered One, they died. Their corpses would sometimes be found, days later and savaged by beasts. Hounds constantly stalked through the woods and Aart found it almost impossible to avoid them. They seemed to have a prenatural sense, something that would let them track the People's warriors wherever they traveled. It seemed that only time and torrents of rain would prevent them from being tracked.

That first year after the Antlered One arrived was the worst of Aart's life. When the snows had finally fallen that year, it was like a great weight had been lifted from his shoulders. It meant rest and relaxation. A chance for him to see and enjoy his wives for the first time in several moons.

It meant he had scarce half a moon before the demons arrived.

The creatures looked like men, but they were clearly anything but. More likely they were something else that the Two-Souls had bargained with. A great spirit in the Antlered One, and countless hungry ghosts for the demons. Aart had killed one, by some miracle. A frantic fight in the darkening twilight; a spear hurled in panic, and the creature had dropped. After Aart's allies fended off the other demons, he rolled his kill over to reclaim the remains of his spear and Aart was horrified by what he saw. The creature looked human, but it had no nose; its left hand had three fingers, its right four. Around the demon's neck was a set of grisly trophies; ears, cut from what Aart were sure were his kinsmen. Neither did it bleed when Aart pulled his spear from its body. There was blood on the spear point, but it was congealed. Thick and sticky; it was almost clotted.

When spring rolled around again, the Antlered One and his host of beasts returned. It was an unrelenting style of assault, one that the People were unused to. Hunger started to slowly settle in as the Indebted were unable to return to their farms for fear of being taken. This was compounded with the fact that each of the People's warriors were also hunters; a warrior needed to show their ability to kill and their resourcefulness to be a warrior at all. They didn't hunt enough to fully cover their own needs, but the supplement was a necessary part of their diets.

If Aart had to explain what was going on, it was that his People were slowly being suffocated. They could still farm relatively unmolested in the south, far beyond the Lake, but that meant transporting meat, grain, and other foodstuffs to the north. Those transports were not invulnerable; well protected, perhaps, but not invulnerable. A single canoe being sunk or hijacked meant that a hundred people would go hungry for several days. A caravan lost meant that the entire northern settlement wouldn't be able to eat.

Meat also was becoming a scarce commodity. The warriors could no longer go out to hunt in the north safely and going to war with the Two-Souls severed their supply of salt and sugar. Several of those who had become Indebted knew the secret of making both and neither was something that could be manufactured where the People were. Salt needed a special type of water and sugar needed a special type of tree. Neither were available, the Indebted had said, regardless of how much pressure was applied. Smoking and drying were still options for preservation, but with the Two-Souls turning the forests around the People's home into charnel houses, it was another unreliable one. Going out for an armful of firewood meant taking your life into your own hands.

It frustrated Aart, seeing his friends and family suffer by inches. Seeing his wives go hungry while his children slowly died. There was nothing that he could do except go out and ward off the enemy, killing them on rare occasions. Hoping against hope that the Two-Souls would finally run out of warriors before they finished suffocating the People.

Distracted, Aart didn't see the yellow eyes shining in the underbrush. He heard the brief whistle, but something heavy hit him, stunning him and driving him to the ground. There was a flash of white and then pain everywhere.

Something broke.

(...)

Priit huffed, ordering his Fangs to retreat without words. Their obedience was absolute and they spat out the bloody flesh that had been in their mouths. All around him, the others in his war party were finishing off their own kills or chasing the enemy fleeing into the woods. Howls started to pick up from all around them, announcing the People's presence properly.

"String up the corpses," he said, "So that their kin know to find them." It was both a message and a mercy. The tribe of Arrow Lake would know their kin were dead, but they would have bodies to bury properly. Priit didn't know what it was; what he intended it to be. "Likely both," he sighed bitterly.

What could he do? As it sat, the People were strangling Arrow Lake, burning their fields and forcing the hunters and fishers to remain close to home. It was a slow war, but what else could be done? Storming the walls around their settlement would be nearly impossible. The People would sooner paint the walls red with their own blood than breach good, fired clay.

The warriors of Arrow Lake had met surprising success in the first few years of the war. They had actually been out maneuvering the People... somehow. It hadn't lasted once Priit finally took the field, but the victory he brought tasted like ashes. No one from Arrow Lake could be considered Priit's equal, even in his old age; they had gotten by on pure luck.

It was dangerous for someone his age to take the field, Priit knew. Men far, far younger than him had called it quits to raise and train their grandchildren. He should've been the one to raise and train his grandchildren. Not like he was now, in tree-covered hollows, hiding from enemy patrols, but at home in front of the hearth. He had done that at first, entrusting the war to younger men, providing them only with advice as it was necessary. Allowing them to learn and to fail and to die in some cases. Priit wasn't going to live forever; Kaspar-In-Flesh had not, Aeva had not.

It wasn't to be, though.

The People had needed him; too many were dying at the hands of Arrow Lake due to their miraculous luck. Widows and orphaned children had come to him, tears in their eyes. They had sat on their knees and begged Priit for his intervention, to save their sons and husbands.

And so he had obliged.

Donning the great antlered war-mask and picking up his personal blacksword for the first time in what must have been ten long and peaceful years. His dogs had been happy for the exercise, to run alongside him and kiss the wind between tree and root. Even as it made Priit's inside's curdle.

Was this what Aeva had felt? Was this the reason she cling to power, even to the point where she was dying?

It made sense. A twisted horrible sense. The spirits sent their tests, always pushing to see where the People would break. It was necessary, but...

In the end, as Priit lived out his last days covered in blood, slaughtering men and women a quarter of his age. He died a death that could not be fought and felt only a single emotion.

[ ] [End] Regret
[ ] [End] Bitterness
[ ] [End] Apathy
[ ] [End] Anger
[ ] [End] Resignation

What should the People try to defeat Arrow Lake in war?

[ ] [War] Try and assault the walls of their settlement directly.
[ ] [War] Continue to strangle Arrow Lake's food supply.
[ ] [War] Try and divide Arrow Lake's two settlements so they can be conquered piecemeal.
[ ] [War] Invite the Mountain Clans to settle and dig into Arrow Lake's territory.

AN: Voting is in moratorium until tomorrow morning. Alongside the changes to the resource system, I'm also going to implement a few changes to Research and Values. Research is just going to explicitly quantify how close you are to certain major developments. For Values, I'm just going to abstract the names since coming up with unique names is very hard.

The Law vote nearly being a tie will come up.

 

[Redium]

From Stone to the Stars Version 2.0
​

This system update is primarily going to show the new stats and what they mean in the context of the front page. I'll present things section by section and then give a break down of what they mean. Italicized sections are there to help in aiding understanding. They will not actually appear on the front page.

Civilization Stats

General
Craftworks: Tiny Surplus (Tiny Deficit)
Diplomacy: Small Surplus
Luxuries: Tiny Surplus (Tiny Deficit)

Specific Luxuries in Demand: Beer​

Magic: Small Surplus
Material: Moderate Deficit (Moderate Deficit)

Specific Materials Needed: Clay, Wood​

Martial: Moderate Surplus (Small Surplus)
Mysticism: Moderate Surplus
Staples: Small Surplus (Equilibrium)

Arboriculture: Coming Soon
Farmers: Near Capacity [???]
Fishermen: Significant Capacity Remaining [Significant Capacity Remaining]
Gatherers: Some Capacity Remaining
Herdsmen: Coming Soon
Huntsmen: Half Capacity Remaining [Some Capacity Remaining]
​

What do the Stats represent?

Craftworks: A general accounting of manufactured goods and other things of skilled making; pottery, tools, weapons, bricks, etc. These are secondary or tertiary products that tend to see their final use.

Diplomacy: How much other tribes want to interact with you. Any surplus means that you attract more than you scare away. The magnitude of the surplus provides a bonus to any interaction rolls with other civilizations

Luxuries: How much the People have access to the good things in life: alcohol, dyes, spices, sugar, fine textiles, etc. The higher you manage to raise this stat, the more that the People will eventually come to expect. Your demand for luxuries will grow with time. Luxuries are great at making people happy.

Magic: Represents the amount of skilled, intellectual labour that you have access to. In the modern day, these types of professions would be highly educated ones; engineers, doctors, midwives, etc. They are very much on the practical or professional side of the intellectual spectrum.

