- Location
- Third planet from the star named Sol
- Pronouns
- He/They
Oh hey, looks like we have some context for this. Guess this was in a speech to the Provisional Republic?
In the Shadow of the Old Pueblo-Tucson ISOTed to the Bronze Age
- Thread starter Teen Spirit
- Start date
- Original Antiquity Supernatural
mdkcde
"Emotions are prohibited"
- Location
- Nani Sore?
How much different?
- Location
- a place
I guess the Covid-19 would make the situation way worse. With Tuscon isolating their groups more and basically bringing a plague that would change the demographic of the region.
Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Okay you do have a fair point there. Though admittedly the Sea People are centuries after this and I'm very wary of treating them like one distinct group.
Well okay assuming roughly the same time just a year earlier so that would be nine days ago. That was the day the mayor of Tucson declared an emergency and things really started shutting down. So there's already been a few days of panic buying so some people are already stocked up on emergency supplies. Now the question is does the fact that city was preparing for an emergency, albeit a vastly different one, help much in this situation? And of course there's the obivious issue of COVID-19. Tucson so far has largely escaped the worse of it, we only have 43 confirmed cases. But you know that's confirmed cases, probably a lot more unconfirmed cases.
So maybe a better organized city government that might endure in some capacity but with a lower surviving population due to the pandemic, which will play havoc with the region once people leave Tucson.
It's more about the fact that when the whole "Sea People" shebang started they essentially managed to seize Cyprus (and most of the northern Mediterranean) and convert it within a few months into a ship spitting fortress ala bronze age Isengard, and caused the fall of most Levant states, and endangered Egypt itself.
And that it required a regular campaign to dislodge them from said island and destroy the local industry (and likely people too) to ensure they wouldn't start up again a few months after Egyptian troops left.
In that way, anyone siting on Cyprus could effectively be what Venice became a few millennia down the road.
Cyprus
Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"I've done such terrible things, things I can never atone for. But at least here, on Cyprus I have a chance to do some good for the world."
-Nurse Juliet Sablin
"Everyone wants this island unified, problem is everyone wants to be the one to unify it, even me. Whoever wins could build something really special here, assuming there's anything left when all is said and done."
- Chairman Kishon Call
An Island Divided
Pre-Event Cyprus was an urbanized, mercantile society much like the Minoans. Largely focused on trade With Egypt, the Hittites and other regional powers, though Cypriot ships reached as far west as Sicily and even France occasionally, though competition with the Minoans limited such ventures. Much of the Island was dominated by the kingdom of Alashiya with the rest of the island, mainly the eastern parts, divided among various city-states. The copper trade and metallurgical production dominated most of the Island's economy though the island also had a notable prestige goods industry. While not as prosperous as the Minoans, the island of Cyprus little lacked for wealth before the Event.
The first Tucsonians arrived on Cyprus less than a month after the Event, an extended family using a stolen yacht to flee the violence that now gripped Tucson and the area surrounding it. The family was soon followed by others. Some traveling in similarly large groups, some came completely alone. The first wave never saw large numbers of Tucsonians reach the island, the city wasn't on the coast and inexperienced sailors were more likely to drift out to sea then reach Cyprus, particularly if they were using a Downtime boat. Many of the Uptimers had come with only a limited amount of weapons and ammo and were rather easily appeased with the promise of food and shelter. So at first things were relatively peaceful after the Event. The Uptime Americans becoming a fixture in many royal courts. Then the trade started to slow down.
First it was trade with western Anatolia. Merchants would sail to regular ports only to find some towns destroyed and abandoned, others populated by hostile strangers.Then trade with the Hitties dried up. The economy began to suffer. Requests for aid were sent to Egypt and other nearby powers but they were ignored and Alashiya lacked the strength to try and force them. Opinion began to turn against the Americans but at that point most of them had made themselves too useful to the various kings and lords of the island. Almost ever group had contributed something to their new sponsors, even if it was simple as navigational charts and their boats. Leaving the elites very unwilling to do anything to the Americans.
