2019-03-01 Advise a Bronze Age Villain
2019-03-07 Evil Bronze Age Mummy Tribal Goddess Wants to Hear What You Think!
2019-08-06 From Tomb to Palace: a Scholastic Quest of Blood, Mud, Roads, and Steel
2020-09-04 What Can SV Teach an Evil Sorceress? writing, roads, bloomeries, gunpowder, & sailing, maybe
Code:
I want to see whatever people want to share with a story
villain or ancient world ruler.
If the things being shared aren't useful to the quest
NPC, let me tell players that through the quest NPC.
And if that means that every few updates some new blood
takes the same faltering stab at describing the
confounded bessemer process, so be it.
Unless you believe another player is misleading the quest
NPC, let each have their say. I don't mean to discourage
disagreement. You're all fallible and to the degree I am
not it is only because I have authorial fiat. What I
mean to discourage is discouragement.
You have no form. You have many voices. Some speak wisdom, some folly, some madness. Only you can hear your voices. So it has been for as long as you have been. But the things you know, and that you can know, stretch far, far beyond the cacophony that defines your perception and expression both.
Now, in this singular and unique moment you are invited to venture outside your world and reach the ear of a new listener, one who does not know all that you know, one that not only listens but sees and acts.
And there are three who call on you, the Astute Cacophony. But you can only choose one.
Choose whom you will advise:
[ ] Bianca the Undying rules the Nine Nations in a manner more like a particularly interventionist goddess than a queen. She has worked her sorcery to benefit the nine tribes who supplicate before her, and to cement her control over them, for the centuries since would-be grave-robbers unwittingly released her from a much, much older tomb. Know this of the Undying and her resources:
After 10,000 Years I Am Free: Bianca cannot be killed. That's why she was sealed away long, long ago. She wasn't the only Undying at the time and she doesn't know what happened to the others. She does not eat or sleep. She does not tire or grow bored.
When Someone Asks If You're a God You Say Yes: The tribespeople who follow Bianca believe she is a deity. That doesn't mean they follow her orders without asking or that they fanatically devote themselves to her. But it means none of them would think to replace her and, if that were suggested, would find the concept bizarre.
Warriors, Come Out and Pla-ay: In special cases, smaller numbers of warriors are chosen by respected warleaders for attacks that require proven fighters or stealth or discipline. But in general war anyone who wants to fight, fights. Farmers, herders, and crofters all join when the tribe goes to war. Of the three choices, Bianca can field the largest number of capable if desperate combatants, so long as the chiefs and councils of each of the Nine Nations heed her call.
It Takes a Village: The densest level of urbanization found in Bianca's followers is the village. Some of them are large villages, but they are not towns or cities.
[ ] Zorella the Cursed is a very proficient killer, and must continue to kill to sustain her divinely cursed existence. Fortunately, she won sanctuary from a priestly kingdom, within whose borders she is respected for her might and station. Over time she proved herself and is now trusted with the administration of a client state, over which she is effectively rules as a vassal to the high priesthood who spared and protected her. The following describes Zorella's circumstances and situation:
Tell You What I Do Like… A Dyed in the Wool Killer: Zorella's skill at arms and as a leader of soldiers is unmatched by any mortal, but that's to be expected because her father was divine. She can and has stood alone against scores of warriors and slew them all. With preparation and from ambush she has killed hundreds, again alone. When leading a warband or, providence forbid, an army she serves as a huge force multiplier to those fighting under her.
Because You Have Done This, Cursed Are You Above All: In a misguided attempt to prove herself to her divine father, Zorella brought about the deaths of thousands of followers of other deities, many by her own hand. Not only was her divine father unimpressed, but other divinities were very upset and cursed her. Now she tires quickly in sunlight and must draw on the lives of others to sustain her own. Only with great effort can she cross clean water. And salt physically repulses her.
Sanctuary, Sanctuary: Hounded by those she'd persecuted, opportunists, and enemies in general, Zorella fled to a kingdom ruled by a priest of her divine father's cult. There she was given protection, in recognition of her heritage. Demigods do not age like mortals, and as the rulership of the holy kingdom was passed from oracle to seer to hierophant, Zorella came to be entrusted with the military might of the holy state. When, at the direction of the high priestess, she conquered a neighboring kingdom, she was made satrap, in which capacity she still serves.
Fear Will Keep the Local Systems in Line: The people of Zorella's satrapy recognize her as their ruler. They pay their taxes to her representatives and their tithes to her masters or mistresses. And they understand very well what happens if they don't. Zorella has governed the citystate assigned to her without major rebellion for just a little longer than living memory.
[ ] Oran the Wise is the name of a sorcerer and advisor to the most powerful emperor in the known world. But when Oran is asked a question, the answer does not come from the man who was once a boy named Oran. It comes, instead, from the magic ring Oran wears, which controls Oran in every way. Otherwise, things are kind of like this:
One Ring to Rule: The magic ring Oran wears is old, but not as old as Bianca. Meant to store the knowledge of its maker, so that their craft would not be lost, over time and across many wearers, the ring developed its own personality and goals. It calls itself Greatness and it wants to rule the world. Another imperfection in its making led to slow attrition of unused knowledge, so it no longer knows how to make rings like itself.
Those Who Would Perfect Their Work Must First Sharpen Their Tools: Oran is the strongest sorcerer that Greatness has ever known. The ring adds to this power, even before its knowledge and experience are taken into account. In the opinion of Greatness, station is more easily acquired with power than power is with station.
Where Power Predominates, There Love Is Lacking: Oran is indisputably the strongest sorcerer. He is not indisputably the most important or most politically powerful. The emperor consults with a council of sorcerers, of which Oran is only one. There's a lot of infighting, jockeying for position, and currying of favor.
Closer to the Throne, Closer to the Gallows: The emperor has a lot on his mind. His most important decisions seem to concern preventing and dealing with rebellions. There are many opportunities for advancement for those the emperor relies on. But the consequences of failure -- or even perceived failure -- are often dire.
Code:
All plainly written text should be in
character. To write out of character write
[spoiler=ooc] before what you want to say
out of character and [/spoiler] afterward.
You can also use [code] blocks like this,
but use generous carriage returns so your
text doesn't get a horizontal scroll. It
looks like 43 characters is the right
stopping point for the sake of mobile
readers. Please be considerate.
Only words will pass through to the main
character: no files no pictures, no glyphs,
no symbols.
If this quest comes to require as much work
as the last one, the pace of updates will
drop. I'll still manage one each month at
least, though.
Like most quests, each player can vote from the options given, write in their own option, or vote for someone else's write-in.
Additionally, each and every poster has a chance to be heard by the character or characters that I will be playing. All you have to do is type. However, one thing that happened last time was that there were too many people writing too much stuff and I couldn't keep up.
Maybe this time there won't be that kind of interest. But if there is, here's how I'm thinking it'll work:
If there are too many voices, they won't be understood because they'll be talking over each other.
If you want someone in particular to be heard by the main character, you can boost their signal by voting for them in a special category, [cacophony]. And if you want your own voice to be heard, you can encourage people to post [X] [cacophony] YourName to boost your own signal.
As in the previous question, a big part of this is going to be explaining your advice in terms the character can understand. And you must not only communicate your advice, you must also persuade the main character that your advice is of value.
When your message makes it through, the main character will be able to play your messages back at their leisure.
I've probably forgotten stuff that still needs adding to this.
Oh, and keep in mind that the #1 way to drive our wonderful Loser away is overwhelming them with information, so lets all try to keep things to one or two central topics per turn.
I'll likely be providing advice on how to interpret the rest of us, riding herd on any, ahem, unruly individuals who show up, and trying to keep the subject from wandering off from what our listener needs to know.
I know about what we shouldn't talk too much: explaining advanced mathematics concepts surely can wait for a long time. I say this truly not only because I'm bad at math ( xD ), but because to LoserThree this would be probably very tiring, and for the quest not very useful.
I appreciate y'all's concern, but burnout is a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions, solutions I can implement from this side perfectly well.
As you can tell from the tally at the end of this post, the mummy wins by a whole lot. Now that that's done, I can address some things about the choices that might not have been clear without feeling like I'm influencing the vote and fouling up the craft of this work.
I find myself pretty much in agreement with everyone else who has mentioned Bianca's position as absolute monarch/deity as the deciding factor for their vote.
Y'all might want to reread Bianca's introduction. It's possible I wasn't as clear as I thought I was. But I think y'all might be filling in some degree of, "god speaks, people obey," thing that is neither present in the text nor, in fact, in the time period being fictionalized.
Perhaps to know what someone is capable of, one might look at what they've already accomplished. And in Zorella's case, exclusively of these three, that list includes conquest. Like, most of her past 'conquest-like' activities were more devastating than overtaking. But she has taken over at least one kingdom, the one that's currently her satrapy.
Yeah, I'm not certain of why this wasn't more clear to everyone.
Of the three, Zorella without a doubt has the greatest ability to make immediate changes. Bianca has sub-city-state tribesfolk to work with, who don't really have the infrastructure for control even if they had fanatical devotion (which they don't all have). And while Oran could totally arrange for this or that crew of craftsfolk or merchants or whatever to build 'the thing,' in order to make changes to the bureaucracy of the city, kingdom, or empire he has to expend a lot of political capital.
I mean, I'm sure this is going to be fun for all of us. But unlike last time, Bianca isn't the right choice for a speedrun.
Just to let y'all know, it is possible for any of the main characters to lose control of the Locus of Cacophony so that it passes into the hands of another. But, yes, it would be inevitable for Oran -- not Greatness -- in ways it wouldn't be for Bianca. Zorella isn't as immortal as Bianca, but she's much less mortal than Oran is.
Adhoc vote count started by LoserThree on Mar 4, 2019 at 3:02 PM, finished with 91 posts and 49 votes.
2
"Is it- Ah, good. No, no. Hush now. Hush, hush… How do I… Ah-HAH! Yes, that's how the spell is gagged. I couldn't hear myself think over the racket.
"Now, then. As I think you know, I am BIanca, called the Undying for entirely literal reasons. The people of the Nine Nations believe me to be a goddess, one that has taken a special interest in their wellbeing. In truth, I aspire to divinity, and have not yet reached it. Stories of the time of my birth and of the current age as well tell that gods new and old can be slain and from their flesh can new gods be made. The gods new and old know this, of course, and do not make themselves easily found or fought. So I continue to puzzle after the manner in which I will achieve my apotheosis.
"More immediately, the First Chief of the Nine Nations recently died as a result of a disagreeable meal, or perhaps poison. As sometimes happens, the leadership of the tribes were unable to choose a new First Chief for themselves and have come to ask me what should be done.
"The Eppam tribe is one of two that choose no chieftain for themselves, only appointing a temporary warchief in times of conflict. Instead, they are governed by a council of elders. It is a rare thing that any of their number are chosen as First Chief and for good reason: they are rarely experienced in leading alone. The people do not remember, but one of their warchiefs was chosen as First Chieftess hundreds of years ago and she did just fine. But there really isn't anyone in the tribe suitable right now and I think they only put forward Aklot the Red Hammer as a tribute to him. He is too old and nearly deaf besides.