Material: Is your current access to raw materials. Primarily, right now, that's obsidian, lumber, clay, crystal and stone. In the future this will include things like copper, iron, bronze, marble, rubber, etc. Any type of unfinished good used to make something else would be recorded here. The subsection here notes materials that your civilization is in specific need of. While Materials are a category are completely interchangeable, their source does matter. Since you use a lot of brick, you need more clay. Increasing your Arborists (and thus the amount of wood you make) will mean that you slowly start transitioning away from bricks to using wood.

Mysticism: The 'pure science' side of intellectual labour. These individuals would be philosophers, scientists, theorists and analysts in the modern day. Needless to say, this stat greatly influences your research rate. It is also generally very hard to raise.

Staples: Are food and other basic everyday necessities. The sub-sections underneath food show you roughly how much space you still have to expand within your current territory. Once you hit that cap, you'll either need to innovate or capture territory from elsewhere. Running out of Staples tends to do Bad Things.

Why are some of these in parenthesis?

The values outside of the parenthesis are the actual balance of resources that you can muster right now in totality. The section in parenthesis shows what's generally accessible to the average person. You may not be able to muster your full resources because of supply limits, transportation difficulties, weather, technological or communication limits, etc. Deficits caused by this aren't as bad as if they were a deficit of the actual Stat, but they do cause problems. Especially if you run low on Staples.

Note the hard brackets [ ] as well. Those indicate limits that you can exceed, but will begin causing long-term damage to that particular resource. If you have to exceed it, it's fine, but if you exceed it for too long, people will begin to wonder why it was a limit at all.

Endurance
Stability: Happy
Legitimacy: Inspired!
Prestige: 35
???

Why does his section look the same but work completely differently?

This section has changed a lot despite looking the same. Stability now is on a number line from -100 to 100. At your current level of understanding you can peg it as 'Happy' which is a positive value, but nowhere near the cap. There are certain (currently hidden) thresholds on this number line. Going to low will trigger issues with factions, possibly leading to rebellion if left unhandled. High stability levels increase your civilizations general happiness and productivity, potentially leading to a true Golden Age.

Note: Low Stability isn't strictly bad. While risky, it does give you the opportunity to begin address issues that are cropping up in your civilization. A controlled low Stability dive will be necessary to resolve some issues before they explode.

Legitimacy has been completely repurposed. It now describes the general trajectory that your Stability is travelling. Inspired! means that it's increasing rapidly. Negative words show a more downward trend over time.

Prestige still remains the same.

Organizational
Centralization: 2
Hierarchy: 3
Religious Authority: 3.75
Specialization: 4

This section is unchanged. Things are basically unchanged until Technology/Concepts.

Trade

Spoiler

Trade Good	Status	Competitors
Luxuries
Common Pottery	Leading	Island Makers
Dyes	Little	Peace Builders, Island Makers
Furs	Substantial	Everyone
Gems	Dominant (Arrow Lake, Pearl Divers, Island Makers)	Arrow Lake, Pearl Divers, Island Makers
Ivory	Leading (Northlands)	Northlands
Medicine	Little	Peace Builders
Strategic
Obsidian	Dominant	None
Salt	None	Pearl Divers
Slaves	No Export	Peace Builders, Mountain Clans
Stone	Competing	Arrow Lake, Everyone
Cultural
Pilgrimage	Dominant	Peace Builders

Government Type

Ancient Aristocracy

The word Aristocrat tells everything that you need to know about the People's leaders; they are the best. Trained from birth, this class provides the People with their leadership and their guidance. Taller, stronger, and smarter than many of their peers, the aristocrats demonstrate that not everyone is equipped to lead and to succeed. Despite that, these aristocrats work together to represent the People as a whole and guide them as best their wisdom allows.
Pros: Development occurs organically and rapidly, increased average leadership skill, increased cultural stability
Cons: Does not deal with with high Hierarchy, beware intra-aristocrat conflicts

Economic Type

Internal Gift Economy/External Barter

Just as the People lend their voices to their chosen leaders, they also entrust gifts unto them. The People know that their leaders will put their gifts to best use within the People. As they pay up, there is an expectation that rewards then flow down to them.
Centralization Range: Very Low -> Low
Specialization Range: Very Low
Hierarchy Range: Very Low
Religious Authority Range: Very Low
Stat Damage Resistance: Damage - Centralization/3
Normal Actions: 3 Actions
Extra Actions: 3 Empowerment Actions
Special: Vassals = Prestige/10

Status

Trending Trade Good: Salt
The People have found an unending desire for a specific trade good. In order to satisfy demand, they are currently purchasing it for twice as much as it would normally cost.
Effects: Double Effects of the Salt trade resource


Settlement Extended Projects

Spoiler: Settlements

Crystal Lake: Brick Walls (Significant), Fire Relay, Hill Top, Temple (Ember-Eyes)
Fingers: Brick Walls (Significant), Fire Relay, Shrine (Frost-Scarred), Trade Hub
Hill Guard: Brick Walls (Significant) Hill Top, Sugar Shack, Temple (Fangs)
Cave of Stars (Unofficial): Temple (Cave of Stars)

Values

Spoiler

Social Values (3 Levels)

Elitism Lv. 2
Among the People, it is not a goal, but an obligation to be the best that you can be. Those who are gifted become exalted by their peers, recognized far and wide as people of respect. To be great among the People is to be like no one ever was.
Effects:

Increased effects of elite units
Increased generations of unique Traditions
General increase in competence
Increased social stratification
Increased Cost for many actions​

Vendetta Lv. 1.
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. That's why, when someone puts out one of your eyes, you blind them in both. Justice is protection and the end to violence, discord, and disorder through swift and firm action.
Effects:

Punishment is always harsh, but it is the final word that can be said.
Increased generation of a criminal underclass​

Honour Values (3 Levels)

Might Makes Right Lv. 2.
When the People hunt beasts, their arrows are set vertically; when they hunt other tribes, their arrows are set horizontally — all the better to spear through an unsuspecting target's ribs. Violence is a fact of life to the People. The question is not: "Why use violence?", but "When can violence be used?" It is another tool within their arsenal to respond to the world and among all the tools they wield, it is a keen one indeed.
Effects:

The consequences of violence are more tolerable
Interpersonal violence becomes more common
Increased martial skill, especially amount professionals and specialists
People are seen as intimidating
Martial skill is desirable
Violence is an acceptable solution to problems.​

Familialism Lv. 1.
From birth and until death, the People are surrounded by family. Whenever someone needs help, their family will be there for them. When hurt, lost or hungry, family will provide. To many, they would not consider themselves individual, but as a part of a greater family. Both their kin, their kith, but also the People as a whole.
Effects:

Increased social cohesion, especially among the People's elites
Increased tenacity in defensive wars
Increased Hero generation in defensive wars
Increased nepotism
Decreased chance to discover social ills​

Spiritual Values (3 Levels)

Ordeals Lv. 2.
Tests and trials are a way of life for the People. They separate corns from the husk and the weak from the capable. Those who struggle and overcome the opposition of men and spirits are the ones that the People should look to for guidance. The spirits have put them through the crucible and refined them into something great. Those who prove themselves by overcoming adversity are righteous.
Effects:

People are more willing to endure hardship
Can spend stability to complete two of the same action at once
Increased appreciation for first hand experience
People demoralized by failure
Refusal to change course during difficult times.​

Mastery of Nature Lv. 1.
The spirits have placed countless wonders across the world and it is the People's responsibility to find and safeguard these locations. Through laborious toil, these fonts of spiritual power can be augmented and empowered, turned into sources of power available to the People. It is through measures like this that the People and their spirits can work together and remain strong.
Effects:

Wonders are more effective than normal
The natural world is greatly boosted by artificial intervention
Must master nature wherever possible
Increased costs and ritualization​

Traits

Spoiler

Adoption
Family is of critical importance to the People; who can you trust if not them? Men can pick their wives and women can pick their husbands; can a man not name someone his brother or a woman her sister?
Effects: Increased average competence of leaders, increased generation of Heroes, ossification of First Families as leaders

Adult Trials
In order to be considered an adult, and thus have a voice worth hearing, it is important for the People to pass a trial. Officially standardized, these trials are different for men and for women. In order to be considered a man, a boy must be able to carry his own weight within society. Currently, defined as being able to produce more food than you eat, this is a popular and easy to define measure. In order for a girl to become a woman, she must survive the ordeal of childbirth and have children. An expected part of life for all girls, this metric greatly increases their franchise and influence relative to men.
Effects: Increase competence; empower women; prejudice against disability; ???

