At this point we really should get writing just for the administrative benefits. It doesn't have to encroach on our oral history tradition, we just need a simple means of bookkeeping due to our growing population. This is why writing was invented IRL, it was only later extended to the transmission of knowledge. Besides, relying only on oral history is extremely dangerous because if a significant portion of our shamans are killed, that knowledge disappears.
Could you elaborate on this? I'm not sure what you mean.
I'm super glad we bedded in sustainability with the water and tree spirit. That should help us avoid a multitude of issues, though it's going to put a squeeze on our growth maybe. Then again: magic - so who knows?
Looks like we may have unlocked a synergy by ticking all of the spirit boxes. I'm excited to see what happens.
We're really going to be relying on magic to defend ourselves going forward. Hopefully with time we can get some magic industry going.
Before the Quest, basically everyone in your society had the profession of "hunter-gatherer". With the exception of the Mechanicals who were a hereditary class, most people were capable of acquiring their own food or trading it for what they didn't make. In Turn 0 one of your miners describes how in years past they would just dig up whatever they needed and go home, but now they're working full time.
Once there was enough of a food surplus people could dedicate themselves full-time to mining, or trading, or crafting stuff for everyone else, while people who used to only gather food for themselves now had the job of gathering food for everyone else.
Naturally, this meant some people were wealthier than others and could use their wealth to exert their influence on people and government, hence your merchants currently occupying most prominent positions of power. At this point your traditional method of wealth redistribution - big public gift-giving ceremonies - aren't enough to level the playing field and you're developing an actual dominant class.
This is a perfectly natural historical trend that happened wherever cities formed - it's not your "fault", it's just a byproduct of the societal conditions you have to deal with. The problem to keep in the back of your head is that if you have one class that is obviously dominant, they will start to reshape society and the other classes will resent it. Currently you don't have too much to worry about, but there will be warning signs if the merchants get too powerful.
Similarly, as you grew and shifted to larger populations concentrated in cities, your traditional methods of government like your tribal assemblies don't work anymore, so you adjusted your system of representative government to match. You also had to deal with an increased demand for resources, the problem of disposing of waste, that sort of thing.
The upside to all this is - you chose a society with a high social science stat and you value change and innovation, so you're able to react to these problems. A less developed or more conservative society would have probably run into more issues at this point.
The Raven Tribe has a reputation for being belligerent, yet able to back up their aggressiveness with strength and valor. Their Warrior Societies are respected and feared by their neighbors. None of this, of course, has brought peace – rather, they have been engaged in a cycle of blood feud for as long as you remember.
Bringing them into the League means reckoning with this. Their feuds must be settled, but there is an opportunity here. Seats on your councils are now filled by members of your Warrior Societies. These "War Councils" are the traditional response to war, those with the most experience in fighting guiding your tribe's efforts, though it is expected that they will step down once the conflict has passed.
The War Councils argue that the conflict should not merely be one of defending their new ally, but of expanding the League. Bearing names like the Rock-Runners, the Red Spears, and the Wolves, these tribes would make valuable additions to the League. This is not as risky as it may seem; while there may be some resentment at first, so long as they are integrated as full members these other tribes will come to value their new position within it; such things were not unheard of in times pass.
Your Warrior Societies are called up. In ritualistic dances, they mantle themselves in war magics, increasing their strength and speed, enhancing their senses, shielding them from mundane weapons. Rituals designed by your holy men are performed when the Warstar is ascendant, iron and blood used to multiply the effects of the magic.
The League in this instance is attempting to force the enemies of the Raven Tribe to submit to their will. The primary objective is to force the anti-Raven alliance to join the League.
The average warrior fights hand-to-hand, in steel armor and with huge hide shields, armed with swords, axes, spears, or war clubs. There is no standardized kit, rather each warrior's weapons and armor are contributed by their family and maintained by the Warrior Society, ensuring that most warriors are at least somewhat well-connected. The Warrior Societies serve social roles, being places where warriors sleep and eat, as well as training to fight as a unit.
Wars are fought in the form of skirmishes which can occasionally tip over into pitched battles, where ranks clash in the open with a fair bit of posturing and even ceremony; holy men are in attendance in order to provide healing and magical assistance. Nearly all warriors look to their own supplies, living off the land and carrying what equipment they have on them.
The Raven War, in this case, is a typical fight between two groups of the True People, albeit on a larger scale. The initial hope of your War Councils is to defeat the enemy in detail, but the anti-Raven alliance steals a march, two tribes uniting even as you defeat the third in the field. With skirmishes breaking out across the woods and hills as you try and slow the enemy's advance, your forces assemble and maneuver into position. The Raven Tribe themselves prove to be little help, your own better-trained and better-equipped troops doing most of the fighting.
