pbluekan
Somethin's Fucky ...
- Location
- Trumpistan
There was a time I thought I'd left nasty genetics shit behind when I finished my BS. Not so, apparently.
Paths of Civilization
- Thread starter Academia Nut
- Start date
- Original
There was a time I thought I'd left nasty genetics shit behind when I finished my BS. Not so, apparently.
War Against the Blight II
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The journey to the Western Confederacy is an arduous one for how relatively short it is, but the traders have been working out paths to reduce the effort required to get to the people there and their goods. Of particular note is that there are a number of particularly fine new textiles in circulation in the southern peoples, apparently brought over from distant lands by other trading groups. Not only does this drive up the demand for dye, but it is a new luxury item for import and resale, so of course the traders are scouting the best paths. As such it only takes the majority of a season to get from the valley to the core of the Confederacy, where the experts are welcomed warmly if with a bit of confusion. The lowlanders don't quite get why aid like this is being sent, or why they're being sent farmers of all people, but after a few demonstrations of the land management techniques they start to appreciate it. Once there is sufficient technical fluency, they also start to realize the somewhat selfish motivation behind the experts, in that if their forests were sick then they could reinfect the forests of the People.
While not every chief among the Confederacy appreciated the help, there were a few who decided that given how successful the People were, they should start emulating certain elements, and among those tribes there was a general manumission of debt slaves, shifting their status over towards the half-exiles who did the unpleasant jobs and had to live apart from the People in exchange for leniency for serious but non-capital crimes such as food theft. There were some other attempts at emulation beyond the technical, but those often turned out awkward for all.
Everyone had to admit that the Crow masks that were sent back up as part of the official diplomatic thanks were just neat though. Clever constructs of fired clay coloured with char and ochre, they were based off of designs for similar masks used in the representation of an eagle spirit important to the Western Confederacy. Apparently most tribes have potters who make things out of clay other than pots as their primary activity, and thus get really good at working the clay into complex shapes. Who knew?
While the traders and a few experts are making new contacts and friends down south, up north things the curing of the forest and its restoration are continuing apace, even if every time it feels like a region is stable or a hole has been patched, a new region of blight is discovered. New trails are cut and expanded as the People move further and further into the wilds, and while they don't exactly want to trample over all the work they just did, it soon becomes obvious in several places that they need to cut terraces into the stone bones of several hills so that black soil can be spread out and fresh plantings put in place, which requires the trails to be large enough to accommodate the animals and wagons that could haul the material. Every season seems to bring a new batch of problems... but often by the season after someone has some idea of how to address it. Not everything worked, but there were several notable changes over the years as someone finally got fed up with dealing with a problem and worked out a solution.
One of the big changes was that as the black soil production was expanded, there weren't enough half-exiles to do some of the tasks and thus people who weren't particularly in trouble had to rotate turns tending to certain pit tasks. It was when one of the masons had to take a turn with the grinding of the char that something important shook out. The People had always hand ground their grain to flour as they needed it day to day, but during the black soil agitation and grinding process the mason got sick of the mass processing and decided to spend a season working out a better way of doing things. It took several more years before the other masons had figured out how to make the pairs of carved stones the original man had devised into an actually useful device, but once someone realized an ox or horse could push the damn things in a circle with minimal supervision they started to get bigger and more and more things could be ground at once in a central location.
While these new mills were the most noticeable new addition for the People, for the chiefs there was a subtle new thing going about. With all of their new advisors coordinating with each other, it was noted that the tally and tracking system of the granary managers was being expanded as more and more experts were talking with each other over long distances. More and more different tally marks were added to represent new concepts, and soon enough the management tool was picking up new elements and was able to convey increasingly complex ideas. While hard to learn to the point where elders had a hard time picking it up in the time they had left in their lives, some of the younger grain counters and advisors were able to keep track of what everything meant and were suddenly able to better coordinate actions and remember things.
