Paths of Civilization

[Academia Nut]

When the children ask "Where did the people come from?" there is a tale that their elders tell, and this is it.

---

Long ago the people came from a place of abundance, a garden where all was in order and one could simply pick food from eternally full bushes and trees when one was hungry. All was well and peaceful, until Axchin came. A greedy, grasping man, he insisted that all of the abundance belonged to him. When people protested he struck them down and burned the bushes, and so the people gave way. The men he put to labour, gathering food for him, while the women fed it to him and appeased his sense of beauty. It was this way for many years, for none had the strength to oppose Axchin, and he horded all good things for himself.

Then was born Crow, a clever child who was blessed with knowledge and wisdom beyond his years by the spirits. Crow knew that Axchin was wicked, and he knew that he needed to be opposed, and while he did not have the strength to fight directly, he was a trickster who could outwit the wicked man, stealing away the things taken and giving them back to the people. The beasts he broke free from their confinement, the seeds he scattered to the wind, and the women he stole away in the night with, bringing them back to the men.

Soon enough Axchin's rage was beyond the breaking point, and he gathered everyone he could find together and said, "Look at Crow, look at how he steals from you! Am I not generous and give you food to survive, while he releases it all into the wild where you will have nothing?"

And thus it was that some people came to resent Crow, and Crow knew that he would soon be surrounded by traitors. So he went to the people and said, "I have not taken your food away, I have merely set it free from one who could not own it in the first place. Come with me, and I shall teach you the secrets the spirits have whispered in my ear since I was a babe. There shall be both food and freedom for all."

Thus it was that the people were divided. There were those who stayed, disbelieving in him, and those who followed him, their leader being the most beautiful woman in Axchin's possessing, Crow's wife Mwya. Crow took the people out into the wilds, where he taught them all the things that make a people great. He taught them to hunt wild beasts and tame domestic ones, he taught them to gather sweet fruits and farm. Though life was not as easy, Crow and Mwya taught the people how to respect the land and the spirits, who grew increasing angry with Axchin and the wicked people who stayed. Finally though Axchin's crimes grew too great without the righteous people Crow had lead away to restrain him, and dark clouds gathered. With a single stroke a tremendous bolt of thunder broke the sky and smote the garden Axchin fouled. The land was flattened to the horizon, the good earth pounded to dust and sand.

Crow could not recreate the garden Axchin ruined, but it was he who had the last laugh.

---
Apologies, but if everyone could recast their votes, this time using [] instead of {} to designate Main and Secondary, that would be great. I have been planning something like this for a while, and using this point as a threadmark interrupt to reset the vote is rather useful for me. Also, I have added another option for sending a trade mission, which really amounts to a diplomatic mission.

Also, this has been fun to plan, in thinking about how stories get rearranged based on incorrect memory and embellishment based on later considerations.

 

[Academia Nut]

There are stories of where the People came from, of kings and heroes of ages past, but the question comes, where did the Land come from? The World?

To that, we must cast our imaginations back, to before there were people of any kind. Once there was nothing, no land or sea or sky. All was one, neither hot nor cold; light nor dark; hard nor soft; male nor female. All was as a sea of mud in every direction, formless and void.

All was Gygo.

How long it was this state is unknowable, but eventually Spider-Eyed Crow came in from the Dark Beyond Dark. Seeing all was Gygo and yet desiring for a place to rest, he whispered to that which was without form, and taught it To Be. Such that it was that light separated from dark; water from earth; hot from cold. Thus it was that the shape of the world was sketched from the void, such was it that Gygo separated into Gwy and Goya, the First Spirits. Born of Spider-Eyed Crow's teachings and from the Gygo, these spirits sought to continue, but they were incomplete and their works soon crumbled.

Seeing his creations at work, Spider-Eyed Crow sought out to teach them, but when they beheld his visage they were frightened and hid away. Ashamed at having created beings which feared him, Crow tore off his own face thrice, so that he could be Teacher, Trickster, and Devourer and thus speak more easily. Thus it was that he taught the First Spirits further.

Neither male nor female and yet incomplete, upon tutelage Gwy and Goya found that their creations could only be completed with the aid of the other. Thus were a new generation of spirits begat, who in turn learned from their parents and from Crow, continuing the division and differentiation. The sun and moon and stars populated the skies and mountains, rivers, and rivers populated the surface. Male and female came to be, each needing the other, and the world was populated with plants and animals.

And then the spirits did look upon the world and they said, "We have made this garden, but can it remain this way?"

And Crow did say, "Not without wisdom."

"Are we not wise?" The spirits asked of Crow.

"Do you think you are?" Crow asked in turn.

The spirits considered this and then said, "You have taught us much, so surely you must have taught us wisdom." And so it was that the spirits gathered together mud, that which was closest to the original Gygo, and moulded it into their shape, whispering to it to remember all that Crow had taught the World since he had come from the Dark Beyond Dark, and giving their blood unto their creation. Clay became flesh, the blood of spirits became the lower spirit, and the whispers of Crow became the upper spirit. Descendant of all spirits, she was Gygowyn, and she was incomplete, for she was made without a partner. The spirits went to recreate their creation, only to discover that they had used up all the Gygo in the world to make Gygowyn.

Seeing that she would be forever alone Gygowyn cried, "I am without a partner, and thus cannot continue."

The spirits then did say, "You are born of the clay of creation, of our blood, and of Crow's wisdom. We shall provide our spirits if you provide the shells, and your children shall be of male and female and shall continue."