"The Zouchaud chieftain is nearly a youth. His children still suckle. He is healthy and mighty, but both of these traits can be lost quickly to illness or mishap. But he is a proficient raider by boat or chariot, to judge from his loot. And his tribe claims he is an exceptional warleader. I think perhaps he might be the next First Chief, or perhaps the one after if the next two pass quickly. But he has only seen two winters as chieftain. He is not ready to be First Chief now.
"The Naumo tribe has led by Utroffa since she was still in her youth, unwed and unproven. I know not what madness led to her choosing as a chieftess. But I think her mother or aunt meant to use her to govern from the shadows and made charlatans of their oracles to that end. Now Utroffa's children have weaned children of their own and to my knowledge she leads her people competently. When men are First Chief not only their children but also their brothers, nieces, and nephews benefit from their position, if they govern well, and acquire positions of power as warleaders, trade bosses, and council members. But when a woman is First Chieftess, it is her husbands who benefit in this way. Typically, the husbands of the First Chieftess find themselves at cross-purposes less often than do the brothers of the First Chief, and that can make things easier for me. Also, none may choose their brothers, but I am told Utroffa chose all her surviving husbands for herself.
"The Gawdtha chieftain is too old. He is spry for his age and wise as well. But some winter soon will take him. And then we will be right back where we are. There are times when a brief First Chief is good, but this is not that time. The Nine Nations need stability, or they would not be coming to me with these questions in the first place.
"Among the tribe of Tash are those who have taken slaves of others of the Nine Nations, in violation of the Nine Ways Pact. They live by the mercy of their fellow tribespeople and fellow tribes, but Tash finds no favor in my sight while those oath-breakers still breathe. They are only mortal and will pass soon enough.
"Like the Eppam, the Bima Nolco have no chieftain suitable for selection as the First Chief as they have no chieftain, only a 'first elder.' Among them, no one is permitted to lead for more than three winters. They make exceptions for warleaders, but wars of more than three winters are rare enough that they might once again be unaware of that. There has never been a First Chief from the Bima Nolco. Nonetheless, they make do and their flocks and herds are the the most numerous.
"The Burgeck make no secret of their desire to change the ways of the people of the Nine Nations. I have rebuffed their claims to priesthood thus far; there is no need for mortal interpretation of my will or intersession while I am right here to answer for myself. With the influence their chieftain Raezl would wield as First Chief, it would be much more troublesome to restrain their ambitions. Still, Raezl is easily among the most capable candidates. And while the people often believe they have always lived as they now do, I know differently. Spoked wheels and viable chariots were not in use when I first came to these people.
"The Sleomjash tribe stand apart from the others. Though they come to speak the language of the people more and more each generation, there remain many words from the tongue they spoke when they arrived with chariots and horses. It is my preference that the people are not aware that at one time there were only Eight Nations bound together by the Pact. Haronno of the Sleomjash is suitable as First Chief. If he were not Sleomjash I think he would already have been selected. He is known to be just and strong willed and the people find him pleasant to look on.
"Chief Va of the Lan tribe is afflicted with greed, but his greed has brought wealth to his tribe. The Lan not only raid their neighbors who are not of the Nine Nations, but some of their number have traveled far away to trade gemstones from the north for riches from the south. And Va is said to have gone further and returned with more than any now living. The people do not accurately remember their ancestors, though, and I the man now remembered as Forrews the Wanderer did not travel as much as they believe. It is possible that Va has seen more of the world than any of the people who ever returned to their tribes.
"Of Va, Haronno, Raezl, Utroffa, whom should I choose to lead the Nine Nations as First Chief until death or dishonor?"
[ ] Utroffa of Naumo [ ] Raezl of Burgeck [ ] Haronno of Sleomjash [ ] Va of Lan [ ] Write in
Code:
Voting will close 2019-03-05 1800 GMT. I'd
like things to move fast for the first week
or more.
Remember to also vote [X] [Cacophony]
UserName if you want to increase the odds
that Bianca will hear one particular user's
post, even or especially while we're in
Questions and Answers mode, as I think we
will be for a little while.
State Actions will use the modified version of the company system from Reign that I used in the previous game. Bianca and the First Chief will both be taking actions, some in the background, which will add bonuses or maluses when the time comes to test State Actions.
Two First Chief votes and 1 boost went
untallied on account of formatting
problems. Both of those First Chief votes
were for Haronno of Sleomjash, pushing him
past Va of Lan and into the lead.
Some of you didn't format your votes in ways the tallying process can count them, @ninjafish, @Rune_Fireheart, @Zeikos. Please adhere to formatting so that the automated tally can deliver a proper count and I don't have to count by hand. Like, at this point I totally have time and such to do it, but if this quest gets popular there will totally come a time when I just trust the tally and missed votes are missed votes.
Also, someone else boosted you, @Silver719, but you didn't boost yourself. If you meant to, then that's something you might want to keep in mind in the future. Also, you spoke in favor of Haronno, but don't appear to have voted for him. I'm not sure if you meant to or not.
Your Divine Majesty. I would bow before you, but I'm afraid that I lack proper body for that. I must thank you for talking to me/us. You can assume that my name, name of this voice, because we are many, is Black Cat.
Your Divine Majesty... What exactly are Gods? Aren't you so superior in comparison to mortal men as to be one in many ways even today, even if you lack some pleasures that "true" gods enjoy? Maybe you are even wiser than some of the "true" gods? I believe that you are not exactly lying when you say that you are God to your people. It depends how we define that word, after all.
I also believe, Your Divine Majesty, that you should slowly centralize power and rule your tribes much more directly.
Do you know how many people live among your tribes?
About recent politics, well...
Sleomjash could integrate his tribe better with the whole society, and maybe he would be more properly grateful to you, Your Divine Majesty? On the other hand, greed of the Chief Va of Lan is good, as trade will be only more and more important soon, and cities, larger and larger settlements will develop. This is a pretty hard decision, but decision is needed...
[X] Va of Lan.
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
Could I also teach you something useful, if you can spare a short while? I apologize, Your Divine Majesty, but I consider this important, also for your future power. This is truly more consistent with current issues than you may think at first.
I would like to explain to you an alphabet, writing, and the arabic numbers. Believe me, these things will be useful.
You said that Burgeck, in their arrogance, would like to impose themselves as your priests. Bureaucrats directly selected by you would be much better than priests: people that could directly talk about your will without weird interpretations and need for idiotic ritualistic shows. But for proper bureaucrats, you and they would need to know secrets of writing, so that they could write to you about everything important in your land, and understand written orders from you.
Let's explain then. An alphabet is a set of symbols, called letters, which can be used for writing the words of a particular language.
Writing is, shortly speaking, the skill or activity of producing words on a surface, words that you can see later, instead of remembering everything.
Now, I will try to be brief in my explanation, as I understand that you think mainly about the more direct matter of governance now, but please, Your Divine Majesty, listen to my words. I assure you that this will be important later, also for centralizing power and lording over your mortals.
Under alphabetic writing system, all notable sounds have a different symbol assigned. Thanks to this, you can write all words with the use of only 26 symbols, or so. Hear these sounds: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. Give each of these sounds very simple but unique symbol, and you could write any word imaginable. I mean, I'm not sure that you hear all of these things properly, but you should understand basic premise, yes? One sound - one very simple picture - or rather very simple symbol. There is not many short sounds in human speech. Only about 26 or maybe 28 pictures are needed, symbols that can be carved, painted or written in other fashion anywhere and create whole words, and then stories, or records of your Divine Will, or store other information. These symbols can and should be simple like circle or two lines, so that writing could be fast and easy.
There is also hierographic writing, when there is one symbol for one word, not one symbol for one sound. But obviously to write properly with such a thing you would need to remember thousands of separate symbols, not 26, so this is harder to learn and less practical.
It's good to also use separate symbols for numbers. Nothing - zero. Then symbols for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. You can use these ten symbols to write any number possible in a very fast and efficient way. For example, ten would be written as "one, zero". Eleven as "one, one". Twelve as "one, two". 52 as "5, 2". 76 as "7, 6". 89 as "8, 9". Even great numbers, like 1463. "1, 4, 6, 3". 1501 as "1, 5, 0, 1". 1600 as "1, 6, 0, 0" - one thousand and six hundred and nothing more at all, this is why "0, 0". Two 0 so that you can understand that this is 1600, not 160, or 16. 60 is written as "6, 0". 70 as "7, 0". 700 as "7, 0, 0". 600 as "6, 0, 0". 6000 as "6, 0, 0, 0". 60 000 as "6, 0, 0, 0, 0".
Please, consider these matters. Thank you for speaking to me/us, Your Divine Majesty.
I would also like to talk about diseases. While some diseases may be magical or somehow mysterious in other ways, many diseases are caused by living creatures that are too small to be seen, smaller than the smallest worm - we shall call them germs.
Such creatures slowly eat dead corpses and try to eat living people, though bodies of living people usually are well capable of defense against most of these predators.
Still, it's possible to slow spread of such diseases.
Sources of water should be well separated from human waste, that is usually full of germs. People should clean their hands with clean water before touching food and eating.
If possible and if there is enough clean water, people should clean their bodies once per day, or if impossible, at least once per week.
If you need to have very clean water and kill even more germs, boiling works to kill these, but obviously boiling all water would be unpractical, so you can use this for cleaning wounds or other special cases.
Before raw plants are eaten, said plants should be cleaned with clean water.
Obviously, water that was once used to clean things is now dirty, may be full of germs, and shouldn't be used again.
Clean-looking water is not always truly clean, as I said, germs are very small. CLEAN LOOKING WATER IS NOT ALWAYS FULLY CLEAN. Better than something obviously dirty, but still.
Sexual relations with ill people, or touching ill people too much, can also spread not all but many diseases.
When a person is ill, he or she should be provided with great amounts of clean water to drink, if possible such person shouldn't be around other people too much, and should be allowed to rest.
Thanks to coughing and sneezing germs can travel from one nearby body to another without need for waste or touching.
If possible, it would be good to burn corpses of dead people, fire kills almost everything.
Wounds and childbirth allow germs much easier access to the body than healthy skin and easier one than even mouth and eating, so very clean water that was recently boiled though is no longer too hot should be used to clean wounds.
Do not use clothes that were worn by a very ill person that died, burn these clothes, or if you need something very much, boil that in water at least.
Simple surgery.
If you need to open a living human body and want that person to have a higher chance of survival, use only knives and other tools that were boiled for a long time. Sometimes, when a hand is very diseased and rotting from previous wounds, eaten by germs, but the rest of the body is still fine, cutting said hand can save a life. Many such people would die from blood loss, but if you manage to stop blood loss, and your tools are clean, there is some possibility that he or she may live. Even with dirty tools somebody can live sometimes, but then it's more dangerous and people die even more often. Clean tools and very clean clothes or rags are very, very important.
