Turn 4: Constructing Contacts
Turn 4: Constructing Contacts
1623 AGF, Reign of Ydrys the 170 King ofAll Ymaryn
[X] Plan Censure and Civil Service
-[X] Private censure
-[X] Promise to carve out a new headquarters in suitable lands within 5 years.
-[X] Ydrys: Continue to respond to the Patrician Crisis
--[X] Accept non-Patricians with on-the-job administrative experience as Patricians (Influence)
-[X] Rhys: Investigate rumours of the Khan's generals.
-[X] Rhys: Create a wide web of contacts across the Ymaryn sphere (Influence)
-[X] Haul: Applying Current Telescopes:
--[X] (Army)
-[X] Prydyer: Evaluating foreign markets
-[X] Inato: Maintain this councilor.
-[X] Aderyn: Rebuild Neighbourhood Watches (Authority)
-[X] Euryg: Strategic Independence Reform
As Ydrys slowly laid out document after document in front of Haul, he watched the other man's face become ever-so-slightly pinched. If he didn't know what he was looking for or even if he should be looking at all, Ydrys knew he would have missed it.
"My King?" Haul asked.
"I will skip to the meat of the issue, Haul. I know. You've continued with your experiments while assigned to other duties. You've taken resources — many of them for a potentially justifiable reason, but with false pretenses — and then misused them."
"Whatever slander you've heard…" he started.
"Am I able to trust you?" The King of All Ymaryn pinned Haul with his gaze. He'd like to think that it was just like pinning a bug to a mat, but he knew better. He wasn't that intimidating. "We could go through the whole charade, but I know. You know I know."
Regardless, it wasn't important that Haul stole. Gods above knew how many people did in the day-to-day running of the Kingdom. If Ydrys had to guess, he'd say a substantial minority. The goal of managing corruption, however, was to ensure that it was always small and subtle enough that actually digging it out would be more expensive than letting it persist. Thus, even if everyone was living a little bit more comfortably than they should on their regular salary, as long as they kept the good of the Crown and Kingdom at heart, things could be managed.
Completely eliminating corruption would mean burning the system to cinders and rebuilding it from the ground up. A theoretical possibility, sure, but definitely one for another time.
"Everything I've done has been for the benefit of the People," he finally said. It was clear he wanted to say more.
"I see," Ydrys said.
"The Guilds are rotten, living relics that totter through the day-to-day," Haul said. "Everything is tightly regulated and it is suffocating. Every breath, every thought, you have to be aware of the garrott at your throat and all the eager hands willing to pull it tight. There are always far, far more journeymen and apprentices than there are masters and everyone is always looking to pull down a rival or set up their own croney. Any imperfections or wasted resources are an excuse for a reprimand. Get enough of those and you're cast out of the Guild, barred for life from practicing your trade. You know where that road ends. Experimentation, growth, life, isn't possible. Instead, if you want to do anything, you're going to have to find some way of greasing the wheels."
When the report on Haul had first crossed his desk, hadn't Ydrys picked him because he wanted a tinker and inventor? Someone who would break with tradition in otherwise ossified institutions? When Ydrys had ordered him to solve basic problems in the Guild's structure, not the invention he wanted to do, the man resented. Thus he'd tinkered and worked sideways, as he'd always been forced to.
"In the end, you learn to work around the system," Ydrys said. "I am not the Guilds, Haul. You are my advisor. You are the Advisor to the King! Be clear with me, fully and completely in all dealings and communications. The People are teetering on a knife's edge right now and I cannot tolerate division or distraction. I believe you are correct, the Guilds have ossified and you are an inventor, to have you working elsewise is not correct. For the next year, your duties will focus on rolling out telescopes to the military."
Haul instantly brightened.
"However," Ydrys immediately cut in. "You will still be punished. I believe the Rite of Ghosts on your free days for the next full turn of the moon will be sufficient. I will have a script written up for you by the end of the day." The Rite was a simple one, but effective. Penance and honesty were good for the soul. The Rite managed to combine both while avoiding social ostracism by allowing the penitent to wear a thick, fully obscuring white robe while they confessed a generalized version of their sins to all passersby. In turn, passersby could voice their displeasure, castigating and warning the penitent of where their current course would lead. Now was the to turn back before reaching the point of Half-Exile and full, public condemnation.
It was a harsh punishment, but proportionate. Stealing from the Crown bordered on treason and under some Kings had merited a traitor's punishment.
"Councilor," Ydrys responded. "I will support your endeavours and I ask that you trust in me. Just as I am now placing my trust in you. I believe things are now clear."
Using resources embezzled from the Crown, Haul has been working on Perfecting Telescopes. With official support on a Telescope project, that action now automatically completes.
Having one errant councilor dealt with, Ydrys was quickly able to complete and send a letter to the acting head of the Spiritbonded Order, offering to match the offer they had received from Dyfan. Realistically, there was no reason for them to accept. The verdant and endless fields of the Great Plains were where they were most effective. Both because of their role in the People's army as cavalry, but also because they acted as warrior-priests, tending to the needs of and civilizing the savage northern barbarians.
Surprisingly, it was a mere fortnight later when Ydrys received a reply and a firm acceptance. As long as the Crown was able to provide a new headquarters by the end of 1628 AGF, they would remain in the Core. Part of Ydrys wondered about that reaction. It was very clear that the Core had nothing that Western Wall could not also offer materially. They would be on the front lines in the Wall, pushing back against the remnants of the Great Khan's horde as well as the region's other barbarians. Yet, somehow, the Spiritbonded considered their ephemeral bond with the Core to be worth more than the vastly increased prominence they would obtain in the Wall.
Regardless, the question of where to put them remained. The simplest use would be to place them north of Memorial sirol as a March along the Great Plains. The Heaven's Hawks had expanded over time to cover that region, but they'd been utterly destroyed, wiped out to a man by the Great Khan and the great walls that separated the Great Plans from Txolla had been carved open, gutting the forces stationed in Memorial sirol. Both of those defenses would need replacing in order to ensure Txolla was secured in the future. The other obvious alternative would be to establish them in southern Txolla. While it limited their efficacy against nomads from the Great Plains among other external threats, it would be a safe harbour for them to develop form. It would mean packaging up a number of land grants whose occupants had been slaughtered by the Highlanders, but it was doable.
On the other hand, Ydrys pulled over a map. The Highlanders had been fighting viciously over the last year, pulling up reserves that the People didn't think they had. They were still losing the war — it was inevitable, the Gentry levy as well as the mercenaries were simply too numerous — but they had managed to put off their defeat for another year. It would be possible to take the land directly from them and use that to house the Spiritbonded. The Highlanders had managed to keep a narrow slice of the lowlands under their control all this time and something was going to have to be done about them.
They couldn't be left alone. They'd be waiting there. Still. A knife poised to sink into the People's back the moment they were looking away. Given the state of the Kingdom, that situation went from 'nearly impossible' as it had been under the Last King to 'virtually certain'. It would happen again and the Kingdom may not be so lucky as to have mercenary armies volunteer to fight for their cause.
Legacy siphon prevented! Promise made to the Spiritbonded Holy Order. You must complete and provide a headquarters to them by the end of 1628 AGF. Failure will carry significant consequences.
Continue to respond to the Patrician Crisis → Crisis Resolved!
To most, the distinction between Patrician, Guild Master, and Gentry was immensely arbitrary, and there was a grain of truth there. While each of these groups were administrators, they mostly only differed in the role they took on. Gentry were raised to look after specific resources cultivated in rural regions. Most commonly, this meant farms or orchards, but it also included logging, sheep herding, vineyards, oil presses, and ranching. Guilds were similarly charged with the production of goods, but based in urban areas and charged with manufacturing things from the raw produce of the land. Both groups managed different halves of the People's economy.
In some ways, it was a redundant system, but Ydrys appreciated the beauty of it. Instead of one social class that could predominate over all others, there were two locked in symbiosis. Atop both of these classes stood the Patricians, administrators and officials appointed directly by the Crown. It was they who managed the movement of goods between the Gentry and Guilds as well as the upkeep of common infrastructure and social systems for the good of all. While the Gentry may tend the land and the Guilds its produce, the Patricians tended to the people.