So it was that some of the spirits volunteered to be devoured by her, to enter into her womb so that they might animate new flesh and spring forth as the First People and thus provide both male and female. In doing so, they forced a gap that would remain forevermore, where extra spirits might wander in as Third Souls.

The First Man, Arxyn, was born this way, and he did say, "This world is now complete, for we are wise and will maintain this garden that we have made."

Sitting nearby, Crow did chuckle softly to himself, and whisper, "My lessons are not complete."

---

Okay, because there has been some confusion:

When taking actions, the provinces only budget based off the the assumption of
(Current Econ) - (King's Econ Consuming Actions) - (Their Actions) >= 1

Thus if the current Econ is 4, and the players take 3 Econ worth of actions, the provinces will not take any Econ consuming actions, even if the players actions would pay out Econ by the midterm. If the provinces have Policy actions that would be upgraded to be Main level actions and would thus cost more than at the Secondary level, this is also used as part of the assumptions that go into planning out what they do.

Also, as a reminder, if you voted previously for the turn's actions, you need to revote because the tally now starts from this threadmark.

 

[Academia Nut]

Hey guys, I'm going to restart the voting because I realized that I made a few math mistakes, and after consideration, yes, you get +1 Stability for starting the Garden this turn. This probably won't shift things too much, but I figure a reset is in order.

However, I will give a few religious tidbits to bulk this threadmark out a bit.

Major Spirits of the People
Crow - A tripartite spirit, Crow is considered a composite being encompassing the Teacher, Trickster, and Devourer, with a unified form sometimes called Spider-Eyed Crow. A being of creation, knowledge, and taboo, Crow is considered among the most important of spirits but in no way rules over other spirits or the earth
Gwy and Goya - Hermaphroditic primordial spirits who mate with each other to give birth to all complex creatures and spirits. Gwy is typically seen of as the more masculine of the two, with Goya the more feminine, but both are attributed to impregnating the other and bearing their own children
Bytah - A daughter of Gwy and Goya, sometimes also conflated with Goya, and considered the progenitor of animals such as horses and deer
Gygowyn - The first human being and progenitor of the people. Often invoked as a bearer of fertility and a protector of women. Considered to have powers over all descendants, which is essentially everyone
Arxyn - An important ancestor/spirit, considered the first man and first king, who brought forth demons with foolishness and greed. Important for a form of negative invocation

Major Spirits of the Highlanders
Black Eagle - King of the gods, this anthropomorphic eagle is associated with both wise rulership and ill-omens, particularly solar eclipses, which are directly attributed to Black Eagle spreading his wings
Macra - A primordial giantess and demon, Macra was seized by Black Eagle as his wife, giving birth to the world. She is considered to sleep beneath the earth, her body giving shape to the hills
Holchim - A bull headed god of fields and pastures, considered the prince of gods who waters his fields with the blood of his father's enemies
Tosytox - Goddess of corruption and the summer sun, she is the matron of prostitutes and disease, and enjoys perverting and befouling things both physically and spiritually

Major Spirits of the Xohyssiri/Dead Priests
Thunderbird - A rainbow winged eagle who brings rain and destruction, Thunderbird shaped the world with the beating of his wings, bringing forth all things good and evil. He requires blood both so that he will not hunt on his own and thus bring ruinous weather with his flight, and to strengthen him when he battles more destructive demons and gods
Choxosyn - Head of a lion, body of a man, and legs of a bull, Choxosyn is the demon god of conquest who requires a steady supply of virgin maidens sent to him to keep him preoccupied with fulfilling his immediate lusts, so that he will not head out into the world to shake the ground with his passage or draw Thunderbird's ire. Enemy warriors can instead be sacrificed to him in order to gain his favour when on conquest
Tuultox - Serpentine goddess of disease and healing, her venoms can bring both death and life, depending upon her whims. Invoked by both prostitutes and pregnant mothers for protection, with the deaths of either considered to be her feast of blood
Teossoxyn - A demon who dwells within the north star, he is entirely random and destructive, and can only be satiated with the blood of loyal warriors, although not necessarily their deaths

Major Spirits of the Thunder Horse/Speakers
Thunder Horse - A cosmic horse that created the world when he ran across a featureless plain, the fall of his hooves explosively reshaping the land. Now mostly concerned with reshaping the sky, but invoked through certain rituals to share his virility and thus bring forth children and good harvests
Patir Torm - The current king of the gods, who gained the position by lashing the cosmic equine children of the Thunder Horse to pull the Sun Chariot and who reworked the sparks from Thunder Horse's hooves to create lightning bolts that he hurls to smite his enemies
Gasania - Mother goddess of the earth and deep places, noted for her jealousy for the attention of Patir Torm and rages when his attentions wander to other women. Considered the matron of good harvests, women in childbirth, and the deeps of the earth
Firlco - Peregrine messenger and deadly archer in his father's service, the only thing faster than Firlco are his arrows of sunlight and disease

Reminder, everyone will need to vote once more

 

[Academia Nut]

Family Life and Education

Patricians

The patricians occupy their position in society through a combination of network contacts, managerial competence (that they hoard obsessively), and the ability influence enormous amounts of resources both personally and through their positions in society. As such, the raising of their children is a massive concern to them. The first two male children are typically educated similarly, the so called "heir and the spare", with both receiving extensive education in literacy, administrative mathematics, general physical education and basic combat skill, and most importantly introduction to the extensive network of social contacts that make up the core of the patrician power base. Third and fourth sons are typically encouraged to make a deeper study of the martial arts, particularly of elite skills like chariot archery, so that they might make new contacts among the warriors and have a fast track up the social ladder should they prove proficient. Fifth and further sons (that survive to adulthood) are typically educated more practically, their fathers and grandfathers busy with their older brothers and thus setting them up as apprentices with higher standing "practical" trades, such as clerks or certain artisan groups. While not as prestigious, these sons can help keep influence networks fresh and ensure that patrician families are represented in the middle management of the guilds as well as the upper management. Many of these later sons also show signs of spiritual power and are thus sent off to the priesthood, where the contacts of their fathers help them rise up within that hierarchy faster than less connected peers. Patrician daughters are typically the glue that holds the powerful families together, and are thus given their own education in administration for the running of households and aesthetically pleasing physical education to make themselves more attractive for discerning husbands and to help promote the bearing of strong children.