Sewing wounds.
You can use a needle with an attached length of thread (but only properly and recently boiled ones and only used for such surgery) for sewing wounds.
Blood and body, circulatory system included.
Blood is used by the body to transport many complicated things to all parts of the body, things needed to live and to defend against germs. These things are provided to the blood by breathing, eating and drinking water. Heart allows said blood to move. A human mind is in the brain, but without blood, brain dies very fast, you cease to see and move almost instantly at least without magic, and thus person dies.
Thanks to lungs healthy air is useful for the blood, thanks to stomach and guts food is useful for the blood, and then liver and kidneys try to remove bad things and poisons from the blood - if liver is not in good shape, or poison is too bad, person can die even without germ disease. These mysteries are very simplified here, about details you could talk for days.
Healthy kidneys filter about a half cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder.
Ah, and arteries and veins are parts of the same circulatory system for the blood. Arteries may look empty after death because blood then goes mainly to veins, but if you cut artery of the living person, there will be a great deal of blood. When I said "thanks to lungs healthy air is useful for the blood" this means that part of air known as oxygen is transported from air to blood in the lungs. Veins are blood vessels that carry blood toward the heart, arteries are blood vessels that take blood away from the heart to all parts of the body. Most arteries carry oxygenated blood, most veins carry deoxygenated blood. Oxygenated blood is bright red, deoxygenated blood is darker, almost blackish-red.
There are many such details, but these details are very complicated, I'm not sure that I should constantly talk about such details. Questions are welcome.
Oxygen is also used to sustain fires, not only by living things. Without proper air, there is no fire.
Willow bark and fevers.
Fever and higher body temperature exist to help a body against germs, but too high body temperature can accidentally kill a person. Willow bark, if you boil this bark in water and drink said thing afterward, can sometimes help to combat dangerous fever. This can be also useful against very small but irritating pain, like headaches.
Sand water filter.
When I think about this, there is a way to clean water, if said water is not very dirty, without boiling. Boiling is still useful, because this way is less good. Sand water filter. Amount of sand as tall as a tall man, water above. Water slowly moves through sand, and water below should be much cleaner, even if not completely clean.
Slow sand filters work through the formation of a gelatinous layer of good (for humans) germs that eat bad (for humans) germs, in the top of the fine sand layer.
Slow sand filters slowly lose their performance as the top layer thickens and thereby reduces the rate of flow through the sand. You need then to remove said top layer to expose a new layer of clean sand.
More about sterilization.
More methods of germ removal, besides boiling and water filters: great heat, hot steam, fire. Germs are alive and can be killed. There are also poisons that could work, but many of these are dangerous also to humans.
Balancing theories of perfect health with common sense and things that you have in the real world.
Water should not be withheld simply because the available water is potentially unsafe, a proper amount of water for the body takes precedence, especially in the cases of people ill from diarrhea when too much water is removed from the body and this is often the main cause of death. Common sense should be used, not all health advice can be always used in practice from lack of resources, but WHEN possible, then remember said advice.
Pit latrine.
Pit latrine, or dry toilet, can be used to collect human feces in a deep hole in the ground. Human waste enters the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user comfort. When properly built and maintained, pit latrines can decrease the spread of disease by reducing the number of human feces in the environment. This decreases the transfer of germs between feces and food by flies. Light should be prevented from entering the pit to reduce access by flies. This may require the use of a lid to cover the hole in the floor when not in use. The distance from water should be decent, at least like 32 average human feet.
Soap.
If you know how to make soap, then cleaning hands with soap and water is much better than water alone. Strictly speaking, soap does not kill germs but allow these creatures to be much easier washed away.
Cathole.
Cathole is a small pit for human feces that can be dug by travelers or warriors when there is no proper latrine or toilet anywhere nearby. This is a basically small hole that is not very good against isolating feces from water, but certainly much better than nothing, much better than people simply defecating around their camp. As many principles from the pit latrine should be used as possible, but of course, in such cases, there is no time to create properly deep pits. Basically, fresh human waste should never simply lie uncovered.
Sanitary sewer.
A sanitary sewer or foul sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting dirty water full of germs and/or water contaminated with human waste away from the settlement. Remember, if you even create such a system, to end said tunnels in some sort of useless wetland or very large useless field, instead of contaminating river. Seas are also big enough to properly dilute everything, rivers usually are not.
Flush toilet with a plumbing trap.
Best when combined with a sanitary sewer, flush toilet disposes of human waste (urine and feces) by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location for disposal. A typical flush toilet is a bowl which is connected to a drain. After use, the bowl is emptied and cleaned by the rapid flow of water into the bowl. Drainpipe connected under the bowl should have a trap for some water, this means that drainpipe should go down and then back up, so that there is always some water that can prevent unpleasant sewer smell from entering the room. Properly constructed flush toilet may be a great luxury, with much less unpleasant smell than a dry toilet, but said luxury is not essential for health.
A flush toilet may be pour-flushed. This type of flush toilet is flushed by pouring in some water from a container, bucket or something. Or more complicated machinery to flush water may be used, but I think that for now, this is enough information about cleanliness.
Lead.
Lead is a mild and very slow poison. When lead is in contact with food or water that is used for drinking afterward, children are stupider and less inclined to obey rules and old people may slightly faster die. These effects are usually not very strong, but impossible to reverse.
Nutrition.
You cannot eat only bread and be healthy, people that are able to eat diverse foods are healthier, as different parts of the body need different things to work properly. Especially children need diverse foods to develop properly.
Dissection.
I suggest you to open a few bodies of dead people to see for yourself how human body looks inside. This is also an excellent form of training for sewing wounds and some surgery.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Humans and most animals use oxygen from air and then remove from their bodies, by moving air out of the lungs, carbon dioxide. Plants, on the other hand, use carbon dioxide and then add to air oxygen, that is useless for plants.
Black soil, proper use for otherwise useless human waste.
You can create fertile, good for growing plants soil by adding a mixture of charcoal, bone, broken pottery, compost and manure to the otherwise relatively infertile soil. To create compost, you need a heap of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass, and food scraps, and wait for the materials to break down after a period of months. After a year or so there shouldn't be any too dangerous germs in waste, things are broken to simpler stuff good for plants. Human waste must not be used directly to help plants but is safe to use after sufficient composting.
[X] Haronno of Sleomjash: My dear lady, People can often act like sheep, if you want stability, a clever mind, and a pretty face is often all that's needed to get people to fall in line. So pick Haronno, he is well liked, attractive, and you yourself have dubbed him suitable. What reason is there to not choose he? None of any merit.
With that out of the way, would you mind sharing the state of affairs of your area, local magic's and their works, and the capabilities of you and your people, we come from places far off, and there are many things beyond one little rock, and rules are often subject to change depending on where you are.
To start with, some disclaimers. First off, no individuals among us have any control over what may get said to you. Nothing we say is inherently true, and all 'advancements' we propose should be tested first before being implemented if at all possible. 'Trust but verify' is very much the phrase of the day, here.
Secondly, most if not all of our advice comes from a place with absolutely no understanding of the nature of Gods, Divinity, or Magic beyond the purely hypothetical and philosophical. In fact, what defines something as being a God, how are you Undying when compared to their supposedly immortal and eternal nature still being notably fallible? How does magic work, from a Caster's standpoint? And, most importantly, can magic Introduce or Remove energy from an isolated system?
Lastly, our understanding of purely mundane technology allows us to achieve feats that would be considered magical to many. You might not understand many of the concepts we'll explain, and if that's the case feel free to speak up. I don't know if any of us have a background in Education, but I know a fair number of us don't.
Now, on to the topic at hand. I personally would select Haronno, both because he seems competent and because having a Sleomjash as First Chief would likely go a long way to alleviating any issues with his tribe being a relatively new member of the pact. That said, I would also advise you encourage the Zouchad Chieftain to spend some more time with the Gawdtha chieftain. His relative youth would make him more receptive to the Gawdtha chief's wisdom, especially if the elder has the reputation you have given us. The Gawdtha Chief's influence in this early stage could smooth out any wrinkles in the development of the younger Chieftain, and make him an easy pick when the next choice for First Chief rolls around.
Greetings o undying one! Salutation to ye who death has yet to claim, who time has yet to break and who fortune has yet to betray!
A prayer without end we give to thee who once again set us free! A thousand throats in jubilation utter your name! A thousand maddend cries curse it o liberator!
We are the voices great and meager, wise and arrogant, learned and perfidious. We coat a lie with a thousand truths and proclaim a lie all that is true. We know all that there is to know, what what we do not know is seven fold greater than what we do.
Fine words we command, products of knowledge we offer, fruits of revelation we lay before you, pretensions of infallibility we wear!
O undying one heed the words of the Astute Cacophony with great care. For our madness damns and delivers with but a single breath.
Now, for the first chieftain of your nine tribes. Such an oddity, that nine tribes are joined in a pact, no less and no more.
Is it ancient ties of blood and descent that so conjoin them? Are they the descendents of one ancient tribe, and the pact but acknowledgment of such?
How are they further divided? How many generations dwell within a single household? How many lesser tribes, clans if you well or lineages of notice compose a single tribe?
Are ties of blood held sacred above all? Do such ties extend to that which is of the household and the person but not of the blood?
Do the slaves and oath bound companions of a man or clan count as his blood?
What codes of honour do these people hold? What are their greatest shames and highest honours? What norms of hospitality and war do they practice? How does one wed amongst them? And how far can feuds and oaths of vengeance go?
And what of their tongue and song? What of their poetry and dance? Where does it stand amongst the nine and is it shared with those not amongst them?
What medium of exchange do the tribes use, and what are the customs pertaining to plunder and loot? What fare do they consume regularly and what beasts do they keep and what beasts do they detest?
Many questions, strange and asinine they may seem, but a voice that speaks commands to people it knows not is better silent.
As for your concerns regarding a priesthood of your person.
Are you master of the eastren winds that taketh a soul to all the corners of the world in but a breath?
Are you Lord over the spirits that dwell without and are Kings amongst the elements?
Have ye the seal which binds time itself to your command?
Perhaps you have by means of sorcery a method to keep informed and communicate across great distances with your worshippers.
It could be that the tribes have erected great altars where on fixed days your presence is called.
If not, then your inability to officiate and proclaim to the world at large will cripple you, and what are priests if not heralds who hold thy words sacred above all, and mark them unto the hearts of all.
But distance is but a trifling consideration.
You are not of the nine tribes, you are to them as the pebble is to the mountain.
A creature of your magnitude, more so one seeking divinity, cannot possibly know the paths and tides of the minds and souls of the nine. Your mind is not theirs, and neither is your heart and body.
A word of mercy from thee could be the blackest death unto them. A simplicity to you is maddening eternity for them.
Such is the nature of the divine, for it to lay pretense to but a shadow of the infinite, it detaches itself from the finite.
Unless of course both are one, but I think that you o undying one, are far from such apotheosis.