Thus, it was with a degree of reluctance that Ydrys made the call to fully open the path to becoming a Patrician to anyone who demonstrated the necessary skills. For the first several months, only a trickle applied and were eventually accepted as new Patricians. Most came from the Guilds, former Guild Masters that had served as overseers of small Factoria. A small number came from former army officers, either those injured and forced into retirement or those who had been so psychologically shattered by the Great War that they could no longer serve in combat. The reluctance and disappointing results were understandable, but expected and more than enough to meet the need they had for Patricians. Guild Masters were at the peak of their profession, why settle for something less as a Patrician? Same with many army officers.
In the end, both provided an insignificant number of candidates compared to the utter flood that came on the recommendations of priests and various temples dotted throughout the Kingdom.
For as long as the People kept records, the Free Churches of Mylathadysm had proclaimed their independence. The world temporal was rendered unto King and Crown while the spiritual remained the preserve of the Free Churches. As such, they had an obvious need for administrators to manage lands, building projects, congregations, and other good works. Many of these leaders were Patricians, drawn from graduates of the Academies. Others were orphans, given to the churches because their families could not or were not willing to support them — even with Crown assistance — and were trained to become priests. The last and most numerous group were simply lay people that had simply heard the calling and managed to make a career work.
All of those individuals had flooded into new vacated Crown offices as expected. Then there were the ones that Ydrys didn't expect. People who couldn't be traced back through the systems of the People. They were individuals without records of birth or marriage, tax records or civil service, Half-Exile or good conduct, known addresses or places of employment. They were clearly skilled and they had the references to at the very least merit examination, but how they became skilled couldn't be proven.
It sent a chill down Ydrys' spine. Combined, it meant a systematic miscounting in the People's records. A miscounting so massive that it could marshall resources that were appreciable on the scale of the entire Kingdom. It would be one thing if these administrators were pulled from somewhere. It would mean shuffling papers and constantly plugging holes when another leak sprung, but that was understandable.
These administrators from the priests weren't that.
They were new. Called up by the priests.
Conjured from the aether.
Troubling.
Investigate Rumours of the Khan's Generals → Information, Part 1 of 2
Rhys was a rare sight in the capital during the year, instead spending most of his time dispersed widely across the Kingdom, tracking down rumours and unearthing old ghosts. When the Great Khan sacked the north, he was accompanied by twelve generals. Three of them were known to have been killed by the People, one at Blackmouth and two in the final siege of Valleyhome. Another one, Celik, was known to have conquered Greenshore and installed himself as a false King.
The fates of the other eight are unknown.
It was with perhaps a bit of optimism that he went about his duties, hoping that the chaotic warring in the backwoods that had characterized the latter part of the war would have claimed some of them.
That was not to be.
As far as Rhys could tell from rumours and hearsay, the Khan's eight other generals were alive. Fortunately, however, one of the generals had been severely injured during the fight and had pulled back to the far east along with the rest of the Great Khan's horde. It was highly unlikely that they would be a threat in the future.
Unfortunately, it was virtually certain that the other seven would be near-term threats.
One of the generals, Alten was last seen passing through the Thunder Mountains, breaking out into the great river systems of eastern Kus and conquering himself a vast Kingdom by defeating the united army of ten kings in a single battle. While details were vague given the immense distance separating him from the People, it appeared that he was a Great Power that one would do best to step lightly around. Many of the small principalities of the east had fallen to him and his horde had reaped rich rewards.
Three of the generals had remained within the Great Plains to the north, fighting amongst themselves as well as the region's local powers. One had settled in the near east as Protector of the Great Salt Sea, the second had begun subjugating the smaller tribal powers just north of Western Wall and the last had departed far to the north where he was rumoured to have begun an invasion of a group of industrious mountain folk. While none of these three generals maintained as much of the Khan's horde as Alten did nor did they present as much of a threat in an absolute sense, they were much more proximate threats to the People. They would be licking their wounds for a while, but they could easily be back at the first moment of weakness.
There were two more generals that the People knew of, but their whereabouts remained unknown. All that was certain was that they had not returned to the far east with the rest of the Khan's men.
Rhys was apologetic, but asked that he be given leave to continue investigating the issue in the near future.
Create a Wide Web of Contacts in the Ymaryn Sphere → Rumour Mill: Western Wall (Public, Confidential), Rumour Mill: Thunder Mountains (Public, Confidential, Secret), Rumour Mill: Greenshore (Public, Confidential)
While Rhys had been officially charged with searching for rumours of the Great Khan's generals, he had unofficially been working on establishing contacts across the greater cultural sphere of the Ymaryn Splinter Lords. Most of these individuals were simply gossips and rumour-mongers, enticed by the simple expedient of the regular exchange of information. Rhys promised nothing secret, but if a rumour was heard spoken in the harbours of Redshore, why shouldn't he take advantage of it before it spread?
However, he also went beyond that. All of the Splinter States were desperately hurting for Patricians and other administrators as far too many had died in the war. When they attempted to poach from the Core, Rhys unorthodoxly let them go. After all, with the smashing success Ydrys had found in recruiting people who'd learned from experience, they'd almost had too many. In fact, Rhys had Ydrys instruct them to go. He just reminded them not to burn all of their ties, to remain connected with friends and family who'd they left behind. If those friends happened to ask a number of insightful, hard-hitting questions that necessitated answers that weren't well known outside of their new countries, wasn't that just the lively nature of Ymaryn debating culture?
Within the Thunder Mountains, however, Rhys was met with unusual success. The Patricians there were absolutely desperate for more administrators since they had been utterly devastated by the Khan. Unlike Western Wall which was uniformly decimated, most of the underlying general population in the Thunder Mountains had survived. All of the hills, mountains, semi-arid grasslands and deserts that made up the region rendered it a veritable treasure trove of hiding places. Combined with the tendency for the People to stockpile years worth of resources, most of the population was able to bunker down just long enough for the Khan's horde to deplete local grasslands and be forced to move on. The Patricians who had stood and fought, on the other hand, were near-uniformly slaughtered.
This peculiarity had meant the Thunder Mountains were particularly vulnerable to transplanted 'friends' from the Core. Rhys was thus able to secure the appointment of a number of friendly Iaryll (regional overseers that serve directly below the Governor) as well as generals and naval officers. It pained Ydrys to see them go, since these upper level administrators remained precious, but this was not an opportunity that would ever occur again. While they didn't have anyone within the Governor's office itself, they had an insider in the office of nearly all of his subordinates.
What information Rhys could initially gather painted an incredibly dire picture. The Thunder Mountains were slowly disintegrating, fracturing under the weight of local problems. The Mountains had always served to divide the region, separating the people into numerous local drainage basins where they could locate water in the otherwise dry climate. This level of separation had led to unusually powerful local Patricians as well as a heavily localized economic system. With the great internal markets of the Kingdom quickly breaking down, the trend became exaggerated and local concerns and local powers started to predominate over the Governorship itself.
It was not a stable situation and it would've taken a genius of administration to overcome the clear deficits found there.
The only Splinter where Rhys found little success was Hyatha. While a fair amount of his difficulties could be easily traced to bad luck, the Heir had also admitted that he put little effort into creating contact webs in the country. Doing so would not escape Aderyn's notice, and through her, Gylyes. If they were going to create a network there, it would be best to have Aderyn oversee it. There was an obvious conflict of interest there, but hiding such a network from her would be impossible. Trying to do so would only hurt her marriage with Ydrys and the Kingdom's relationship with Hyatha.
Applying Current Telescopes: Army → Part 1 of ???
Most of Haul's efforts this year were spent entirely on training artisans to produce telescopes in appropriate numbers. While the telescopes themselves do not contain anything truly novel physically or alchemically, they are of incredibly precise manufacture. It took significant effort to grind down the lenses used internally and the separation between them needed to be exactly implemented. Any imperfection, whether in the glass itself, the grinding, or the spacing, would result in unclear images being projected onto the user's eye.
Once the first batch of artisans were trained, they could train others in turn so production could fully scale. From there, the question would be how widely to deploy them. Haul had originally suggested that every soldier armed with a crossbow (in other words, every soldier) should have one, but that was a fever dream. While the maximum range was officially recognized as 400 yards, that required shooting at a step angle; a telescope would be worthless. For shorter distances, the scope wouldn't provide nearly enough benefit to be worth the cost. And the telescopes were expensive. Perhaps not on the scale of the Kingdom, but each telescope cost eight bwyll.