Warriors

There are few hereditary warrior families that don't either aspire to become patricians or go extinct in the process, but there are many only a few generations old that are working their way up from humble beginnings. Typically a warrior family starts with a lower level militia member finding success as a caravan guard, being called up for war, or being recommended to a mercenary company. While many children are often sired during the time as active warriors, few actually follow their fathers. For the social climbing warrior, around the age of thirty to thirty five they will settle down into positions training the next generation and have 'official' children. They will attempt to pass on their skills to their sons so that they can start their careers in a more advantageous position - preferably starting in one of the Banner companies rather than being recommended in later in life. Typically the preferred position is to become a chariot driver so as to have contact with the most elite portions of society, and if they can be promoted to chariot archer from there even better. Chariot archer fathers will typically have chariot archer sons, but from there they will push for their grandsons to either marry into or found their own patrician influence network. Daughters are a typical bargaining chip in all of this, as a fit daughter from a warrior father can be an enticing marriage prospect for a patrician chariot archer whose higher status marriage prospects are not looking great.

Artisans and Clerks

As the "urban middle class", the artisans and clerks tend to take a very practical view to their children and their education. Their children will inherit their skills, or the skills of a friend in a similar career if the family needs to diversify. With their expert training and family support within their organizations, the idea is for their children to be in a better starting position and will be able to rise up in their organization's hierarchy. Theoretically a sufficiently skilled smith could rise to become a guild master and from there join the Royal Council as an advisor, having a shot at the kingship, although the upper level positions are dominated by political connections rather than technical skill. Still, at the top of the guild middle management system is where the patrician's networks begin and thus being in such a position gives one the opportunity to actually develop the political connections required to rise further. Both boys and girls tend to be trained similarly, although girls most often go off to skills considered more appropriate to their gender, such as the weavers guild.

Yeomanry


The "rural middle class" that dominates much of the population is most concerned with the maintenance of their land and ensuring that all of their children will have good farms of their own when they grow up. Since children are often farmhands and the eldest will typically take over the current farm to care for their parents in old age, this means that one of the biggest concerns of the yeomanry is ensuring that the People as a whole have more land to be settled. For very large and successful families, this typically means that some of their younger children will have to seek work elsewhere. Sometimes their parents will be able to arrange an apprenticeship with a skilled artisan, but at a certain number of children the younger ones will simply have to find their own way, migrating to the cities. Aside from farming, the yeomanry also highly prize the skills of hunters in general and the art of the bow in particular. While a point of pride and a means of defending their holdings from hostile wildlife and outsiders, more than a few of the yeomanry also see the bow as a way to get ahead in life. At its least dark this amounts to using their martial skills to become skilled warriors for the People in general, while at its most dark it becomes a form of banditry. On occasion entire trade caravans will disappear, the locals blaming bad weather. While often difficult to prove, this is usually caused by a village turning bandit - often prompted by their local leadership having some sort of dispute with the caravan.

Traders

Even more than the patricians, the life of a trader is based around who they know. Social contacts are how they gain the trust to do trade, so children are a form of coinage even more than actual coins. While girls are the most often members swapped between trade clans and prospective trade partners, if a son is needed to seal the deal then that is what is needed. While there is some administrative training, more than anything else in their child's education the ability to read and interact with others is emphasized. It is thus not particularly surprising that many of the ancient trade clans are also intimately intertwined with the patrician families. The fact that the traders have a knack for taking in exotic and attractive outsiders means that many of their members are praised for being extremely attractive.

Freelancers

Technically no member of the People goes without work if they are capable, but there are huge numbers outside the intricate webs of association and obligation, typically referred to as "freelancers". These are the lowest status and lowest paid members of the People, generated by excess children unable to inherit the positions of their parents, refugee influxes, or people who just don't quite fit in with the rest of society and drift from place to place. These people do the low skill labour off the farms, the upwardly mobile among them hoping to convince an artisan to take them on as an adult apprentice so that they can transition into that social class. This social category also frequently includes certain "artisan" work that is so looked down upon that it is considered transitory. The archetypical example is prostitution, but often itinerant performers will be in this category as well. While technically for these groups the guilds for them include highly skilled members, these members are relatively rare and most people will only associate with the professions for part of their lives for one reason or another. If they can, most in these professions will attempt to get their children into a more respectable profession. A rare few within the field find the more respectable parts for their children to apprentice on and rise up. For example, the Guild of Hospitality is heavily involved with prostitution, but also has numerous sub-sections that are more respectable: they require shamans to check health and thus have permission to pass on certain mystic secrets internally. Many urban midwives are drawn from the more intellectual prostitutes, and there are additional skills such as massage and hair cutting that fall within the purview of the guild. High ranking courtesans can glide among the heights of society, and while rarely able to leverage this into lasting advantage, more than one patrician has been prompted to find a quiet but respectable position for an courtesan-born child who can go on to support their mother's retirement in relative comfort.