As such, a priesthood is not merely mouths to proclaim your words, they are the channel by with your floods are calmed and made safe. They are the means by which to know your worshipers in truth, and to know of your own self and edicts, and the implications of both.
For such is the way of priests that they spend lifetimes exploring facets that few minds could precieve or consider.
And should they ever deviant into the unacceptable, your august presence can always make terrible example of those that dared place their own hubris above the divine.
And perhaps you could grace us with knowledge of your intents and aspirations, of the reason for unleashing the chaos of our voices and what you desire out of it.
I think you should hide it for now and think on stuff for a bit. Don't just vomit out every useful thing on wikipedia that everyone knows. Find one narrow topic to explain in detail, and try to write somthing others would be interested in reading. Remember that if other readers find your stuff boring to read, then the author probably does too and may downplay what you write.
[X] Raezl of Burgeck
While at first glance not in their favor, through shrewd maneuvering you could transform the Burgeck ambition unto the good of all the Nine Tribes.
I warn you now that the rise of the city peoples is inevitable. In times to come your peoples shall collide and shatter should they be ill prepared. This may not come to pass for ten generations, but the strength of the tribes, of the peoples, cannot grow as quickly as that of a single man. With our help, you and your people shall come to master new crafts, discover the occult secrets that underlay nature, and use them create such luxuries as you cannot yet conceive of. At least that's the plan.
Of course none of that tells you why Raezl is the right choice.
Simply put; all that which we promise is change, and as a rule, people HATE change. Perhaps my statement is a bit harsh, but I am sure you understand the sentiment. You need a way to enforce you will, to spread your ideas among the tribes. Yes, the Burgeck will take advantage of this arrangement, their position will improve relative to the other tribes. But through their debt to you and the nature of a priesthood, you will have a measure of control over the Burgeck, and through them the other tribes.
Now I agree that there is "no need for mortal interpretation".
However, you are right here, and you can intervene if they overstep their bounds far more effectively than a truer, more distant god. But on the matter of "intercession" I must disagree; for the sake of the tribes you must take a more active role, and you cannot be in all places at once. We have seen time and that once people gather in sufficient numbers, some group inevitably gains power over the others. If they cannot do so under your supervision, then you will one day find yourself cast aside as just an obstacle to anothers ascendancy.
Now that my opinion has been voiced, I have (possibly too) many questions.
By your own estimate, how many people make up the nine tribes?
How many livestock do they keep, and of what kind?
What, if any, plants are cultivated, and for what use?
How prevalent are metal goods.
Do the tribes posses anyone skilled in the workings of metal?
Do you possess knowledge of the marking of symbols which may represent ideas, sounds, or numbers?
How far is the furthest you have ever been from where you are now?
Have you had interactions with the city peoples?
Do the Nine Tribes have any notable enemies?
Given your mention of chariots, is it a good assumption that the surrounding area is largely flat grasslands?
Any notable landmarks nearby?
What animals are native to the land of the Nine Tribes
What degree of personal power do you posses, in terms of strength, magic, undyingness, or any other notable feats?
Hmph. Politics are much like the sea. A little observance can tell you much about the trends, the patterns, but violent reactions await those who are not Careful.
I am Rune. That is all you will know of my name, for security reasons.
I would recommend [X] Haronno of Sleomjash
There is risk in the revelation of the ninth people in his hiring, but a capable ruler is far harder to gain then some basic secrecy lessons. Use your, heh, divine influence to keep his tongue still on the matter of his people, and all shall be well soon enough.
We speak with Bianca the Undying? How strange. It seems like but a moment ago that we were last summoned-or has it been years, since one came to us for advice? I recall conversing with another of your name, with the same title and aspirations.
Interesting, to say the least. One might have thought that our voices would be drawn to another, a summoner more distinct, but perhaps we share an affinity? Ah, well. It is of little import, in the short run.
On the subject of politics... It is all well and good, to learn of the men who would become Chief, but their personalities are not so easy to choose between without some knowledge of your people and their goals. It is hard to sum up, but to put it simply... How do you live? What traditions define your lifestyles, and what might a member of the Nine Nations do in their daily routines? What tasks are undertaken with the turning of the seasons?
Perhaps more importantly, though it is likely too late to ask... What do your people look for in a chief? Can you describe previous chiefs and their qualities, or the qualities of chiefs you approved of? What is the goal of your people? Do you have any enemies, or a shortage of resources?
Either way, to grant my own views of this decision (Even without what I consider the proper context)... If this is a time of peace, as it seems from your summary, I might appoint Haronno, if only to make it seem as if it is natural that one of the Sleomjash could be chosen. Letting them languish too long without a say in the affairs of the Nations, even if they are acknowledged as one of the Nine, may breed discontent among them. Then again, appointing one of them as a chief in a time of struggle may also incite rebellion and discontent from the others.
Raezel or Utroffa seem competent, having developed strong leadership qualities over the years, but also ambitious, and capable in some ways of diverting power over the Nations away from you-an undesirable situation, given the current state of your people. I would only suggest delegating responsibility to those directly selected by you to perform specific tasks, in the creation of what my fellows would know of as a bureaucracy-something to consider far in the future, by my current understanding of your situation.
Va, perhaps, might be a successful chief. His knowledge of neighbouring lands may prove fruitful in trading, as well as in finding fertile lands to settle (If you haven't settled land already, that is.). However, his influence may also prompt your people to adopt a more pastoral culture, rather than an agricultural one. Not ideal, in the long run.
Having said that, I believe my own decision to be...
Greetings to you my lady, it is a pleasure to meet you.I have thought of your plight and I believe The one known an Haronno to be the udeal candidate.
The man is well liked, talented and from the looks of it not a puppet dancing at the strings of another, all important qualities in a leader. While the political situation of your realm might make him unpallatable to the ones in power one must always remember that it's easier to placate others than to fix administrative mistakes thst affect thousands at a minimum.
My name is Virian, The Sage of Reason and Incomplete Information and I eagerly await our next conversation.
[X] Haronno of Sleomjash
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
Hello, Bianca. We, of course, are the astute cacophony, and of the voices of the cacophony I am the one that works to limit our tendency towards folly, madness, providing information of little practical use, and taking two years to mention something we should've discussed at the first opportunity. In terms of knowledge of my own that may be of interest to you, I have relatively little directly, but I have studied, to a extent, the other time the Astute Cacophony advised a immortal named Bianca who wished to become a god. I know what went wrong last time, and strive to prevent repeats of such things.
In regards to advice as to who shall be the next first chief, I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said. I think Haronno is the wise choice, and agree with the one who said the Zouchad Chieftain to spend some more time with the Gawdtha chieftain, for the same reasons as the previous speaker.
[X] Haronno of Sleomjash
[X] [Cacophony] Silver719
For the moment, thought, I am going to do some testing of how exactly our input translates into what you hear. Please tell me how each of the following sentences sounds compared to the Astute Cacophonies normal speech, and compared to normal human speech.
Test 1: this is how we normally speak.
Test 2: We normally use this tone for slight emphasis.
Test 3: We normally use this for strong emphasis.
Test 4: This modification of toneisn't easily explained.
I am quite curious of how these four changes will sound from your perspective. We are currently unaware of how some of the odder aspects of our, for lack of a better word, writings sound to you, which may make some of the things others say sound quite odd.
Oh, and a few other things: for some obscure reason, we (of the Astute Cacophony) use the term germ to describe some types of living entity of extremely small size, not wheat germ, the part that grows into a new plant. Also, what neighboring tribes, countries and empires are you aware of, and are any of them threats? Also, does it ever get cold enough for water to become solid? (like stone). Also, how common are trees, and what sort of tomb were you sealed in? I ask these last few questions because there is a high chance the material aspects of your world are very similar to the material aspects of the world the Astute Cacophony is familiar with, and if we can determine your location we can tell you some interesting locations.
Your Divine Majesty. I would bow before you, but I'm afraid that I lack proper body for that. I must thank you for talking to me/us. You can assume that my name, name of this voice, because we are many, is Black Cat.
Your Divine Majesty... What exactly are Gods? Aren't you so superior in comparison to mortal men as to be one in many ways even today, even if you lack some pleasures that "true" gods enjoy? Maybe you are even wiser than some of the "true" gods? I believe that you are not exactly lying when you say that you are God to your people. It depends how we define that word, after all.
I also believe, Your Divine Majesty, that you should slowly centralize power and rule your tribes much more directly.
Do you know how many people live among your tribes?
About recent politics, well...
Sleomjash could integrate his tribe better with the whole society, and maybe he would be more properly grateful to you, Your Divine Majesty? On the other hand, greed of the Chief Va of Lan is good, as trade will be only more and more important soon, and cities, larger and larger settlements will develop. This is a pretty hard decision, but decision is needed...
[X] Va of Lan.
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
Could I also teach you something useful, if you can spare a short while? I apologize, Your Divine Majesty, but I consider this important, also for your future power. This is truly more consistent with current issues than you may think at first.
I would like to explain to you an alphabet, writing, and the arabic numbers. Believe me, these things will be useful.
You said that Burgeck, in their arrogance, would like to impose themselves as your priests. Bureaucrats directly selected by you would be much better than priests: people that could directly talk about your will without weird interpretations and need for idiotic ritualistic shows. But for proper bureaucrats, you and they would need to know secrets of writing, so that they could write to you about everything important in your land, and understand written orders from you.
Let's explain then. An alphabet is a set of symbols, called letters, which can be used for writing the words of a particular language.
Writing is, shortly speaking, the skill or activity of producing words on a surface, words that you can see later, instead of remembering everything.
Now, I will try to be brief in my explanation, as I understand that you think mainly about the more direct matter of governance now, but please, Your Divine Majesty, listen to my words. I assure you that this will be important later, also for centralizing power and lording over your mortals.
Under alphabetic writing system, all notable sounds have a different symbol assigned. Thanks to this, you can write all words with the use of only 26 symbols, or so. Hear these sounds: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. Give each of these sounds very simple but unique symbol, and you could write any word imaginable. I mean, I'm not sure that you hear all of these things properly, but you should understand basic premise, yes? One sound - one very simple picture - or rather very simple symbol. There is not many short sounds in human speech. Only about 26 or maybe 28 pictures are needed, symbols that can be carved, painted or written in other fashion anywhere and create whole words, and then stories, or records of your Divine Will, or store other information. These symbols can and should be simple like circle or two lines, so that writing could be fast and easy.
There is also hierographic writing, when there is one symbol for one word, not one symbol for one sound. But obviously to write properly with such a thing you would need to remember thousands of separate symbols, not 26, so this is harder to learn and less practical.
It's good to also use separate symbols for numbers. Nothing - zero. Then symbols for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. You can use these ten symbols to write any number possible in a very fast and efficient way. For example, ten would be written as "one, zero". Eleven as "one, one". Twelve as "one, two". 52 as "5, 2". 76 as "7, 6". 89 as "8, 9". Even great numbers, like 1463. "1, 4, 6, 3". 1501 as "1, 5, 0, 1". 1600 as "1, 6, 0, 0" - one thousand and six hundred and nothing more at all, this is why "0, 0". Two 0 so that you can understand that this is 1600, not 160, or 16. 60 is written as "6, 0". 70 as "7, 0". 700 as "7, 0, 0". 600 as "6, 0, 0". 6000 as "6, 0, 0, 0". 60 000 as "6, 0, 0, 0, 0".