Meanwhile out at the coastal village, the focused attention continued to benefit them as the insatiable appetite for black soil - particularly black soil that used offal from the sea for some inexplicable reason - as the High Chief ordered an expansion of fishing activities to better feed everyone doing work out in the forests and provide for the production of black soil. This meant more fishing grounds would be staked out than the normal growth of the settlement would normally require, with clans given more responsibilities - and benefits for their expanded workload. One consequence of this though was that people were going out further onto the water, which meant that there were noted inadequacies with their fishing boats. While no one blamed anyone but the capricious spirits of the sea for losses, they were a frustrating part of life.
The improved contacts with the Western Confederacy as several of their chiefs opened up favourable trade arrangements in the hopes of attracting further assistance also proved useful in explaining the oddities of the Dead Priests in prior generations, as apparently they had turned the south-eastern lowlands into their "hunting grounds", and the priests themselves could forbid certain groups from being targeted to prevent their collapse, or command their warriors to burn another group to the ground if they saw them as a threat. Apparently a group to the east had fit that category and the Dead Priests had put considerable effort into stamping them out, for reasons that would probably never be fully known. Along the northern trade routes, it was filtering back that the Spirit Talkers were definitely in contact with the nomads up there, and the situation was apparently already degenerating. Some of the nomad tribes were open to listening to the Spirit Talkers, while others were taking exception to them. Which tribes were hostile to the People and which to the Spirit Talkers were of course not the same ones, nor were they even a perfect swap, which meant that they actually had some further information on the Spirit Talkers.
The central village of the Spirit Talkers was at a crossroads point in a series of hills. Their valley was a dry one that only ever got water during flash floods, but if you wanted to go anywhere in their region you ended up passing by that point. Higher up the hills nearby there was an extremely well protected cave that served as the centre point of everything the Spirit Talkers were. Pilgrims flocked to this point, bringing tributes and donations to be able to go inside. Outsiders all reported a transcendent experience that defied easy explanation, but they universally reported the trip being worth it, while those who went deeper into the dark of the gave came back out with greater and greater powers. The warriors of the Spirit Talkers were able to channel the spirits of the dead and the natural world into strange trances and frenzies that let them fight with bestial strength and resilience, while the elders who spent their lives within the cave as its caretakers and the guides for pilgrims were said to have eternal life, know the secrets hiding in the dark of the world, and could call down catastrophe and doom from afar, although that last power was never invoked lightly. It was said that they were still paying off the favours owed to the spirits for their shattering of the lowlands. Apparently though the last High Speaker before the current one had tried to develop the lagging farming practices of the Spirit Talkers and their client tribes, only to suffer a major crop collapse. The warriors had been pulled back to deal with the instability that had caused, but now they were back to fighting with the Dead Priests.
That ongoing conflict also had some further context outside of the Spirit Talkers hating the lowlanders for their practices, in that the slaving raids had long threatened the peoples who were associated with the Spirit Talkers. While on some level it was protecting their food supply and ensuring that another group didn't achieve a dominant position over them, on another level it was protecting the people and spirits who they had such a deep connection to. Still, their position had been apparently been getting increasingly tenuous over the years and thus their wars had become meaner and more desperate, which was saying something given the devastation they had unleashed in the past.
Choose two [Secondary] Focus. [Main] Focus is Currently Fight Forest Blight for the next ~1-2 turns
[] Black Soil
[] Build Wall
[] Build War Wagons
[] Establish Annual Festival
[] Expand Farms
[] Expand Fishing
[] Expand Managed Forests
[] Expand Pastures
[] Expand Place to Spirits
[] Expand Snail Cultivation
[] Expand Warriors
[] New Settlement
[] New Trails
[] Step-Farms
[] Trade Mission
-Target Options: Spirit Talkers, Western Confederation, Dead Priests, Northern Nomads, Into the Wild
[] War Mission
-Target Options: Dead Priests, Northern Nomads
Villages for projects: Valley, lower valley, coastal
While not every chief among the Confederacy appreciated the help, there were a few who decided that given how successful the People were, they should start emulating certain elements, and among those tribes there was a general manumission of debt slaves, shifting their status over towards the half-exiles who did the unpleasant jobs and had to live apart from the People in exchange for leniency for serious but non-capital crimes such as food theft. There were some other attempts at emulation beyond the technical, but those often turned out awkward for all.