In the end, the question would be whether to only supply specialists, command-level officers, or all scouts. It'd take time before such a decision would be relevant.
Evaluating Foreign Markets → Information, Part 1 of 3
When Ydrys read through Prydyer's report on foreign markets, some part of him died with what he'd seen within: Western Wall, Hyatha, Greenshore, the Thunder Mountains. Those places were not foreign. But what else to call them now that they ignored the rightful crown?
In general, Prydyer found that Hyatha was showing the greatest strength when it came to trade while the Thunder Mountains were weakest.
Production in Hyatha had exploded with glass, metalworks, and porcelain production growing year over year. It seems Gylyes had focused utterly on producing as much as was possible and selling most of it at rock bottom prices. It wasn't sustainable and Ydrys knew that there would be an eventual crash in demand, but until that came, Gylyes was managing to keep his people fed and employed. Industry and the taxes it brough had greatly allowed him to expand the state apparatus, strengthening and entrenching himself.
However . . . there was going to be an obvious upcoming crash; demand from the rest of the world was only functionally infinite and there were going to be hiccups. Whenever the crash finally happened, it was clearly going to have effects far beyond Hyatha's borders. The Core by legacy alone still maintained an overwhelming advantage in production of manufactured goods, but that was legacy. It could be lost. There was nothing stopping Hyatha from eventually displacing them.
With all of that in mind, Gylyes plan seemed to crystalize before Ydrys. Since Hyatha controlled Trelli, they were the only polity on the Yllthyon Mor with access to the Syffryon sea. They were the ones who were most acutely aware of when this supply-induced crash would come. Thus, when demand was satiated — even if only for a moment — they could prepare and take advantage. Ydrys knew that the Core would see recruiters in the aftermath, seeking to tempt their Guild Masters to abandon them and seek better fortunes in Hyatha. Once trade rebalanced and demand resumed, Hyatha would have near exclusive control of the entirety of the Old Kingdom's manufacturing.
It was an obvious plan, but nearly impossible to do anything about.
Hyatha
Imports: Iron Ore, Tin
Exports: Glass, Ironworks, Steel, Bronze, Porcelain, Pottery
Western Wall, by contrast, had devolved their economy almost entirely, what little native manufacturing they possessed lost in the aftermath of the Khan. Instead, they'd focused entirely on exporting raw materials: foodstuffs, wine, charcoal, wool, and in turn importing manufactured goods for the Core and Hyatha. The only true luxury item that they maintained any control over was the production of medicinal poppies; no other luxury grew on the northern shores of the Yllthyon Mor. Whatever trade had once flown down from the far north had been severed by the coming of the Great Khan and his army of bandits. If the People had suffered under his depredations, those living outside their borders had been utterly annihilated.
It was clearly a move of desperation, but it was enough to keep the Governorship financially solvent. Once the damage from the war had been repaired, they'd be able to try to diversify their economy again. If Ydrys could guess, he was virtually certain that Dyfan would focus extensively on cash crops as well as common-quality cloth. While they commanded nowhere near the price of silk or cotton, even kings wore good, sturdy linens when not holding court but instead about their daily business.
Western Wall
Imports: Iron, Steel, Tin, Bronze, Copper, Cloth
Exports: Wine, Foodstuffs, Furs, Poppies, Charcoal, Wool
Greenshore's situation had decayed severely. While they served as an export hub producing base metals, clear mismanagement from the false King Celik had damaged their economy. They were nowhere near as badly damaged as the rest of the Kingdom, but it was clear they were showing strain. Most of their economy had been turned over to the importation of luxuries from the Core, obviously to saite the rapacious appetites of the Khan and his men.
Greenshore had always possessed the smallest economy of any of the Governorships of the Kingdom. They possessed a little bit of everything, but enough of nothing to truly stand out. Agricultural products? Better grown up in Western Wall. Manufactured goods? Produced in greater quantity in the Core. Luxuries? Grew in greater variety in the warm sun and fertile soil of Txolla. Even base metals were mined in greater abundance from the Thunder Mountains or Hyatha.
Greenshore
Imports: Incense, Poppies, Gems, Sugar, Spices, Honey
Exports: Tin, Bronze, Iron Ore, Foodstuffs
The Thunder Mountains, however, had their economy virtually disintegrate. Nearly all the trade that had once flown through the region, the extensive spice markets of the south, as well as the gemstone, salt and livestock trades in the north had virtually dried up. While the region still served to produce a number of valuable metal ores, access to these materials had become increasingly scarce. The isolated geography that had served so well to protect the people of the Thunder Mountains was now serving to separate them, causing shortages in nearly everything throughout the nation.
Without intervention, long-range trade appeared to be breaking down entirely. Things were not good.
Thunder Mountains (Situation Critical)
Imports: Foodstuffs, Salt
Exports: Tin, Bronze, Copper, Lead, Iron Ore
Maintain This Councilor: Cataloging the Great Khan's War (Part 3) → Part 3 of 4
Ianto continued to investigate rumours from the Great Khan's War, focus drifting from larger military organization to small-scale tactics and weaponry. The most obvious weapons wielded by the Khan's men included the bow, the lance, and the horse. They were obvious steppe nomads, born and bred in the saddle, training their entire lives merely by living in the harsh conditions of the Great Plains. While there were some intricacies of the composite bow that were of academic interest, Ymaryn long bows provided greater range and steel-armed crossbows generated greater stopping power.
What truly struck the scholar's interest, however, were the casual rumours of fire said to be wielded by the Khan's men. Supposedly, their lancers were said to burn with the fires of Hell itself, belching out thunder, ash, and dust. As a stroke of utter luck, Ianto was able to recover a sealed supply cart that had been captured in a Gentry-led raid near Stallion Pen. Despite being abandoned in the wilderness for years on end, the individual spears located inside had been tightly wrapped in oil cloth and sealed in hollow bamboo cases. As a result, the weapons were in virtually perfect condition and even worked!
It was with great pleasure that Ydrys read of the incident where Ianto finally managed to figure out how to make the lance emit its fiery payload. He'd not been prepared for the experience and the shock of it going off had firmly knocked him on his ass. With working examples, it would be utter triviality to use these fire lances as a template to upgrade the billhooks routinely issued to the military.
The greatest difficulty was going to be in figuring out the dark coloured powder that seemed to power the weapons. Located in two sealed packages near the head of the lance, if the power was removed or made wet, the weapon would not work. There was some quality about the powder itself that seemed to carry fire within it, rapidly igniting when exposed to flame.
All of this triggered something in Ianto's memory, but he wrote he would need to consult the full archives of the People in order to track down whatever it was.
There were a number of other weapons located in the cart alongside the fire lances. The most prominent of these were nearly a dozen clay jugs filled with the same black powder that powered the fire lances. At first, Ianto assumed they served as replacements for the powder in the lances, but this was unlikely. Each of the jugs appeared to be wrapped in a fine cord, similar to the fire lances. The cord was largely ruined by the weather, but it seemed to be set up to burn with a delay before plunging directly into the powder filled clay vessel. Considering how two lines of the stuff the size of a human thumb was enough to create a gout of flame, a clay jar the size of a man's torso should be immensely more destructive.
These were perhaps wisely left alone for now.
(Unlocked Attack-By-Fire Reform)
Rebuild Neighbourhood Watches: 40% → 65%
By Order of the King of All Ymaryn, you are called to Service.
Of the new Patricians who had been appointed by virtue of their experience or graduation, Aderyn organized the recruitment of tens of thousands to serve as neighbourhood watchmen. The fact that a tiny percentage of those watchmen were actually women and had been appointed by a woman had been a cause for concern and resistance by some. They said that most of the female Patricians had only been licensed by the Kingdom because formerly high standards had been virtually forgotten in the aftermath of the Great War.
Aderyn thoroughly crushed the movement before it could gain strength.
She couldn't stop the whispers and subtle questioning, but the formalized request for redress of grievances that had been slowly organizing among the urban and rural poor was disrupted. It might become a problem in the future, but it was preempted for now.