Then came the Nobles of Crete. Former princes, once powerful merchants and their servants fleeing Anax Rachel and her new Regime. The Conquest sent shockwaves through the courts of Cyprus. Not because of what Rachel created. Not only where the Minoans now united behind one leader, which posed a threat to Cyprus's trade, but Rachel had taken the island through naval power. Alashiya had thought itself protect by the wine-dark sea it called it's fortress. The Uptime ships they had seen impressed them but they didn't seem suited for combat. News of cannons and mortars changed that perception, Alashiya was vulnerable. The later Mycenaean nobles only furthered the Island's fears.
But even still the Island's nobility was divided. After all who better to provide protection against these Americans then their own countrymen? While those nobles who had lost valuable trade with Crete, the Hittites and Wilusa had firmly turned against the Americans, many of those focused on the Egyptian trade routes were still solidly in favor of the Americans. So when the King of Alashiya issued a royal decree calling for the culling of all Americans on the Island, many powerful nobles refused. Sparking a civil war.
It was into this conflict the Second Wave arrived. Had Alashiya been prepared, had they at least been united, they might have stood a chance. The forces that arrived were disorganized in the extreme. Nominally most of those who arrived on Cyprus where under the leadership of Captain William Norvell or Corporal Anneline Thompson, formerly of the National Guard, but in truth the Expedition, if it could even really be called that, was barely more than a ship born horde that had been lured to Cyprus by the promise of wealth and power.
The resulting war was chaos, both sides fighting themselves as much as they fought each other. But the Americans had rifles, grenades and cannons, while Alashiya was just beginning to experiment with gunpowder. Alashiya was outmatched and soon the kingdom crumbled.
Norvell began to focus on his plans for Egypt while the other factions fought over the rest of the Island. Chaos held much of the island in it's grip until the Egyptian Intervention.
Since Khayan's invasion things have been held in an uneasy peace. The Americans too divided to band together but weary enough of Alashiya and the Egyptians to avoid going to war again. Most have refocused their efforts on rebuilding the island's trade and mining industries.
Four powers dominate the island as of 20 A.E; let's take a look at them.
West: A Kingdom Reborn
The Modern Kingdom of Alashiya is a very different beast compared to the old Cypriot kingdom. Egyptians soldiers patrol the streets while Minoans guide it's ships, all the while a Mycenean King rules from it's main palace. Nominally a vassal of the Hyksos, Egypt largely stays out of affairs as long as the Copper flows and the Kingdom doesn't do anything stupid. Alashiya is a kingdom united in resentment, the Myceneans and Minoans both bemoaning their lost homelands. Most aware they will never be able to return though more than a few still dream of reconquering their lost homelands. This unity is somewhat fragile though. The average Mycenean views the Minoans as a group of soft skinned traders. While the average Minoan sees the Mycenaeans as little more than glory hungry brutes. The differences in their religious pantheons have also caused some trouble. Never the less, King Eruthros does his best to keep the peace between the two groups and the native populace.
Most of the Kingdom's wealth is focused on defense, Mainly rebuilding the cities of western Cyprus into improved versions of the old fortress-palaces of their old homeland. Hoping stone walls will make up for their outdated armies.
North: A Changing Light.
The Emergency Pima Government was founded with the intentions of being a broadly Christian "Theocratic-Democracy". A state that kept to the Old America's republican values but placed Christian values at the forefront. These largely amounted to little more than talking points as the nation is led by a collection of priests and ministers (both properly ordained and self-declared) from various sects, with elections being delayed until enough the native population was properly "Civilized" to be made part of the voting population. But as many of the older priests have died, the Council's power has waned more and more, replaced by other powers within the state.
When the borders were more or less finalized, the EPG found itself with a half dozen doctors, about as many nurses and some medical students. This soon became a boon for the EPG as the island found itself gripped by several outbreaks in the years following the Egyptian intervention. And the EPG was able to make some very lucrative deals by selling out the services of their doctors.
The doctors based themselves out of the town of Enkomi, a former capital of Alashiya until they relocated to the western coast a century before. The doctors soon began hiring guards to protect themselves against both bandits and kidnappers. Eventually the doctors transformed themselves into a more formalized organization, The Order of the Lost Lantern. The organization would expand, eventually reaching beyond the island itself but that's a topic for another time. But within EPG their influence would grow as the council began to age and depended on them more and more. Now the Order holds almost as much powers as the Council itself. They've used this power to somewhat secularize the country. The EPG is still a christian nation but the destruction of Cypriot temples and icons has stopped for now.