Everyone had to admit that the Crow masks that were sent back up as part of the official diplomatic thanks were just neat though. Clever constructs of fired clay coloured with char and ochre, they were based off of designs for similar masks used in the representation of an eagle spirit important to the Western Confederacy. Apparently most tribes have potters who make things out of clay other than pots as their primary activity, and thus get really good at working the clay into complex shapes. Who knew?
While the traders and a few experts are making new contacts and friends down south, up north things the curing of the forest and its restoration are continuing apace, even if every time it feels like a region is stable or a hole has been patched, a new region of blight is discovered. New trails are cut and expanded as the People move further and further into the wilds, and while they don't exactly want to trample over all the work they just did, it soon becomes obvious in several places that they need to cut terraces into the stone bones of several hills so that black soil can be spread out and fresh plantings put in place, which requires the trails to be large enough to accommodate the animals and wagons that could haul the material. Every season seems to bring a new batch of problems... but often by the season after someone has some idea of how to address it. Not everything worked, but there were several notable changes over the years as someone finally got fed up with dealing with a problem and worked out a solution.
One of the big changes was that as the black soil production was expanded, there weren't enough half-exiles to do some of the tasks and thus people who weren't particularly in trouble had to rotate turns tending to certain pit tasks. It was when one of the masons had to take a turn with the grinding of the char that something important shook out. The People had always hand ground their grain to flour as they needed it day to day, but during the black soil agitation and grinding process the mason got sick of the mass processing and decided to spend a season working out a better way of doing things. It took several more years before the other masons had figured out how to make the pairs of carved stones the original man had devised into an actually useful device, but once someone realized an ox or horse could push the damn things in a circle with minimal supervision they started to get bigger and more and more things could be ground at once in a central location.
While these new mills were the most noticeable new addition for the People, for the chiefs there was a subtle new thing going about. With all of their new advisors coordinating with each other, it was noted that the tally and tracking system of the granary managers was being expanded as more and more experts were talking with each other over long distances. More and more different tally marks were added to represent new concepts, and soon enough the management tool was picking up new elements and was able to convey increasingly complex ideas. While hard to learn to the point where elders had a hard time picking it up in the time they had left in their lives, some of the younger grain counters and advisors were able to keep track of what everything meant and were suddenly able to better coordinate actions and remember things.
Meanwhile out at the coastal village, the focused attention continued to benefit them as the insatiable appetite for black soil - particularly black soil that used offal from the sea for some inexplicable reason - as the High Chief ordered an expansion of fishing activities to better feed everyone doing work out in the forests and provide for the production of black soil. This meant more fishing grounds would be staked out than the normal growth of the settlement would normally require, with clans given more responsibilities - and benefits for their expanded workload. One consequence of this though was that people were going out further onto the water, which meant that there were noted inadequacies with their fishing boats. While no one blamed anyone but the capricious spirits of the sea for losses, they were a frustrating part of life.
The improved contacts with the Western Confederacy as several of their chiefs opened up favourable trade arrangements in the hopes of attracting further assistance also proved useful in explaining the oddities of the Dead Priests in prior generations, as apparently they had turned the south-eastern lowlands into their "hunting grounds", and the priests themselves could forbid certain groups from being targeted to prevent their collapse, or command their warriors to burn another group to the ground if they saw them as a threat. Apparently a group to the east had fit that category and the Dead Priests had put considerable effort into stamping them out, for reasons that would probably never be fully known. Along the northern trade routes, it was filtering back that the Spirit Talkers were definitely in contact with the nomads up there, and the situation was apparently already degenerating. Some of the nomad tribes were open to listening to the Spirit Talkers, while others were taking exception to them. Which tribes were hostile to the People and which to the Spirit Talkers were of course not the same ones, nor were they even a perfect swap, which meant that they actually had some further information on the Spirit Talkers.
