Analysis
Diplomacy 7->6 (+2) [+1]
Trade mission deduction, and looks like once it comes back we'd be at 9 Diplomacy. God knows how we'd spend it
Economy 6-?5
Down one for starting the Garden
Stability 2->
3 (emboldened)
Capped Stability.
This is in line with earlier theories that excessive Stability might be a problem. Emboldened people take risks more often, which has appropriate consequences.
Stability 2 seems to be a good balance point.
Legacies
+2 Centralization Tolerance
+1 Hierarchy Tolerance
Rush Builders: Extended projects cost more per turn but complete faster
Rush Builders officially a Legacy now. Which is pretty cool, we need speed more than Economy.
The People were somewhat surprised by the swiftness of their own construction, so with the need for fresh water also something on their mind, the king approved a project that some had talked about around campfires for some time, which was to make a canal that flowed into a city to provide fresh water directly, instead of requiring to walk a significant way to the river or a well. It would also better help flush the drainage ditches and a few other considerations.
Okay, so projected benefits:
-Expanded Economy through labor savings
-Enables sewerage system discovery, which when we implement it would cut the Half-exile commitment to make black soil substantially by making it hydropowered.
Upper Valleyhome had long been considered a good place to start, as while it was at the top of a local high point it was still well below well watered hills with a pre-existing reservoir and irrigation network.
There would be a fair amount of earth moving required, but it was a relatively simple task all things considered to get a small canal down from those hills and into the city. What would be more complicated would be rearranging things to ensure that there would be proper waterflow throughout the settlement, which would require... basically every structure to be demolished and relocated, but since everything was already laid out on a grid and old buildings were often torn down and replaced anyway, the task was really more about accelerating the replacement schedule and moving things about during that time.
Streets would be widened, more boulevards put in place, and channels to carry fresh and waste water would be laid underneath brick lined streets. It would take time, but the project had multiple provinces for backing. While some of it was just for the prestige of it all, a big part was that the chiefs recognized that Valleyhome was a good test case to see if they could extend the concept to other large settlements.
This here is confirmation that we're going to be using Inverted Siphon methods(driving water uphill with gravity and pressure) of water delivery.
That this is primarily a planning project for plumbing and seweage.
And that
overflow goes into additional aqueducts. If we overflowed.
Priorities makes getting extra aqueducts early less critical at least.
Mostly that while they weren't nearly as bad as rumours and legends suggested, they were still a thoroughly unpleasant lot, who yes, did have a wall studded with skulls around the centre of the city, which was at least as big as Valleyhome, if not larger.
Yep, still there. Gross.
There were, however, two additional layers of wall around the city: one around a vast sprawl of lower class and slave housing, and another, much lower wall that spread out to encapsulate the farmland around the city. This second one was primarily to make any chariot raids a much bigger pain than to really keep out dedicated attackers, but since chariot raids were the main threat it worked quite well at its job. While morbidly decorated at the gates, these newer walls were significantly less gruesome than the ancient structure that was still maintained with fresh blood and skulls, but thankfully no longer really expanded.
Tech transfer opportunity. This type of lower, cheaper walls would be very useful for the Stallion Tribes to copy, because all it needs to do is to keep chariots from building up momentum and it protects ALL the fields, not just the settlements.
Also they invented slums along the way. Yuck.
Enjoy your plague pits.
The spirits they paid tribute to in sacrifices both mundane and human were also about as bad as trade stories described, with more than a few traders considering that the Xohyssiri should get better gods once they were well away from the place, although there were a few that the People felt had some redeeming values, although most of those weren't the major ones that had big temple complexes... although perhaps the fact that they didn't have major temples that offered up at least one human sacrifice once a year had something to do with why the People didn't mind them so much. The one the People had the least issue with was definitely Tuultox, a spirit with the lower body of a snake and the upper body of a woman whose venom could serve as both disease and cure, something the more spiritually apt knew was true of most medicines, with the dosage and application making the difference. While they didn't exactly approve of some of the bloodier aspects, Tuultox also didn't demand active human sacrifice so for one of the major ones that put her leagues ahead of the rest.
I see a god getting imported here. Our shamans like her, though the Highlanders don't.
While not unique, the large loads of dye and precious metal had certainly made for a vigorous trade, netting rare cloths, beautiful artwork, and a few daggers of 'Eastern copper', a strange variation on copper that was used by a few of the Eastern Thunder Horse that held an edge much better than regular copper, and was a bit more golden in colour than copper. While still not terribly useful for making weapons, the knives made from the material were good enough to make a useful replacement for stone or wood variants. And then of course there was the big product: ceramics. The Xohyssiri had ceramics that exceeded anything the People made in terms of shape, patterning, and quality of glaze.
Cotton, Art, advanced pottery and the ETH have
arsenic bronze. Not yet tin bronze however. But it's a start. The pottery is
Overall, while the People weren't entirely certain about any sort of continued relationship with the Xohyssiri, continued trade with them could probably be beneficial, and perhaps by talking to them they might introduce them to some non-psychotic spirits to worship, although there was some unease over the possibility of someone offering a heart up to Crow in the future. Also, fighting would probably block the route again in the future, but for the moment there would probably be good things coming up from the south for a time, and the People might learn a thing or two from the Dead Priests.
Eh, Crow already takes his own hearts. He doesn't need people to offer them. There are plenty of the dead to feast upon.
And here, Fighting would block the route in the future, so I suggest we have trade started up with the Highlanders and the Thunder Horse so that we can negotiate safe passage for our traders.
Improve Annual Festival - A festival for every season, but their expansion can help put the People at ease and teach good practices.
* M: -2 Econ, +1 Stability, +1 Art chance for additional effects
* 2M: -3 Econ, +1 Stability, +3 Art, chance for additional effects
* Max Stability: Legitimacy - 1
Restoration of Order - The people are uncertain, and into that uncertainty bad behaviour can flow. Send in the warriors to reassure people and root out corruption and dissent, restoring the proper function of the People. Max Stability: 0 or Legitimacy, whichever is lower
* S: Gain -1 to 2 Stability
* M: Roll twice, take best result
* modified by Administrative skill
Locked due to Stability cap.
Salt Gift - With the saltern, the People have access to tremendous amounts of salt, which can be used to awe outsiders
*S: -5 Diplomacy, random amount of Diplomacy, Art, and Prestige generated
*M: -5 Diplomacy, random amount of Diplomacy, Art, and Prestige generated (min. 1 of each) and the possibility of Mysticism generation
Ooo, this is enormous for spawning art and prestige. With the Salterns we can probably afford to do this every 3 generations or so.
Extended Projects- Extended Projects are major infrastructure projects that take more than a single Main action to complete but aren't as all consuming as megaprojects
Saltern - Need to find a new location through Survey actions or have more advanced technology to
No site yet. More Survey options.
So for now, we can leave the Garden to the provinces as they can still finish it in one turn(it only takes a min of 2 actions) with a Kick. We have work to do.
[X][Main] New Settlement - Southern Shores
[X][Secondary] Trade Mission - Highland Kingdom
[X][Secondary] Trade Mission - Thunder Horses
[X][Kick] The Garden