Half-exiles

While technically not a heritable position, the half-exiles with children are expected to pass along lessons of spiritual humility and cleansing to any children they might have. In places where the position is a transitory one mostly occupied by the young and stupid, there are few children to worry about and their parents are often attempting them to behave according to their original social class. In places where the half-exiles are longer term and closer to a caste, their parents often inadvertently pass along the lesson that society is out to get them and there is no point bettering yourself through accepted means, which often becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. There have been a few initiatives to separate half-exiles from their children to avoid spiritual contamination, but this often results in disaster and the kings and priests siding with the half-exiles.

Priests

While many priests have little interest in having children for one reason or another, there is nothing prohibiting a priest or shaman from having children. While many of these individuals follow in their parents foot-steps through sheer exposure to the subject matter, there are very few priest families as they are typically absorbed into the patricians in short order. Having a highly skilled priest interested in marriage is far too tempting for the patricians, and when given a choice between the esoteric mysteries of priests and shamans and something more interesting the children will tend to gravitate away from the position and towards the occupations of the other side of their family.

 

[Academia Nut]

Ymaryn Dragons

Reptilian demons have long been attested among the People, but since the discovery of the Dragon Graveyard the systematic study of them has increased incredibly. While the Graveyard contains many strange creatures and sorting out what belongs to what has puzzled the priests for a long time, the striking skeletons of dragons has obviously been a major feature of the site, and has given inspiration to numerous other institutions. Discussion with Khemetri priests and study of Old Xohyr texts upon knowledge of the demonic has further refined the People's knowledge of what dragons must have been like in ages past.

From the study of skulls, the largest dragons must have been serpentine creatures upwards of a hundred strides in length. From discoveries of smaller specimens and disarticulated bones, they were likely winged somewhat like bats, with large wing claws like the talons of an eagle, only scale to monstrously huge sizes. When not in the air they likely slithered like snakes, but could rear up and stomp forward on their wings. While only their bones are known, it is speculated that at that size they must have required great magic to maintain themselves, and may have likely had scales of iron for protection against the teeth of other dragons. There is also some speculation that they were feathered, or at least had a feathered crest behind the head, but that given their supernatural origins those feathers were made of razor sharp purple-black obsidian.

For a long time it has been speculated about how the bones became encased in solid stone, but discussion with the Khemetri about their knowledge of dragons has revealed the fact that they spit fire - or rather, as the People know from their more advanced alchemical knowledge - vitriol. Being powerful supernatural beings from the dawn of time, it makes sense that they would have access to such powerful magic. Further refinements in knowledge in fact suggest that they did not 'spit' water-borne vitriol but pure elemental vitriol of the sort that alchemists cannot isolate. While not an orthodox opinion, many now suspect that lightning is in fact the purest form of vitriol available in the material world. In either case, it is believed that the dragons and other skeletons became encased in stone because of this ability to spit pure vitriol. The transformative effects would turn bone to stone and flesh to liquid mortar, which would settle into great pools that would solidify into solid limestone and shale.

It is believed that most dragons were destroyed by the gods in ages past, with perhaps only a few left in wild places far beyond the borders of the People. There is a vaguely heretical idea that dragons in fact predate Crow, who unmade the world in order to destroy them all and make it fit for gods and humans, but it is generally more accepted that dragons were a breed of demon that followed Crow out of the Dark Beyond Dark at behest of the Great Tyrant Arxin.

 

[Dutch]

And I'm done. What am I doing to myself. Fuck my Life.

A minimum of 60+ Kings and 2K words.

Timeskips and figuring out the unnamed kings that were different from each other were a bitch. Bound to have some errors in it due to that though.

Edit:

Up to date till: Labour of Fire

Inspired by:

Like most cultures: reigns of kings.

Click to shrink...