Bloodline Inheritance
There is something within each person that carries skill and knowledge, this fact is self-evident to the People and it is best to cultivate these unique talents from birth. The best potter is the one who learns at the knee of their father and mother; playing at their side with clay castoffs and helping them fulfill their duties. There are exceptions of course, some individuals do not carry the skill of their fore-bearers. These embarrassments are ruthlessly replaced for the shame they bring to their families. Bloodlines that fail to replace their own are weeded out in turn, just as the master hunter carefully culls the weak in a herd to protect it.
Effects: Increase the Specialization cap by 100%, raise the Hierarchy cap by 50%

Divorce
The People recognize that even the most intimate and sacred of bonds may be severed. This is a difficult process and one often seldom undertaken, for who should break asunder that which was once one? So far, the People only recognize the cause of a woman's infidelity as grounds to initiate divorce. Children born of a union between man and woman are property of the husband's family, unless disowned.
Effects: Female promiscuity, bastardy stigmatized, children from divorce belong to their father's family

Indentured Labour
The People acknowledge the foremost importance of debts. Most of the time, these debts are unspoken; promises of labour, favours, gifts, and other services the make the rounds, greasing the economy as it exists. Sometimes, though, someone proves unworthy of the implicit trust the People as a whole invest in them. When that occurs, a council lead by a Big Man will acknowledge the unworthy's debts as forfeit. They are then tasked to work on behalf of all the People, as directed by the Big Man, until their debts are recognized as fulfilled.
Effects: Labour may be compelled for those who have unpaid debts.

Captive Labour
Enemies captured on the field of battle are not slain nor are they allowed to retreat freely by the People, instead they are captured. Work is forced upon them due to lack of resources requiring every mouth to work. These captives can also serve as hostages to exchange in war.

Holy Order: Ember-Eyes
Deep in the People's history, the Ember-Eyes were born. Based out of the Temple of the Crystal Lake, they claim descent from from those who fought in the most ancient wars. They specialize in the use of fire and night-fighting, skills supposedly learned at the foot of the spirits themselves.
Effects: Fire can be deliberately used as a weapon of war, improved Fire study actions

Holy Order: Fangs
Just like the teeth of a wolf are the first to enter the flesh of the prey, so too do the People's Fangs enter the flesh of their enemies. Based out of the Temple of Hill Guard, these skirmishers train extensively with dogs in order to better serve as elite woodsmen and skirmishers.
Effects: Increase efficacy of skirmish units, improved Beast study actions

Holy Order: Frost-Scarred
The winter is a terrible, biting, cutting thing. Snow to bury you, ice to burn you, and cold to tear through your flesh like a knife. Of all of the dangers of the world, this one has claimed the most lives of all. Despite that, perhaps in spite of that, an Order has arisen to work against the natural domain of the world. The Frost-Scarred are hardy warriors, braving the cold where all rational men would flee to shelter.
Effects: Gain additional winter-subphase during wars, improved Life study actions

Weregild
In the old days, it was thought that only blood could wash out blood. Now, the People know better; recompense can come in many forms; labour, baubbles, food, it just needs to be enough to assuage the hurt and pay restitution to victims.
Effects: Instead of physical punishment, criminals may pay off their offenses with excess wealth.

Legacies

Spoiler

Collection Moste Holy (Three)
The People have developed numerous, unique religious traditions. Practices occult that would be the envy of the world. A source of pride and wonder, these treasured institutions are bulwarked against failure and destruction.
Effects: Lowered minimal threshold to maintain Holy Orders

Heroic Start!
The People are descendants of Heroes! Great men and women who have shaped their world according to their desires. Some are good, some are bad, but none can deny the People carry Greatness!
Effects: +1 to all Hero rolls

Hierarchy Tolerance
The People have peacefully transitioned for a more hierarchical form of government. They take pride in their ability to form complex societies.
Effects: +2 Hierarchy Tolerance

Primordial Law
The People's Law is of an ancient sort, far beyond recorded history. Nonetheless, the mores and values instilled by the stories, myths, and fables, are an enduring part of the People's legacy. In time, they will shift, but the underlying message; that the People's ancestors had entrusted their children with a great covenant of faith to truly make their own and develop with their own wisdom, was greatly reassuring.
Effects: Gain a one time Stability increase when completing a Social Reform megaproject.

Primordial Mystics
A great civilization, rich in Magic, the People have trained extensively in the mystic arts and the secrets of the spirits. It is a source of pride among the People to be skilled in the secret ways of the world and all put forward effort into ensuring that they understand.
Effect: Treat Mysticism bonus as 1 higher for all purposes.

Primordial Temple Builders
The first to truly turn superstitions of the spirits into religion, the People have gained an appreciation for the finer points of training religious thinkers, building religious structures, and creating the weft and weave of religion in a positive and constructive manner.
Effects: Gain Legitimacy and Stability when constructing new temples.

Religious Authority Tolerance
The People are used to having a powerful and influential religion. As such, they have been forced to develop tools to deal with troublesome and meddling priests.
Effects: +1 Religious Authority Tolerance

Rush Builders
Not only do the People go big, but they do so extremely quickly. They were the first to erect a great work within a single generation. None can doubt the ability of the People to create and do so quickly.
Effects: Reduce all building type megaproject length to two thirds.

Megaprojects

Spoiler

Great Trace -> Great Relay -> Fire Relay
Slowly, over time, the passage of the People wears away at the barriers of tree and root, stone and soil. By patience and effort, the People have cut a pathway across the land, creating a way where once there was none. This has been further augmented by numerous way stations that maintain messengers and a relay of fires, ready to be turned into smoke signals. Given the rustic nature of the trial, it increases the endurance and woodcraft knowledge of all of the People so long as the trial remains in use. Interconnection greatly increases, preventing cultural drift. In times of emergency, the beacons can be lit, and aid summoned.
Effects: Increased internal cohesion and communication. Greatly reduced emergency response time. Lowered civilization divergence. Increased development of symbolic language. Increased organization and application of resources.

The Hill
The People have created an unlikely monolith, a great mound rising from the ground. This hill is unlike everything else found in nature, it is a feature of the world completely man-made. Aside from being an immense defensive advantage, being able to make a well defended hill anywhere they would like, the People have also vastly increased their skills for working with earth. Agriculture, earth moving, or any similar task, or large scale and coordination, benefits from the skills the People developed as long as memory of this momentous event remains.
Effects: The People gain a bonus to all large scale earth moving projects. Able to construct Mottes to reinforce settlements.

Trials of Adulthood
Adulthood is a recognized time in the life of every one of the People. To be an adult means that you are self-sufficient. Someone that can hold and offer debts to others among the People. It means that your voice has worth and should be taken into account. Heavily standardized, these arcane rituals have become a rallying point for the People. A cultural artifact that binds all of them together in a way that differentiates them from outsiders. As long as the trials are regularly completed, the People will remember themselves and their history. No adult amongst the People could be one counted deficient.
Effects: The competence of all leaders, regardless of standing, is increased. Cultural unity increased.

The Hunt
A primal activity, the People have looked beyond the age old history of blood and death. Hunting is not a simple story with a beginning and an end, but a chord held in harmony with the world's great symphony. As long as the People remember their humility and their place in the symphony, there will always be a place for the People in the world of beasts.
Effects: Expand Hunting action upgraded to Manage Hunting and reveals the safe hunting cap. Defensive attrition increased.

The Law (Neolithic)
The People's code of laws are beyond ancient, more of a primordial mien, from a time that's literally lost to time. Primarily, the Law is a collection of codified stories, a canon that shows the People how to build a good life. While still open for further development, the Law goes a long way to creating a uniformity of culture and expectation of internal unity.
Effects: Increase Centralization cap by +1, grant access to Push Unity action, accelerate development of Culture resource, ???