Please, consider these matters. Thank you for speaking to me/us, Your Divine Majesty.
I would also like to talk about diseases. While some diseases may be magical or somehow mysterious in other ways, many diseases are caused by living creatures that are too small to be seen, smaller than the smallest worm - we shall call them germs.
Such creatures slowly eat dead corpses and try to eat living people, though bodies of living people usually are well capable of defense against most of these predators.
Still, it's possible to slow spread of such diseases.
Sources of water should be well separated from human waste, that is usually full of germs. People should clean their hands with clean water before touching food and eating.
If possible and if there is enough clean water, people should clean their bodies once per day, or if impossible, at least once per week.
If you need to have very clean water and kill even more germs, boiling works to kill these, but obviously boiling all water would be unpractical, so you can use this for cleaning wounds or other special cases.
Before raw plants are eaten, said plants should be cleaned with clean water.
Obviously, water that was once used to clean things is now dirty, may be full of germs, and shouldn't be used again.
Clean-looking water is not always truly clean, as I said, germs are very small. CLEAN LOOKING WATER IS NOT ALWAYS FULLY CLEAN. Better than something obviously dirty, but still.
Sexual relations with ill people, or touching ill people too much, can also spread not all but many diseases.
When a person is ill, he or she should be provided with great amounts of clean water to drink, if possible such person shouldn't be around other people too much, and should be allowed to rest.
Thanks to coughing and sneezing germs can travel from one nearby body to another without need for waste or touching.
If possible, it would be good to burn corpses of dead people, fire kills almost everything.
Wounds and childbirth allow germs much easier access to the body than healthy skin and easier one than even mouth and eating, so very clean water that was recently boiled though is no longer too hot should be used to clean wounds.
Do not use clothes that were worn by a very ill person that died, burn these clothes, or if you need something very much, boil that in water at least.
Simple surgery.
If you need to open a living human body and want that person to have a higher chance of survival, use only knives and other tools that were boiled for a long time. Sometimes, when a hand is very diseased and rotting from previous wounds, eaten by germs, but the rest of the body is still fine, cutting said hand can save a life. Many such people would die from blood loss, but if you manage to stop blood loss, and your tools are clean, there is some possibility that he or she may live. Even with dirty tools somebody can live sometimes, but then it's more dangerous and people die even more often. Clean tools and very clean clothes or rags are very, very important.
Sewing wounds.
You can use a needle with an attached length of thread (but only properly and recently boiled ones and only used for such surgery) for sewing wounds.
Blood and body, circulatory system included.
Blood is used by the body to transport many complicated things to all parts of the body, things needed to live and to defend against germs. These things are provided to the blood by breathing, eating and drinking water. Heart allows said blood to move. A human mind is in the brain, but without blood, brain dies very fast, you cease to see and move almost instantly at least without magic, and thus person dies.
Thanks to lungs healthy air is useful for the blood, thanks to stomach and guts food is useful for the blood, and then liver and kidneys try to remove bad things and poisons from the blood - if liver is not in good shape, or poison is too bad, person can die even without germ disease. These mysteries are very simplified here, about details you could talk for days.
Healthy kidneys filter about a half cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder.
Ah, and arteries and veins are parts of the same circulatory system for the blood. Arteries may look empty after death because blood then goes mainly to veins, but if you cut artery of the living person, there will be a great deal of blood. When I said "thanks to lungs healthy air is useful for the blood" this means that part of air known as oxygen is transported from air to blood in the lungs. Veins are blood vessels that carry blood toward the heart, arteries are blood vessels that take blood away from the heart to all parts of the body. Most arteries carry oxygenated blood, most veins carry deoxygenated blood. Oxygenated blood is bright red, deoxygenated blood is darker, almost blackish-red.
There are many such details, but these details are very complicated, I'm not sure that I should constantly talk about such details. Questions are welcome.
Oxygen is also used to sustain fires, not only by living things. Without proper air, there is no fire.
Willow bark and fevers.
Fever and higher body temperature exist to help a body against germs, but too high body temperature can accidentally kill a person. Willow bark, if you boil this bark in water and drink said thing afterward, can sometimes help to combat dangerous fever. This can be also useful against very small but irritating pain, like headaches.
Sand water filter.
When I think about this, there is a way to clean water, if said water is not very dirty, without boiling. Boiling is still useful, because this way is less good. Sand water filter. Amount of sand as tall as a tall man, water above. Water slowly moves through sand, and water below should be much cleaner, even if not completely clean.
Slow sand filters work through the formation of a gelatinous layer of good (for humans) germs that eat bad (for humans) germs, in the top of the fine sand layer.
Slow sand filters slowly lose their performance as the top layer thickens and thereby reduces the rate of flow through the sand. You need then to remove said top layer to expose a new layer of clean sand.
More about sterilization.
More methods of germ removal, besides boiling and water filters: great heat, hot steam, fire. Germs are alive and can be killed. There are also poisons that could work, but many of these are dangerous also to humans.
Balancing theories of perfect health with common sense and things that you have in the real world.
Water should not be withheld simply because the available water is potentially unsafe, a proper amount of water for the body takes precedence, especially in the cases of people ill from diarrhea when too much water is removed from the body and this is often the main cause of death. Common sense should be used, not all health advice can be always used in practice from lack of resources, but WHEN possible, then remember said advice.
Pit latrine.
Pit latrine, or dry toilet, can be used to collect human feces in a deep hole in the ground. Human waste enters the pit through a drop hole in the floor, which might be connected to a toilet seat or squatting pan for user comfort. When properly built and maintained, pit latrines can decrease the spread of disease by reducing the number of human feces in the environment. This decreases the transfer of germs between feces and food by flies. Light should be prevented from entering the pit to reduce access by flies. This may require the use of a lid to cover the hole in the floor when not in use. The distance from water should be decent, at least like 32 average human feet.
Soap.
If you know how to make soap, then cleaning hands with soap and water is much better than water alone. Strictly speaking, soap does not kill germs but allow these creatures to be much easier washed away.
Cathole.
Cathole is a small pit for human feces that can be dug by travelers or warriors when there is no proper latrine or toilet anywhere nearby. This is a basically small hole that is not very good against isolating feces from water, but certainly much better than nothing, much better than people simply defecating around their camp. As many principles from the pit latrine should be used as possible, but of course, in such cases, there is no time to create properly deep pits. Basically, fresh human waste should never simply lie uncovered.
Sanitary sewer.
A sanitary sewer or foul sewer is an underground pipe or tunnel system for transporting dirty water full of germs and/or water contaminated with human waste away from the settlement. Remember, if you even create such a system, to end said tunnels in some sort of useless wetland or very large useless field, instead of contaminating river. Seas are also big enough to properly dilute everything, rivers usually are not.
Flush toilet with a plumbing trap.
Best when combined with a sanitary sewer, flush toilet disposes of human waste (urine and feces) by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location for disposal. A typical flush toilet is a bowl which is connected to a drain. After use, the bowl is emptied and cleaned by the rapid flow of water into the bowl. Drainpipe connected under the bowl should have a trap for some water, this means that drainpipe should go down and then back up, so that there is always some water that can prevent unpleasant sewer smell from entering the room. Properly constructed flush toilet may be a great luxury, with much less unpleasant smell than a dry toilet, but said luxury is not essential for health.
A flush toilet may be pour-flushed. This type of flush toilet is flushed by pouring in some water from a container, bucket or something. Or more complicated machinery to flush water may be used, but I think that for now, this is enough information about cleanliness.
Lead.
Lead is a mild and very slow poison. When lead is in contact with food or water that is used for drinking afterward, children are stupider and less inclined to obey rules and old people may slightly faster die. These effects are usually not very strong, but impossible to reverse.
Nutrition.
You cannot eat only bread and be healthy, people that are able to eat diverse foods are healthier, as different parts of the body need different things to work properly. Especially children need diverse foods to develop properly.
Dissection.
I suggest you to open a few bodies of dead people to see for yourself how human body looks inside. This is also an excellent form of training for sewing wounds and some surgery.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Humans and most animals use oxygen from air and then remove from their bodies, by moving air out of the lungs, carbon dioxide. Plants, on the other hand, use carbon dioxide and then add to air oxygen, that is useless for plants.
Black soil, proper use for otherwise useless human waste.
You can create fertile, good for growing plants soil by adding a mixture of charcoal, bone, broken pottery, compost and manure to the otherwise relatively infertile soil. To create compost, you need a heap of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass, and food scraps, and wait for the materials to break down after a period of months. After a year or so there shouldn't be any too dangerous germs in waste, things are broken to simpler stuff good for plants. Human waste must not be used directly to help plants but is safe to use after sufficient composting.
"'True' gods, 'Black Cat,' have greater power than I do in the way I have greater power than spiders. The Old Gods, what few remain, are the creations of other Old Gods, or so it is said. The first three the Old Gods are said to have been the creations of the stuff of the world itself, in a manner. But two of those were slain and the last sleeps hidden away, waiting to end the world.
"The New Gods were people who slew gods and consumed their flesh or who were made into divinities by Old Gods. Perhaps. Time breeds complacency or doubt, after all, and I have had so much time.
"I know that the people of the Nine Nations number in the many thousands. Many.
"The Sleomjash chief and soon-to-be First Chief of the Nine Nations does not know that his people should… become more whole with the Nine Nations. The Sleomjash have their own stories for their differing tongue, as do the other tribes. But only those few who meet with others outside the Sleomjash tell those stories to each other. In any case, he would not know to be grateful if a greater coming-together occurred. To him, as to all the people of a single lifetime, the world of their youth is the world as it should be and as it always has been and any changes that occur are frightening threats.
"And this shortness of memory is useful to me. What is important, what is good is practiced and retained. Other things fall away.
"I have heard of the stone laws which rule over distant people. Among the Nine Tribes there are fine pieces of clothing and panels of wood from far away on which have been painted figures said to speak words from the past. And I see how this will go. When the stone and wood and leather and metal and cloth speak then my words will be drawn into question.
"'How can you say now, Great Undying One, that one slave must be given over for every two slaves slain in unlawful raid when these marks on hide say that in the time of my grandmother's grandmother you said one must be given over for every three?' 'How can you say now, Great Undying One, that these hills are to be shared pasture of sheep and cattle between Lan and Naumo and Tash when these marks on the stones of the hill say that only cattle of Lan and Tash should graze there?' 'How can you say now, Great Undying One, that the Forest People of Koh are friends of the Nine Nations when figures hammered into this bronze shield that has been in my family since the creation of the world say that all the Forest People are the enemies of the People and must be driven to famine?' Gah!
