[X][Focus] South, into the lowlands and the Highlanders (2x)
[X][Allies] Khemetri, trade rivals but not the Vortuga (1x)
The Vortuga's depredations in the Monsoon Sea were starting to get intolerable. Their tactics were strangling trade too much, preventing local traders from doing anything but go through them, and it was diverting vast amounts of money away from the People and the Khemetri. Sending ambassadors back and forth between the two peoples, they came to a conclusion: both would mutually support each other on the Monsoon Sea, and suppress piracy that benefited the Vortuga or their allies on the Saffron Sea. Part of this was a joint diplomatic and military push into the lowlands and highlands to ensure that the People maintained contact with the Monsoon Sea down the Great River. This involved pressuring the Southern Highlanders to abandon any claim to territorial control along the length, as well as securing alliances and annexations at the river mouth so that ports and ship construction facilities could be set up. For their part the People sold tools cheap to assist the Khemetri in revamping their own Monsoon Sea coastal ports to better get their goods and weaponry in place.
The initial direct clashes demonstrated one major point to both the People and the Khemetri: the ocean going ships of the Vortuga were an entirely different breed from ships seen in the Saffron Sea or Monsoon Sea, the hulls built incredibly strong to withstand the storms of the Artemian Ocean and beyond, which let them not just withstand more punishment but also mount much larger cannons on their ships... and the Vortuga had been fighting with other groups that made ships like them for a while as well, refining their design. Both groups had known that these ships were formidable, but they had not expected just how much more advanced the ships would be when directly fighting them. The Vortuga navigational capacities were also a problem, frequently allowing them to disengage into deep oceans that were hard for their rivals to follow.
Still, experience with land warfare meant that the People had excellent cannon casting skills and facilities, and thus they were capable of outfighting the Vortuga when circumstances were right, and they hauled ships back for study. Almost immediately the shipwrights that examined them realized that they had serious questions, and asked if perhaps the king could send an envoy to the Kielmyr Triple Crown to ask about their shipbuilding techniques. Unfortunately, by that point the Gylruv kingdoms were being unified under the leadership of the Nevien Patriarchy and they had begun to shut down the river routes to the north. By other paths it was obvious that Kielmyr had decided to go all in on the religiously fractious states to their south. The People would have to figure things out on their own.
One of the big issues that cropped up right away was the fact that the wood used in the construction of the Vortuga ships was of breeds that neither the People nor the Khemetri had easy access to. Gritting their teeth, the People realized that they would have to trade with the Gylruv for their timber if they wanted to make the best possible ships, and that would cut into their profits even further, and also force concessions to the north that the People did not want to make. Also uneasily, the Black Sheep Confederation out of the Horse Mountains unified large portions of the lowlands that the People had not taken over directly, and offered food and ores in exchange for weaponry. While the Black Sheep were mostly peaceful towards the People, it was also obvious that they were pushing into the Lands of Tea and Spice just across the Monsoon Sea, as well as securing the overland routes to the Lands of Tea and Silk. The former was particularly troublesome, as it sound like the petty kingdoms of the Tea Peoples were starting to ally with Syffrynite traders against the military expeditions of the Black Sheep.
The People remained an intellectual and manufacturing center of the world, but it was also obvious that there were large and powerful groups starting to close them off from the world. Generations of diplomacy and trade did however pay off in making sure that none of these growing powers felt it worthwhile to take a swing at the People, and by all accounts the chaos already sown in the west had taken hold in new and radical ways. Perhaps it was the poor weather in recent years, with the winters in the north being notably harsher while the monsoons in the south were far less stable than in generations past, but there was instability all about. The People adapted as best they could, even if the old texts and religious edicts on forestry and field management no longer made sense as the balance of plants was noticeably different, but granaries were stretched and the budgets of the trade princes were notably looking rather grim, especially as the Vortuga were joined by other Syffrynites in the Monsoon Sea, adding further competition that the People and Khemetri struggled to catch up to.
Something needed shaking up to revitalize a system that clearly was no longer working.
Choose a path of reform
[] [Reform] Land reform
[] [Reform] Social reform
[] [Reform] Religious reform
[] [Reform] Administrative reform
[] [Reform] Educational reform
[] [Reform] Army reform
[] [Reform] Naval reform
Choose a fuel
[] [Fuel] Expansion of existing industries
[] [Fuel] Development of new industries
[] [Fuel] Conquest of minor powers
[] [Fuel] Deepening trade ties with growing powers
[] [Fuel] Piracy