You have help from the spirits, too; ravens spy on the enemy and carry messages, your holy men read the omens to attempt to divine the most opportune time to go on the attack, and in the Religious Lodges rituals are woven to bolster your forces miles away.
The climactic battle is a close victory, but not too costly. Your superior numbers are brought to bear as your warriors envelop the flanks of the combined enemy army, and the arms that wield axe and sword have been bolstered so that they swing with just that much more force and speed. The enemy breaks and scatters, and most who fall are killed the rout. More are captured, to be ransomed back by their tribes.
As your troops approach the capitals of the vanquished tribes, they experience an upheaval. Their War Councils resign in disgrace after their defeat, and their merchants and Mechanicals – faces painted white in imitation of the League – riot. Your Speakers arrive in the capitals of the vanquished tribes and present them with the terms of surrender, and they agree.
The League has almost doubled in size. Your victorious warriors return home laden with loot and the wealth gained from ransomed captives, and the ceremonies that celebrate their victory last for a full week. Your War Councils dissolve, assuaging fears of a power struggle, and new elections are held. But more than gains in territory and wealth, the League has gained something even more powerful.
The League of Strength seems to have held back and begun a period of consolidation. Their neighbors, now aware of their strength and ambitions, have put up a stiffer resistance than usual, and this rival League has made only moderate gains.
Sanctuary – Help Your New Friends – 81+19=100(!!!) vs. 16
The strange recent arrivals have put themselves and their weapons at the disposal of one of their neighbors in what seemed to be an ordinary border skirmish against their rivals. Instead, the screaming metal devices of Sanctuary's workshops tore through the Warrior Societies arrayed against them. In fact, the allies were able to press their advantage and overrun all of the loser's territory. A tribe has been totally destroyed – an unusual occurrence, but not an unheard of one. The defeated people are either adopted into the victorious tribe or scattered to join their neighbors. This is the power the foreigners wield...and our own people have unleashed it.
??? – Unite the Machine Armies - 40%
War continues to beset the Machine Armies of the desert interior. Despite their great victory, the conquering army now based at the Holy Mountain is beset on all sides by rivals and competitors, and try as he might, their leader can only just hold them all off while he builds his strength.
Tech Barons – Unite the Baronies - 66%
Through word carried by far-flung traveler and the occasional divination by your holy men, you have gained some idea of the conditions in the subtropical monsoon forest and savannah to the south where the Tech Barons hold sway. These lords often quarrel with each other, but it seems a coalition of self-appointed leaders has ended the squabbling and infighting through a deft mix of diplomacy, force, and bribery. Whether this alliance will hold, or whether they intend to do anything with their power or merely hope to maintain a peace, remains to be seen.
Islander Folk – Find New Markets - 92%
Enormous ships have been seen along the coast, from the cold northern fjords to the coastal swamps of the south. Where they land strange people come ashore – very tall, with dark skin, their men adorned with thick beards and their women wearing their hair long and loose. They bring fantastic goods from distant shores; wondrous new textiles, spices, and a mild narcotic beverage they call "cava". All the tribes of the coast are clamoring for these goods, and even our own merchants have heard of these people and what they have to offer.
Sanctuary – Help Your New Friends – 81+19=100(!!!) vs. 16
The strange recent arrivals have put themselves and their weapons at the disposal of one of their neighbors in what seemed to be an ordinary border skirmish against their rivals. Instead, the screaming metal devices of Sanctuary's workshops tore through the Warrior Societies arrayed against them. In fact, the allies were able to press their advantage and overrun all of the loser's territory. A tribe has been totally destroyed – an unusual occurrence, but not an unheard of one. The defeated people are either adopted into the victorious tribe or scattered to join their neighbors. This is the power the foreigners wield...and our own people have unleashed it.
Say... we are the only ones with advanced Magic Tradition in the region, aren't we? Perhaps they would be interested in our services... as long as they continue keeping those scary, scary weapons away from us.
I'm not too worried. They only entered the fight due to their allies so they aren't particularly interested in expanding. We should send some people over to start relations though
judging by chargen our edge over the colonists is also just in being able to adapt to crises and changing circumstances while they agonize over social change
judging by chargen our edge over the colonists is also just in being able to adapt to crises and changing circumstances while they agonize over social change
I'm still optimistic for the path where we can ally with the colonists and get some synergies going to help us both resist the packs of open autocrats running around other parts of the planet. Though we need to establish that they are not in fact secret autocrats which is why I'm going to keep waving this large flag labeled ESTABLISH RELATIONS until we get there.
Okay, we really need writing now. All those new subjects aren't going to integrate themselves. Again, think of the practical difficulties involved in running an empire, people!
Okay, we really need writing now. All those new subjects aren't going to integrate themselves. Again, think of the practical difficulties involved in running an empire, people!