Enough Patricians had been added to local neighbourhood watches that the system was starting to send accurate reports back to the central government. Most of the information was far from good. Reports had begun to surface that attacks against Half-Exile had skyrocketed. They had always been isolated from regular society, ostracized for their crimes and spiritual filth they carried about themselves. Despite the best efforts of the Crown to relocate former Half-Exiles after their sentence was complete, rumours often dogged them, bringing ostracism in their new community. This in turn led to discrimination and even violence from locals. Something as simple as attempting to use the village oven to bake bread — something they were entitled to full, legal access to — could result in a beating.
The neighbourhood watches normally consisted of one patrician for every hundred households; it was simply not enough to detect and deal with every instance of discrimination. In bad times, the army sometimes had to be called in to defend current or former Half-Exiles.
Now, though, with the watches reduced to half their former capacity, outright murders and lynchings had started to come into vogue among the local peasantry. Some of the more extreme, fringe cults that had arisen in the aftermath of the Great Khan's war had even taken to exalting attacks on Half-Exiles, a way of helping to purify the collective soul of the People.
It didn't matter that the Half-Exiles were productive members of society or that some of them were no longer Half-Exiles, having fully paid their debt to society. It didn't even matter that many of them often had financial resources since the Crown sequestered half of their wage to help them relocate after their supervision was done.
All that mattered was that there was hate. They were the other and they were to be destroyed.
Strategic Independence Reform Part 1 of ???
To reform the idea behind how the People made war and how they would be commanded when they went to fight required a complete reevaluation of training standards for senior officers. It was one thing to simply state that sub-generals should be able to take more flexible action in the field, but it was another thing entirely to actually make it possible. It wasn't only a question of strategic decision-making, but also training, logistics, maneuver, scouting, and a hundred other things.
As a result Euyrg spent most of the year in deep contemplation alongside a number of other veterans of the Great Khan's war. He cared not whether they were formally trained Patricians, former guild apprentices called up in the Mass Levy, or warrior-priests of the two loyalist Holy Orders. All he cared for was a penchant for wisdom and theory. After the year was over, he said they were no closer to solving the underlying problem, but they had done a significant amount to actually define it. Once that finished, they'd be able to begin developing a curriculum to train new generals. From there, it would be possible to begin implementing strategic indepence on a large scale.
The Dissolution
Plague stalks the land!
A new sickness had arisen among the crowded refugee camps that are only now starting to empty out, transferred to Western Wall. Called the Plague of Pain or the Wracking, this new disease is characterized by a slow and gradual onset. Most of the afflicted develop indistinct complaints of fatigue, body pain, swelling, and fever. Over time, these symptoms progress, with pain becoming increasingly excruciating, leaving even hardened warriors begging their caregivers for milk of paradise to dull the pain. In the end stage of the disease, distant fleshy tissue such as the nose, cheeks, hands and feet seem to rot despite the infected person remaining alive. Death seems to come suddenly, but is typically preceded by a number of severe fits that result in ever worsening body rot and paralysis.
None of the traditional remedies of the People have proven effective in combating the demons of this particular disease. Even mercury, one of their strongest anti-demonic agents and used only in the most desperate circumstances, has done nothing to stave off death. All that can be done is to make the afflicted comfortable before their slow and very painful death.
The only blessing seen in this dark situation is that the sickness seems to be confined to a specific region in Txolla and is slow to spread. Further, once an infection begins to set in, there is typically enough time for those rotting alive to set their affairs in order before their eventual death.
Now is the time for drastic action to curb the sickness.
Pick up to 2:
[ ] Isolate the entire afflicted region, no one moves in or out.
[ ] Send priests and patricians to the region to look for a cure
[ ] Reach out to Inek to solicit Carrion Eater aid
[ ] Send additional supplies and work to strengthen local sanitation
[ ] Disperse the population within the afflicted region
[ ] Move the people from the afflicted region to another nearby
Foreign Rumours
Greenshore
Announcement
The Feast of Persimmons: Named after an exotic far-east fruit, the Feat was the latest in a long line of extremely extravagant feasts thrown in honour of King Celik, Lord of the Horde and Greenshore. As had quickly become tradition, the feat boasted the utmost extravagance of foreign delicacies imported from half-a-world away. Alongside days of competitive wargames, festivals, and other activities, the feast was set to be the social highlight of the year and served to celebrate the King's marriage to his eighth wife, a young but beautiful Ymaryn girl.
Instead, what occurred that day has only been spoken of with hushed whispers. Inek, a Hero of the Great Khan's War proudly re-emerged alongside a small but loyal militia. They had managed to insert themselves within the wait staff tending to the Khan, his family, nobility, and military officers. Combined with the liberal application of the most vicious poisons Inek's mind could conjure, the loyalist militia fell on the Khan's men in a moment of psychotic, bloody fury. It was said the governor's palace ran red with rivulets of fresh blood escaping into the streets, screams echoing for hours as the Khan's men were righteously cut down.
None escaped.
Now styling himself as the Liberator, Inek has been firmly ensconced as the Governor of Greenshore, Tinshore and the Tin Tribes. It will take time for him to put his Governorship to rights, but he is now without doubt the undisputed master of Greenshore. Hail to the Hero and a hundred damnations on the abominable nomadic barbarians!
Public
All Hail!: It is with great relief that the people of Greenshore hail the ascension of their new Governor. The Foreign-Khan had been utterly unrelenting in his desires for luxury, living a life of hedonism while literally selling the People of Greenshore into slavery! With proper order slowly beginning to be restored within the Governorship and a small portion of the Khan's kidnapped slaves returning to their homes, Greenshore's security is rising and their independence secured!
Confidential
No More Nomads: A series of violent pogorms have wracked Greenshore, seeking to put the few survivors of the Foreign-Khan's horde to flight. With Inek victorious and a symbol to rally behind, the general populace was quick to rise up. It didn't matter if the nomads were trained warriors while the People were untrained labourers, housewives, apprentices, and farmers; there were a thousand of them for every one of the enemy! By the end of the year, only a few nomads remained alive, running scared as they were violently dispersed and attacked wherever they went. Eventually, they were forced to retreat entirely, falling back
Western Wall
Public
The Relentless Push East: Since the dissolution of the Great Ymaryn Kingdom four years previously, the Governor of Western Wall, Dyfan, has proclaimed a new age of cultivation and called for a relentless push towards the eastern lands. Easily settling into the ruined remains of the Heaven's Hawks, the People of Western Wall have been industriously planting millions of trees, setting the bedrock for a new Sea of Green that would dominate the former Great Plains. While all of these trees have yet to bear fruit, freedom from the oppressive structures of the Old Kingdom has meant an explosion in population in the Governorship as refugees and religious converts return to the simple and most sacred obligation of the Ymaryn people: tending the land and farming well.
Confidential
Disgruntled Traders: Dyfan has made significant purchases from international traders, often working on credit and the indomitable bond of the Ymaryn nation. These desperately negotiated loans and gifts have given the country enough breathing room to begin widespread cultivation of foodstuffs as well as cash crop cultivation in honey and poppies. It is clear that the former general hopes to outrun the debts he has taken on by growing the economy of Western Wall, but is such a thing even possible?
Thunder Mountains
Public
Brave Bandits: A group calling itself the Beilwyr Bandits has formed in the northeastern region of the Governorship. Preying upon the hapless and helpless, these bandits have taken to hiding high up in the mountains before striking fearlessly into the lowlands below, robbing and raping all who cross their path. In response, the army has been dispatched to the region to regain control, but have only met with limited success in tracking down these fiends.
Confidential
Riven By Division: The Thunder Mountains have suffered deeply since the fall of the Ymaryn Kingdom. Trade has virtually dried and the once boutious wealth that flowed from the gemstone mines of the northeastern reaches have virtually vanished from the markets of the south. Already the lords of the realm have begun to squabble, desperately demanding resources from each other while simultaneously offering none in return. How can the lords continue to squabble while their people begin to starve?
Secret
By Spite Alone: The Governorship of the Thunder Mountains is not stable and will not last. Despite the best efforts of its governor, there is nothing holding the region together. The divided geography simply favours local rulers to such a degree that the typical, highly centralized Ymaryn-model state cannot persist. All that keeps the Governor in his seat is simple tradition as well as spite against the Ymaryn Kingdom that had led them to destruction against the Khan's men. Without the threat that the Kingdom would be back to claim their land with typical, bloody reprisal, the Governorship is at risk of dissolving entirely! The People of the Thunder Mountains had proclaimed their independence so that they could better defend themselves against the constant depredations of nomadic adventurers and the pirates of the Great Salt Sea.