The EPG uses much of it's mineral wealth to fund the Order, recruiting and training more doctors while sending expeditions to Tucson in the hunt of knowledge and aging medical equipment. Most of the nation's small military is focused on the west as Alashiya is the only power on Cyprus that does not allow the Order to operate within it's borders.
South: A Doubtful Refuge
Nina Arrabal had suffered a lot since the Event because of who she is. Most of her family and her girlfriend had been killed in the early days by a group specifically targeting Hispanics to rob. She had nearly been killed in the city of Globe for her sexual orientation. She had traveled to Cyprus looking for a fresh start. When the EPG announced it's plans for a Theocratic-Democracy and Corporal Thompson began using distinctly right-wing rhetoric she feared she would soon be on someone's list of targets. She had come prepared, having built up a small network of allies since she first joined signed up with Thompson. She used this network of allies to take over the city of Dromolaxia and much of the surrounding countryside.
Since then Nina has ruled as a dictator in all but name over the Free Republic of Cyprus. There had been plans for elections but they were canceled when her one of possible rivals made noises about how they found the native Cypriot religion barbaric. Realizing that most of the other factions have oppressed the Cypriot population or where trying to change their cultural. Seeing the potential opportunity presented she ordered her men to ensure that the Cypriot temples where to remain unharmed and all effort was to be made to repair the docks and resume trade. This tactic worked well, causing the small nation's population to swell as people fled the EPG. Since those early days, Arrabal's rule has proven rather tumultuous as her dreams of a socially free nation has clashed with the desires of the native Cypriots and her own personal biases. Nearly losing some of her biggest supports after the she tried to kick out some of the order's doctors on fears they were there to convert the Cypriot population. Arrabal has heard of what became of the leadership of other nations that started out idealistically, and what became of them in the end, how they ended up betraying their own ideals. She has no desire to become another New Pueblo. She desires her Republic to truly be free one day. She just has no idea how to achieve that. This frustration has led to a work hard, play hard attitude. Throwing herself into managing mines and working out trade deals for days on end before spending hours drinking and partying.
Economically the Free Republic is focused on trade and mining but has tried to diversify away from copper; exporting Marble, Gypsum, and other minerals. Arrabal has also done a lot to encourage artists of all stripes as part of a renewed luxury goods industry. Some of the Free Republic have taken to piracy, something Arrabal has tried and failed to stamp out.
Militarily the Free Republic's strength is roughly on par with the EPG but they lack the level of training and discipline the Order has been able to instill. If it comes down to a military conflict, Arrabal has little hope of winning. Which is why she's determined to make sure the fight for Cyprus remains a largely peaceful affair.
East: A Dream Unrealized.
Corporal Anneline Thompson had come to Cyprus with dreams. Realizing the resources and shipbuilding potential the island had, she had visions of using it as the foundation of a New Republic, using the island to conquer what was left of the Hitties and the Sanford Expedition in hopes of building a new United States. She had thought Captain Norvell shared her goals. As the invasion of Cyprus pressed on it quickly became clear to Thompson that she both misunderstood Captain Norvell's goals and vastly overestimated her ability to organize and control people. After Norvell's failed invasion of Egypt had killed most of the men she brought with her, she fled east, forced to ally with former gang leader named Kishon Call. Together the now Chairman Call and General Thompson where able to rally a small force together and take over the Karpas Peninsula, forging the American State. The American State Claims to be a Right Wing Country dedicated to traditional American values, this largely rhetoric used to justify acts against the native populace and purges of internal dissents.
The American State quickly realized why it had been easy to take over the peninsula. the Region was underdeveloped and thinly populated, it's economy based on agriculture and fishing with only a small amount of copper mining. Realizing the disadvantage they now found themselves in, Thompson turned to something she had long hoped to avoid. Using what was left of her small fleet together with the native Cypriot ships she quickly turned to raiding every nearby country from the Hittites to the Free Republic. Only avoiding the Egyptians and Alashiya, fearing retribution. The turn to piracy has worked, allowing the American State to maintain it's disproportionately large military at the coast of being one of the most loathed countries in the region. As age begins to take it's toll on her General Thompson has turned desperate out of a mix of fear and self-loathing, desperate to figure out someway to end this stalemate without being crushed flat. Desperate to see the American State become the Republic she had dreamed of instead of the pirate haven it had become. With the death of the Pharaoh Khayan she wonders if this is her best and last chance to achieve her dream. Call has so far resisted her calls for an invasion of EPG, waiting to see if Egypt is distracted enough for them to gamble on an invasion.
