[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
You wouldn't actually need to found an extra village in order to deepen ties with Arrow Lake. The Fingers is close enough to make it work. The issue is more that the Fingers is very isolated from the rest of the People. Most of the People's population is currently in Crystal Lake and Hill Guard and most of their cultural centers are there as well.
Ah, shifting of civilization center, since Crystal Lake is culturally dominant but in an awkward location, while Fingers is in a strategically good location but otherwise unremarkable
Well, that's less impressive than I thought it would be. But still, they seem to be pretty advanced. I wonder if we can somehow learn how they created that canal.?
So would our decision to transition into warrior-raiders right now have any immediate impact on the war? Because from the way you crafted your reply it seems like switching over from hunters to a professional force would not make a meaningful difference now qualitatively.
I imagine that even if we do choose warrior-raiders we likely won't lose hunters either right? Because we kinda need them to help keep our food stores in the green.
If there is an immediate effect from this I'm guessing that instead of sending hunters by lot, we'll likely instead have a fully trained and dedicated warrior force be at the front all the time, which while it would make it so that they aren't productive in the sense that they don't produce food, they still likely will make it so that our net food consumption is higher because we have more dedicated hunters focusing their time on getting food rather than fighting at the front. Is that right?
Going to warrior-raiders would improve your outcome in the war. Mind, it's not likely to change much, but that's only because South Lake is utterly screwed and your rolls were fantastic. The rolls this entire phase was nuts. Everything was either under 15, two rolls were 30 and the rest above 85.
Going to warrior-raiders will improve your food situation. It's simply more effective to have two people specialize, one as a hunter and the other as a warrior, than to have them both dabble in both. It's also more predictable.
Warriors aren't going to produce food, though they wouldn't be terrible hunters in a pinch. When you selected hunters by lot, you arbitrarily decided that one of these 10 hunters would act as a raider for a few months while the other nine would hunt for food. Having professional warriors means that you permanently designate 1 of those hunters as a warrior while the other 9 act as hunters. The amount of time spent hunting or fighting doesn't change. What does change, however, is how good your hunters are at hunting. Hunting and raiding are related but competing skill sets.
Most of the essential stuff: woodland survival, archery, equipment maintenance, etc. is the same. What's different is the mindset. An effective hunter will need to understand how and why animals think the way they do. A warrior need to understand how another person, especially another trained person, would react to being hunted. The psychology is very different. Most of a hunter-gatherer's effectiveness actually came from this innate understanding of animal psychology. When anthropologists go to work among hunter-gatherers, they're often able to pick up basic skills like archery within a few weeks. At that, they would be nearly as good as a native. Where a hunter-gatherer is better is that they can hear a bird call off in the distance and then find and kill that bird nearly always without fail. Understanding how to find animals, how to track them, how to chase them; that's what actually makes a hunter.
A warrior is similar, but with this thought process applied to other humans. You're at the point in history where war is more like a systemic series of hunts that are specifically targeted at a rival population. There's no lining up and beating each other's brains in. Everything is ambush and counter-ambush.
Understanding the psychology is important. When you have dedicated hunters, they can focus exclusively on the former and get really good at that. Warriors can work at the latter. In that sense, both groups are better off since they don't have to half learn both skill sets.
Is there any way we could rectify this? I mean culturally, the Fingers is unique is a sense. Way back when we did create a sorta unique shrine to commemorate our capture of it. What's preventing more population from moving out to the Fingers?
What do you mean when you say the slaves are effectively in our control? Are we founding settlements or capturing them down there, enough so that they take up dedicated action slots?
You're not really doing anything with them, but they tend to flock to your temporary encampments. It's essentially the same as how a playground of kids will all follow the biggest bully because they know that keeps them safe. The situation is in flux and you'll have choices later on how to resolve it.
The reason that you're feeding the former slaves is that it keeps them passive. If they start to starve, they're going to start trying to steal food. They can't do that so much from South Lake, but they could easily do it from you and the Island Makers. That would really get in the way of your war effort.
I mean, aside from that female warrior hero, do we know anything significant about them other than the fact that they seem to want a piece of the South Lake Tribe?