• Tribal Council
• Unnamed Chief of Chiefs (Chief of Chiefs/Big man) - Created the Title.
• Unnamed Chief of Chiefs (Chief of Chiefs/Big man) - Created Irrigation, Successor to the first Chief of Chiefs.
• Unknown number of Big men.
• Ashryn the Proud (Chief of Chiefs/Big Man) - Rival of Crow
• Unknown Chief of Chiefs (Chief of Chiefs/Big Man) - Met and offered Friendship to the Traders, Successor to Ashryn.
• Unknown number of Big men.
• Cwyrl (Chief of Chiefs/Big Man) - Son of Ashryn and Myta(n).
• Unnamed Chief of Chiefs (Chief of Chiefs/Big Man) - Successor to Cwyrl, Skilled in administration, Reigned during the Great Drought, met the Sea People.
• Ferfthyn the Wise (Chief of Chiefs/Big Man) - (Might be the the successor to Cwyrl mentioned above) - Organized the expedition to the Sea People that Dwthwyr was part of.
• Unknown number of Big men.
• Unknown Chief (Chief of Chiefs/Big Man) - Reigned during the debate to merge the Three Tribes.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - (Unknown if this is the same person as the previous Chief) - Reigned during the integration of the Three Tribes, the Great Flood and the First Weather Disturbance, Created the First Holy Site.
• Unknown number of High Chiefs.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Created Taboo of the Dead, Met with Nishiphur of the Lowlanders Settlers.
• Unknown number of High Chiefs.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Reigned during the integration of the Lowland Tribe and the youth of Gwygoytha.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Made Gwygoytha his heir.
• Gwygoytha (High Chief) - Daughter of Dwthwyr and Zinabba, Pupil of Crow, a Roaring Flame.
• Yhirlin/Yhirlyn (High Chief) - Son of Gwygoytha, An able leader with a stable rule.
• Fthgoya (High Chief) - Daughter of Yhirlin/Yhirlyn, Ruled during the start of the Forest Blight Crisis.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Not of the line of Gwygoytha, Combated the Blight.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - (Might be the same High Chief as the above one) - Combated the Blight, made contact with the Western Confederacy
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Led the People when the Blight was fought into the 3rd generation and solved, met with Patrikwos of the Storm Clan, led the people during the war with the Storm Clan.
• Unknown amount of High Chiefs.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - (Might be the High Chief above) - Sent the trader Mythwyn and Shaman Dellgynna to make contact with the Spirit Talkers, Fought the Storm Clan until the death of Patrikwos. Accepted one of Patrikwos' sons as part of the People.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Noticed corruption of lower chiefs and confronted them, created the Blackbirds.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Ordered the exploration of the Lowlands, learned of the Wall of Skulls.
• Unknown amount of (incompetent) High Chiefs.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - A warrior that wanted his son to become heir, managed to get the lower Chiefs in line through treat of violence, gave the shamans a vote in the election, died of a broken heart after his son's death.
• Hewthyun (High Chief) - Administratively competent compated to the previous High Chiefs. Met the Thunder Horse Tribe and their leader Wendtikwos, Ruled during the creation of the Star Axe and unleased the Thunder Horse on the Lowlands, Reformed the election system, Had a mind for numbers, Started building the Canal, Ruled during the death of Wendtikwos, Went Senile.
• Unknown amount of High Chiefs.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - Integrated several members of the Thunder Horse that were left behind.
• Unknown amount of High Chiefs.
• Unknown High Chief (High Chief) - (Might be the successor to the High Chief mentioned above) - Completed the Canal, Fought the Nomads, Started Scourge Warding practices,
• Bynwyn (High Chief) - Former Spirit Chief, Invented Scourge Warding practices, Fought the Nomads, Fought a magic battle with the Spirit Talkers. Saw the death of the Spirit Talkers, the Splintering of the Western Confederacy and birth of the Highland Kingdom.
• Twythulmyn (King) - First King of the People. Completed the Sacred Warding Project, Saw the Foundation of what would be the Thunder Speakers, Made contact with the Metal Workers, Saw the Morning Star comet and was prepared to sacrifice himself to talk to the Gods.
• Two Unknown Kings noted for their old age and quick passing.
• Unknown King (King) - Fourth King of the People, King during Noxivah's flight to the people, Changed the writing system.
• Unknown King - Fifth King of the People, integrated the northern fishing villages
• Unknown amount of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) Cracked down on the corruption of the lower Chiefs, fought the Nomads
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Fought the Nomads, Started tradition of Appealing to the King, Started Tax Reform.
• Unknown King (King) - Continued the Tax Reform, Saw the Rise of Cwriid the Young Stallion and the Stallion Tribes, Began creating the First Law.
• Unknown amount of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - Subbed Cwriid by not choosing him as Heir, Stopped trading with both the Thunderhorse and Highland Kingdom, Continued Tax Reforms.
• Unknown King (King) - Was elected instead of Cwriid, Decided who should mine and smelt ores, Continued Tax Reforms.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Finished the First Law, Snubbed Patryn the New Stallion, (Might have scared the Highlanders with the Law)
• Unknown King (King) - Was elected instead of Patryn, (Might have scared the Highlanders with the Law).
• Unkown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Failed to fix the Tax Crisis, Simplified the Tax System, sent an expedition to find a meteor and found Star Metal, orderd the Star Metal studied.
• Unknown amount of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Ruled during the Great Plague (Cholera) and the discovery of the cure, surveyed the land for more metals, Shared the cure and received grateful Xohyssiri and the Book of the Living.
• Unknown King (King) - Ordered the creation of the first Saltern, ordered the creation of the First Aquaduct, sent an expedition to Xohyr.
• Unknown amount of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - King during the Coughing Plague, Ruled during the completion of the First Aquaduct and the rise of the believe of cursed metal.
• Magwyna (King) - Increased infrastructure in the north, Organized the first Great Salt Gift, Created a Harem, Created the first index system for records, Ruled during the first Golden Age.