1623 AGF, Reign of Ydrys the 170 King of
[X] Plan Censure and Civil Service
-[X] Private censure
-[X] Promise to carve out a new headquarters in suitable lands within 5 years.
-[X] Ydrys: Continue to respond to the Patrician Crisis
--[X] Accept non-Patricians with on-the-job administrative experience as Patricians (Influence)
-[X] Rhys: Investigate rumours of the Khan's generals.
-[X] Rhys: Create a wide web of contacts across the Ymaryn sphere (Influence)
-[X] Haul: Applying Current Telescopes:
--[X] (Army)
-[X] Prydyer: Evaluating foreign markets
-[X] Inato: Maintain this councilor.
-[X] Aderyn: Rebuild Neighbourhood Watches (Authority)
-[X] Euryg: Strategic Independence Reform
As Ydrys slowly laid out document after document in front of Haul, he watched the other man's face become ever-so-slightly pinched. If he didn't know what he was looking for or even if he should be looking at all, Ydrys knew he would have missed it.
"My King?" Haul asked.
"I will skip to the meat of the issue, Haul. I know. You've continued with your experiments while assigned to other duties. You've taken resources — many of them for a potentially justifiable reason, but with false pretenses — and then misused them."
"Whatever slander you've heard…" he started.
"Am I able to trust you?" The King of All Ymaryn pinned Haul with his gaze. He'd like to think that it was just like pinning a bug to a mat, but he knew better. He wasn't that intimidating. "We could go through the whole charade, but I know. You know I know."
Regardless, it wasn't important that Haul stole. Gods above knew how many people did in the day-to-day running of the Kingdom. If Ydrys had to guess, he'd say a substantial minority. The goal of managing corruption, however, was to ensure that it was always small and subtle enough that actually digging it out would be more expensive than letting it persist. Thus, even if everyone was living a little bit more comfortably than they should on their regular salary, as long as they kept the good of the Crown and Kingdom at heart, things could be managed.
Completely eliminating corruption would mean burning the system to cinders and rebuilding it from the ground up. A theoretical possibility, sure, but definitely one for another time.
"Everything I've done has been for the benefit of the People," he finally said. It was clear he wanted to say more.
"I see," Ydrys said.
"The Guilds are rotten, living relics that totter through the day-to-day," Haul said. "Everything is tightly regulated and it is suffocating. Every breath, every thought, you have to be aware of the garrott at your throat and all the eager hands willing to pull it tight. There are always far, far more journeymen and apprentices than there are masters and everyone is always looking to pull down a rival or set up their own croney. Any imperfections or wasted resources are an excuse for a reprimand. Get enough of those and you're cast out of the Guild, barred for life from practicing your trade. You know where that road ends. Experimentation, growth, life, isn't possible. Instead, if you want to do anything, you're going to have to find some way of greasing the wheels."
When the report on Haul had first crossed his desk, hadn't Ydrys picked him because he wanted a tinker and inventor? Someone who would break with tradition in otherwise ossified institutions? When Ydrys had ordered him to solve basic problems in the Guild's structure, not the invention he wanted to do, the man resented. Thus he'd tinkered and worked sideways, as he'd always been forced to.
"In the end, you learn to work around the system," Ydrys said. "I am not the Guilds, Haul. You are my advisor. You are the Advisor to the King! Be clear with me, fully and completely in all dealings and communications. The People are teetering on a knife's edge right now and I cannot tolerate division or distraction. I believe you are correct, the Guilds have ossified and you are an inventor, to have you working elsewise is not correct. For the next year, your duties will focus on rolling out telescopes to the military."
Haul instantly brightened.
"However," Ydrys immediately cut in. "You will still be punished. I believe the Rite of Ghosts on your free days for the next full turn of the moon will be sufficient. I will have a script written up for you by the end of the day." The Rite was a simple one, but effective. Penance and honesty were good for the soul. The Rite managed to combine both while avoiding social ostracism by allowing the penitent to wear a thick, fully obscuring white robe while they confessed a generalized version of their sins to all passersby. In turn, passersby could voice their displeasure, castigating and warning the penitent of where their current course would lead. Now was the to turn back before reaching the point of Half-Exile and full, public condemnation.
It was a harsh punishment, but proportionate. Stealing from the Crown bordered on treason and under some Kings had merited a traitor's punishment.
"Councilor," Ydrys responded. "I will support your endeavours and I ask that you trust in me. Just as I am now placing my trust in you. I believe things are now clear."
Using resources embezzled from the Crown, Haul has been working on Perfecting Telescopes. With official support on a Telescope project, that action now automatically completes.
Having one errant councilor dealt with, Ydrys was quickly able to complete and send a letter to the acting head of the Spiritbonded Order, offering to match the offer they had received from Dyfan. Realistically, there was no reason for them to accept. The verdant and endless fields of the Great Plains were where they were most effective. Both because of their role in the People's army as cavalry, but also because they acted as warrior-priests, tending to the needs of and civilizing the savage northern barbarians.
Surprisingly, it was a mere fortnight later when Ydrys received a reply and a firm acceptance. As long as the Crown was able to provide a new headquarters by the end of 1628 AGF, they would remain in the Core. Part of Ydrys wondered about that reaction. It was very clear that the Core had nothing that Western Wall could not also offer materially. They would be on the front lines in the Wall, pushing back against the remnants of the Great Khan's horde as well as the region's other barbarians. Yet, somehow, the Spiritbonded considered their ephemeral bond with the Core to be worth more than the vastly increased prominence they would obtain in the Wall.
Regardless, the question of where to put them remained. The simplest use would be to place them north of Memorial sirol as a March along the Great Plains. The Heaven's Hawks had expanded over time to cover that region, but they'd been utterly destroyed, wiped out to a man by the Great Khan and the great walls that separated the Great Plans from Txolla had been carved open, gutting the forces stationed in Memorial sirol. Both of those defenses would need replacing in order to ensure Txolla was secured in the future. The other obvious alternative would be to establish them in southern Txolla. While it limited their efficacy against nomads from the Great Plains among other external threats, it would be a safe harbour for them to develop form. It would mean packaging up a number of land grants whose occupants had been slaughtered by the Highlanders, but it was doable.
On the other hand, Ydrys pulled over a map. The Highlanders had been fighting viciously over the last year, pulling up reserves that the People didn't think they had. They were still losing the war — it was inevitable, the Gentry levy as well as the mercenaries were simply too numerous — but they had managed to put off their defeat for another year. It would be possible to take the land directly from them and use that to house the Spiritbonded. The Highlanders had managed to keep a narrow slice of the lowlands under their control all this time and something was going to have to be done about them.
They couldn't be left alone. They'd be waiting there. Still. A knife poised to sink into the People's back the moment they were looking away. Given the state of the Kingdom, that situation went from 'nearly impossible' as it had been under the Last King to 'virtually certain'. It would happen again and the Kingdom may not be so lucky as to have mercenary armies volunteer to fight for their cause.
Legacy siphon prevented! Promise made to the Spiritbonded Holy Order. You must complete and provide a headquarters to them by the end of 1628 AGF. Failure will carry significant consequences.
Continue to respond to the Patrician Crisis → Crisis Resolved!
To most, the distinction between Patrician, Guild Master, and Gentry was immensely arbitrary, and there was a grain of truth there. While each of these groups were administrators, they mostly only differed in the role they took on. Gentry were raised to look after specific resources cultivated in rural regions. Most commonly, this meant farms or orchards, but it also included logging, sheep herding, vineyards, oil presses, and ranching. Guilds were similarly charged with the production of goods, but based in urban areas and charged with manufacturing things from the raw produce of the land. Both groups managed different halves of the People's economy.
In some ways, it was a redundant system, but Ydrys appreciated the beauty of it. Instead of one social class that could predominate over all others, there were two locked in symbiosis. Atop both of these classes stood the Patricians, administrators and officials appointed directly by the Crown. It was they who managed the movement of goods between the Gentry and Guilds as well as the upkeep of common infrastructure and social systems for the good of all. While the Gentry may tend the land and the Guilds its produce, the Patricians tended to the people.