Technology

Spoiler

Administration: Stone Age Council
Big Man Slate
Collective Decision Making
First Among Equals Council
Formalized Big Man Leadership

Construction: Earthenware Construction
Animal Glue
Bone
Earth
Fired Clay Brick
Lime
Structural Stone
Plant Fibers
Wood

Domesticated Animals: Early Domestication
Early Canine Companions
Tamed Orkers

Energy Production: Muscle and Fire
Canine Power
Fire

Charcoal
Lime
Kilns
Rock Boiling​

Muscle Power

Farming Techniques: Refuse Reuse
Fish Gut Fertilizer
Horticulture

Food Production: Early Organized Crop Fields
Cultivation/Horticulture

Organized Plots
Corn
Pumpkin
Squash
Quinoa
Wild Rice​

Fishing

Entrapment
Net
Spear​

Gathering

Berries (Elderberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Cranberries, Cherries, Blackberries)
Condiments (Balsamroot, Evergreen)
Flowers (Fireweed, Sunflower)
Fruits (Plums, Persimmons, Grapes, Crabapples)
Nuts (Hickory, Walnut, Acorns, Hazelnut)
Vegetables (Beans, Fiddleheads)​

Herding

Dogs
Orker​

Hunting

Canine assisted hunts
Safe Animals (Turkey, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians)
Prey Animals (Deer, Elk, etc.)
Prize Animals (Wolves, Bear, Orker)​

Refined Foods

Maple Sugar
Spigot Collection​

Traps

Bait
Conical Nets
Dead Fall
Pit
Snares​

Food Storage: Potted Desiccation
Brewing
Covered Pots
Drying
Herding
Pemmican
Salt
Smoking
Sugaring

Magic: Primitive Exothermic Reactions
Fire
Lime
Lye

Materials: Stone and Obsidian
Bone
Flint
Ivory
Plant Fibers
Sinew
Stone

Amethyst
Citrine
Granite
Lapis Luzili
Limestone
Obsidian
Quartz​

Terracotta
Wood

​

Music: Crude, Natural Instruments
Bone acoustic instruments
Chanting
Horns
Rhythmic drumming

Structures: Earthenware Construction
Brick Longhouse
Brick Wall

Firing Step
Rampart​

Temples

Corbel Arches
Decorative Pillars​

Techniques: Apprenticed Teaching
Binding
Carving
Fire shaping
Mortared Masonry

Tools/Weapons: Stone and Obsidian
Axe
Bone Armour
Fire
Knife
Macuahuitl
Rock Mace
Spear
Spear-Thrower
Sinew Flatbow
Quarterstaff
Wicker Shield (One Handed)

Transportation: Muscle Power
Birch Bark Canoes
Primitive Bone Skates
Dog Sleds (Winterized and Primitive Summer)
Rasbaska
Signal Fire Language
Snowshoes
Trace
Trailmarkers

Concepts

Spoiler

Authority: Distributed Collectivized Leadership
Collective Decision Making
Specialization

Administrators: Aristocratic Councils
Aristocrats
Council

Entertainment: Idle Time Filler
Gambling
Practice Fights
Scrimshaw

Organization: Stone Age
Apprenticeships
Early Polygamy
Extended Kinship Groups
Monogamy

Property: Non-Personal Posession
Communal Property
Reciprocal Lending
Interpersonal Debts

Records: Ancient Records
Memory
Oral History
Symbolic Tally

Religion: Ancient Ancestor Worship/Animism
Ancestor Worship
Animism
Mystery Cults
Rituals
Shamans
Temples

Roles: Stone Age
Artisan
Aristocrat
Craftsman
Food Producer
Shaman

Science: Shamanistic Secrets
Great Spirits
Magic
Spirits

Warriors: Ancient Warrior Clans
Elite Holy Orders
Folk Wrestling
Professional Warriors

In the technology section, each different section now how a paradigm attached to it. This lets you know generally where these technologies could be found. Shifting paradigms is hugely important and provides massive advantages. More advantage paradigms tend to wipe out those less advanced.

Reserach

Spoiler: Research

Abstract Tally (110/250) [Magic]
Arboriculture (212/300) [Fire] [Life]
Caribou Taming (298/400) [Beast] [Travel] (Enormous boost since Northlands has this)
Copper Smelting (126/300) [Fire] [Stone]
Gods and Deities (167/200) [Magic]
Elementalism (17/???) [Magic]
Herding (237/250) [Beast] [Travel]
Mammoth Taming (25/400) [Beast] [Travel]
Orker Domestication (148/800) [Beast] [Travel]
Raven Taming (22/150) [Beast]
Stonecutting (76/100) [Stone]
Three Sisters (452/600) [Life]
Wheel (2/100) [Travel]

These show where you roughly are with major research projects. Note the tags next to them. If you select a Study ___ action, it will boost every research project tagged by that same tag.

Geography



Leader Board​

1. The People! (Prestige: 35, Army: Hardened Neolithic Warriors and Holy Orders, Economy: Agriculture Supplemented with Hunting, Art: Sacred Construction and Advanced High Quality Tools, Magic: Fire, Stone, and Spirit)
2. Tribe of the West (Prestige: 22, Army: Numerous Professional Neolithic Warriors, Economy: Unprecedented Boom in Agriculture, Art: Innumerable Tools, Magic: All Things Alive)
3. Island Makers (Prestige: 19, Army: Enraged Elite Neolithic Warriors, Economy: Intense Early Agriculture, Art: Advanced Quality Tools, Magic: Earth and Water)
4. Arrow Lake (Prestige: 18, Army: Informal, Lucky Militia, Economy: Early Agriculture, Art: Sacred Iconography, Magic: Stone and Slaves)
   
5. Roundstone (Prestige: 16, Army: Professional Slingers, Economy: Extensive Aquaculture, Art: Cloth and Paint, Magic: Shouts)
6. Bond Breakers (Prestige: 16, Army: Organizing Militia, Economy: Early Agricultre, Art: Durable Weapons, Magic: Little)
7. Cracktooth (Prestige: 14, Army: Bloodied, Bloodthirsty Militia, Economy: Agrculture and Herding, Art: Tools of Terror, Magic: Bone and Beat)
   
8. Pearl Divers (Prestige: 13, Army: Informal Militia, Economy: Early Fishing and Aquaculture, Art: Beautified Dependable Tools, Magic: Sea and Salt)
9. Peace Builders (Prestige: 12, Army: Reduced Fanatical Neolithic Warriors, Economy: Broad Agriculture and Aquaculture, Art: Ephemeral Crafts and Imported Advanced High Quality Tools, Magic: Of Song and Story)
10. Cateye (Prestige: 11, Army: Hit and Run, Economy: Hunter-Gatherer with Trade, Art: Glittering Gifts and Functional Tools, Magic: Corruption)
11. Lakeland (Prestige: 10, Canoe Archers, Economy: Hunter-Gatherer, Art: Rugged Tools, Magic: Little)
12. Mountain Clans (Prestige: 3, Army: Scattered Refugees, Economy: Severe Starvation Living On The Dole, Art: Little, Magic: Little)
13. Northlands (Prestige: 2, Army: Greatly Reduced Cavalry, Economy: Recovering, Art: Bone Tools, Magic: Bonds and Beasts)
14. River Tribe (Prestige: ?, Army: ?, Economy: ?, Art: ?, Magic ?)

 

[Redium]

[X] [End] Regret
[X] [War] Continue to strangle Arrow Lake's food supply.

"...Based on messengers near the front, the enemy is nearly defeated!" Anything further the young war-leader was going to add was drowned out by the applause from the council. It brought a faint smile to Luule's lips as she watched her brother try to control the crowd. No matter how hard he slammed the butt of his staff against the ground, it was insufficient to cut through the giddy jubilation that buoyed all of them, the Pareem, up.

They were a young group, all told, but if the result on the front of war were anything to go by, they were more than equal to any task set before them. Word from the front was that the enemy in Arrow Lake were nearly at the point of breaking. All it would take is concentrated push to have them defeated. Their walls were formidable, equal to the People's due to a foolish, but ancient gift, but they would not matter if none of their defenders had the strength to stand. Every member of their militia was hollow cheeked and showed thin, weakened limbs. They had mostly stopped contesting the People in their own valley entirely; all that was necessary was to do a final push and cut off their trickle of supplies from the south.

Finally managing to quiet the Council of Pareem, Luule's brother fixed them all with a gaze. "This war has taken much from us," he started. "Countless cousins, brothers and sisters, friends. The Old Warrior, Priit, himself eventually fell on the field of battle. Not to blade or stone, but his own heart failing him. He fought bravely for the People, from the moment of his birth and until his very last breath."

By the end, they had also started to call him the Weeping Warrior, Luule recalled. He cried as he fought, wiping blood and tears in equal measure from his cheeks. It made her uncomfortable to hear her brother exalt Old Priit's name and call for war. It was wrong. And, based on the looks she was receiving from several of the other Pareem, they felt the same way.