• Yehlmyn (King) - Son of Magwyna and Yldod(?), Expanded the indexing system, fought with the Thunder Speakers, faced renewed pressure of the Nomads, Ruled during the subjugation of Xohyr by the Thunder Horse, Judged Dormthun and started the Iron Smelting event chain, Ruled during and ended the first Golden Age.
• Unknown King (King) - Not of the line of Magwyna, Ruled during the Great Nomad Invasion and the Fey Mood.
• Unknown number of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Ruled during the aftermath of the Fey Mood and recovery, created the first Sanatorium.
• Unkown King (King) - Visited the sanatorium because of headache complaints, Rule during the Second Nomad Invasion and the First Famine, supervised the creation of the first iron tools.
• Unknown amount of Kings (King)
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Started the metal debate, managed the rollout of iron tools and weapons, organized a meeting with a caravan of people from the Far East, Ruled during the creation of Western Wall.
• Unknown King (King) - Increased Iron production, dealt with the White Calf issue and Hathatyn incusions, Made a trade ageement with Xohyr.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Continued the metal debate and the research of metal in general, Questioned the Sacred Warding, Ruled during the mass murder of nomads and the during the moment Vallyhome became a True City.
• Unknown King (King) - Started creation of the Great Temple, reformed the adoption system, dealt with the independent raid on the Highlands.
• Unkown King (King) - Created the Guids and reformed the voting system to include guilds, Decided on the Great Temple interior and the nature of Crow.
• Unknown King (King) - Organized a disasterous festival, ruled on the practice of lumping and splitting Guilds, Ruled during the start of the Hathatyn collapse.
• Gonwyllmyn (King) - Annexed a large part of Hathatyn, founded Hatriver, made Western Wall a Colony, Befriended the Eastern Nomads, Repaired the Great Temple, Finished the Great Temple, started the creation of the first Library, Created the Greenshore Trade Post, dealt with abuse of slitting an lumping, Ruled during the opening of the Hell Pit and the formation of the Xohyssiri Empire.
• Unknown King (King) - Died shortly after Gonwyllmyn.
• Rulhuthyn (King) - Enlarged the army, Defended the people from a Nomad Invasion, Completed the Library, Introduced currency, regulated horse riding, discovered Trelli, Crushed the Hathatyn.
• Rulwyna (King) - Daughter of Rulhuthyn and Lolwyna, Fought the Hathatyn, Finished her mothers alchemical theories and used them to creater her powerbase, Founded the Red Banner, Signed peace with the Hathatyn, Formed the Triumvirate with Ynarthyn and Sobtuthyn, Ruled during the start of the Climate Instability and made the Ymaryn King of the Hill, Secured the independence of the Thunder Speakers, Introduced mills into the Kingdom, made contact with the Khemetri, increased dye types, Created the foundation to ride out the Climate Instability and save the Great Forest, Reformed the Administration, Ruled against the cycle of Spiritual Superiority.
• Phygrif the Conquerer (King) - Turned Hatvalley into a Colony, Waged war on the Xohyssiri Empire, vassalized the Lowlands, Neglected the Kingdom, Presided over the completion of the Great Forest Renewal, Burned Xohyr, Ended the Xohyssiri, Ruled during the discovery of the Dragon's Graveyard, Fought against the Highlanders.
• Unknown number of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - Reformed the law, Invested heavily in Trails, Organized the Great Religious Debate, Worked on integrating the Lowlands, Fought against the Highlanders
• Unknown King (King) - Started construction of the Palace and studied the Dragon's Graveyard.
• Unknown number of Kings.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Admitted his wrongs and ruled during the end of the Climate Instability, Founded Tin River Trade Post.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Ruled during the completion of the Palace and the Trelli expansion, Converted Txolla into a Colony, invested in what would become trip hammers.
• Unknown King (King) - Did the the Census, Ruled during an uptick of independence sentiment.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Made contact with the Lightning Wolves and attempted to bribe their leader, Rahullinar.
• Unknown King (King) - Created the Second Law, Ruled on Taxes and the Sale of Food.
• Desdydyn the Wise (King) - Developed Shipping and mining, Ruled during the Great War with the Khemetri and made peace, Found out that the Highlanders had access to Iron, Encouraged progress in metalworking, Recruited Yenyna the Dragon who founded the Dragon Banner, integrated the Stallion Tribes,
• Unknown King (King) - Founded the Games, Organized the International Games.
• Hertythn (King) - Traded the Sacred Warding for Predictive Astrology, Cracked Down on the sale of unfinished Iron products, Ruled during a time when the people developed an obsession for their Enemies, Cracked down on Pirates, Listened to Tormulyna's prophecy, Vassalized the Thunder Horse and Thunder Speakers, Advanced Math enormously, Completed the Grand Docks, Worked on A Place to the Stars.
• Yshuyn (King) - Completed the Observatory, Warned everyone about the Great Drought, Started the Trelli War with is intervention, Ruled During a Golden Age of Progress, Went mad with Grief, Made peace with the Trelli, Sponsored the Artisan Games.
• Unknown King (King) - Kept sponsoring the Artisan Games and Finished Organizing it, Patronaged various Artisans like Klurkyn the Skilled, Ignored Qybrkyn the Prophet.
• Unknown King (King) - Ruled during the start of the Second Son Crisis and End of the Golden Age, Made contact with the "Shadow King Network", Instituted Land Reform, Founded the Spirit Bonded, Ruled during the start of the Great Plague, Organized a debate on Mylathadysm.
• Unknown King (King) - Ruled during a flare-up of Plagues and at the Start of the Liquidity Crisis, Fought against Pirates, Debased Currency.
• Unknown King (King) - Denounced the Second Sons like his Predecessors, Ruled during a Gilden Age and the Creation of the Western Ymaryn, Organized the Grain Dole, Accepted Mylathadysm, Ruled during the selfmade famine and the Trelli Implosion.
• Unknown King (King) - (Might be the King mentioned above) - Started the Myranyn Reforms, Reformed the Subordinate System, Aided Freehills in their war against Trelli, Founded the Blood Rain Banner and Brokered Peace between the Trelli and Freehills.
• Myranyn (King) - Brain behind the Myranyn Reforms, Fought Pirates, Created the Redshore Ironworks.