As these are former slaves, what is their make up like? I mean, what's the proportions of the slaves in terms of culture groups and tribes that they used to be from. I'm not sure if it's been long enough, but there should be some more recent slaves who likely have old memories about their old tribes, possibly enough to help us out in other ways.
I'm guessing that since their role was to till the farms of the South Lake, that integrating these former slaves will likely assist us in our agricultural gains?
Culture groups didn't tend to remain recognizable for long after people were enslaved. The ones who can remember their culture group have already escaped back home or been wiped out. There are slaves from pretty much everywhere; the Island Makers, Hundred Bands, Tribe of the West, and more that you're not sure of. Most of the slaves are Hundred Bands, an unknown tribe from the south woods, and Tribe of the West, in roughly that order.
You are getting agriculture boosts from taking in former South Lake slaves.
So what exactly will happen after the war ends then, to the slaves that we do not take with us back home? I'm guessing that's going to be a point of decision. I highly doubt the Island Makers will let them live on their doorstep or occupy the former lands of the South Lake Tribe.
In Kaspar's estimation the Island Makers are unlikely to care about the slaves forming their own tribes as long as they get some territory concessions and the new tribes are better neighbours than South Lake.
Well, that's less impressive than I thought it would be. But still, they seem to be pretty advanced. I wonder if we can somehow learn how they created that canal.?
@veekie had the right of it: bloody mindedness. The location of the canal itself was pretty obvious due to geography so they just spent decades carving a channel through the ground.
Not really. They haven't had anything better than you in the area of forestry.
A lot of the Island Makers' technologies are very difficult for you to pick up. They're much, much more centralized than you are. They literally only have 1 settlement but they've crammed as much infrastructure on it as you have in total.
You're the 3rd most centralized polity on the map. Arrow Lake is 2nd.
Well, that should be plenty of time to deal with other issues, as if we make the warrior class a thing, I expect that we'll have to develop a method to acknowledge the warriors as being adults as well since they likely won't be self-sufficient enough to focus on their craft as well as get food. Or do warriors still know enough to hunt their own food?
Warriors would be recognized as being akin to shaman. Once you're recognized as a fully fledged warrior (you will have the opportunity to define this), they have the same rights as adults.
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
[X] [Marry] Pay the Island Makers off with gifts of wealth. (Variable Art damage until war ends)
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
So our dedicated warrior class would be like the ancient Spartans. Dedicated solely towards the mastery of arms and warfare.
Would this warrior class be trained from childhood, or would they be picked from experienced hunters?
How much control would the voters have towards there development?
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
Going to warrior-raiders would improve your outcome in the war. Mind, it's not likely to change much, but that's only because South Lake is utterly screwed and your rolls were fantastic. The rolls this entire phase was nuts. Everything was either under 15, two rolls were 30 and the rest above 85.
Well, that's not too surprising considering the outcome here. Is the war essentially a forgone conclusion then? Or could South Lake possible recover enough to survive?
I'm also curious what we're going to get out of this war. I'm assuming this will be a war to end South Lake as a civilization so there won't be need for any peace treaties, but will we need to negotiate with the Island Makers regarding territorial concessions or anything? I do wonder how much prestige we are going to get for essentially clobbering another civilization.
Going to warrior-raiders will improve your food situation. It's simply more effective to have two people specialize, one as a hunter and the other as a warrior, than to have them both dabble in both. It's also more predictable.
Warriors aren't going to produce food, though they wouldn't be terrible hunters in a pinch. When you selected hunters by lot, you arbitrarily decided that one of these 10 hunters would act as a raider for a few months while the other nine would hunt for food. Having professional warriors means that you permanently designate 1 of those hunters as a warrior while the other 9 act as hunters. The amount of time spent hunting or fighting doesn't change. What does change, however, is how good your hunters are at hunting. Hunting and raiding are related but competing skill sets.