Her brother was an excellent warrior, but he was not Priit's Heir. That honour had been given to Luule herself. She was never sure why; she was the younger sibling, had none of the Old Man's talent at war, nor was her father Priit's most prestigious child. Still, among all of his children, grandchildren, kith and kin; she had been singled out. He had trained with her brother, showing him the proper way to swing a blacksword; to use its weight to generate more momentum and to understand when it was necessary to struck crushing blows with the flat of the weapon. One of their cousins was directed towards the Star Shaman, trained in their arts until she could survive the Rite of Dark Night and become recognized among their number. Another cousin, one of Priit's grandnephews, had been entrusted with the Weeping Warrior's entire kennel of dogs. Proud, vicious, and intelligent creatures, they had been the envy of all of the People and brought the man they were given to great acclaim among all of the hunters, who hopped to add one of their number to their own packs.

It wasn't any of them that Priit choose to speak to, late at night by the fireside. He had shared stories with her, of his youth and his friends. They talked about things that were reduced to all but memory; Luule suspected that she was perhaps the only one who knew the stories he told her. The stories he had entrusted her with. It wasn't... she didn't like what she had learned there and much preferred the other stories told by the elders and the shaman. Still, the Old Man had considered it important and so she learned.

It was never the lessons of another profession, that Luule encountered, but of how to lead, how to rule, and how to render decisions that would affect thousands of people. Hers was the hardest test of them all, Priit had said. To rule not only for the living, but also for the dead and those yet unborn.

Thinking about it, leading was like the Parable of the Threefold Stag, bearer of the sun. Each day, the stag was born, lived, and eventually died. They were eternal, but their life was not unending. Each night, the Threefold Stag would forget the burden they had taken on just the day previously as a new life that-was-them-but-not was born. Each and ever stag was necessary, but none of them would see the impact that they had. The sun always rose, even when the Threefold Stag was born into a weak or sickly body, even during the winter months. It was always there to provide life, light, warmth, and nourishment to every plant and beast, stone and stream. If it ever finally stopped, however; Luule was certain it would mean a slow, lingering death by winter for everything that lived under the dome of the sky.

No incarnation of the Threefold Stag was ever able to see the impact they had on the world. And yet, without their tireless work, there would be no world.

"The People will grow great when every elder plants trees whose shade they shall never rest in, Luule." Priit had said once, shortly before he died and was interred in the Cave of Stars. Think of the future and plan for your children, he had meant.

A slightly alien thought, to Luule and her council of young, confident, and brash Pareem, but it was something she took to heart. While the others won glory on the battlefield, made connections, or learned the mysteries of the spirits, she stayed up late and took stock. She counted everything: pots of grains, stores of pemmican, logs of firewood, sugar, bricks, weapons and tools. It was laborious and thankless, having her Slate count pots, buckets and stacks, and Luule wasn't certain what she would find, but what she had uncovered had left her deeply troubled.

The People had a critical shortfall: there simply wasn't enough wood or bricks to meet the People's needs. Longhouses that had once held six families now tended to hold eight. It wasn't critical, yet, but people were starting to become cramped. At the edges of the People's lands, hunters and farmers were slowly starting to stop using brick and instead turn to lesser materials, usually wood. This made sense in the short-term since it consumed far fewer resources to build a wooden longhouse, but over time brick was obviously superior. The amount of time saved in maintenance and in reducing the amount of wood necessary to keep warm during the winter were significant. A brick longhouse also simply lasted longer; the home that Luule had grown up in had been built by the grandfather of Old Man Priit's grandfather!

This shortfall also exacerbated a smaller, but no less dangerous situation; many of the Pareem living in the Fingers reported that their clients were becoming... restless. For time beyond memory, the Fingers had been the least favoured of the People's three settlements, despite being their bulwark against the Northlands and Arrow Lake. They were the second largest concentration of People, but they lacked a Hill to defend them. Why was it that clay and wood from the Fingers were sent to Crystal Lake or even Hill Guard to help them build up while their need was clear?

The fact that the Fingers also lacked a temple was not forgotten. It was another slight, another tiny insult that wounded the pride of the fierce and war-like People of the Fingers. It was not a new problem, Priit himself had remarked on the issue; much of his support base had been found among those individuals who were dissatisfied with the growing neglect heaped upon their settlement. He had started the process of reform within the People, but he had simply not had enough time to fully deal with their issues.

Status Gained: Dissatisfied Faction (The Fingers)

Spoiler

An element within the People has grown increasingly dissatisfied with how the People are being run. They demand change and if there desires continue to go unmet, they may eventually take things into their own hands.
Resolve: Build a Hill and Temple in Fingers
Effects: Escalating Legitimacy hit until demands are met, crisis triggered at ??? Stability.

What should have been a simple fix: building a Hill and Temple, was starting to look monumentally difficult. The People needed more resources; clay bricks, wood, and simple labour, desperately. Piling on two major projects on top of that would only exacerbate the issue, potentially critically.

There was also a second, lesser shortage for luxuries; dyes, quality furs, fine jewelry, etc. The warrior clans and the Pareem had found it necessary to cover themselves in fine panoply. On the field of battle, it was necessary to be distinctive in order to rally your followers. Given the expanding size of the People, it had even become necessary for non-warrior leaders to follow suit. It was impossible for every member of the People to recognize the Pareem; there were simply too many to know all of their faces.

The shortage wasn't nearly as critical as that of base materials, merely causing confusion and disorder among the People, but it would need to be addressed at some point. Eventually, Luule huffed.

Neither issue was a visible problem, but Luule could see them and she was in charge. Even if she wasn't an unlimited leader, like the Weeping Warrior had been in his last days, Luule knew exactly how to get things done. Finding the correct leader and empowering them was exactly how she excelled.

"Great Leader." A voice tugged on Luule's consciousness. The speaker was short, she realized, enough that it was quite obvious she was the taller of the two. The speaker was almost child-sized; one of the Northlanders, then. Glinting, golden eyes greeted Luule beneath a mop of short, black hair; revealing that the speaker was only half-Northlander.

"Speak," Luule said, finishing her measuring of the stranger. He was clearly half-Northlander since he had the eyes of one of the People, but he wore a long cloak in the style of the northerners, but made with the traditional softskin leather of the People. He was a walking pastiche of everything within both cultures.

Something clicked in Luule's mind. "You're the son of one of the People's hunters, are you not? One of the ones who went north?"

"My name is Jeree," he said to begin. "I'm from the White North, but also from the People; as you've surmised. I've come down south to observe, and potentially to talk."

"Why speak to me?" Luule asked, proclaiming ignorance. "My brother is likely the one that you need to speak to. He leads the warriors and Speaks-In-Second for the hunters. I'm only the kernel counter." She offered one of disparaging nicknames that one of the other Pareem had given her... shortly before her brother had broken their nose.

The northerner grinned. "Aye, you count out ears of corn and scope bits of pemmican into the cook pot; I've heard that before. How many who've slighted you have gone mysteriously hungry as a bit of food was misplaced? How found that replacement tools or weapons weren't quite available yet?"

Luule said pretended to focus on the stitch work pattern of her skirt. "Why would such a thing be necessary?" she eventually asked.

Jeree laughed. "I might not be fully one of you, but I know how the People work. Half of your young men are convinced that the proper way to greet someone is to grab them by the shoulder and then smash skulls together. This council you've got, it's filled with young men."

"I would hardly call it filled." Luule denied the only part of the statement she could. "What is it that you wished to ask, Jeree? You've clearly come well informed and with an agenda. How may I be of help?" It would be a stretch to say that Luule liked the strange little man that had sat down beside her, but if the Old Man had imparted one lesson, it was to listen to everyone and know how to make friends. Even if it was with those you disliked. It was impossible to know when a friend could offer a helping hand or even save your life.

"Simple," Jeree smiled. "I want your help to kill my sister."

Luule was struck dumb. It was like her thoughts — normally a grand edifice like a temple — sudden cracked and then came cascading down. Kinslaying? How could anyone plot something so accursed? It must have been a bad joke. One that left her uncomfortable to even consider it.

"You'd be surprised," Jeree said. That last part must have been said out loud, Luule realized. "The circumstances come up. As for the why? To save the life of your brother."

"What do you mean?" Luule hissed. She pulled him aside into an alcove, using her advantage in height to nearly pin him in place. A part of her was tempted to signal her brother or flag down the guards. The only thing that stopped her was the sheer lack of concern on Jeree's features.

All of this was part of a plan.

"My sister has listened a little bit too closely to the old stories of the Ivory Chief. She's rejected our mother, disdaining her for betraying the Northern tribe and taking a southern huntsman as husband. I'm not sure where she heard it, but before she assumed the mantle as Most Holy, rebellion was a dying whisper. Now it's an ember threatening to burst into flame."