For now, a bitter and uncertain peace holds on Cyprus.
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What's this?!
Someone got their teeth kicked in and they began to act like sensible people?!
What wizardry is this!
Avoid?
Seems the magic of teeth kicking does not reach everywhere.
It's good to see some people are just too dumb... How hard is it to make a sensible choice and leave for northern Tunis ,Southern France or Sicily?
Very interesting societies. A number of issues in editing:
Added in edit:
Accidentially a sentence.
Not a comma. Either semicolon or a new sentence.
Doesn't match tone
Typo or... whatever
Huh?
Capitalization, typo, and maybe word choice, not sure
Not a complete sentence.
Not a complete sentence.
Is this rhetorical device appropriate for the intended fictional format?
Not a complete sentence.
Capitalization
Capitalization
Its, and not a complete sentence. Attach to previous?
Huh?
, o
its
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Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Thanks, I'll fix that later. Much appreciated.
Some did, they're just not doing much beyond living in small villages. Thing is this part of the world, like Greece, tends to attract the ambitious. People ambitious enough to risk life and limb. There are plenty of people with ambition in Anatolia who basically never moved beyond the their initial escape from the city. Going this far requires either some serious desperation to escape from something or enough ambition that your okay risking life and rim to grab a chunk of land. They're basically Conquistadors if Conquistadors where hobos looking for the lost city with indoor plumbing. And Conquistadors tended to be a less than thoughtful bunch. Not everyone is an idiot, but there's a fair few fool hearty people around this part of the world.
Well I mean the EPG's secularization isn't a bad thing and the lost lanterns are provide a lot of healthcare services to much of the island, which makes them rather popular and powerful. But I would say the Free Republic has a decent chance. Not being horrible to the Natives has done a lot to endear her to the locals.
EBR
Self-Requested Ban
- Location
- Khazaria
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that it was a bad thing at all.
Medicine After The Event
Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"First it was the machines, X-Rays and Life Support stopped working within the first day. Then it was the antibiotics and blood tests, then the morphine, then the regular pain meds. Then I started losing things I didn't even think it was possible to lose, we haven't seen synthetic bandages in two years. We've been able to make replacements with local materials but it's not enough. I've seen whole families die from things I would have once been able to treat effortlessly. And yet to the locals I seem like a miracle worker. I guess it's all a matter of perspective."
- Dr Elizabeth Brooks, Order of the Lost Lantern
"You know how hard it is to make someone who has no real knowledge of biology to accept germ theory without a working microscope? I spent half the night screaming at the priestess to get them to understand that the doctors are not in fact witches, charlatans or insane. We need to inscribe it on a monument somewhere, wash your freaking hands people!"
- Queen Jessica Kilpatrick-Wilson
Medicine in the New Old World
Medicine suffered greatly from the Event. Most of the advanced equipment was rendered useless as soon as the power shut off for good, numerous medicines expired soon after as refrigeration began to fail. Hospitals had emergency power but those only lasted for a brief time and the hospitals quickly became overwhelmed with desperate and confused people looking for help they hospitals could not provide. Most Tucson Hospitals are claimed by various factions, some even using them as a base, most just using it as a source for unique scrap and materials.
Doctors, Nurses, Med Students, and even in a few desperate cases; veterinarians, had a slightly higher than average survival rating during the dark days surrounding the Event. As groups fleeing Tucson came to realize that those medically trained were vital in dealing with injuries and diseases that had become rampant among the Refugees. The doctor's efforts were hampered by an ever dwindling supply of medicine, bandages and even simple tools. Further hampering efforts was a general unfamiliarity with the surrounding plant life, limiting the use of even primitive treatments.