Most of the essential stuff: woodland survival, archery, equipment maintenance, etc. is the same. What's different is the mindset. An effective hunter will need to understand how and why animals think the way they do. A warrior need to understand how another person, especially another trained person, would react to being hunted. The psychology is very different. Most of a hunter-gatherer's effectiveness actually came from this innate understanding of animal psychology. When anthropologists go to work among hunter-gatherers, they're often able to pick up basic skills like archery within a few weeks. At that, they would be nearly as good as a native. Where a hunter-gatherer is better is that they can hear a bird call off in the distance and then find and kill that bird nearly always without fail. Understanding how to find animals, how to track them, how to chase them; that's what actually makes a hunter.
A warrior is similar, but with this thought process applied to other humans. You're at the point in history where war is more like a systemic series of hunts that are specifically targeted at a rival population. There's no lining up and beating each other's brains in. Everything is ambush and counter-ambush.
Understanding the psychology is important. When you have dedicated hunters, they can focus exclusively on the former and get really good at that. Warriors can work at the latter. In that sense, both groups are better off since they don't have to half learn both skill sets.
That makes sense. Glad to see that changing over will be a net improvement for us. Aside from the mindset however, will there also be a different in equipment as well? Because for the hunters I doubt they would need to wear bone or wood armor to do hunting or train in fighting with a two handed war club either. So I'm kinda curious if choosing to switch to warriors will now give us separate innovation trees for warriors too due to the competing skill sets.
What will happen to the Fangs though if we do create warriors? Will they become obsolete?
Well, I don't think that will be too much of a problem considering the fact that we're likely to have a population boost due to our recent efforts. Are the settlement foundation spots still the same?
And is integration still possible with Arrow Lake? We don't really know too much about them culturally.
You're not really doing anything with them, but they tend to flock to your temporary encampments. It's essentially the same as how a playground of kids will all follow the biggest bully because they know that keeps them safe. The situation is in flux and you'll have choices later on how to resolve it.
The reason that you're feeding the former slaves is that it keeps them passive. If they start to starve, they're going to start trying to steal food. They can't do that so much from South Lake, but they could easily do it from you and the Island Makers. That would really get in the way of your war effort.
I'm assuming though, that once the war effort ends, they'll probably be on their own as we likely won't continue to feed them indefinitely unless they join us.
If we did decide to go back up north and ignore the situation would the slaves try to follow us or would they try the easier target in the Island Makers?
Culture groups didn't tend to remain recognizable for long after people were enslaved. The ones who can remember their culture group have already escaped back home or been wiped out. There are slaves from pretty much everywhere; the Island Makers, Hundred Bands, Tribe of the West, and more that you're not sure of. Most of the slaves are Hundred Bands, an unknown tribe from the south woods, and Tribe of the West, in roughly that order.
You are getting agriculture boosts from taking in former South Lake slaves.
So they likely didn't remember anything culturally significant then from their previous tribes. That's understandable then. Are there enough of them left that remember some information about their old tribes that we might be able to use that later to get into contact with them?
Also, what will happen to the Bond Breakers following the war, with their objective having been achieved?
That's good to hear, that we're going to be getting a bonus for our actions here. Is that the only boost or did the South Lake tribe rely solely on the slaves for agriculture, and that's it?
In Kaspar's estimation the Island Makers are unlikely to care about the slaves forming their own tribes as long as they get some territory concessions and the new tribes are better neighbours than South Lake.
This will be an interesting decision I gather as it will likely have long term effects far into the future. I wonder if integration is an option here. By the way, we won't have to make any territorial concessions will we?
@veekie had the right of it: bloody mindedness. The location of the canal itself was pretty obvious due to geography so they just spent decades carving a channel through the ground.
Not really. They haven't had anything better than you in the area of forestry.
A lot of the Island Makers' technologies are very difficult for you to pick up. They're much, much more centralized than you are. They literally only have 1 settlement but they've crammed as much infrastructure on it as you have in total.
You're the 3rd most centralized polity on the map. Arrow Lake is 2nd.
Warriors would be recognized as being akin to shaman. Once you're recognized as a fully fledged warrior (you will have the opportunity to define this), they have the same rights as adults.
Well, that's not too surprising considering the outcome here. Is the war essentially a forgone conclusion then? Or could South Lake possible recover enough to survive?