"You'd sell out your own kin?" Luule asked, mind aching at having to comprehend it. "And what does this have to do with my brother?"

"There's a lot I would sell for peace," Jeree said. His gaze was tightly fixed, conviction firm. It looked strange on the little man; seriousness did not suit his features at all. "And as for your brother? He would be the first to die. My sister, for all of her... insanity, she knows how wars work with the People. The Antlered Lord is your war-leader and when the Weeping Warrior donned the mask, it was the only thing that prevented your destruction. To kill your current war-leader, smash his antlered helm and mount his head on a spike, would be devastating. The People would fall apart and the North's Horned Riders would once more grind you underfoot."

Jeree smirked. "Of course, my sister could fail. Your brother might live and war would come to the People on two fronts. You know what that would mean."

Luule did, perhaps better than even her brother. Organization was her strength and it was easy to predict how the People would respond to war, even if the details were beyond her. Subjugating the Northlanders a second time would be all be impossible. If it even became a possibility that they might lose, they would flee. Perhaps for only a few years, before they eventually returned and struck when the People least expected it. Fighting them would be like trying to kill smoke.

That didn't even begin to touch on how much ground they would lose in the south, against Arrow Lake.

"Why do you need my help?" Luule eventually asked.

"Legitimacy," Jeree shrugged. "I can kill my sister, of that I am absolutely certain. What happens afterwards, though? Anarchy, most likely. For all that my sister is the Most Holy, she is not well liked. But, she is all we have. Her line has provided us spiritual advice for time beyond memory. If I move against her, I will need something, a system, to replace it."

Slowly, Jeree gestured to the long tables the dominated the center of the gathering longhouse. "That can always be made bigger, can it not?"

A ??? Hero of the Northlands is offering to off the current Grand Shaman and formerly subsume the Northlanders into the People, provided they are recognized as Pareem, aristocracy. In exchange, they are offering to teach Technologies that the Northlanders have finished researching. More Tech will be given for a closer union.

[ ] [Kin] Capture and execute the one who offends the laws of the spirits. (Legitimacy rises)
[ ] [Kin] Reject the abominable offer. The People do not slay kin! (Legitimacy rises)
[ ] [Kin] Accept the offer, but only name Jeree Pareem. Keep the Northlanders at arms length. (Northlands become a Vassal)
[ ] [Kin] Embrace them fully, once the firebrand Grand Shaman is dead. (Additional settlement founded for free, Northlands folds into the People.)
[ ] [Kin] Tell Jeree he has his deal, but lie. After his sister is dead, all that he'll get is an arrow to the heart. (If successful: Stability boost, Legitimacy falls. If failure: War and Jeree's anger.)

Pick: 3 Actions, 3 Empowerment, and 1 Admin Action.

Spoiler: Actions

Annual Festival [Art] - The People deserve to party! Build morale by opening up the stockpiles and having a night of feasts, dancing, music and fun. Cost: Luxuries, Staples. Produces: Legitimacy.

Artisans [Art] [Elitism] - A very rare occupation, artisans are the group of individuals which make things beautiful. Their work can most often be found within the People's temples or adorning the bodies of the rich and powerful. To be an artisan means to be a craftsmen that's a cut above even the rest. Costs: Materials, Craftworks. Produces: Luxuries.

Building Breweries [Art] [Admin] [Vendetta] - An ingenious way to make use of food that would otherwise go to waste, the People regularly make pots full of mashed grains and water that go subtly off. The resulting drink is quite bitter, but also extremely fun! Costs: Staples, Materials. Produces: Luxuries.

Clay Pits [Admin] [Art] - Dirt is not always dirt, as the People have realized. Sometimes, it is stone waiting to be formed. By finding the right source, it's possible to create numerous, useful constructs out of earth. Cost: Staples, Craftworks. Produces: Materials. (Soft Cap Reached) Direly needed.

Craftsmen [Art] - For the most part, the People make their own tools. Mostly they are crude implements of bone, stone and wood, but in recent days there has been the creation of a new group. These individuals create only the finest of crafts, producing tools that last far longer than most would expect. Costs: Staples, Materials. Produces: Craftworks.

Create Warrior Clan [Might Makes Right] [Vendetta] [Elitism] [Martial] [Admin] - The People have warriors well trained in the art of killing. By diverting more young people into these professions, preparations for war can be established. In a way, it is like knapping obsidian into a knife. An action that takes deliberation and planning, forethought, to be useful. Costs: Staples, Craftworks, Luxuries. Produces: Martial.

Encourage Arborists [Admin] - While the forests provide the least of the People's food, they have provided that which is most useful. Sugar is wonderous in taste and highly sought after as a trade goods. Evergreen tea soothes aching bodies and quiets headaches. There is much to be found in the unknown, perhaps rare, but of significant value. Costs: Craftworks, Staples. Produces: Materials.

Expand Farming [Familialism] [Admin] - The People have come to realize the bounty of the world is often not enough. They need to tame it and carefully manage the foods that are so important in sating their appetites. Costs: Nothing. Produces: Staples. (Soft Cap Reached)

Expand Fishing Fleets [Familialism] [Admin] - Most of the People live close to a river and are able to gather one of numerous sources of food. Often much easier to obtain than food from hunting and much less risky, these sources of food are much more vulnerable to shifts of the seasons and that of the weather. Costs: Craftworks. Produces: Staples.

Explore (Specify Direction?) [Mastery of Nature] [Martial] [Diplomacy] - There is much to be found in the world. Countless things, often placed by the hand of the spirits themselves. It is up to the People to find them. Costs: Nothing. Produces: Can reveal new resources.

Found Settlement (includes: Brick Wall, Shrine, Sugar Shack) [Mastery of Nature] [Familialism] [Elitism] [Admin] - While the People build homes where they will, often where food or resources can easily be found, these places are settled without organization or care. By founding a formal settlement, it becomes possible for central authority to exert itself before the People become too fracas. Current locked due to Materials shortage.

Help Holy Orders [Art] [Martial] [Admin] [Might Makes Right] [Mastery of Nature] - The People have numerous traditions of secretive cults. Groups that practice true magic, something that is rare but unbelievably potent. Provided it is harvest reliably; many have killed themselves in this mad pursuit. Costs: Staples, Craftworks, Luxuries. Produces: Martial, Magic. (Soft Cap Reached)

Make Miners (Crystal) [Art] [Mastery of Nature] - Stone has always been a resource used widely by the People. Not all stone, however, is created equal. Some is better than its cousins, whether because it is harder, sharper, or simply more beautiful. Costs: Staples, Craftworks. Produces: Luxuries. [Hard Cap Reached - Need Exploration]

Make Miners (Obsidian) [Art] Mastery of Nature] [Might Makes Right] - Stone has always been a resource used widely by the People. Not all stone, however, is created equal. Some is better than its cousins, whether because it is harder, sharper, or simply more beautiful. Costs: Staples. Produces: Craftworks. [Hard Cap Reached - Need Exploration]

Manage Hunting [Elitism] [Mastery of Nature] [Martial] - Improve upon the hunting techniques of the People. Work to increase the amount of meat that is available to consume and empower the People. A risky activity and one that requires a great investment of skill and energy, this provides the largest gains of food. Cost: Nothing. Produces: Staples, Martial. [Hard Cap Reached]

Raid (Mountain Clans, Arrow Lake, Pearl Divers, Island Makers, Peace Builders, Enemies of the Peace Builders) [Might Makes Right] [Vendetta] [Martial] - The hunting of beasts turns now into the hunting of men. Strike down those who oppose the People so that we may be kept safe. Cost: Risks Temporary Damage to Martial score. Produces: Dead Enemies.

Study (Travel, Fire, Stone, Life, Beasts, Magic) [Art] - The world works in mysterious ways. It is not incomprehensible, however, merely opaque. The People just need time in order to unravel the hidden world. Costs: Nothing. Produces: Boosted [Tagged] research.

Sugar Shack [Admin] - The trees are love, the trees are life. Their sweet nectar is something that can be easily boiled down into a substance that can only be called the blessing of the spirits. We. Need. MORE! Costs: Materials, Staples. Produces: Luxuries.

Trade Caravan [Diplomacy] [Martial] - It is clear that the People do not hold all that is significant within the world. There are other tribes that hold interesting, useful or beautiful objects. By offering up some as gifts, things that the People do not have will be provided in return. Costs: Luxuries, Staples. Produces: Diplomacy, Magic.