Thus, it was with a degree of reluctance that Ydrys made the call to fully open the path to becoming a Patrician to anyone who demonstrated the necessary skills. For the first several months, only a trickle applied and were eventually accepted as new Patricians. Most came from the Guilds, former Guild Masters that had served as overseers of small Factoria. A small number came from former army officers, either those injured and forced into retirement or those who had been so psychologically shattered by the Great War that they could no longer serve in combat. The reluctance and disappointing results were understandable, but expected and more than enough to meet the need they had for Patricians. Guild Masters were at the peak of their profession, why settle for something less as a Patrician? Same with many army officers.
In the end, both provided an insignificant number of candidates compared to the utter flood that came on the recommendations of priests and various temples dotted throughout the Kingdom.
For as long as the People kept records, the Free Churches of Mylathadysm had proclaimed their independence. The world temporal was rendered unto King and Crown while the spiritual remained the preserve of the Free Churches. As such, they had an obvious need for administrators to manage lands, building projects, congregations, and other good works. Many of these leaders were Patricians, drawn from graduates of the Academies. Others were orphans, given to the churches because their families could not or were not willing to support them — even with Crown assistance — and were trained to become priests. The last and most numerous group were simply lay people that had simply heard the calling and managed to make a career work.
All of those individuals had flooded into new vacated Crown offices as expected. Then there were the ones that Ydrys didn't expect. People who couldn't be traced back through the systems of the People. They were individuals without records of birth or marriage, tax records or civil service, Half-Exile or good conduct, known addresses or places of employment. They were clearly skilled and they had the references to at the very least merit examination, but how they became skilled couldn't be proven.
It sent a chill down Ydrys' spine. Combined, it meant a systematic miscounting in the People's records. A miscounting so massive that it could marshall resources that were appreciable on the scale of the entire Kingdom. It would be one thing if these administrators were pulled from somewhere. It would mean shuffling papers and constantly plugging holes when another leak sprung, but that was understandable.
These administrators from the priests weren't that.
They were new. Called up by the priests.
Conjured from the aether.
Troubling.
Investigate Rumours of the Khan's Generals → Information, Part 1 of 2
Rhys was a rare sight in the capital during the year, instead spending most of his time dispersed widely across the Kingdom, tracking down rumours and unearthing old ghosts. When the Great Khan sacked the north, he was accompanied by twelve generals. Three of them were known to have been killed by the People, one at Blackmouth and two in the final siege of Valleyhome. Another one, Celik, was known to have conquered Greenshore and installed himself as a false King.
The fates of the other eight are unknown.
It was with perhaps a bit of optimism that he went about his duties, hoping that the chaotic warring in the backwoods that had characterized the latter part of the war would have claimed some of them.
That was not to be.
As far as Rhys could tell from rumours and hearsay, the Khan's eight other generals were alive. Fortunately, however, one of the generals had been severely injured during the fight and had pulled back to the far east along with the rest of the Great Khan's horde. It was highly unlikely that they would be a threat in the future.
Unfortunately, it was virtually certain that the other seven would be near-term threats.
One of the generals, Alten was last seen passing through the Thunder Mountains, breaking out into the great river systems of eastern Kus and conquering himself a vast Kingdom by defeating the united army of ten kings in a single battle. While details were vague given the immense distance separating him from the People, it appeared that he was a Great Power that one would do best to step lightly around. Many of the small principalities of the east had fallen to him and his horde had reaped rich rewards.
Three of the generals had remained within the Great Plains to the north, fighting amongst themselves as well as the region's local powers. One had settled in the near east as Protector of the Great Salt Sea, the second had begun subjugating the smaller tribal powers just north of Western Wall and the last had departed far to the north where he was rumoured to have begun an invasion of a group of industrious mountain folk. While none of these three generals maintained as much of the Khan's horde as Alten did nor did they present as much of a threat in an absolute sense, they were much more proximate threats to the People. They would be licking their wounds for a while, but they could easily be back at the first moment of weakness.
There were two more generals that the People knew of, but their whereabouts remained unknown. All that was certain was that they had not returned to the far east with the rest of the Khan's men.
Rhys was apologetic, but asked that he be given leave to continue investigating the issue in the near future.
Create a Wide Web of Contacts in the Ymaryn Sphere → Rumour Mill: Western Wall (Public, Confidential), Rumour Mill: Thunder Mountains (Public, Confidential, Secret), Rumour Mill: Greenshore (Public, Confidential)
While Rhys had been officially charged with searching for rumours of the Great Khan's generals, he had unofficially been working on establishing contacts across the greater cultural sphere of the Ymaryn Splinter Lords. Most of these individuals were simply gossips and rumour-mongers, enticed by the simple expedient of the regular exchange of information. Rhys promised nothing secret, but if a rumour was heard spoken in the harbours of Redshore, why shouldn't he take advantage of it before it spread?
However, he also went beyond that. All of the Splinter States were desperately hurting for Patricians and other administrators as far too many had died in the war. When they attempted to poach from the Core, Rhys unorthodoxly let them go. After all, with the smashing success Ydrys had found in recruiting people who'd learned from experience, they'd almost had too many. In fact, Rhys had Ydrys instruct them to go. He just reminded them not to burn all of their ties, to remain connected with friends and family who'd they left behind. If those friends happened to ask a number of insightful, hard-hitting questions that necessitated answers that weren't well known outside of their new countries, wasn't that just the lively nature of Ymaryn debating culture?
Within the Thunder Mountains, however, Rhys was met with unusual success. The Patricians there were absolutely desperate for more administrators since they had been utterly devastated by the Khan. Unlike Western Wall which was uniformly decimated, most of the underlying general population in the Thunder Mountains had survived. All of the hills, mountains, semi-arid grasslands and deserts that made up the region rendered it a veritable treasure trove of hiding places. Combined with the tendency for the People to stockpile years worth of resources, most of the population was able to bunker down just long enough for the Khan's horde to deplete local grasslands and be forced to move on. The Patricians who had stood and fought, on the other hand, were near-uniformly slaughtered.
This peculiarity had meant the Thunder Mountains were particularly vulnerable to transplanted 'friends' from the Core. Rhys was thus able to secure the appointment of a number of friendly Iaryll (regional overseers that serve directly below the Governor) as well as generals and naval officers. It pained Ydrys to see them go, since these upper level administrators remained precious, but this was not an opportunity that would ever occur again. While they didn't have anyone within the Governor's office itself, they had an insider in the office of nearly all of his subordinates.
What information Rhys could initially gather painted an incredibly dire picture. The Thunder Mountains were slowly disintegrating, fracturing under the weight of local problems. The Mountains had always served to divide the region, separating the people into numerous local drainage basins where they could locate water in the otherwise dry climate. This level of separation had led to unusually powerful local Patricians as well as a heavily localized economic system. With the great internal markets of the Kingdom quickly breaking down, the trend became exaggerated and local concerns and local powers started to predominate over the Governorship itself.
It was not a stable situation and it would've taken a genius of administration to overcome the clear deficits found there.
The only Splinter where Rhys found little success was Hyatha. While a fair amount of his difficulties could be easily traced to bad luck, the Heir had also admitted that he put little effort into creating contact webs in the country. Doing so would not escape Aderyn's notice, and through her, Gylyes. If they were going to create a network there, it would be best to have Aderyn oversee it. There was an obvious conflict of interest there, but hiding such a network from her would be impossible. Trying to do so would only hurt her marriage with Ydrys and the Kingdom's relationship with Hyatha.
Applying Current Telescopes: Army → Part 1 of ???
Most of Haul's efforts this year were spent entirely on training artisans to produce telescopes in appropriate numbers. While the telescopes themselves do not contain anything truly novel physically or alchemically, they are of incredibly precise manufacture. It took significant effort to grind down the lenses used internally and the separation between them needed to be exactly implemented. Any imperfection, whether in the glass itself, the grinding, or the spacing, would result in unclear images being projected onto the user's eye.
Once the first batch of artisans were trained, they could train others in turn so production could fully scale. From there, the question would be how widely to deploy them. Haul had originally suggested that every soldier armed with a crossbow (in other words, every soldier) should have one, but that was a fever dream. While the maximum range was officially recognized as 400 yards, that required shooting at a step angle; a telescope would be worthless. For shorter distances, the scope wouldn't provide nearly enough benefit to be worth the cost. And the telescopes were expensive. Perhaps not on the scale of the Kingdom, but each telescope cost eight bwyll.