I'm also curious what we're going to get out of this war. I'm assuming this will be a war to end South Lake as a civilization so there won't be need for any peace treaties, but will we need to negotiate with the Island Makers regarding territorial concessions or anything? I do wonder how much prestige we are going to get for essentially clobbering another civilization.
What will these dedicated warriors be doing when there are no wars to be had? I mean a mere 2-3 turns of us not fighting would mean that everyone who became a warrior in their youth ended up doing nothing productive with their lives until they are clearly too old to go to war.
Also, didn't most societies stick with sending non-dedicated warriors to war as well those days? Or did that change back to being so in the bronze age?
Huh. I've never seen anything like this on an playground. Or at the schoolyards of any elementary school I went to. I guess I was just lucky, because it sounds like I would have had quite a few more bad childhood experiences otherwise.
That's useful if we go a decade or two without war. Or in other words, one full turn. But if we go 2-3 turns without then all this training and food will have gone to waste if professional warriors don't also still occasionally dable in hunting (anything else during peace time). And we somehow have peace for 6-9 turns, I don't even want to know what silly and useless things our warriors will be doing based on being taught by "professionals" who have never actually done anything relevant in theirlives other than training for their profession. That is if our warrior class doesn't find a way to make sure they stay relevant, like raiding someone with little to no provocation for instance.
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
What will these dedicated warriors be doing when there are no wars to be had? I mean a mere 2-3 turns of us not fighting would mean that everyone who became a warrior in their youth ended up doing nothing productive with their lives until they are clearly too old to go to war.
Also, didn't most societies stick with sending non-dedicated warriors to war as well those days? Or did that change back to being so in the bronze age?
Huh. I've never seen anything like this on an playground. Or at the schoolyards of any elementary school I went to. I guess I was just lucky, because it sounds like I would have had quite a few more bad childhood experiences otherwise.
This is also the reason that the big bully usually (not always) is always kinda popular in school, since everyone who wanted to be safe will begrudgingly follow him/her lest the consequences and not stood against him/her or his/her actions. This is also the reason why people rarely will support the bullied person when he/she is bullied especially if the bullied person does not fight back. Its not that the others are agreeing with the bullying, its just that they don't wanna get into the mess. This represents primal human dominance behavior, which are also kinda common in animals.
Of course, obviously, past a certain age it become quite socialy unacceptable for people to go off and be overly aggressively harass people off. This is why bullying is commonly associated with the pre-adult age, where in workplaces the practice of aggressive bullying generally decreases overtime(even tho it still exist).
I apologize if I gave a hilariously long answer to this, but just got into human behavior 101 and read your question
What will these dedicated warriors be doing when there are no wars to be had? I mean a mere 2-3 turns of us not fighting would mean that everyone who became a warrior in their youth ended up doing nothing productive with their lives until they are clearly too old to go to war.
Also, didn't most societies stick with sending non-dedicated warriors to war as well those days? Or did that change back to being so in the bronze age?
Huh. I've never seen anything like this on an playground. Or at the schoolyards of any elementary school I went to. I guess I was just lucky, because it sounds like I would have had quite a few more bad childhood experiences otherwise.
A few era-errors.
1) Dedicated warriors played a law enforcement role and escort duty in the neolithic and chalcolithic when they weren't training, there were always those who would flout laws and strike out on their own.
This was especially true for hunters, who COULD get along without a support network for a time. Said proto-bandits were pretty nasty and even in times of peace you could expect traders to be attacked for their goods so that they might buy their way into a settlement or just have more stuff.
A permanent armed force of warriors puts paid to such things, enabling more minor camps to be set up(for instance, the proto-farmstead) and larger trade caravans.
2) Things shifted back and forth in terms of warrior types.
-Pre-agricultural societies didn't have a choice. Hunter-raiders or starve.
-Agricultural societies could build up a food surplus, primarily worked by non-combatants(as mentioned before, sowing, harvesting and threshing were often worked by women and youths as they were vastly less physically demanding than hunting).
This meant that full time warriors could, at the expense of less food going to those who weren't doing physically intensive things anyways, have thrice the caloric intake of non-warriors and practice how to fight people, developing a killer instinct. This was a devastating gap in capability, and morale often faltered when that guy with thews about as thick as your neck just oneshot your buddy, and is now coming for you.