 

[Horologer]

Spoiler: Map of the Known World, Day Zero of the Horseman's Plague

If we go exploring more and also stop redrawing geopolitical boundaries so much, I'll draw a better map with funnier jokes.

Credit to @Concho117 for the hard work behind this map and @ManusDomine for locking the thread long enough to bore me into making the decorative border.

 

[Academia Nut]

So for the upcoming system revamp, not only will you have active policies but a 'King's agenda' (term subject to change). This is essentially a freely set Active Policy that will inform the factions what the king might like them to do. The action taken by the highest ranked faction that conforms to this agenda will be doubled as with the active policy. I am also toying with the idea of the King's agenda helping to even out faction strengths, with the lowest powered faction to conform to the king's agenda taking faction power from the highest ranked faction not to conform to the agenda, or something like that. I think I will ultimately also cut faction powers in about a quarter (half for finer granularity, and half again when I drop the turn lengths from 20ish years to 10ish years).

So what we are probably looking at is something like this (for your current set-up and economy):

4 player controlled secondary actions + 1 per non-Free True City or something like that (player controlled actions are actually easier to vary from turn to turn than passives, so I think something like this will work better)
1 Province Action per 2 provinces + 1 per Governor's Palace (upgraded, maybe)
1 Passive Policy per provinces + 1 per Free City
Individual factions will receive actions for various things (probably something like Guilds get 1 per Free City, Traders get them for high level Markets, Priests for high level temples, stuff like that)

For Provincial Actions and Passive Policies half will go to the players/king/zeitgeist and half will go to the factions. Faction controlled passive policies will tend to be mostly stable, but they can freely vary them from turn to turn. Decision making will then use the following rules:

1.) Factions have gain control over an action based on their current faction strength, going from high power to low power and then cycling back around
2.) In the case of a tie, the higher class faction goes first
3.) If a faction has access to an action from another source, they are demoted down the list once for each extra action they have.
4.) If a faction has negative power, they lose a pick from the first cycle
5.) Factions with 10 or greater power get an extra cycle for each full 10 points of power they have

To give you an idea how this would work, let's look at current conditions. With 17 Provinces, 3 Free Cities, and 2 Governor's Palaces there would be 8 Provincial Actions and 20 Passive Policies. Current factions are:

Patricians (6 {12})
Guild (5)
Traders (2)
Yeomen (2)
Priests (2)
Urban Poor (4)

So there are 4 faction controlled actions, plus the Guilds have 3 actions from the Free Cities. So the ordering would go:

Patricians x2
Urban Poor x1
Three-way tie between Traders, Yeomen, and Priests -> Priests are highest class so they win out and get the last action
Guilds would go before the Urban Poor, but they have 3 Guild actions so they get bumped down on the list three times

Let's now suppose that the King's Agenda has been set to Infrastructure. The Patricians decide that they want more ponies and spend their actions recruiting Spiritbonded and Expanding Econ to pay for it, and the Urban Poor call for more entertainment and build theaters. The priests on the other hand decide to support the king and use their action to build roads. The strength of the Build Roads option is doubled from a Sec to a Main, and the priests gain 1 faction power at the expense of the Patricians.

For the passive policies, of which the factions have access to 10, it would go:
Patricians x2
Guilds x1
Urban Poor x1
Priests x1
Traders x1
Yeomen x1
Patricians x1
Guilds x1
Urban Poor x1

Here because the Guilds don't have their own exclusive Passive Policies, they remain at their normal position on the list. For the most part the factions will only consider changing around about half their Passive policies each turn.

Now, let's say that the Patricians decide that they don't like the Urban Poor, and use their ability to suppress them. The order then becomes:
Patricians x1
Priests x1
Traders x1
Yeomen x1

If there were five actions, the next one on the list would be the Guilds, who have been bumped down from second to fifth place by their Guild actions. Because they are negative, it would take six more actions before the Urban Poor got their turn, because the negative knocks them out of the first cycle. For the Passive Policies, the ordering would go.

Patricians x1
Guilds x1
Priests x1
Traders x1
Yeomen x1
Patricians x1
Guilds x1
Priests x1
Yeomen x1
Urban Poor x1

This should hopefully be illustrative.

Now, for Repeated Actions, there are two options. Either the players can commit their own actions to Repeated Actions, in which case they are doubled in strength, or they can assign faction specific actions to be repeated, which also doubles them, and since faction specific actions are natively at Main strength, this makes them a Double Main. To compensate for this power, when a faction power is being used like this the faction gains 1 power/turn.

Faction specific powers can also be taken over by the players, reducing them from Main to Sec strength while under direct control, and the players gain no further spread of what those actions can be used for. Since player control is partially the king, partially the civilization zeitgeist, this close control also can increase faction power as they are more closely tied with the actions of the people. If more than a third of faction specific actions are controlled by the players, then that faction gains 1 power/turn.

As now, factions will be able to spend power to hijack player actions to get results more to their liking. There are three uses for this hijacking:

1.) The players want to do something they object to/don't want to do something they want to do
2.) They have enough power to force an issue, but other factions are dominating the current set of province actions and so they won't get a turn
3.) They want to do something normally only reserved for the king

This last one will be the most contentious, but this represents factions burning influence to get something. The most obvious one is war, but factions can also burn power to transform their province controlled actions into ones that they normally can't use, which usually involves things that impact stability or raise Martial score. Less annoyingly for the players they can also burn power to gain access to actions outside of a faction specific list (so the Guilds say want to Study Metal they can burn some power to call in connections and interface directly with instruments of the kingdom that normally go through the king). The more actions a faction dominates in a turn, the larger the cost, and doing things they can't normally do has a surcharge that increases for the degree of disruption. War will still have a huge surcharge.

Anyway, these are my thoughts on where things will go in the future.

 

[Academia Nut]

can you give us an overview of how the Not!Mediterannean world developed here over the lightning-years? I think we need some more background info for this vote. How the Saffron civilization rose and fell, did the Migration Period happen, was there an Alt!Islam, what happened to the Khemetri, etc.

Click to shrink...