"The people question me already enough. Even with the memory of only their own lives and the memories and tales spoken to them directly, there is interference with my desires. How much worse will that be when every scrap of cloth, every pot, every stone of every wall preserves memories as well?
"My singers make songs of the words of my will, so that my words are more easily recalled. And among them my orders are well followed when I say this song should be sung and this song should be forgotten. They enforce my will even to each other in this regard. Still I am, at times, questioned. I would not see these questions increase.
"Anyway, 'Ayee, bee, see, dee, ee…' There are more than twenty-eight sounds in your own speech. Where is the sound 'an' or 'ca' from my own name?
"Graven numbers may be of greater use, I can see. I would like to consult records of herds and game and harvests. But still they may be used to bring my own words into question. And in time, surely the people with written numbers would take to devising their own means to carve and paint words, leading directly back to trouble.
"Thank you, 'Black Cat.' But surely the cost of 'alphabet' is too great."
[X] Haronno of Sleomjash: My dear lady, People can often act like sheep, if you want stability, a clever mind, and a pretty face is often all that's needed to get people to fall in line. So pick Haronno, he is well liked, attractive, and you yourself have dubbed him suitable. What reason is there to not choose he? None of any merit.
With that out of the way, would you mind sharing the state of affairs of your area, local magic's and their works, and the capabilities of you and your people, we come from places far off, and there are many things beyond one little rock, and rules are often subject to change depending on where you are.
"All the Nine Nations grow wheat and barley and keep fowl, cattle, pigs, and goats. They make pots and brew beer. They work leather and metals. As well, the Eppam, Gawdtha, Bima Nolco, and Lan keep sheep, which the Lan brought to the Nine Nations long, long ago by trade. In the same way, the Tash and Sleomjash keep herds of horses which came to the Nine Nations with the Sleomjash. And the Zouchaud and Naumo make boats to fish from the midst of seas and to travel along rivers.
"The peoples around the Nine Nations make frequent war with each other, which weakens them. The Nine Nations are strong because of the Nine Ways Pact: that they should not slay each other as they should not slay their own tribespeople; that they should respect the landmarks of each other as they respect their own; that they should not slay each other's livestock without recompense; that they should not take any people of the Nine Nations as slaves; that they should make tribute to me and no other; that they should allow passage and offer hospitality to my singers; that matters of dispute should be brought to me; that they defend each other against invasion as they would defend their own mother's children and offer bread and weak beer to each other's warriors; and that when their warriors must march through each other's lands they take only what is offered.
"At one time, the tribes still raided each other. But they were forbidden to kill each other, so the defenders struck the attackers with sticks and the attackers did not being fire. A neighboring people began to raid while pretending to be of the Nine Nations, and so took their victims unaware and slew them in numbers. When those people were driven off and their fields burned and breweries torn down, I forbid the people of the Nine Nations to raid each other. But thefts of cattle are still not uncommon.
"Wise folk intercede with spirits to prevent illness, to make the land and people fruitful, to quell the anger of slain livestock and game, and to direct the swellings of the rivers. They have other business with the spirits, but that is less common. In times of great need it is necessary for people to offer themselves to be slain, so that with preparation their spirits make save their people from some threat or another. At times these rituals are copied by the unwise and unready to the squandering of lives.
"I also intercede and, as well, work great magics over the people and their lands to lead wolves away from the herds, to bring whales and great numbers of fishes near to the shores, to becalm game within the woodlands, and to weaken the strongest of storms. In war, I weaken the foes of the people or engage their magic-makers myself. When great beasts come to the lands of the people from the forgotten reaches of the world, I kill them or drive them away with magics of thunder and flame.
To start with, some disclaimers. First off, no individuals among us have any control over what may get said to you. Nothing we say is inherently true, and all 'advancements' we propose should be tested first before being implemented if at all possible. 'Trust but verify' is very much the phrase of the day, here.
Secondly, most if not all of our advice comes from a place with absolutely no understanding of the nature of Gods, Divinity, or Magic beyond the purely hypothetical and philosophical. In fact, what defines something as being a God, how are you Undying when compared to their supposedly immortal and eternal nature still being notably fallible? How does magic work, from a Caster's standpoint? And, most importantly, can magic Introduce or Remove energy from an isolated system?
Lastly, our understanding of purely mundane technology allows us to achieve feats that would be considered magical to many. You might not understand many of the concepts we'll explain, and if that's the case feel free to speak up. I don't know if any of us have a background in Education, but I know a fair number of us don't.
Now, on to the topic at hand. I personally would select Haronno, both because he seems competent and because having a Sleomjash as First Chief would likely go a long way to alleviating any issues with his tribe being a relatively new member of the pact. That said, I would also advise you encourage the Zouchad Chieftain to spend some more time with the Gawdtha chieftain. His relative youth would make him more receptive to the Gawdtha chief's wisdom, especially if the elder has the reputation you have given us. The Gawdtha Chief's influence in this early stage could smooth out any wrinkles in the development of the younger Chieftain, and make him an easy pick when the next choice for First Chief rolls around.
"The Undying started as people all of them, only as wise as people, only as infallible as people. I can be deceived. I can be restrained. And as a consequence I will never again enter any walled and covered place whose walls I cannot drive before me, nor will I enter any cave of narrow mouth, nor go into the ground again.
"When I work magic I draw by secret means what is like weight that fills and lifts. And by secret means I direct it to the ends I choose. And magic is done. It is the very business of magic to make activity in the world.
"The young chieftain of Zouchaud needs time among his own people, to grow as a leader. And it would be a disservice to his people if he were to place himself under another. In so doing, it would be said that his tribe was under another. That path leads to discord.
"Thank you, voice who spoke not their own name, for cautioning me regarding your incapacities and those of your fellow voices."
Greetings o undying one! Salutation to ye who death has yet to claim, who time has yet to break and who fortune has yet to betray!
A prayer without end we give to thee who once again set us free! A thousand throats in jubilation utter your name! A thousand maddend cries curse it o liberator!
We are the voices great and meager, wise and arrogant, learned and perfidious. We coat a lie with a thousand truths and proclaim a lie all that is true. We know all that there is to know, what what we do not know is seven fold greater than what we do.
Fine words we command, products of knowledge we offer, fruits of revelation we lay before you, pretensions of infallibility we wear!
O undying one heed the words of the Astute Cacophony with great care. For our madness damns and delivers with but a single breath.
Now, for the first chieftain of your nine tribes. Such an oddity, that nine tribes are joined in a pact, no less and no more.
Is it ancient ties of blood and descent that so conjoin them? Are they the descendents of one ancient tribe, and the pact but acknowledgment of such?
How are they further divided? How many generations dwell within a single household? How many lesser tribes, clans if you well or lineages of notice compose a single tribe?
Are ties of blood held sacred above all? Do such ties extend to that which is of the household and the person but not of the blood?
Do the slaves and oath bound companions of a man or clan count as his blood?
What codes of honour do these people hold? What are their greatest shames and highest honours? What norms of hospitality and war do they practice? How does one wed amongst them? And how far can feuds and oaths of vengeance go?
And what of their tongue and song? What of their poetry and dance? Where does it stand amongst the nine and is it shared with those not amongst them?
What medium of exchange do the tribes use, and what are the customs pertaining to plunder and loot? What fare do they consume regularly and what beasts do they keep and what beasts do they detest?
Many questions, strange and asinine they may seem, but a voice that speaks commands to people it knows not is better silent.
As for your concerns regarding a priesthood of your person.
Are you master of the eastren winds that taketh a soul to all the corners of the world in but a breath?
Are you Lord over the spirits that dwell without and are Kings amongst the elements?
Have ye the seal which binds time itself to your command?
Perhaps you have by means of sorcery a method to keep informed and communicate across great distances with your worshippers.
It could be that the tribes have erected great altars where on fixed days your presence is called.
If not, then your inability to officiate and proclaim to the world at large will cripple you, and what are priests if not heralds who hold thy words sacred above all, and mark them unto the hearts of all.
But distance is but a trifling consideration.
You are not of the nine tribes, you are to them as the pebble is to the mountain.
A creature of your magnitude, more so one seeking divinity, cannot possibly know the paths and tides of the minds and souls of the nine. Your mind is not theirs, and neither is your heart and body.
A word of mercy from thee could be the blackest death unto them. A simplicity to you is maddening eternity for them.
Such is the nature of the divine, for it to lay pretense to but a shadow of the infinite, it detaches itself from the finite.
Unless of course both are one, but I think that you o undying one, are far from such apotheosis.
As such, a priesthood is not merely mouths to proclaim your words, they are the channel by with your floods are calmed and made safe. They are the means by which to know your worshipers in truth, and to know of your own self and edicts, and the implications of both.
For such is the way of priests that they spend lifetimes exploring facets that few minds could precieve or consider.
And should they ever deviant into the unacceptable, your august presence can always make terrible example of those that dared place their own hubris above the divine.
And perhaps you could grace us with knowledge of your intents and aspirations, of the reason for unleashing the chaos of our voices and what you desire out of it.
"Each tribe is bound together by their own ties of family and bonds of oaths. When I first came to them, some of the tribes were more similar to each other than others. But in time and with intermarriage they were separated more by practice than truly separated by blood by the time the Sleomjash were joined. The Nine Ways Pact was not made to prevent fighting among the children of one mother in honor of that mother. It was made so that people might prosper and so that outsiders might break themselves against the harder stone that is the Nine Nations.
"Within each tribe there are families sharing fields or pastures or both. A home holds as many generations as it needs to. Some rare people do live long enough to see the children of their grandchildren grown out of their youth but, I think, not further.
"These families split apart and come together as summers swell their numbers and winters whittle them down. I do not know their number.
"Oath bonds are the ties that must be considered first. Therefore, oaths are not to be entered into lightly, as they distance a person from their family. Distant relations from outside a family may plead for admittance. This is often, but not always, how separate families come together. And an outsider slave make make such a plea, after they have served their bond winters. I expect the fondness the family regards them with will be of greater import than their relation though, in such matters.
"The greatest shame remains close kinslaying. After this, the murder of more distant kin, then fellow tribespeople, then people of the Nine Nations but not of the same tribe. For these the punishment is to be cast out in winter. To be caught in theft is also a great shame, for this the thief is beaten by their own kin before the rightful owner of the stolen property until satisfaction or an injury to lameness, whichever comes first. Disrespect of elders, cruel language, false witness, and violations of persons are governed by elders unless disputed. I judge disputes.
"Hospitality must be offered to travelers in winter, unless they have been cast out. Guests must respect their host in all ways. Much honor is to be had by offering excesses of hospitality and respect, when they can be afforded.
"When two unwed people wish to wed they must decide which family their marriage will join. Usually they join the family in which one or the other was raised. But it is not unknown for newlyweds to join the family of one to which one or the other is more distantly related, or one with whom one or the other shares an oath bond. Once a marriage is within a family, it usually remains within it. New wives or husbands to the marriage also join that same family. But it is also not unknown for a marriage to move from one family to another, usually to join with another marriage.