-Around the bronze age, things shifted again, because of the sheer expense of bronze equipment(which required complex trade networks to manufacture and artisans to mine and forge) and the rise of more sophisticated economies, full time warriors could not afford weapons and armor, they were too expensive, while hunters brought in such a low margin of profit per day that they weren't becoming warriors either. Artisans certainly lost money every single day they weren't making stuff to sell. The centralized palace command economy could pay for full time warriors, but suffered nasty efficiency issues due to the difficulty of managing all this centrally, so they were restricted to elite guards and special units of holy warriors unless there was a massive investment in bureaucracy and logistics.
This led to the rise of the farmer-warrior, who made use of agricultural surplus to purchase arms, farmed in spring and autumn and fought in the summer. Their raiding turned the 'free time' of summer into profitable raiding. Yet this was not a 'commoner' war as the term may sound, each farmer here referred to a landowner, who generally had several families on their land working and feeding several warriors(generally said owner).
Then things get really complicated once iron and cavalry hits the table, which is hard to predict because its all so tied into the political structure, but there was a twoheaded push, as the cost of equipment dropped dramatically, even as the costs of elite equipment skyrocketed to the point where you'd have to be a noble to get any.
Thats where the 'classic' levies and knights come in.
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
[X] [Lake] Deepen ties with Arrow Lake.
[X] [Warrior] Yes, violence is an art and must be practiced to the highest degree. (-1 Stability)
[X] [Marry] Take the resulting children from the Island Makers and raise them among the People. (Minor relations hit with Island Makers, ???)
Aeva quietly shushed her nieces and nephews playing on the edge of the longhouse. It was a futile effort, she knew, but she needed absolute silence to know if her father was even still alive. The ravages of time, it seemed, had finally caught up with the Blacksword. If it wasn't for the faint irregular breaths that came from his throat, Aeva would be convinced her father was dead. When she was born, he was already considered to be an elder. Now she was middle-aged. None of the People's elders could remember a time before Kaspar.
None.
He was the Most Ancient.
It had not been discussed, but Aeva knew that death would come for her father soon. He slept far more than he was awake most days. He might be up with everyone at dawn, but he would be asleep by the time the midday meal was finished. Walking from one end of the longhouse to the other exhausted him to the bone. There were warriors that could fight for hours and only display a fraction of the fatigue her father did. Then there were also the days where he couldn't get up at all. He was awake, but didn't have the energy to even move his hands above his head. He had to be carried to the latrine and fed by another.
A part of Aeva felt deep seated dread at the notion. Kaspar had grown so light, so much of his weight had been lost, that even she could carry him. She'd only seen glimpses of the mien that caused others to call him Blacksword. He was shriveled now. A rotten fruit found at the bottom of a basket.
Despite all of it, the People still followed Kaspar. His presence at Crystal Lake anchored everyone, even the distant settlement at the Fingers. Big Men and their lesser Slates came to see him three or even four times a year. His wisdom was known far and wide and if Aeva had to manipulate her father's appointment schedule to make it happen, she didn't feel much guilt. It wasn't that his father had slipped away like some elders did in their final years, but seeing a Legend-In-Flesh sleep for three quarters of a day left many feeling underwhelmed.
The stories that surrounded him... it almost made her snort. She remembered whispers following her father while she was a young woman. He was touched by the spirits, he was cursed by them, he had cut a black deal with one of the evil ones. He was a spirit in flesh. The rumours and innuendo had grown louder and louder over the years. More insistent.
"I need fresh air," Aeva said. The air inside the longhouse was cloying. She made for the north door and started laying out her snowshoes. The wide racket-like shoes had become increasingly popular to overcome winter snows in recent years. They were perhaps one of the only good things that South Lake had ever produced. At least, before the People's warriors liberated a few of them and then improved on the design.
"You're going out?"
Aeva turned to the woman who addressed her. "Aye," she said. "I need to be away for a moment. I feel like I haven't see the sun in weeks and haven't been able to look beyond these walls in days. I need to walk and breath in fresh air."
"It's dangerous out there. You could catch your death on the icy winds."