The central village of the Spirit Talkers was at a crossroads point in a series of hills. Their valley was a dry one that only ever got water during flash floods, but if you wanted to go anywhere in their region you ended up passing by that point. Higher up the hills nearby there was an extremely well protected cave that served as the centre point of everything the Spirit Talkers were. Pilgrims flocked to this point, bringing tributes and donations to be able to go inside. Outsiders all reported a transcendent experience that defied easy explanation, but they universally reported the trip being worth it, while those who went deeper into the dark of the gave came back out with greater and greater powers. The warriors of the Spirit Talkers were able to channel the spirits of the dead and the natural world into strange trances and frenzies that let them fight with bestial strength and resilience, while the elders who spent their lives within the cave as its caretakers and the guides for pilgrims were said to have eternal life, know the secrets hiding in the dark of the world, and could call down catastrophe and doom from afar, although that last power was never invoked lightly. It was said that they were still paying off the favours owed to the spirits for their shattering of the lowlands. Apparently though the last High Speaker before the current one had tried to develop the lagging farming practices of the Spirit Talkers and their client tribes, only to suffer a major crop collapse. The warriors had been pulled back to deal with the instability that had caused, but now they were back to fighting with the Dead Priests.
That ongoing conflict also had some further context outside of the Spirit Talkers hating the lowlanders for their practices, in that the slaving raids had long threatened the peoples who were associated with the Spirit Talkers. While on some level it was protecting their food supply and ensuring that another group didn't achieve a dominant position over them, on another level it was protecting the people and spirits who they had such a deep connection to. Still, their position had been apparently been getting increasingly tenuous over the years and thus their wars had become meaner and more desperate, which was saying something given the devastation they had unleashed in the past.
Black Soil - Production is now regular and huge amounts of trash are turned to black soil every year, but there's always room for more production [Gardeners] [King]
Build Wall - Long experience with retaining walls has lead to the idea of a settlement wall for protection (Coastal village completed)
Build War Wagons - Increasing the number of war wagons would increase the general strategic and battlefield mobility of forces, although would be expensive to do so
Establish Annual Festival - People already like to celebrate at certain times of the year, but with the level of control over food distribution a new and particularly lavish festival can be established
Expand Farms - The people have brought an enormous amount of land under cultivation in the valley, but there is more available in more marginal areas, and in the forests around the fishing village
Expand Fishing - There are managed cultivation zones along the shore, and dedicating more people to the tasks can increase the yields of fish and luxuries brought in
Expand Managed Forests - There are many forests throughout the hills about the various forests that could be brought under proper management
Expand Pasture - While the traders mostly just take their animals where there is good grazing, specific areas can be set aside around the settlements that can be made ideal for the protected grazing of herds
Expand Place to Spirits - The current place dedicated to the spirits and wisdom is nice, but it could be bigger and grander...
Expand Snail Cultivation - While now more reliably grown and harvested, the snail domestication has only managed to hold environmental changes at bay rather than increase production. More investment would increase cultivation
Expand Warriors - More men can be inducted into the ranks of the warriors every year and not face major food shortfalls
New Settlement - The land is not particularly good for farming in between the valley and the sea, but there are places where a settlement could be set up, serving as a stop over point along the journey between the two settlements
New Trails - The settlements in the valley and the coast are well tied together, but there are new contacts to the north who could be better tied together
Step-Farms - Step farms have been established and have grown across the valley, but there are still plenty of hills to resculpt [Gardeners][King]
Trade Mission - Sending a major caravan to another large group can bring new opportunities and find out more about the outside world
War Mission - You can send raiding parties against groups that have declared themselves hostile
Mega-Projects - Mega-Projects can require many generations to complete, take an unknown amount of time to do so, and drain Econ while active, but can produce massive benefits once complete. Once chosen, the occupy the Main Focus slot until either completed or stopped early. Early stopping once started does not refund any of the investments and increases social strife. To reduce confusion, mega-projects are not listed as part of the voting project list and must be "written-in".