As the years progressed doctors found themselves in a deeply frustrating situation. The knowledge of medicine was still there but they lacked the means to really make use of it. As all but the most basic of medicines (such as using Willow bark as aspirin) were now impossible to manufacture, as even simple things like cotton were now out of reach. Many turned to methods not far removed from an Apothecary in the middle ages. A small few abandoned the practice, too depressed by seeing people die from normally easily treatable conditions to continue. Most medical professionals who found themselves in the western parts of Anatolia, tended to simply open up a practice in whatever town or settlement they found themselves in, treating people as best they can.
For those who traveled further away from Tucson, practicing medicine became even more complicated as they dealt with downtimers. Most doctors, particularly those in Greece and those formerly belonging to the Hittites found themselves clashing with priests, midwives, and shamans who regularly had control over healing and tending to the sick. To most downtimers, illness was just as much a spiritual aliment as it was physical one. Many healers found themselves threatened by these doctors and their strange treatments. Further complicating matters were the medical advice these doctors and even regular uptimers were giving out, mainly the importance of washing their hands and the focus on cleanliness. Germ theory was completely alien to downtimers and to most it sounded like nonsense or some strange foreign belief. Some places were slow to adapt to the Uptimer medicine at first, sometimes lashing out violently against it. This changed slowly overtime as people came realize the effects it had. While the uptime doctors bemoaned how many people they lost, the downtimers were impressed by how many they saved.
Outside of western Anatolia, doctors were somewhat rarer. Only a few signed up for the Sanford Expedition and those that remain are fiercely protected by Sanford, Maddox and the other rulers in the former Hittite Empire. The Minoan Kingdom was basically lacking in any trained medical personal until Anax Rachel's pregnancy lead to the Kingdom hiring several doctors and nurses.
One exception to this was Cyprus
The Order of the Lost Lantern
The Emergency Pima Government included a number of people from St Mary's and Saint Joseph's Hospitals, mostly the non-medical staff, clerks and sanitation workers who had been swayed by coworkers and friends to sail to Cyprus, but a number of Doctors as well. This lead to Cyprus having a fairly large ratio of doctors compared to the rest of the Uptime population. This proved rather helpful after a number of outbreaks hit the island but also proved problematic as the doctors soon found themselves with a target on their back
The American State first kidnapped and enslaved medical personal out of desperation, as they lacked enough medically trained people to deal with a cholera outbreak. This act of desperation soon turned into something much worse as the American state soon began kidnapping medical personal and selling them to other uptime factions, particularly in Greece.
After a half dozen doctors were either killed or enslaved, those remaining realized action was needed. They hired bodyguards to protect them from slavers and misguided locals. These guards put a stop to the enslavement and forced the American state to actually hire doctors. The doctors and the bodyguards soon realized they should be far more proactive, protecting others beyond Cyprus.
The Order of the Lost Lantern was founded in an empty grain silo just outside the EPG's capital by a group of doctors, nurses and their protectors. The goal was two fold. To ensure doctors and nurses were protected and the medical knowledge served. For this to become possible they became far less altruistic in the EPG, using their importance to demand a decent amount of wealth, this wealth was used to fund to scavenging expeditions towards tucson to reclaim medical textbooks and equipment that was still functional. This economic power soon translated into political power as the aging leadership of the EPG found itself needing the Order more and more. The Order soon began to expand outside Cyprus, setting up offices and schools from Troy to Hattusa. Becoming one of the first extra-national organizations formed since the Event. This has not gone without controversy, with the Minoan Kingdom banning them after one of their own doctors accused the order of theft.
The order is generally decentralized. With a council of three, a doctor, a nurse and a lantern guard, managing things on Cyprus. Similar councils run the larger schools outside of Cyprus. Though the years have caused the organization to become formalized. the lantern guards have gone from little more than hired thugs to a organized security force, medical training now follows a set curriculum instead of just simple apprenticeship with a doctor or nurse.
In recent years a number of states have lobbied complaints at the Order, accusing them of trying to pressure independent doctors into joining and hording a disproportionately large number of the surviving medical textbooks for their own use. Never the less the Order has made itself vital to numerous nations across the Mediterranean.
The Future
While few worry about it just yet, a number of doctors have retired or died in the twenty years following the event. While there still plenty of Pre-Event doctors around, sooner or later the medical professional will left in the hands of those who were little more than students at the time of the Event, and eventually it will be in the hands of those born after the Event. And while almost every nation has some sort of medical education in place (From schools to singular doctors in remote villages teaching their children), there is concern over how much medical knowledge will be lost. How much will future generations have to relearn in the decades to come?