"I will be back," Aeva promised. "For you at the very least." She set a hand on the other woman's shoulder.
"You'll be held to that promise. Breaking it will make you a Debtor."
"Then I'd best think of a way to clear off that Debt," Aeva promised, allowing her hand to fall down to her side after a final reassuring squeeze.
The spirits danced quickly in the skies while the wind howled between the trees. Brilliant greens scattered across the night sky, arching from east to west in luminous bands. Fading to blues near their peak, Aeva could only think that the spirits were driven to a higher level of excitement than she had ever seen. She hoped that would mean that they would soon change the weather. The freezing rains of her younger years had ceased, but that had been replaced by an unending bone deep chill.
Bone deep would perhaps be an understatement, Aeva eventually admitted. She'd seen flesh and bone split and pop, literally frozen solid as a result of staying outside too long. It wasn't an unreasonable precaution to ask if someone was planning to return when they went outside. The People's food stores had been stretched enough that a number of elders had been driven out into the cold so they didn't have to watch their children and grandchildren go hungry.
The People had greatly increased the number of hunters over the past few decades. Farming wild rice and corn had been insufficient for the People's needs. Even the new plant they'd seized from the south, quinoa, wasn't hardy enough to survive the constant, chilling cold. Even as bundled up as she was, Aeva knew that she could only be out for a few minutes more. Staying on longer during the night risked death. The air was cold enough that uncovered skin would freeze in moments. A cup of water thrown into the air would freeze by the time it hit the ground. Only the hardiest could go out during the day and only for a few hours at most.
If there was any benefit, it was that it was easy to keep meat safe to eat. A slaughtered animal would freeze solid almost as soon as it was butchered and would defrost until the spring. Supplementing stored food with fresh frozen kills was easy. You needed to use an axe to separate bits off for the night's supper, but that was mere inconvience.
"Aeva!" she heard one of the scouts shout over the howling winds. "The signal fires have been lit!"
Starting in near horror, Aeva dashed to the edge of camp. The war against South Lake had continued to go extremely well. Staggeringly well in fact. South Lake had regained some ground around five or six year ago, but all of that ground was quickly retaken. They had managed to reassert themselves after a chaotic first meeting between the People and the Tribe of the West. It hadn't quite come to violence, but from all reports, it had certainly been in the air. Their leader, a woman so giant that she could not have been fully human, had quickly managed to assert authority and redirect everyone against South Lake. "If heads are smashed, should be right heads," she supposedly said.
Combined with the widespread adoption of snowshoes, South Lake had been pushed utterly to the brink. The only thing that allowed them to keep fighting was how utterly the weather had turned against everyone. The freezing cold and elongated winters robbed moons worth of raiding each season. It cut into the growing season as well, but given how many of South Lake's people had abandoned the tribe, it meant they could barely subsist off their meager stores and hunting.
Panting as she finally crested the wall, Aeva pulled up short. The People had numerous codes, ways of communicating, along the Fire Relay that united the people, but the amount of information that could be conveyed was limited. The code used was obscure enough that it took Aeva a full minute to recognize it: the divided hexagon. The symbol of the spirits. Underneath that, eight more fires burned in a line.
"Huntsmen," Aeva called out to the young man who had called out to her. "Have a team prepared. Wake the shaman. We leave at dawn."
Crystal Lake was considered spiritually significant enough to merit six fires. The worst of the snows and killing cold merited even fewer fires.
The ones who manned the fire relay were warriors one and all. Headstrong some of them were perhaps, but they were not a panicky bunch. If they were, then Aeva would have words with them. One of her father's last acts was to reform the warriors. Instead of men and women drawn by lot, they were selected and remained warriors all their lives. Good food, training, and war gave them an absolute killer instinct. People like that should have nothing to be scared of.
It was a diverse group that left downriver on the next day. Mostly composed of young men, Aeva wasn't however, out of place. Two other women, each old enough to be her mother, and a man old enough that, well, wasn't quite as old as her father, but old all the same. It was a risky journey, but the three old ones were among the tribe's most spiritually skilled. Two of them were Ember-Eyes and the third an adviser to the Fangs. They would be necessary to appease the spirits.