Fight Forest Blight - Something is going wrong in a number of wild forests, and generations of intervention may be required to stop it [Gardeners][King] (Active)
Grand Canal - The hills between the valley and the sea are rough and the rivers there fast and wild. In one man's dream there is the vision of an artificial river cut through the land, tame and managed [Gardeners][King]
Great Dam - The river can run wild and dangerous when the rains come strong, but could it not be controlled by the same principles by which the water on the hills is channelled and contained, merely on a larger scale? [Gardeners][King]
Build Wall - Long experience with retaining walls has lead to the idea of a settlement wall for protection (Coastal village completed)
Build War Wagons - Increasing the number of war wagons would increase the general strategic and battlefield mobility of forces, although would be expensive to do so
Establish Annual Festival - People already like to celebrate at certain times of the year, but with the level of control over food distribution a new and particularly lavish festival can be established
Expand Farms - The people have brought an enormous amount of land under cultivation in the valley, but there is more available in more marginal areas, and in the forests around the fishing village
Expand Fishing - There are managed cultivation zones along the shore, and dedicating more people to the tasks can increase the yields of fish and luxuries brought in
Expand Managed Forests - There are many forests throughout the hills about the various forests that could be brought under proper management
Expand Pasture - While the traders mostly just take their animals where there is good grazing, specific areas can be set aside around the settlements that can be made ideal for the protected grazing of herds
Expand Place to Spirits - The current place dedicated to the spirits and wisdom is nice, but it could be bigger and grander...
Expand Snail Cultivation - While now more reliably grown and harvested, the snail domestication has only managed to hold environmental changes at bay rather than increase production. More investment would increase cultivation
Expand Warriors - More men can be inducted into the ranks of the warriors every year and not face major food shortfalls
New Settlement - The land is not particularly good for farming in between the valley and the sea, but there are places where a settlement could be set up, serving as a stop over point along the journey between the two settlements
New Trails - The settlements in the valley and the coast are well tied together, but there are new contacts to the north who could be better tied together
Step-Farms - Step farms have been established and have grown across the valley, but there are still plenty of hills to resculpt [Gardeners][King]
Trade Mission - Sending a major caravan to another large group can bring new opportunities and find out more about the outside world
War Mission - You can send raiding parties against groups that have declared themselves hostile
Mega-Projects - Mega-Projects can require many generations to complete, take an unknown amount of time to do so, and drain Econ while active, but can produce massive benefits once complete. Once chosen, the occupy the Main Focus slot until either completed or stopped early. Early stopping once started does not refund any of the investments and increases social strife. To reduce confusion, mega-projects are not listed as part of the voting project list and must be "written-in".
Fight Forest Blight - Something is going wrong in a number of wild forests, and generations of intervention may be required to stop it [Gardeners][King] (Active)
Grand Canal - The hills between the valley and the sea are rough and the rivers there fast and wild. In one man's dream there is the vision of an artificial river cut through the land, tame and managed [Gardeners][King]
Great Dam - The river can run wild and dangerous when the rains come strong, but could it not be controlled by the same principles by which the water on the hills is channelled and contained, merely on a larger scale? [Gardeners][King]
[] Black Soil
[] Build Wall
[] Build War Wagons
[] Establish Annual Festival
[] Expand Farms
[] Expand Fishing
[] Expand Managed Forests
[] Expand Pastures
[] Expand Place to Spirits
[] Expand Snail Cultivation
[] Expand Warriors
[] New Settlement
[] New Trails
[] Step-Farms
[] Trade Mission
-Target Options: Spirit Talkers, Western Confederation, Dead Priests, Northern Nomads, Into the Wild
[] War Mission
-Target Options: Dead Priests, Northern Nomads
Villages for projects: Valley, lower valley, coastal
Ghostdevil
The Devil of Ghosts
- Location
- United States
Hmm now were econ 2 and it seems that we def did something that shorten the time.
