AN: I didn't forget the Diplomacy Action, that'll be handled in another post.
Winning Vote:
[X] Plan: Preparation
-[X] Reach out to the Raven Tribe
-[X] Waste Management
-[X] Permanent Councils
-[X] Taxes
-[X] Schools
-[X] Calendar
-[X] Tree Spirits
-[X] River Spirits
-[X] Rituals
Waste Management
The amount of waste a small city such as Whiteclay produces is inescapable. Leaving aside the excrement of thousands of people, there is also their garbage, from pottery shards and worn-out clothing to spoiled food, as well as the by-products of mining and manufacturing. With your water management, you can allow the worst of this waste to be flushed away, but your recent concerns about the river spirits have caused you to question this. Your Mechanicals and city notables are consulted, and plans are laid out. Middens are designated outside the city where garbage and debris can be dumped, and men are recruited to collect and carry it there. Other garbage is sorted and composted. The Mechanicals draw up plans to catch runoff from mines and workshops to ensure it does not pollute the city's drinking water; some workshops have to be moved entirely, and a few streams must be diverted. Human waste is collected, treated alchemically, and processed into fertilizer, carted to fields and gardens near the cities where edible plants are grown for everyday consumption. As a result, the waste-cart pushers find themselves carrying quite valuable materials. Soon merchants are clamoring to buy and ship this fertilizer.
Permanent Councils
In years past, the True People would select councils in times of crisis to lead them. In war, these were the war councils, led by warriors, but they also involved major interests such as the Religious Lodges, or the tribe's "Big Man".
These days, the tribal assembly has grown unwieldy in the biggest settlements which can now truly be called cities. Reaching consensus with thousands of people is a recipe for disaster and poor reaction, but the New League is a dynamic one, willing to change and eager to react quickly to issues as they arise. Your assemblies begin to elect permanent councils and imbue them with the power to solve issues as they arise day to day – for example, collecting taxes, running schools, managing waste, all the normal affairs of a city. The council still answers to the assemblies of course. They must be selected by the assembly to join them, and they can be recalled if necessary. Other issues facing the city as a whole are raised before the assembly to vote on. And, of course, council meetings are done before large crowds on the assembly field (or a suitable building) where people can make their voices heard quite loudly, sometimes to the detriment of proceedings.
Many smaller villages still get by on the assembly model, and some settlements actually choose their councils by dividing the seats among neighborhood assemblies, for easier response and coordination.
Taxes
All these efforts require labor and resources, and now the councils are empowered to collect them. Historians are tasked with monitoring the food surplus collected – nuts, fruits, and edible plants gathered from the woods, fish caught from the rivers and game hunted in the forests – as well as calculating the amount of iron, steel, stone, and other resources needed for new building projects. The councils effectively requisition these directly from miners and Mechanicals, as well as calling for laborers.
Schools
There are many skilled jobs the League need to function, especially Mechanicals and Historians who must be selected for their aptitude early and trained extensively in the necessary skills. There are other skills necessary to be one of the True People; a familiarity with the spirits and the major festivals, civic affairs and League politics, and a variety of other skills such as public speaking.
Previously, these skills were passed down by elders, or from master to apprentice. Now, as your society becomes more complex and the demand for skilled labor grows, the teaching of those skills becomes paramount. Children are selected at an early age if they show the aptitude and are separated out to begin their career paths. Those with teaching skills are likewise found and put in charge of their instruction.
These schools are fairly loose; the children of the True People have always been raised somewhat communally, and for those not diverted into skilled professions a traditional education of being taught as they grow into their roles is perfectly suitable.
Calendar
It is an extensive project for your holy men and Historians; months of study and planning and years of refinement go into it. Your Historians are consulted extensively, recalling every stellar conjunction, changing of the season, and every phase of the Moon, every important astronomical event that they can remember. The best and brightest among them count the days from each event to the next, envisioning the precise angles and degrees involved; many nights are spent by the Historians standing under the night sky, pointing and arguing whether the Daystar was
there or
there when the Daystar was at its equinox. With that, they extrapolate forward, predicting conjunctions and eclipses years in advance. They memorize the results, coming up with a combined lunisolar calendar with several extracalendrical days. The days of important astrological events are noted, and as the years pass, they make minor adjustments as needed to bring the calendar into alignment.
It is not a perfect model, but it proves remarkably accurate at predicting moments of astrological importance, allowing your holy men to plan rituals weeks or months in advance by consulting the Historians and waiting for their calculations.