The younger group were escorts, warriors primarily. Normally departing in the winter would be a deeply dangerous thing. When food was scarce, it would be very tempting for some hunters to ambush unwary travelers and take their supplies. It didn't happen often, but it happened often enough that everyone knew someone who'd been killed that way. Or a young man deciding to settle grudges with a rival. That was common too.
Trained warriors, though, could destroy anyone who'd be tempted to do that. Well fed and trained in war, they were far larger than an average member of the People by the length of a hand. Combined with their ability to hunt humans, honed in the wars of the south, they were fearsome and not many willing crossed them. Plus, they were easy to control, Aeva reckoned. They were competent enough hunters, but they weren't skilled enough to fulfill their own food needs. Not of they wanted to keep their edge.
It was a good adaptation. They needed the hunters and the rest of the People for food and they were far better at violence. Easy to order and control while being good at their jobs. It was everything Aeva wanted in subordinates.
Most of the ones with her were Fangs, scouts that tended to the caravan's dogs. Mixed in with them were a new group, the Frost-Scarred. Among all of the People's warriors, they were perhaps the most touched in the head. Where others had the good sense to cower in the depths of winter, they kept up the pressure against South Lake. Almost single handedly in some cases and they paid for it. Aeva could spy the man leading the dogsled behind her; he had lost most of his nose to the cold and likely more than a few fingers and toes.
Instead of having to follow the Fire Relay all the way to the Fingers, Aeva was surprised when she was flagged down at River-Fork. When she was hustled into the shack, she wasn't unsure any more. There were only five warriors there. Six should have been present. It took a while to get them to open up, but the story they relayed was disturbing. Two of them had been hunting to the south, looking to stretch their food supplies so that they could eat more. It went against the rules, but Aeva let it slide.
In the foothills to the south, they encountered... something. The Twisted Forest, they called it. The trees there were strange. Instead of growing straight, they twisted; almost like a piece of grass bowed over by the snow. Some of the trees even curled in on themselves, spiraling down to touch then ground before curling back up to reach for the sky.
It was a cursed place, the two warriors had known that immediately. It was silent, devoid of birds and the snow was completely pure, untouched by both man and beast. Despite the obvious lack of game, something had driven the two on. At the heart of the twisted forest, they found it. A rent in the ground that disappeared into darkness. Two had looked closer, only to be chased from the cave's mouth by flying blue stars. It was just like the sky, the one warrior said. His friend had slipped and fallen into the cave's mouth. He didn't return.
Further inspection confirmed it: the Twisted Forest and Cave of Falling Stars was real. Neither Aeva nor the three other shaman she brought could identify all of the spirits involved. By they saw the trees and they could see the Falling Stars dwelling within the mouth of the cave. It was clear something was at work.
[ ] [Cave] It's clearly nothing.
[ ] [Cave] It's a mouth to the spirits' home.
[ ] [Cave] It's cursed land, wounded in a great battle between spirits.
[ ] [Cave] It's a spirit-in-flesh... and it's hungry.
When Aeva returned to Crystal Lake, she started to organize a team to begin founding a village near the River-Fork. She knew that the People would want to claim dominion over the cave. Her father, however, in one of his moments of lucidity, overruled her. "The People cannot afford another settlement," he said. "Not with this weather."
"Ignoring the site will bring trouble," Aeva responded. "Riots, potentially."
"The riots will be worse if there's no food," Kaspar countered. "We've only barely broken even, and that was after investing heavily in increasing food production."
Kaspar would not live forever, does Aeva take his advice?
[ ] [River] Settle near the Twisted Forest and Cave of Stars. (Chance of starvation)
[ ] [River] Put off the settlement for a generation. (-1 Legitimacy)
Hero Actions
Diplomacy: Trade (Island Makers)
Martial: Raid (South Lake) -> Cultivated Quinoa
Administration 1: Manage Forests -> Cultivated Gourds
Administration 2: Manage Forests
Art 1: Trade (Pearl Divers) -> Fishing Nets
Art 2: Study Transportation -> Snowshoes
Action 1: Expand Aquaculture (Fishing) Action 2: Lost due to climate rolls.