/
The Lost Lantern was something I have planned before recent events but being largely confined got me thinking about medicine in general. Hope this was interesting.
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Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I couldn't figure out a way to put in in a way that didn't break the flow but basically the founders said they wanted to be a light that guides people in the dark (since it's not just about medicine but knowledge preservation) then someone cracked a joke about how do you guide people when you're just as lost as them.
Sol Zagato
senseless brute
I'd have figured Pharoah would hire some doctors at any price.
Blood tests don't stop working, they run out, since they are pieces of chemically reactive paper.
"First it was the machines, X-Rays and life support, the we ran out of blood tests within the first day." Perhaps?
Though given the IRL situation and actual preparedness of most hospitals it would be more realistic to say they ran out of PPE's...
Penicillin? It's basically mold, and it revolutionized medicine.
If you let you'r bread mold a bit, then mix it in with grain. Once the mold takes over you add water and after another few days you leach out the liquid through cloth.
There are a lot of issues with it and its storage but this should effectively shut every downtimers mouth.
And while they didn't have cotton they had wool? It's not readily available outside shearing time since it would get quickly processed, but large quantities should be quickly available by next year.
You can treat wounds with honey.
And that's before we get into the magic that is heavy fermenting of grains and just about any plant matter into alcohol~~
Ancients would cry foul over their sweet, sweet wine being turned into 70% vodka, but what works right?
- Location
- Australia
Cotton is an Old World plant; ancient Egypt, Nubia and so on farmed it.
Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
From what I understand Greece wasn't familar with Cotton until Alexander the Great encountered it in India. Egypt didn't start growing it until the time of the Empire.
Good to know, I'll probably edit it later to incorporate that info.
We have definite proof of cotton clothing in Egypt, and later plantation along the Nile, but only there as far as the Mediterranean is concerned till 1000-500 BCE.
Which has a lot of sense. They had wool, and pastures don't take away workers from fields used for food production.
Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean admittedly if you don't understand germ theory, thinking there's some sort of magical or religious element to disease does make a fair amount of sense. One of my classes talked about how many and europe thought the Black Death was divine punishment (admittedly that's also because it came a time that was pretty bad in general) and it's easy to understand why. As much as I'm inclined to stuff like Humors and the entire Victorian era thought of "A gentlemen's hands are never dirty", I can easily understand why someone less informed would look at Germ theory like it's absolute madness, particularly when you lack evidence to support it.
Transportation and Travel After The Event
Teen Spirit
Lost in Ever After
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"It wasn't just cars and planes we lost, it was horses. The horses these days are too damn small to do field work or even be properly ridden. We're forced to use chariots to get any sort of use out of them."
-President Martin Nielsen, United States of America (Globe)
"These Americans constantly focus on what they lost, not appreciating what they still have. The compass, the sextant, their navigational charts. Just one of these would have made me the wealthiest king in the land before they arrived."
-Plouteus; Merchant, Free Republic of Cyprus
The world since the Event has become a lot larger for most Americans. Many have never left the first village they arrived in after fleeing Tucson, and among those who have traveled, an overwhelming majority have never traveled beyond the Eastern Mediterranean. With only a few dozen people settling in Italy. A few Minoan, American and even Egyptian ships have sailed beyond Gibraltar but not much further. Though there are always rumors of some person or family sailing to England, France or even to America in a desperate bid to get home. The reason for this relatively lack of travel is due to the general collapse of uptime transportation since the Event. Gasoline has long since expired, and most cars are little more than rusting hulks. And yet, as in most situations, the former Residents of Tucson have found a way to adapt to their new reality.