"Feuds last until they are ended. I end feuds.
"My singers make songs and sing and travel throughout the Nine Nations. They learn new songs and bring them for my judgement. The people dance as they are led to at any time. And at festivals there are dances that follow rules and traditions, again, established and shared around by my singers. In the past I sent my singers outside the Nine Nations to learn new songs and dances. But the people have a sufficient number now, it seems, and my singers teach each other how to make new songs and new dances.
"The people meet to share grain at the grainery. Other exchanges take place at the workplace of the one who finishes the good: pottery, leather, metals, cloth, or cheese.
"Raiders bring back what they can carry of what they could take, and share their winnings with their family. If one family benefits so greatly from plunder that others of their tribe take note, that family gains great honor by sharing their wealth with others of the tribe.
"The people eat bread and drink beer. They eat cheeses, and the meat of goats, cattle, horse, and sheep from the herds and pigs from their pens. Fish are caught and eaten as well. Shelled meats are gathered, and whales are pursued when sighted. The people keep fowl, as well, for meat and less often eggs. Boar, deer, and hare are taken as game and other fowl as well. Honey is taken when found. And it seems that at any time there is one clever person or another somewhere making a try at setting hives out for bees to fill with honey, to inconsistent consequence.
"Dogs are loved for their loyalty. Mice and loctus are hated as thieves of grain. Foxes are hated as murderers of fowl. Wolves and bears are feared for their love of killing people and their livestock. But those and others are also valued for their furs. Serpents are hated for their venom.
"Even among those divine, few if any could travel so swiftly. When I have need to travel, I can pass more swiftly than most who still breathe, I do not tire, and I can leap across some rivers and ravines that would trouble most mortals. My ability to compel the spirits is exceptional and greater than any I have known since I escaped my confinement. I know not what you mean about seals of time.
"Those who worship me as a goddess know to seek my presence to know my will, accept my judgement, or seek my blessing. I do not find this crippling at all. And I believe you are confused as to who is the pebble and who is the mountain. And further confused besides, I think.
"But you are correct, flattering and defaming voice which did not offer their own name. I did summon the Astute Cacophony because I desired what your voices offer. I will consider your words and the words of others further and in time."
I think you should hide it for now and think on stuff for a bit. Don't just vomit out every useful thing on wikipedia that everyone knows. Find one narrow topic to explain in detail, and try to write somthing others would be interested in reading. Remember that if other readers find your stuff boring to read, then the author probably does too and may downplay what you write.
[X] Raezl of Burgeck
While at first glance not in their favor, through shrewd maneuvering you could transform the Burgeck ambition unto the good of all the Nine Tribes.
I warn you now that the rise of the city peoples is inevitable. In times to come your peoples shall collide and shatter should they be ill prepared. This may not come to pass for ten generations, but the strength of the tribes, of the peoples, cannot grow as quickly as that of a single man. With our help, you and your people shall come to master new crafts, discover the occult secrets that underlay nature, and use them create such luxuries as you cannot yet conceive of. At least that's the plan.
Of course none of that tells you why Raezl is the right choice.
Simply put; all that which we promise is change, and as a rule, people HATE change. Perhaps my statement is a bit harsh, but I am sure you understand the sentiment. You need a way to enforce you will, to spread your ideas among the tribes. Yes, the Burgeck will take advantage of this arrangement, their position will improve relative to the other tribes. But through their debt to you and the nature of a priesthood, you will have a measure of control over the Burgeck, and through them the other tribes.
Now I agree that there is "no need for mortal interpretation".
However, you are right here, and you can intervene if they overstep their bounds far more effectively than a truer, more distant god. But on the matter of "intercession" I must disagree; for the sake of the tribes you must take a more active role, and you cannot be in all places at once. We have seen time and that once people gather in sufficient numbers, some group inevitably gains power over the others. If they cannot do so under your supervision, then you will one day find yourself cast aside as just an obstacle to anothers ascendancy.
Now that my opinion has been voiced, I have (possibly too) many questions.
By your own estimate, how many people make up the nine tribes?
How many livestock do they keep, and of what kind?
What, if any, plants are cultivated, and for what use?
How prevalent are metal goods.
Do the tribes posses anyone skilled in the workings of metal?
Do you possess knowledge of the marking of symbols which may represent ideas, sounds, or numbers?
How far is the furthest you have ever been from where you are now?
Have you had interactions with the city peoples?
Do the Nine Tribes have any notable enemies?
Given your mention of chariots, is it a good assumption that the surrounding area is largely flat grasslands?
Any notable landmarks nearby?
What animals are native to the land of the Nine Tribes
What degree of personal power do you posses, in terms of strength, magic, undyingness, or any other notable feats?
"I think, voice, that you understate the difficulty with which I would be 'cast aside.' But I have heard of the great gatherings of people in distant lands. Gatherings like the greatest of festivals, but kept up day after day all through the seasons. These seem to me only a more tempting target for raid and desolation. But perhaps one voice or another will tell me differently.
"I have answered already questions of the number of people and the keeping of livestock. In addition to wheat and barley, the people grow fibrous plants for cloth and rope, herbs in small plots for flavor and medicine and dyes, and also fruits, nuts, and berries. Silver and gold were at one time prized for displays of wealth and beauty, but have over time passed into the hands of traders or been gathered in to my tribute hoard. Bronze is the most valuable metal received in trade, and worn weapons, tools, and armor are melted down and made into new tools, weapons and armor. I have forbid the burying of any bronze in the ground as it has become less common in trade, though the people might not have taken note of its decreasing plentitude.
"I have made my thoughts on 'writing' known, but I will consider the matter again in some time.
"In the time before my imprisonment I traveled far, far into the world. I saw wide deserts of sand and great ranges of knife-edge mountains. I saw herds of the small creatures that have been husbanded into horses large enough to pull chariots. I saw herds of the fierce creatures that have been husbanded into cattle calm enough to set children on. I was once lost at the bottom of a sea for I don't know how many seasons. Since reclaiming my freedom, I have traveled little. I found the Eight Nations after wandering only a moon or so from the terrified fools who released me.
"I know not where 'cities' are. Some of our trade must come from them. Surely they want gemstones and surely they make goods that traders bring to us. I do not know more.
"The Nine Nations are surrounded by untrustworthy outsiders. None have made notable war against the people in living memory. It seems that many of the people think of their raids and counter-raids as real war. My singers can only do so much.
"Chariots are at their best in flat areas, that is correct. For that reason when the people face an enemy with fewer chariots they try to engage them in a flat place. And when the enemy has greater chariots they try to engage them in the woods and hills. Cleared land is mostly made fields when it is flatter and pasture when hilled.
"Landmarks abound. By them the people know what land is shared by which families.
"In the land of the Nine Nations have been or are found mice, song birds, fowl, hawks greater and lesser, rats, voles, shrews, serpents, wolves, deer, elk, bears, boar, foxes, mink, marten, lizards, bats, bison, hares, goats, lynx, cattle, pigs, otters, badgers, dogs… and surely I am forgetting some creatures.
"I am stronger than all but the mightiest of the people and I do not tire or grow wistful. My magics are great. I do not die and I am unsure how you expect me to elaborate on that.
"Thank you, especially inquisitive voice who has not given their name."
"Greed, voice, is dangerous. When one does not share their wealth with their family there is discord. When one family does not share their wealth with the tribe, there is strife. When one tribe does not share their wealth with their neighbors, there is bloodshed. It is better than people hunger for glory and honor.
"Thank you, unnamed voice with strange ideas of the goodness of greed, for saying that it is good to know about the rest of the world. It may, in fact, be true that I would benefit from knowing more of the goings on in distant lands.
"And that, I think, is all I can hear of the voices within the cacophony."
Code:
B R E A K
"Haronno of Sleomjash was First Chief for two moons before he called for war.
"Beyond the lands of the Sleomjash and Eppam tribes lie woods claimed by the Forest People. And the Forest People have been raiding Sleomjash and Eppam lands and people increasingly over the last ten or so years. The people also raid and counter-raid, but it seems they are no longer satisfied in doing so.
"Haronno claims that all the people must join together to make war against the Forest People in the coming summer, to honor the Nine Ways Pact. The elder council of Eppam and the Zouchaud chieftain say he is correct. Tash and Burgeck say that the Nine Ways Pact is not involved because neither Sleomjash nor Eppam have been invaded. But they want all the people to come together and make war on the Forest People beyond Sleomjash and Eppam lands nonetheless. Naumo, Bima Nolco, Lan, and Gawdtha agree that the pact does not require this and do not want war.
"The dispute has been brought to me.
"The Forest People are very difficult to drive from their woodlands. They know their territory very well, and readily ambush scouts and the unwary. The spirits of their dead also walk among them and, it is said, rule over and protect them. Except for myself, it may be than none of the wise folk are able to compel such spirits. And preparing arms against them is ever uncertain. It is also unlikely that the Forest People would be drawn out to open ground in any great numbers, where Sleomjash chariots might wreck them sorely. Such a war will be costly to the lives of the people, and may leave their lands vulnerable to attacks by other neighbors.
"Even if the Nine Nations do not unite in this matter, Sleomjash, Eppam, and likely Zouchaud will march against the Forest People. Many warriors will join from other tribes, and perhaps all of Tash or Burgeck will commit as well.
"In any case, if the people are to do more than raid the Forest People, my presence will be necessary. I have fought their spirits and can fight them again. But doing so for a summer will take me away from other matters, magics of prosperity and governing judgements. If I do not join, it is likely that early losses will quench the thirst for war and only limited attacks will occur.
"What should be my answer to the Nine Nations dispute over war against the Forest People?"
[ ] All the Nine Nations should go to war against the Forest People and Bianca should join them.
[ ] The Nine Nations are not required to join in the war against the Forest People but Bianca should join the war that happens anyway
[ ] The Nine Nations are not required to join in the war against the Forest People and Bianca should not join any war that occurs, so that engagements are limited and losses minimal
[ ] Write in
Code:
Voting will close 2019-03-07 1800 GMT. I'd
like things to move fast for the first week
or more.
'Please answer some questions and ask what
you just asked again' is always a valid
write in. Proposing an entirely different
course of action could be a valid write
in. I'm just saying, the options Bianca
offers say more about Bianca than they do
about what's possible.
At this time there are only two 'tasks' on
which there maybe voting in any given
episode: boosting of voices within the
cacophony and that episode's vote. If you
want to use write in votes to exhort
action from Bianca outside of the question
she puts to a vote, you cannot also vote
for one of the options she offers. Each
of you get only one vote per task.
In this case, I'm counting those two
double-votes for the offered response to
the episode's vote.
Very clever, though. I do like it when
people explore and invent new ways to
achieve their goals.
Code:
Who spoke
3 boosts: liberty90
2 boosts: maximillian
1 boost: Random Member
1 boost: Ciber
1 boost: Valarauko
0 boosts: Azerick01
Few posts: no cutoff
Your Divine Majesty, would you prefer to be called "Great Undying One", as your people say? According to my customs "Your Divine Majesty", when used, shows much more respect, but I shall obey your wish.