Trade Post [Diplomacy] [Admin] - Sometimes other people have things of interest and they come willing to the People's lands in order to offer them up! By being welcoming and accommodating, it would be easily possible to convince them to hand over an even greater fraction of their stuff. Costs: Diplomacy. Produces: Luxuries.

Prepare for Ordeal [Ordeal] [Admin] - The spirits test the People, always. These tests are ones that require careful preparation and forethought. The People will be prepared. A crisis well managed is a sign of spiritual favour, one that's botched causes the People to further suffer. Cost: Nothing. Produces: Bonus to all stability checks this turn.

Empower Actions

Select three individuals to take (1) action on the People's behalf. The same individual may be selected multiple times. Tag votes as [Empower], if someone is being empowered multiple times, use a multiple (x2, x3, etc.).

Elder
Ember-Eye Shaman
Fang Pack-Leader
Frontier Leader
Frost-Scarred Warrior
Headman of Crystal Lake
Headman of Fingers
Headman of Hill Guard
Star Shaman
Trader
Urbanite

Megaprojects:

Artificial River [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The Dam [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Inspired by the feats of ingenuity demonstrated by a large, but common, rat, the People have decided to emulate their creations on a more massive scale. By blockaded a river, it would be possible to accumulate an enormous amount of water, something that could easily be put to use. Costs: Craftworks, Materials. Produces: Staples.

The World, A Shield [Supernal Symphony] [Flat Arrow Outlook] [Martial] [Admin] (12 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The World in Miniature [Supernal Symphony] [Diplomacy] [Admin] (7 actions) - The world is a grand place, seemingly endless in scope. The People's exploration and search for wonders has pushed them to find a way to more effectively communicate discoveries with each other. Trail markers are a start, but they are not easily portable. More can be done. Costs: Magic? Produces: Efficiency.

A Temple, Grand [Supernal Symphony] [Art] (8 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

The Sisters Three [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

A Field of Gold [Supernal Symphony] [Admin] (6 Actions) - Prerequisites not met.

Extended Projects:

Archaic Charcoal Kilns (Crystal Lake, Hill Guard, The Fingers) [Mastery of Nature] [Admin] [Art] - The Ember-Eyes have discovered a secret of wood and fire. By carefully burning it, they can render it blackened and fragile. Somehow, this makes fire burn far hotter. How is it the elements dance when burning wood is not the same as wood cooked by fire? Costs: Staples, Craftworks. Produces: Greatly Elevated Materials Efficiency.

Extend Fire Relay (Hill Guard) [Mastery of Nature] [Admin] (1 Action) - The Fire Relay has served as the backbone of the People's communication and movement between The Fingers and Crystal Lake for longer than memory. With the recent founding of Hill Guard, the vaunted relay no longer stitches the People from one end to the other. This oversight must be corrected. Costs: Craftworks, Staples. Produces: General Efficiency.

Raise Temple (The Fingers) [Admin] [Art] (2 Actions) - A ritual place where the spirits and those they touch can work. Special facilities for magic, resources, teachings and the spirits themselves are included. Costs: Materials, Craftworks, Luxuries, Magic. Produces: Mysticism.

The Hill (The Fingers) [Mastery of Nature] [Admin] (2 Actions) - A hill made by man. A simple construct, but one that greatly raises the defensive value of a settlement. Costs: Materials, Craftworks, Martial. Produces: Defense.

New Trails [Mastery of Nature] [Admin] (9 or 12 Actions) - Inspired by the Fire Relay, these small trails are cut into the innumerable forests that surround the People. Serving as akin to veins in the body, they promote the free movement of goods and people. Costs: Staples, Craftworks. Produces: Efficiency, increases Soft Resource Cap.

Automatic Actions: Are being discontinued. Every action you now take will produce permanent changes in the People's ability to marshal resources. At your current level of sophistication, you can't tell exactly how an individual action will effect your stats. Be careful if you plan on taking a lot of actions that spend Staples. You currently have enough of a reserve that you can't go to famine in one turn, but expect to have to take a large number of Staples actions as a matter of course.

Note: Failing to take a [Mastery of Nature] action will cost Stability! Can Double Down at cost of 15 Stability on an action by adding a sub tag to that specific action.

AN: Vote is currently locked until a threadmark is put up in the morning.

 

[Redium]

[X] Plan Resettling Foundations
-[X] [Kin] Embrace them fully, once the firebrand Grand Shaman is dead. (Additional settlement founded for free, Northlands folds into the People.)
-[X] [Action] Create Craftsmen
-[X] [Action] Archaic Charcoal Kilns (Crystal Lake, The Fingers)
--[X] Double Down
-[X] [Action] Expand Fishing Fleets
-[X] [Admin] Raise Temple (The Fingers) 1/2
-[X] [Empowerment] War Chief (Raid: Arrow Lake)
-[X] [Empowerment] Headman of Fingers (Raise Temple: The Fingers 2/2)
-[X] [Empowerment] Frontier Leader (New Trails)

Counting up the marks on her tally clay, Luule kept coming up short. It wasn't much she was short in the grand scheme of things, but it was noticeable and it irritated her to be short at all. The demand for the new fuel had skyrocketed almost at the same pace as its production and the People produced a lot. Charcoal was better in virtually every way compared to wood; the fuel burned hotter, it was significantly lighter for the same volume, and it was far cleaner. Wood, when it burned, belched black smoke and soot that covered every open surface; charcoal did not have that drawback.

It seemed strange to Luule that half burning wood turned it into a fuel that was even better. She was sure, if she asked one of the Ember-Eyes, they could try to explain the intricate spiritual interactions, but it would be beyond her. That type of thinking had never made sense to her.

Instead, Luule liked the sight of people. Not talking to them per se — though she was not afraid of that — but in seeing them go about their lives. Watching young men haul wood, charcoal, and pots of food underneath the stern eye of their supervisors. The chatty and gossip of young mothers as they prepared the evening meal with one eye while the other was fixed on their rambunctious children. Seeing master craftsmen who could, in a single sigh of disappointment, reduce a cocksure apprentice to blubbering excuses. Listening to elders as the spoke around the fire, sharing the People's stories while instruments strained faintly in the background. Even the shaman, as they argued bitterly over how beast to appease the spirits and ensure good fortune, was of interest to Luule.

It still amused her to think how thankful the shaman had been at the widespread adoption of charcoal. The Temple of Fire and Ice that the Frost-Scarred had constructed was the single largest building in the Fingers and made extensive use of flame in order to convey the struggle of living warmth and deathly cold. During the summers, a fire constantly burned in an enormous stone basin set in the central chamber. The basin itself was enormous, carefully cut from a block of pure quartz large enough that it had required two rasbaska to work side by side in order to carry it.

Around that central chamber, several supplementary rooms were constructed. These, thankfully, stayed heated all year long for the benefit of visitors and apprentices, but the fully-fledged Frost-Scarred Shaman shunned those rooms. They instead preferred to live in the cold cellars dug into the earth beneath the temple. It was only during the winter when the great central brazier was extinguished and filled with ice and snow that the Frost-Scarred came out. They lived in the freezing central room, training their acolytes until the world warmed again in the spring when they would return to their cellars.

The central brazier was for sacrifices; food, clothing, trinkets, old tools, anything that signified personal struggle and the battle to overcome it was welcomed. The Frost-Scarred creed made a metaphorical shiver trace of Luule's spine. "We are all in pain, every day of our lives. Pain is weakness leaving the body; a sensation that is in passing. Though finite in life, sensations are to be enjoyed for they remind us. Join in our ecstasy." The wizened old shaman that told it to Luule lacked a nose and much of the flesh on his face was blackened. When he smiled, the few teeth he had remaining were grey and dead.

To a girl who had come to give up a childhood doll made of woven reeds, it was deeply unsettling. Even standing outside the temple, looking in the the Frost-Scarred inside, Luule could remember her feelings from that day.

Putting the thought out of her mind, Luule singled to one of her aides. She was no longer in the right set of mind to work today. She had fallen out of the zone, and to go back to counting stores would just leave her frustrated; disappearing supplies tended to have that effect. It was far better to work when thought and deed aligned, than to waste them in discord. The girls who had wormed their way into being her aids would know to fire the clay slates that she had just finished up and set them aside for storage. In the past, it was rarely worth keeping the clay tally slates for long, but Luule felt it necessary. She could resume exactly where she left off with the records preserved. Still, in those moments, Luule felt a little bit like a fraud; the Weeping Warrior had always known what to do and made the right decisions absent any records. Was it right to depend on them and force all those who came after her to do so when before they had never been necessary? Clay tablets quickly took up space; room that could be used to store people, animals, or even supplies.