Land
Almost everyone who had a car or could 'acquire' one quickly enough at the time of the Event used it to try to flee the city. The roads quickly became clogged with traffic, and even those that left more often than not where abandoned in the unfamiliar forests that partially surrounded the city. Quite a few did escape though. These vehicles (Largely trucks, jeeps and other vehicles suited for off-road travel) would often form the backbone of the armies of the First Wave. Serving as both a weapon's platform and a psychological weapon in it's own right against a Bronze Age population that had little understanding of the massive and absurdly fast metal monsters. Most of these would eventually be scrapped for parts and/or converted into ad-hoc buildings as fuel began to run out. A small few though remain functional, their engines converted to run on methanol and other alternative sources of fuel. These few surviving vehicles have almost all been converted to technicals, a type of improvised military vehicle. Mounting crude armor (if any) and armed with weapons typically taken from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Only a few factions still field these and those that do don't have very many, with the United States (New Washington) having the most at eight. Every technical is unique and is used a little differently by each faction who owns them. With New Washington using them as fast attack vehicles, able to quickly respond to bandit attacks and raids by it's neighbors, while King Marion has his heavily armored, using them as the tip of the spear in any assault, with one kept in reserve as his personal 'chariot'. Most think they can keep these vehicles running for another few decades but each surviving vehicle is borderline irreplaceable, with more advanced replacement parts becoming harder and harder to find.
One of the smaller scale shocks for many Americans when they encountered the Bronze Age world was the horse, mainly how small they were. The horses of 1600 B.C.E were domesticated but they were smaller and weaker than the ones Americans were familiar with. Making them almost entirely unsuited for transporting heavy goods or even riding. Their uses largely being limited to Chariots and livestock. A few Uptime horses did survive the Event, these horses have almost entirely been used to breed with their downtime counterparts. Their owners hoping to create a viable population of work and warhorses. So far these efforts have been of limited success.
Chariots themselves have seen some use, largely removed from combat as most American factions find them too vulnerable to weapons fire and unsuitable as a weapons platform. the Hyksos, having basically invented chariot use in warfare, still use them but their role has become much more limited, largely reserved for commanders trying to control a large army.
Most long distance land travel these days is done by oxen-pulled carts. While uptime knowledge has allowed for numerous innovations to both the yoke and the carts themselves, these carts are still generally quite slow. Despite this a few factions, most notably the United States (Globe) and The People's Union have attempted to weaponize them. Creating armored war wagons that serve as a protected and mobile firing platforms, these war wagons are not too far removed from the war wagons that would have been used in the Hussite Wars. These wagons have proven of mixed effectiveness, being largely effective against less developed factions but their slow speed and large size making them vulnerable to heavy weapons fire and explosives.
Sea
For a landlocked city whose river had been almost entirely dry for decades, Tucson had a high number of Boats. These were fishing boats and personal yachts, most of them were not particularly large as they were limited by the fact they had to be towed by a car or truck. During the chaotic days after the Event, a small few were taken out of Tucson by more farsighted individuals who feared they would have to sail to find somewhere with enough food. A few more were taken in return trips to the city, but for the most part these small boats were left to rot on their trailers or were taken for parts and scrap. Those boats that were taken would see limited use (mainly during the invasions of Greece, Crete and Cyprus) as transports and combat vessels, but their small size and general construction has limited their effectiveness as a weapon of war. With most surviving examples being reserved for either personal use or transportation, both in trade and in smuggling.
The real innovation brought by the uptimers to nautical travels was knowledge and tools. The compass revolutionized the various sea trade routes of the Eastern Mediterranean almost overnight, with tools like the sextant, backstaff, maps and even a few navigational charts further helping things, though most of those would require some adjustment to deal with changes such as different positions of various stars. These tools made sea travel faster and much much safer. The Americans soon combined these with other innovations, such as improved rigging for sails, improved storage methods and better ship building methods. While these early improvements were relatively minor they provided a massive boon to the Mediterranean trade network as they allowed for ships that were faster, could haul more, and were more durable in rough weather. The Minoans benefited strongly from these new tools and innovations. Combined with Anax Rachel's more centralized control over Minoan traders, this lead to a great deal of wealth flowing in the Aegean as the Minoans traded with Americans, Egyptians, Sicily and North Africa. The wealth gained from this improved trade was soon invested into bigger ships. At first focusing on trade ships, the Minoans and other nations soon began preparing for much more ambitious plans such as warships. Plans for various medieval and early modern ships were recovered from the University library and other sources but simply having those plans did not translate into having the knowledge or ability to build these ships. For starters almost every dock in the region would require expansion and renovation to build and maintain this new breed of ships. And the lack of ship building among the Americans proved rather problematic, resulting in many false starts and failed designs. In one famous case a New Washington ship toppled over and sank moments after launch, having been far too top heavy. The Minoans, having a long history of ship building, adapted relatively quickly to these new designers. Launching their first major warship around 11 A.E. a twenty gun, single deck frigate named Tyche's Axe, after a minor local deity that would have gone on to become the Greek goddess of fortune and a daughter of Aphrodite, eventually becoming the Roman goddess Fortuna.