Automatic Actions: Trade (Arrow Lake, Northlands), Expand Aquaculture (Rice), Prepare for Ordeal
"There's not enough time..." Kaspar whispered. "The war with South Lake demands all of our attention. Reassuring and building support among the Island Makers. They're on the edge of violence with us. They've not appreciated our young men becoming friendly with their women."
"We've made amends," Aeva said. "You still don't think it enough?"
"There's nothing that drives a men to violence like the perception that his mate is with another."
"I can assure you, father," Aeva promised. "That I feel no such way."
"It's different," he rasped.
"Then despite the similarities in our attention, there is one thing that's different," Aeva allowed. "How goes your project with the orkers?"
Aeva didn't even need to look at her father to feel the smug aura radiating off of him. That was good, he was so rarely happy these days. "Others have made their name killing them," Kaspar said, "But I shall be the first to turn them like dogs have been turned from wolves. It's... slow, but progressing. We'll need to capture more."
"The fact that those juveniles were found was a miracle in and of itself. No one will find more, even if a reward is posted. Orkers are not things that often die of natural causes."
"Trade's been picking up with the Pearl Divers," Kaspar said, changing the subject. "They've shared a new design of net with us, one that will catch a lot of fish. I suspect they're trying to increase our demand for their salt. The spirits have clearly shown their displeasure through the weather and we've ever increase amounts of food. If it happens to be preserved with Pearl Diver salt?" he shrugged.
"And the war?"
Kaspar was silent for a long moment. "Either we unleash the Fangs and the Frost-Scarred, try to wipe South Lake from the world, or we try and negotiate peace. The Tribe of the West has taken their territory. The Island Makers have taken territory. The Bond Breakers have carved out a chunk of territory for themselves. Even the Mountain Clans have made moves on South Lake's territory. They're effective broken. Carrying forward our war would just end in their annihilation.
"There's a benefit to that, we won't have to fear South Lake, but there are other considerations. It may be beneficial for us to allow the south to remain divided. Let them kill each other over the scraps of South Lake's empire."
What should be done?
[ ] [War] Finish South Lake forevermore. (Raid: South Lake)
[ ] [War] Attempt to write a peace. (Pick 2 - Trade: Island Makers OR Mountain Clans OR Bond Breakers OR Tribe of the West)
[ ] [War] Withdraw your men, bring them home. (Expand Hunting)
AN: There is a moratorium currently in effect. Until I post the next threadmark, votes will note be counted.
AN2: We're not talking about your rolls for this turn. Someone's been making satanic sacrifices again.
I mean it IS nothing... Nothing supernatural at least, but there might be something mundane of great use.
I have no idea how this choice would effect us tho...
[0] [Cave] It's a mouth to the spirits' home.
[0] [River] Put off the settlement for a generation. (-1 Legitimacy)
[0] [War] Attempt to write a peace. (Pick 2 - Trade: Island Makers, Bond Breakers)
[x] [Cave] It's a mouth to the spirits' home.
[x] [River] Put off the settlement for a generation. (-1 Legitimacy)
[x] [War] Attempt to write a peace. (Pick 2 - Trade: Island Makers, Bond Breakers)
Well the Twisted Trees might be deformed dead trees, The weather's harshness meant that the trees adapted to the summers are dead due to how long its lasted with this coldness. The cave i am not sure, but it might have something worth investigating. But i don't really like any of the non-its nothing choices.
[ ] [Cave] It's cursed land, wounded in a great battle between spirits.
[ ] [River] Put off the settlement for a generation. (-1 Legitimacy)
[ ] [War] Withdraw your men, bring them home. (Expand Hunting)
Human Sacrifice is a big no-no, so let's not call it a hungry spirit. Calling it nothing would also cause issues with some of our people since from their perspective, the cave's clearly something.
As for the Settlement, Kaspar's never lead us astray before, so I'll follow the old man's advice. He deserves it.
Finally, we're barely breaking even in food, and that'll only get worse the longer the Winter goes. Let's pull out now and feed ourselves, that's likely to cause issues with our Southern 'Allies', but I don't see a reason to bleed for them any longer when they already hate us.