In the end, the question would be whether to only supply specialists, command-level officers, or all scouts. It'd take time before such a decision would be relevant.
Evaluating Foreign Markets → Information, Part 1 of 3
When Ydrys read through Prydyer's report on foreign markets, some part of him died with what he'd seen within: Western Wall, Hyatha, Greenshore, the Thunder Mountains. Those places were not foreign. But what else to call them now that they ignored the rightful crown?
In general, Prydyer found that Hyatha was showing the greatest strength when it came to trade while the Thunder Mountains were weakest.
Production in Hyatha had exploded with glass, metalworks, and porcelain production growing year over year. It seems Gylyes had focused utterly on producing as much as was possible and selling most of it at rock bottom prices. It wasn't sustainable and Ydrys knew that there would be an eventual crash in demand, but until that came, Gylyes was managing to keep his people fed and employed. Industry and the taxes it brough had greatly allowed him to expand the state apparatus, strengthening and entrenching himself.
However . . . there was going to be an obvious upcoming crash; demand from the rest of the world was only functionally infinite and there were going to be hiccups. Whenever the crash finally happened, it was clearly going to have effects far beyond Hyatha's borders. The Core by legacy alone still maintained an overwhelming advantage in production of manufactured goods, but that was legacy. It could be lost. There was nothing stopping Hyatha from eventually displacing them.
With all of that in mind, Gylyes plan seemed to crystalize before Ydrys. Since Hyatha controlled Trelli, they were the only polity on the Yllthyon Mor with access to the Syffryon sea. They were the ones who were most acutely aware of when this supply-induced crash would come. Thus, when demand was satiated — even if only for a moment — they could prepare and take advantage. Ydrys knew that the Core would see recruiters in the aftermath, seeking to tempt their Guild Masters to abandon them and seek better fortunes in Hyatha. Once trade rebalanced and demand resumed, Hyatha would have near exclusive control of the entirety of the Old Kingdom's manufacturing.
It was an obvious plan, but nearly impossible to do anything about.
Hyatha
Imports: Iron Ore, Tin
Exports: Glass, Ironworks, Steel, Bronze, Porcelain, Pottery
Western Wall, by contrast, had devolved their economy almost entirely, what little native manufacturing they possessed lost in the aftermath of the Khan. Instead, they'd focused entirely on exporting raw materials: foodstuffs, wine, charcoal, wool, and in turn importing manufactured goods for the Core and Hyatha. The only true luxury item that they maintained any control over was the production of medicinal poppies; no other luxury grew on the northern shores of the Yllthyon Mor. Whatever trade had once flown down from the far north had been severed by the coming of the Great Khan and his army of bandits. If the People had suffered under his depredations, those living outside their borders had been utterly annihilated.
It was clearly a move of desperation, but it was enough to keep the Governorship financially solvent. Once the damage from the war had been repaired, they'd be able to try to diversify their economy again. If Ydrys could guess, he was virtually certain that Dyfan would focus extensively on cash crops as well as common-quality cloth. While they commanded nowhere near the price of silk or cotton, even kings wore good, sturdy linens when not holding court but instead about their daily business.
Western Wall
Imports: Iron, Steel, Tin, Bronze, Copper, Cloth
Exports: Wine, Foodstuffs, Furs, Poppies, Charcoal, Wool
Greenshore's situation had decayed severely. While they served as an export hub producing base metals, clear mismanagement from the false King Celik had damaged their economy. They were nowhere near as badly damaged as the rest of the Kingdom, but it was clear they were showing strain. Most of their economy had been turned over to the importation of luxuries from the Core, obviously to saite the rapacious appetites of the Khan and his men.
Greenshore had always possessed the smallest economy of any of the Governorships of the Kingdom. They possessed a little bit of everything, but enough of nothing to truly stand out. Agricultural products? Better grown up in Western Wall. Manufactured goods? Produced in greater quantity in the Core. Luxuries? Grew in greater variety in the warm sun and fertile soil of Txolla. Even base metals were mined in greater abundance from the Thunder Mountains or Hyatha.
Greenshore
Imports: Incense, Poppies, Gems, Sugar, Spices, Honey
Exports: Tin, Bronze, Iron Ore, Foodstuffs
The Thunder Mountains, however, had their economy virtually disintegrate. Nearly all the trade that had once flown through the region, the extensive spice markets of the south, as well as the gemstone, salt and livestock trades in the north had virtually dried up. While the region still served to produce a number of valuable metal ores, access to these materials had become increasingly scarce. The isolated geography that had served so well to protect the people of the Thunder Mountains was now serving to separate them, causing shortages in nearly everything throughout the nation.
Without intervention, long-range trade appeared to be breaking down entirely. Things were not good.
Thunder Mountains (Situation Critical)
Imports: Foodstuffs, Salt
Exports: Tin, Bronze, Copper, Lead, Iron Ore
Maintain This Councilor: Cataloging the Great Khan's War (Part 3) → Part 3 of 4
Ianto continued to investigate rumours from the Great Khan's War, focus drifting from larger military organization to small-scale tactics and weaponry. The most obvious weapons wielded by the Khan's men included the bow, the lance, and the horse. They were obvious steppe nomads, born and bred in the saddle, training their entire lives merely by living in the harsh conditions of the Great Plains. While there were some intricacies of the composite bow that were of academic interest, Ymaryn long bows provided greater range and steel-armed crossbows generated greater stopping power.
What truly struck the scholar's interest, however, were the casual rumours of fire said to be wielded by the Khan's men. Supposedly, their lancers were said to burn with the fires of Hell itself, belching out thunder, ash, and dust. As a stroke of utter luck, Ianto was able to recover a sealed supply cart that had been captured in a Gentry-led raid near Stallion Pen. Despite being abandoned in the wilderness for years on end, the individual spears located inside had been tightly wrapped in oil cloth and sealed in hollow bamboo cases. As a result, the weapons were in virtually perfect condition and even worked!
It was with great pleasure that Ydrys read of the incident where Ianto finally managed to figure out how to make the lance emit its fiery payload. He'd not been prepared for the experience and the shock of it going off had firmly knocked him on his ass. With working examples, it would be utter triviality to use these fire lances as a template to upgrade the billhooks routinely issued to the military.
The greatest difficulty was going to be in figuring out the dark coloured powder that seemed to power the weapons. Located in two sealed packages near the head of the lance, if the power was removed or made wet, the weapon would not work. There was some quality about the powder itself that seemed to carry fire within it, rapidly igniting when exposed to flame.
All of this triggered something in Ianto's memory, but he wrote he would need to consult the full archives of the People in order to track down whatever it was.
There were a number of other weapons located in the cart alongside the fire lances. The most prominent of these were nearly a dozen clay jugs filled with the same black powder that powered the fire lances. At first, Ianto assumed they served as replacements for the powder in the lances, but this was unlikely. Each of the jugs appeared to be wrapped in a fine cord, similar to the fire lances. The cord was largely ruined by the weather, but it seemed to be set up to burn with a delay before plunging directly into the powder filled clay vessel. Considering how two lines of the stuff the size of a human thumb was enough to create a gout of flame, a clay jar the size of a man's torso should be immensely more destructive.
These were perhaps wisely left alone for now.
(Unlocked Attack-By-Fire Reform)
Rebuild Neighbourhood Watches: 40% → 65%
By Order of the King of All Ymaryn, you are called to Service.
Of the new Patricians who had been appointed by virtue of their experience or graduation, Aderyn organized the recruitment of tens of thousands to serve as neighbourhood watchmen. The fact that a tiny percentage of those watchmen were actually women and had been appointed by a woman had been a cause for concern and resistance by some. They said that most of the female Patricians had only been licensed by the Kingdom because formerly high standards had been virtually forgotten in the aftermath of the Great War.
Aderyn thoroughly crushed the movement before it could gain strength.
She couldn't stop the whispers and subtle questioning, but the formalized request for redress of grievances that had been slowly organizing among the urban and rural poor was disrupted. It might become a problem in the future, but it was preempted for now.
Enough Patricians had been added to local neighbourhood watches that the system was starting to send accurate reports back to the central government. Most of the information was far from good. Reports had begun to surface that attacks against Half-Exile had skyrocketed. They had always been isolated from regular society, ostracized for their crimes and spiritual filth they carried about themselves. Despite the best efforts of the Crown to relocate former Half-Exiles after their sentence was complete, rumours often dogged them, bringing ostracism in their new community. This in turn led to discrimination and even violence from locals. Something as simple as attempting to use the village oven to bake bread — something they were entitled to full, legal access to — could result in a beating.