As tensions in the Aegean increased, numerous factions began to invest in warships. As the Minoans were an island power who were deeply dependent on trade for the economy, they became determined to ensure they maintained an edge on their rivals. Their naval doctrine became focused on two kinds of ships. Smaller, faster frigates and galleys designed for both blockade running and hunting down pirates and smugglers. And larger, two to three deck vessels designed for defending the islands and fighting larger battles.
Egypt has also placed a focus on it's navy after the destruction of it's old fleet in the Cyprus intervention. Focusing much more on smaller galley designs, reserving larger designs for cargo and troop transport.
In more recent years, the Minoans have begun experimenting with pushing beyond the age of sail. Launching a paddle ship, The Pride of Knossos, in 19 A.E. Though it and it's sister ships have been regulated to non-combat duties and the Minoans have so far been cautious about pursuing widespread adoption of any steamships at the moment, largely out of concern the amount of materials required for each ship would, at the moment at least, outweigh any edge they gave them in combat.
Air
Shortly following the Event, the skies above Tucson become filled with aircraft for several hours as the aftermath of the Mutiny at Davis-Monthan saw pilots both civilian and military abandon the city, using everything from airliners to A-10s to escape. Since then not much as flown save for birds and some insects. Most of those planes long since scrapped or converted into housing. Those aircraft that remained in Tucson became a prized target for scavengers. as Aviation fuel has long since decayed into uselessness, it will likely be centuries before jets fly again.
But that does not mean there is nothing man made in the air.
New Washington along with the Republic of Rome and Baja Arizona have begun experimenting with hot air balloons, even drawing up plans for blimps and even zeppelins for use in warfare and trade. Concerns over fuel and practicality have kept these plans on the drawing board. though the balloons have proved useful for scouting.
a few surviving Pre-Event drones have been used for recon, scouting and occasionally limited spying by various factions.
As for manned powered flight, those prop-driven planes that remained in Tucson were one of the first targets hit by scavengers, and most were too complex to even consider maintaining. Most people had written off powered flight as something effectively lost to this generation, most but not all.
The Morley siblings were almost too young to remember Tucson before the Event, but one memory did stick resoundingly with both of them, the flight to the city from their home in Memphis. of being above the clouds and seeing the tops of mountains. Both were determined to experience that once again. Dany Morley became an engineer, using the money she made from maintaining generators to fund small trips to Tucson to gather parts, plans and books. She and her brother Kevan began building a plane in their parent's shed. They faced numerous setbacks and redesigns but eventually it paid off. On March 5th, 20 A.E, a small single engine plane was spotted wobbly flying near New Washington. The small, Cessna inspired plane never came close to the heights the siblings had hoped to reach, Kevan had been forced to land the plane within minutes of take off due to issues with the wings, and as many quickly pointed out, the engine was entirely pre-Event and is still impossible to replicate. But the siblings had achieved their dream, mankind was flying again, if only for a short time.
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The Mutiny is something I will cover in it's own update someday. I did a fair amount of research so hopefully everything here is at least somewhat plausible, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
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ExNihilo
SPACE!
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Huh. You mentioned rough terrain in the land section, but have more developed countries, my thoughts would be Egypt and Crete mostly, been experimenting with road design? How does one build a cost-effective road for chariots and wagons, and how much can uptime innovations help there.
- Location
- Australia
No love for paramotors, the Morleys went straight to prop planes?
That's surprising as they (or something like a powered hang glider) would be the simplest powered flying machine.
That's surprising as they (or something like a powered hang glider) would be the simplest powered flying machine.
chinger
Alien Spy
I am relatively sure that unless they have surviving parawing, building wooden plane is easier then making fabric for a new one. Mediterranean does not even have silk at this point of time.