Basically the Saffron Islanders genocided their way west for a few centuries, wiping out indigenous Bronze Age civilizations with technology and social concepts obtained from the Ymaryn, replacing them with their own colonies. Their culture fragmented multiple times (in the last update you were actually starting to deal with the Eastern Saffron Islanders, who had become distinct from the Western SI), but generally the Not!Med was controlled by their cultures and successor cultures for millennia. You had a Not!Rome for a time, and they fought and squabbled with you for a bit, but since you both had a policy of "expansion through 'defense'" for the most part you never decided to take a swing at each other all that hard, but they eventually fell apart to internal issues and a Migration Period nomad horde that bounced off you into them at a particularly bad time.

In historical retrospect, the scholars massively cringed when they realized that both empires had been able to bounce active nomads before, but if that particular group had arrived at a bad time for the People but not the Ueman then the situation would have been reversed.

There was a period of post-imperial chaos with the collapse of Not!Mediterranean (Saffron Sea) urban civilization and a reversion to agrarian communities, and you fueled turmoil by remaining a primary industrial center, providing weapons for cheap to petty kingdoms that focused on extractive measures to short term out compete their neighbours to be able to buy from you, impoverishing them, especially in the Eastern Saffron Sea. There was the rise of Not!Christianity and Not!Islam, but you sat on the fiercest focal point and refused to get involved in religious affairs one way or another, demanding that people pay their taxes and administer the fields and forests correctly. Since the two religious groups viewed you as being vaguely heretical rather than outright a different religious group (essentially both saw you as People of the Book) and you generally didn't pick fights with them, they mostly left you alone militarily. While you let both their missionaries through into your borders and out beyond, the two groups primarily interact through sea trade and in Not!Iberia, which lessened secular reasons to fight. Because you were sitting on Not!Anatolia and Not!Mesopotamia, Not!Islam had its cultural center sit in Khemetri, even if its holy sites are in Not!Arabia, and the cultural flavour of Not!Islam was more influenced by Ancient Egypt than Ancient Persia, especially since Khemetri went through a number of soft collapses (they probably have about the same degree of claim to cultural continuity from antiquity as you) instead of hard conquests like IRL Ancient Egypt. While the age of polytheism and god kings has passed, they are more like China in that they absorb invaders rather than have their culture replaced.

A number of outside forces took advantage of your weakness in the collapse, but there were no great empires able to immediately sweep in and take advantage, and you had left many of your nearest neighbours fragmented or partially dependent upon you so there were no ambitious conquerors who could immediately sweep things up, especially since you chose the hard urban core to survive and thus were able to maintain some degree of lording industrial supremacy over your neighbours. The power vacuum did mean that the furthest afield Syffrynites were forced to undergo further development of their own native industries when the supplies of quality manufactured goods out of your empire were sharply curtailed, and the death of the Ymaryn empire did release plague along the trade lines as the besieged, famine wracked cities became breeding grounds for disease that were carried along trade routes by refugees, so there was call for increased mechanization to replace plague losses.

So in the far west you have access to an actual ocean rather than an enclosed sea like the Yllthon or Saffron Sea, a taste for but no direct access to eastern luxuries like spices, silk, glass, and porcelain, and a sudden spike in local manufacturing. They thus had the tools all put together to develop long distance trade ships, and have begun making Not!Africa rounding journeys and forays across the Not!Atlantic. From long distance diplomacy, you have the Vortuga (a larger Not!Portugal) and the Hespranxer (Not!Spain + part of Not!France) being the most exploratory right now. You also have a bunch of Not!HRE and Not!Italian city state as the rest of the "pure" Syffrynites, while the Not!Balkans and Not!Hungarians are more closely related to the Storm Ymaryn, while Not!Scandinavia and Not!Russia come more from your interactions with northern tribes out of Amber Road.

Is the Stone Age Cannal still a known thing? Or do people think the unnaturally straight and uniform and convenient waterway is natural?

Click to shrink...

It's not known that it is a particular special canal among the rest of the network.

Imagine when they find preserved dinosaurs bones under the second holiest temple of the Ymaryn, the Dragon Graveyard.

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They will have to dig it up first, because that city got sacked super hard core.

how much land did we reunify last update? It almost sounds like some of the southern territories joined us as well for some reason.

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You largest chunks of territorial loss was in the east and south, but controlling the Yllthon has gone a long way to reunifying the directly Ymaryn parts, if not the most agriculturally productive (lowlands) or minerally rich (Horse Mountains).

 

[Academia Nut]

[X] Nohon (1x)
[X] Mapanca (1.1x)

@Academia Nut Considering these are still expies, do you mind listing what they are expies of so we have a better understanding of where they are located?

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Gylruv -> Russia
Kielmry Triple Crown -> Kalmar Union (Scandinavia)
Black Sheep -> Mughals
Kus Petty Kingdoms -> Indian Kingdoms
Greater Undikus Kingdoms -> South-East Asia
Khemetri -> Egypt
Greater Khem Eastern Kingdoms -> East Africa
Greater Khem Western Kingdoms -> West Africa
Hung -> China
Nohon -> Japan
Mapanca -> Mapuche + Inca
Sketch -> British
Halvyni -> Dutch
Styrmyr -> Hungary
Hespranxer -> Spain + France
Wyrmyn -> Poland
Vortuga -> Portugal + Spain
Etal -> Italian States
Tortun -> Germanics/Holy Roman Empire
->Ochruhr -> Austria
->Behryvar -> Bavaria
->Sexton -> Saxons
->Badbarn -> Brandenburg
->Vohemme -> Bohemia
->Hasum -> Hanseatic Cities
There are also other groups who are minor (Irish, Basques) or out of what you can really influence to your interests (Germany, Italy) and hundreds of other minor groups.