Tree Spirits
A procession enters the deepest parts of the woods, a stretch of old-growth forest that has been untouched since the beginning of your history. Trees reaching two or three hundred feet into the sky shade the floor below so that no undergrowth can take root, a vast floor strewn with leaf litter stretching off between the wooden pillars.
Three people with faces painted white - a holy woman, a collier, and a Mechanical – kneel before a specific tree with dozens, perhaps hundreds of charms nailed to its bark. Form them hang painted slips of wood, feathers, beads; they stretch higher than the heigh of a man's head, evidence of years of offerings. The holy woman adds to this collection the charms brought by the Mechanical and the collier, then burns sacred herbs in a stone bowl, adding in further reagents as her prayer rises with the smoke to curl around the trunk.
A face forms in the bark, old and gnarled.
"The trees speak to me," it says, "And they say you have been taking more than in years past."
"Forgive us, spirit," says the woman, "Our need is greater. We need these things to grow strong and wise. Tell us, how can we take what we need and still respect the forest?"
"This I shall think on," the spirit groans in a wooden voice. Its bark twists, the face disappearing from view.
Hours pass, the three humans staying in a kneeling position before the tree, trembling as they restrain their restless limbs. Eventually, the bark twists again, the face reappearing.
"Take only the oldest trees, sparing those that are not at full growth," it says finally, "Reduce your controlled burns. Divide the forest into plots, leaving it to recover after twenty-five years. The land you clear must be allowed to reach the peak of its growth."
"It will be done, spirit," the holy woman says, glancing back at the collier and the Mechanical who nod their assent.
River Spirits
All water is connected. From their sources in the mountains, snowmelt fills streams which feed into rivers which join together one by one until a mighty water joins with the sea. This watershed is vital to your civilization – it provides water to you and the food you eat; it provides sanitation; it allows for travel and trade. As with the trees, you must take and give.
Expeditions find the sources of the major waters, raising shrines. Offerings are tossed into the rushing mountain streams to be carried downriver. The streams are named, in local mountain dialects – Upper Rush, Cascade, Stonefalls, Snowborn. Spirits are seen in the waters, with bright skin like salmon and wild hair, white like foam. They take offerings in place of souls, saving those who fall plunging into their depths. Further down, the vassal rivers are named, dams and locks altered. Bas reliefs of leaping salmon and river-dolphins adorn the faces of the dams, and fires burn atop them as holy men conduct yearly ceremonies to open the gates, releasing controlled floods.
The river-dolphins take on a strange cast – they have always been intelligent, this is known, but now it seems they are more curious towards you humans. Their behaviors become more unusual; they appear and disappear in strange places, the pods larger and coordinated in strange movements.
Finally, from the banks of the great river, holy men set out across the sluggish waters of the river in rafts. They launch a canoe stuffed with trade goods – gold and silver jewelry, tools made of durable alloys – and watch it sink into the depths.
Immediately river spirits are seen in the current, cavorting with river-dolphins. One of the river-dolphins swims to the raft, its black skin glistening. It speaks in a squeaking, clicking approximation of a human voice, telling the holy men that River-Woman is coming.
Two figures emerge from the river, water cascading from their bodies as they rise twenty feet above the surface, the water only rushing around their waists; first, a woman with a shimmering suit of overlapping scales, a gold band binding her blue-green hair. In her hand is a silver staff. Beside her, a humanoid river-dolphin, carrying a huge war club and wearing a helmet of iron.
And River-Woman said: "I am the Mother of Waters. These spirits of the lesser rivers and streams who you named are my daughters. My daughters have brought me news of you and presented me with your tribute."
And River-Man said: "I am the Father of Waters. The river-dolphins sang to me, weaving together thoughts of protection and strength. They tell me you have much to learn from each other."
As the ritual is complete, your holy men feel a wave of awareness ripple out from them, tracing the paths of rivers and streams, jumping from root to root to connect every tree in the forest, racing to the mountain peaks and penetrating deep underground to the foundations of stone.
The land stirs.
Rituals
Your understanding of the magical realm is expanding; the complex interplay of resonances, the connections between physical objects based on their metaphysical similarities. Stars, metals, plants, animals, stones, days, people. Everything has its time and place, and by intentionally concentrating your magical workings in those times and places, and surrounding yourself with ritual components, you can bolster these workings. Your holy men gather in their lodges the stars are right to invoke their power, adorned with rods of magically resonant metals and wearing complex charms and regalia. Words of power are composed into songs and combined with synchronized movements. The repetition leads to tradition, weaving powerful strands of magic together over many years. Rituals are added to seasonal celebrations to urge the forest spirits to grow faster and more fruitful; war rituals make your Warrior Societies stronger and faster; rituals which ward of disease are extended over the entire League.