The air outside was crisp and slowly cooling as Luule walked through the Fingers. It wasn't winter yet, but the First Frost had already come and gone. If she hadn't been busy for most of the morning, Luule was certain that she would've seen frost clinging to every surface. It was a decidedly lazy time of year; the harvest of fish, rice, and agriculture was complete. Everything had been preserved and stored. Only a few stragglers were left bringing wood to the colliers to ensure they'd have enough fuel to keep warm.

All that remained were the warriors fighting in the south. The fighting had been going on and off for as long as Luule could remember. It was never big, never grand, just... a kinsman becoming an empty place at the table during feast days. A distant friend or client displaying scars or moving with a pained stiffness that never seemed to leave them. Luule knew, exactly, how many people suffered but it was never as real as those moments.

Sitting down at the base of the outer wall, Luule sighed. Thinking dark thoughts was not going to help her mood. Glancing up, Luule had barely an instant to process before horror overwhelmed her. Stalking above her, just out of reach, was a large, whiskered face. Cougar, he mind supplied quickly. The large highland cats were rare, but not unheard of; dangerous beasts that even hunters rightly feared.

A scream had nearly worked its way out of Luule's throat when the cougar... bulged. Its face rippled, expanding outwards like a bubble and its mouth opened up into a great, gaping pit. Flesh crinkled, bone cracked and splintered, before the cougar deflated and its face fell, clattering on the bricks beneath it.

"Jeree," Luule hissed. She could see his smug, toothy grin staring back down. His tongue lolled out for a moment before snapping back behind his teeth with a click.

He grinned. "Was I missed?" The warrior stooped to pick up the face of the cougar he'd dropped. Luule wondered how she could have mistaken it at all for real fur and skin. It had teeth of ivory with soft, muted tones of brown and yellow for skin. Both dyes were unusual, but the first was common to traders from the Island Makers, and the second could be bartered from the Ember-Eyes. Mother-of-pearl stood out along the mask's jaw, mimicking the cougar's characteristic bright face. Even the eyes were clearly aquamarine dye, manufactured from lapis luzili for all their unmatched brilliance. It was a piece of art made from materials gathered from the People and all of their neighbours, yet it was still not fur.

"The accuracy of Lake of Arrows has left much to be desired," Luule said dismissively. Jeree gaped and clutched his chest in silent exageration. "Yes, I wound you."

Jeree tensed, throwing himself upwards with a powerful jump. His cloak spun out, framing him in a halo of woven leaves, that briefly blinded Luule. By the time he reappeared, Jeree was sitting beside her. Mask on, concealing what Luule was certain was an enormous grin. He reeled away, jumping to his feet and coming to rest, spine perfectly straight. The short warrior looked almost respectable.

"The war is done," he said simply. "The settlement of Arrow Lake has officially surrendered. Their other holding, South Reach, had propped up one of their own as Most Ancient. They've washed their hands of everything. If we don't push them, they'll leave us be."

"Arrow Lake surrendered?" Luule asked. It almost seemed unreal that the settlement had fallen. It had been nearly twenty-years of on-and-off raiding.

"Aye." Jeree shivered. "Did you ever receive training as a shaman, Greatness?" After Luule denied it, Jeree continued. "I did. I... I was a Star Shaman, for a while. At least, I was in training to be one." Reaching under his cloak of crinkled, fallen leaves, Jeree pulled out a small, ivory disk. On it was a simple, open six-pointed star; etched and burned directly into the material.

"You undertook the Rite of Dark Night," Luule said. It shocked her; only the most spiritually attuned attempted it. Even then, many died.

"I failed it," the small warrior said. "I lasted for half the night before the voices of the Heart got to me. I was begging, screaming, kicking at the Ivory Door, just to be let out. It was loud enough, I'm sure I could've woken the sleeping dead. If I had stayed, however, I would've died." He shrugged. "The Mysteries entombed in the Cave of Stars were too great for me. It wasn't my path, I was incompatible; I returned to my mother's tribe and became a Horned Rider. Their Mysteries were possible to me."

"I see," Luule lied. How did it relate to Arrow Lake's fall? Jeree laughed and Luule cursed. She had said that last bit out loud, again, hadn't she?

"We had formed up around Arrow Lake, just outside the walls. The defenders were lining up across from us for one last, glorious charge; they were finished. Many of them were starved enough I'm sure they'd had more than a few idle thoughts about eating each other. Just before the battle, the eldest of the Ember-Eyes asked permission to unleash their magic. It was... have you seen how they tend fire? How they can conjure it up by dripping water on tinder? They... they managed to take the fire into them, somehow. Within a moment, the eldest war-shaman conjured flame from nowhere and hurled it in a steak of fire. It flew straight and true, further than a hunting bow, but less than a war bow."

Jeree was silent. He shuddered, "The orbs of flame burst against the shields and bodies of Arrow Lake's remaining defenders. Sparks rained everywhere. Some of the projectiles lodged themselves within their shields or armour. They went down screaming, trying futilely to somehow put it out. The grass at their feat caught alight... they threw down their weapons after that. We managed to storm the open gate and take nearly everyone captive."

"How...? How did the Ember-Eyes master fire?"

"It's not my Mystery," Jeree said. "I can ride and sneak and wear the skin of a beast. Fire shouldn't be possible to control. It's not alive, right?"

"How do the others see the Ember-Eyes," Luule asked.

"They're exalted by everyone. What might have been a risky battle was instantly crushed with their power. It's foolishness to cross a shaman, but now, the Ember-Eyes? They're beyond that. Their word is close to holy writ."

Luule nodded. She would have to prepare for their return; things would change if that was the case. Based on the look Jeree was giving her, he knew it too. "Thank you for returning so swiftly," she said. "Are the others behind you?"

"No. Not yet. The warriors are uncertain what you want done now. Whether to push the war — which I do not recommend, by the way — where to take the captured Debtors, and how my people are going to be settled. Things are up in the air and there's a lot of moving parts. Whatever you decide, a bit of delay was necessary; Arrow Lake's people were so starved, they would not have survived the journey here."

"Why should we let the war lie? Now would be the time to continue the pressure, to break South Reach so that they don't become a threat."

"If we push them, South Reach is going to ask for help. The Black Scars are southwest of them; not extremely far. They'd almost certainly be willing to help for concessions in lapis luzili, hunting grounds, and other resources. If we let them sit, they could become a problem in the future, but if we push them, they will be a problem right now. One that would be difficult to deal with. Striking the Black Scars would be impossible."

"Now that victory's arrived, the only question is what to do with it," Luule said. "Rest and I'll have instructions for you in the morning."

What should be done with the People of Arrow Lake? (If their settlement is not maintained, it will be destroyed for defensive reasons.)

[ ] [Lake] Maintain the settlement, but mix in a noticeable number of the People, primarily shaman and warriors. (++ Luxuries, ++ Crafts, + Materials, - Martial, - Magic)
[ ] [Lake] Maintain the settlement, but disperse all of Arrow Lake's population among the wider People. (+ Luxuries, + Crafts)
[ ] [Lake] Integrate Arrow Lake into the People; have them address the lack of luxuries. (+ Luxuries, + Staples)
[ ] [Lake] Integrate Arrow Lake into the People; have them address the lack of Materials. (+ Materials, + Craftworks)

Where should the Northlands merge with the People?

[ ] [North] Found their own settlement at River-Bend, west of the Fingers. (++ Staples, + Luxuries, - Crafts, - Materials)
[ ] [North] Found their own settlement at Wide River, east of the Fingers. (++ Staples, + Luxuries, - Crafts, - Materials, interfer with Pearl Diver trade?)
[ ] [North] Merge into Arrow Lake's settlement. (+ Staples, + Martial, + Luxuries)
[ ] [North] Upgrade the Cave of Stars into a full fledged settlement. (+ Staples, + Luxuries)
[ ] [North] Maintain their current summer camp as a year-round settlement. (+ Staples, ++ Luxuries, - Materials)
[ ] [North] Disperse among all of the People's settlements. (+ Martial, + Staples)

Continue to press the war with the remains of Arrow Lake (South Reach)?

[ ] [War] Yes.
[ ] [War] No.

AN: Vote is locked until tomorrow.