The neighbourhood watches normally consisted of one patrician for every hundred households; it was simply not enough to detect and deal with every instance of discrimination. In bad times, the army sometimes had to be called in to defend current or former Half-Exiles.
Now, though, with the watches reduced to half their former capacity, outright murders and lynchings had started to come into vogue among the local peasantry. Some of the more extreme, fringe cults that had arisen in the aftermath of the Great Khan's war had even taken to exalting attacks on Half-Exiles, a way of helping to purify the collective soul of the People.
It didn't matter that the Half-Exiles were productive members of society or that some of them were no longer Half-Exiles, having fully paid their debt to society. It didn't even matter that many of them often had financial resources since the Crown sequestered half of their wage to help them relocate after their supervision was done.
All that mattered was that there was hate. They were the other and they were to be destroyed.
Strategic Independence Reform Part 1 of ???
To reform the idea behind how the People made war and how they would be commanded when they went to fight required a complete reevaluation of training standards for senior officers. It was one thing to simply state that sub-generals should be able to take more flexible action in the field, but it was another thing entirely to actually make it possible. It wasn't only a question of strategic decision-making, but also training, logistics, maneuver, scouting, and a hundred other things.
As a result Euyrg spent most of the year in deep contemplation alongside a number of other veterans of the Great Khan's war. He cared not whether they were formally trained Patricians, former guild apprentices called up in the Mass Levy, or warrior-priests of the two loyalist Holy Orders. All he cared for was a penchant for wisdom and theory. After the year was over, he said they were no closer to solving the underlying problem, but they had done a significant amount to actually define it. Once that finished, they'd be able to begin developing a curriculum to train new generals. From there, it would be possible to begin implementing strategic indepence on a large scale.
The Dissolution
Plague stalks the land!
A new sickness had arisen among the crowded refugee camps that are only now starting to empty out, transferred to Western Wall. Called the Plague of Pain or the Wracking, this new disease is characterized by a slow and gradual onset. Most of the afflicted develop indistinct complaints of fatigue, body pain, swelling, and fever. Over time, these symptoms progress, with pain becoming increasingly excruciating, leaving even hardened warriors begging their caregivers for milk of paradise to dull the pain. In the end stage of the disease, distant fleshy tissue such as the nose, cheeks, hands and feet seem to rot despite the infected person remaining alive. Death seems to come suddenly, but is typically preceded by a number of severe fits that result in ever worsening body rot and paralysis.
None of the traditional remedies of the People have proven effective in combating the demons of this particular disease. Even mercury, one of their strongest anti-demonic agents and used only in the most desperate circumstances, has done nothing to stave off death. All that can be done is to make the afflicted comfortable before their slow and very painful death.
The only blessing seen in this dark situation is that the sickness seems to be confined to a specific region in Txolla and is slow to spread. Further, once an infection begins to set in, there is typically enough time for those rotting alive to set their affairs in order before their eventual death.
Now is the time for drastic action to curb the sickness.
Pick up to 2:
[ ] Isolate the entire afflicted region, no one moves in or out.
[ ] Send priests and patricians to the region to look for a cure
[ ] Reach out to Inek to solicit Carrion Eater aid
[ ] Send additional supplies and work to strengthen local sanitation
[ ] Disperse the population within the afflicted region
[ ] Move the people from the afflicted region to another nearby
Foreign Rumours
Greenshore
Announcement
The Feast of Persimmons: Named after an exotic far-east fruit, the Feat was the latest in a long line of extremely extravagant feasts thrown in honour of King Celik, Lord of the Horde and Greenshore. As had quickly become tradition, the feat boasted the utmost extravagance of foreign delicacies imported from half-a-world away. Alongside days of competitive wargames, festivals, and other activities, the feast was set to be the social highlight of the year and served to celebrate the King's marriage to his eighth wife, a young but beautiful Ymaryn girl.
Instead, what occurred that day has only been spoken of with hushed whispers. Inek, a Hero of the Great Khan's War proudly re-emerged alongside a small but loyal militia. They had managed to insert themselves within the wait staff tending to the Khan, his family, nobility, and military officers. Combined with the liberal application of the most vicious poisons Inek's mind could conjure, the loyalist militia fell on the Khan's men in a moment of psychotic, bloody fury. It was said the governor's palace ran red with rivulets of fresh blood escaping into the streets, screams echoing for hours as the Khan's men were righteously cut down.
None escaped.
Now styling himself as the Liberator, Inek has been firmly ensconced as the Governor of Greenshore, Tinshore and the Tin Tribes. It will take time for him to put his Governorship to rights, but he is now without doubt the undisputed master of Greenshore. Hail to the Hero and a hundred damnations on the abominable nomadic barbarians!
Public
All Hail!: It is with great relief that the people of Greenshore hail the ascension of their new Governor. The Foreign-Khan had been utterly unrelenting in his desires for luxury, living a life of hedonism while literally selling the People of Greenshore into slavery! With proper order slowly beginning to be restored within the Governorship and a small portion of the Khan's kidnapped slaves returning to their homes, Greenshore's security is rising and their independence secured!
Confidential
No More Nomads: A series of violent pogorms have wracked Greenshore, seeking to put the few survivors of the Foreign-Khan's horde to flight. With Inek victorious and a symbol to rally behind, the general populace was quick to rise up. It didn't matter if the nomads were trained warriors while the People were untrained labourers, housewives, apprentices, and farmers; there were a thousand of them for every one of the enemy! By the end of the year, only a few nomads remained alive, running scared as they were violently dispersed and attacked wherever they went. Eventually, they were forced to retreat entirely, falling back
Western Wall
Public
The Relentless Push East: Since the dissolution of the Great Ymaryn Kingdom four years previously, the Governor of Western Wall, Dyfan, has proclaimed a new age of cultivation and called for a relentless push towards the eastern lands. Easily settling into the ruined remains of the Heaven's Hawks, the People of Western Wall have been industriously planting millions of trees, setting the bedrock for a new Sea of Green that would dominate the former Great Plains. While all of these trees have yet to bear fruit, freedom from the oppressive structures of the Old Kingdom has meant an explosion in population in the Governorship as refugees and religious converts return to the simple and most sacred obligation of the Ymaryn people: tending the land and farming well.
Confidential
Disgruntled Traders: Dyfan has made significant purchases from international traders, often working on credit and the indomitable bond of the Ymaryn nation. These desperately negotiated loans and gifts have given the country enough breathing room to begin widespread cultivation of foodstuffs as well as cash crop cultivation in honey and poppies. It is clear that the former general hopes to outrun the debts he has taken on by growing the economy of Western Wall, but is such a thing even possible?
Thunder Mountains
Public
Brave Bandits: A group calling itself the Beilwyr Bandits has formed in the northeastern region of the Governorship. Preying upon the hapless and helpless, these bandits have taken to hiding high up in the mountains before striking fearlessly into the lowlands below, robbing and raping all who cross their path. In response, the army has been dispatched to the region to regain control, but have only met with limited success in tracking down these fiends.
Confidential
Riven By Division: The Thunder Mountains have suffered deeply since the fall of the Ymaryn Kingdom. Trade has virtually dried and the once boutious wealth that flowed from the gemstone mines of the northeastern reaches have virtually vanished from the markets of the south. Already the lords of the realm have begun to squabble, desperately demanding resources from each other while simultaneously offering none in return. How can the lords continue to squabble while their people begin to starve?
Secret
By Spite Alone: The Governorship of the Thunder Mountains is not stable and will not last. Despite the best efforts of its governor, there is nothing holding the region together. The divided geography simply favours local rulers to such a degree that the typical, highly centralized Ymaryn-model state cannot persist. All that keeps the Governor in his seat is simple tradition as well as spite against the Ymaryn Kingdom that had led them to destruction against the Khan's men. Without the threat that the Kingdom would be back to claim their land with typical, bloody reprisal, the Governorship is at risk of dissolving entirely! The People of the Thunder Mountains had proclaimed their independence so that they could better defend themselves against the constant depredations of nomadic adventurers and the pirates of the Great Salt Sea.