Ghostdevil
The Devil of Ghosts
- Location
- United States
Ehhh, I am sure their fine, they have magic superpowers after all right?
And their obviously super magic'd up men Who are DEFINTELY not on some stimulant will make piecemeal of the Dead Priests
Time to xcom ghostbuster those bitchest.
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
[X] Expand Snail Cultivation
[X] Black Soil
The only thing we can do right now is solve our internal blight and expand our industries. We can later assemble trade expeditions to try to steal the secrets to making more delicate items out of clay and weaving finer cloth.
The expanded snail cultivation will lead to higher economic returns due to the increased desire for cloth. The Black Soil is, of course, necessary.
[X] Black Soil
The only thing we can do right now is solve our internal blight and expand our industries. We can later assemble trade expeditions to try to steal the secrets to making more delicate items out of clay and weaving finer cloth.
The expanded snail cultivation will lead to higher economic returns due to the increased desire for cloth. The Black Soil is, of course, necessary.
Last edited:
Ghostdevil
The Devil of Ghosts
- Location
- United States
[X] [Secondary] Black Soil
[X] [Secondary] Expand Fishing
[X] [Secondary] Expand Fishing
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
Black Soil and Fishing to improve the Black Soil certainly didn't hurt.
That, and we have a civilization of conveniently frustrated and impatient people.
[X] Black Soil
Black Soil for obvious reasons, Snail Farming to exploit economic opportunities that popped up with the textiles.
Last edited:
- Location
- United States
Nah, snails are a much better option to boost our economy. The update specified there was an increased demand for dye due to the introductions of textiles.
- Location
- Hell
New Stuff
[X] Expand Snail Cultivation
[X] Expand Managed Forests
We just saw that we're using our animals for milling. We're going to need more as we use them for more things.
Strategic Voting.
Yeh, more writing via brute force bureaucracy.
Is it though? I didn't really see anything that says we need to boost production of it. The amounts we're making right now seem fine
[X] Expand Snail Cultivation
[X] Expand Managed Forests
Strategic Voting.
Last edited:
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
Snails right now, and then Expand Farms & Step Farms later - since there are two options, I assume Expand Farms only expands normal farms. It's probably best to step farm a lot, though probably not all of it. I feel like we should try to make at least two more new settlements over the period of time when we're doing this project and the canal.
Edit: Honestly, I feel like we have enough animals. Milling takes what, 2 animals per mill, a max of 2 mills for wheat for a town, and a mill per town for the black soil? It's not like we've seen any issues pop up due to a lack of them, yet. And there was the whole thing about "Demand for black soil." Sure we don't need it yet, but it's useful for our farms and etc. If everyone agrees that it's not useful enough to make more of, we could always choose something other than pastures or black soil. Like Step Farms, which will create more food...
Last edited:
Actually step farms might be something we might be interested in. It was stated that some of the damage was such that we literally had to sculpt hills to resemble them so that they could properly hold the black soil.
We could take advantage of that and turn those hills into step farms.
We could take advantage of that and turn those hills into step farms.
Problem is, our civ is busy trying to get a handle on the blight and if we get hit by another uber drought/flood combo as part of the magic nuke, if they can actually do it, it'll put back our efforts in favor of trying to survive.
Umi-san
Procrastinating.
- Location
- ꙮ
Yeah, but literally everything that was described as their magic can be done through a) trances and b) drugs. We have no proof that they're actually immortal, and saying that they're exhausted is basically just an excuse for why they can't do anything when asked to. So there's no reason to worry.