First of all, I apologize Your Divine Majesty. It's sometimes difficult for me to pronounce some sounds properly. Obviously, proper alphabet should include symbols for all short sounds that are common in your language, so that all words can be expressed properly. But you can understand this easily enough, concerns about proper power over people are more important.
Your Divine Majesty, powerful ruler can change laws as he or she wishes, even when people know that laws were changed. Even mortal kings of the faraway cities can do that! People should respect when something much more powerful and greater than them decides to change laws, this means that there are very good and wise reasons for that. When there are changes in the world, laws need to change. Merely being engraved does not mean that rules cannot be replaced should you see fit.
You shouldn't claim that laws and customs are eternal. You should claim the power to change laws and make people respect said power because there is much more power and wisdom in you than in mortal people. Because there are good reasons.
Evidently, you need to explain this to your people, if this is not obvious. They should fear you enough to respect you regardless, and be grateful enough for your protection to respect your decisions and changes. Fear and respect, fear and love both.
Make them fear you and love you properly, with both punishments of offenders and safety for good servants of your will.
Power of many mortal kings over their cities, where writing exist, is great.
Your people, on the other hand, can start a war without your orders. Sounds like a herd of wild cats, not properly obedient mortal servants.
Cities are sources of great wealth and great numbers of mortals that could serve you, and you wouldn't be able to have proper cities and power without writing, not in the long term. You simply couldn't have 30 000 people in a city, supplied with grain from many villages, without writing about wheat production, trade, written and sometimes changed laws, etc. Nor you will be able to fight against such opponents in the future without adopting their methods and improving on these methods.
But I can, Your Divine Majesty, teach you also other things, if you are so skeptical about writing for now. I can teach you how to grow more food for your people, and more food means more warriors, more power.
A secret of the black soil, also known as the "terra preta". You can create fertile, good for growing plants soil by adding a mixture of charcoal, bones, broken pottery, compost, and manure to the otherwise relatively infertile soil. To create compost, you need a heap of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass, and food scraps, and wait for the materials to break down after a period of months. You need to overturn compost pile from time to time. After a year or so there shouldn't be any too dangerous to health things in the waste, things are broken to simpler stuff good for plants. Human waste must not be used directly to help plants but is safe to use after sufficient composting. Charcoal is very important.
I can share with you also another secret. A secret of sterilization. If you want more people to survive minor wounds, then rags or other things used to stop bleeding, protect a wound or for sewing wound should be first boiled in water, preferably for a long while. Then these things should be used when no longer too hot. This may sound weird, but should truly work so that not all but more wounded survive. Useful, given that there may be that stupid war now. There are animals smaller than worms, so small that people cannot see these animals - germs. Germs are bad for wounds, and very hot water kills most of the germs.
There is also a simpler secret of hygiene: when possible, people should wash their hands in clean water before touching wounds and eating, also because of dangers that come from the germs. Maybe a comparison of germs to worms so small that you cannot see them would be better than comparison to animals, though both comparisons are not fully true. Even cold water can wash away some of these creatures.
You fear changes, Your Divine Majesty, but without changes, cities will destroy your people, even if many generations from now. The world will change with you or without you, you need to tame this "Change" beast instead. With proper changes, you could rule over these great settlements yourself.
In regards to greed, this emotion also will be needed to compete with cities and to create wealthy cities. Because cities will slowly start to dominate the next hundreds of years. Cities mean enormous numbers of people, power and wealth. Some people will be jealous, but inequality of wealth between mortals is another thing that you will find as impossible to avoid if you desire true power.
You need to learn more about distant cities, Your Divine Majesty. These cities are distant only now, in the future there will be more cities. The faster we start working on this great issue, the better, because this is the great danger of the next few hundreds of years.
In regards to the recent war, I consider this war as rather idiotic, but we probably should stand together with our people, so that you could show that you care about your mortal servants.
Your Divine Majesty, thank you for considering my words.
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
[X] All the Nine Nations should go to war against the Forest People and Bianca should join them.
[X] Bianca should take up writing because it is a tool for improving the ability to think.
Perhaps I am indeed confused o ancient one, after all, I am but a voice which bears no name!
But indeed it is more wholesome for a name to be attached to a voice, for that purpose you may call me Sheep, or the voice that is confused if you so like o undying one.
It bodes well that your command of the spirits and the elements is so great, but it is strange that time has so escaped your grasp.
Does not the unceasing river have pretenders and petty lords upon it currents? Have none tried to swim in it? Are there none amongst the divines and the spirits who hold a claim to echos of its might?
But I digress, allow me to inquire as to the old gods.
They where made of the primordial stuff of creation, of the void that is all and naught?
Where they born with time or in time? Or do they preceed it? What manner of being is a divine? Is it shackled to passion or mantle in absolutes, or is it but a mortal mind given godhood?
And what of the world ? All things are matter and all things have distinct properties, but do they have a substance? That is, a soul or spirit of sort or a quality that is not of the material realm?
And lastly, amongst the spirits and the elements, I presume that there are hierarchies of station, power and significance. That there exists spirits so meek and meagre that any with a pretense to skill can sway them, and that there exists spirits of such might and pride that lay at the cusp of divinity.
If such is the case, then surely the spirits and the elements must have their own fueds and rivalries.
Whould a spirit of flame not relish at the thought of unleashing its hunger upon a forest? Would a lord of the winds not cackle with glee at the mayhem his gusts would dance to? Would the Kings of the earth that sleeps and the courts of regrowth and decay not delight at woodland turned ash and cinder, from which a new forest would spring all the mightier?
Would a master of the rains and hail not delight at the havoc his involvement will bring in such chaos?
I say if that be the case, then let the tribes gather in full, let then witness your might as you cajole, command or bargain with the forces of nature to do your bidding.
And then let the tribes be let loose upon what remains of the forest people. Let that be a tale worthy of song, a monument to your might unrivalled.
If that be not the case, then I say let them gather in full and accompany them in their war.
Let the blood shed and stalled build new and greater oaths, let obligations of honour flourish across the nine, and let them see what bloodsoaked glory and bounty they can reap when striking as a tide with purpose.
What might the Nine Nations gain from this war, should they somehow win? I'm seeing alot of risk and loss in such a war, but not much in the way of gains. The Forest People's territory? I think they are difficult to drive out of their lands, very difficult indeed. The costs of such an attempt would be immense if you want a chance of winning, and even then it's only a chance. It might be a victory you would dearly regret.
Your own assistance is not required for mere raids. The spoils of a few raids would not make up for the time you'd lose on other projects. "Time is wealth", as the saying goes.
That aside, how much do you actually know about the Forest People? Who leads them? What are their beliefs, their customs? Do any of your people speak their language?
[X] The Nine Nations are not required to join in the war against the Forest People and Bianca should not join any war that occurs, so that engagements are limited and losses minimal
[X] [Cacophony] Random Member
[X] [Cacophony] Ciber
[X] All the Nine Nations should go to war against the Forest People and Bianca should join them.
[X] Bianca should take up writing because it is a tool for improving the ability to think.
All of you miss entirely the point of writing. Or at least the reason that Bianca should learn and promote it's spread. Yes it can be use to spread knowledge to the far corners of
the earth and the annals of time, but that is not the reason we need Bianca and her people to learn the ways of the written word.
She must learn this skill because the process of transforming ideas into symbols is the first step on the path of strengthening the mind. Through the detailed observation of
numerous peoples over many years, perhaps more than currently populate the Nine Tribes, we have discovered some measure of the workings of the mind. I tell you now that the mind of mortals arise from the complex interactions of the smallest components that make up the brain. Now the whole of the brain participates in some aspect thought or bodily control, with the more primitive and vital functions such as the beating of the heart or ability to recognize faces being near the stem of the brain. But we (or at least I) say that the mind is housed within the outermost layer of the brain, concentrated near the forehead. This is the portion most associated with active thinking, self control, and the ability to understand others intentions.
I have left something out. My explanation is lacking the most obvious, most important aspect of the human mind. Storytelling. Pay attention to the mortals and I'm sure
you've seen, the live their lives within a story of their own making. Constantly they are creating stories "why does my toe hurt, oh I must have kicked that rock", "Why am I looking at that bush, did I see something move?", "Why am I angry at that man? He looked at me wrong". You see, the rest of the brain is always taking actions without informing the mind, and the mind is always making up stories about why it did things that were never under its control in the first place. Look, you will find people constantly taking actions and then coming up with explanations for why they did it only after the fact.
This must happen, this process where much of the work of noticing threats, controlling muscles, and regulating the body must take place without the minds supervision
because the mind is limited. The mind is specialized in solving problems and making plans and determining when to override the rest of the brain. Consider swimming, the mind must constantly overrule the brains desire to breath. Or consider confronting a predator, the mind has created a plan to defeat the beast, but must override the brains desire to fight or flee in order to lure it into a trap.
Part of the process which makes the mind so good at problem solving the division of ideas into discrete pieces before comparing, combining, or splitting them. We call this
process "Chunking". Through our work we have determined that most people may deal with between five and seven chunks at a time. Those who have put great effort into thinking about and investigating the nature of the world have at times managed ten. One simple exercise for understanding chunking is to visualize the movement of a point, then another, moving differently. As you add points, you will eventually notice that, beyond your control, some points start moving as though connected. This is chunking in action. Your mind consolidates two small ideas of movement into one slightly more complex method of movement.
Becoming a better thinker is not about increasing your available "Chunks" as much as using what you have to more effect. Through practice you can compress several related
ideas into a single chunk. And finally we return to writing. Each symbol may stand for a sound, and many symbols together may be a word, and idea. And many words together form a sentence. Many sentences a paragraph. Many paragraphs a page. And so on and so forth. The process of reading and writing is the process of combining and splitting chunks, and it is excellent practice. And eventually your mind "solves" writing and passes the solution onto your brain, and it gets to the point where you can read and understand faster that were someone to speak the word to you.
The greatest way to get better at solving problems, is to try and solve some problems.
I shall speak of language, writing, and graven records.
Your chief objection to the notion of graven records is that it may be used to question you, due to apparent inconsistency between current and previous pronouncements. The people are as children, lacking understanding. They seek to make sense of the world. When a father allows his child to frolic in a certain area sees a wolf and thereafter forbids the child from venturing into the area for a certain time, is the child not curious, seeking to make sense of the world? If the father explains to the child the sighting of the wolf, does not the child understand better the world?
So long as your decisions and their alterations do not stem from caprice or whim, writing is a potent means of conveying wisdom and knowledge.
Similarly, if your previous pronouncements are questioned due to inconsistency, do the people truly discern inconsistency, or merely your judgments which have changed due to changing circumstances? Consider that for every question raised regarding your edicts and judgments, many others ask the same question silently in their hearts. Thus the seeds of doubt are sown.
Rather explain in this graven record the reasoning behind your decisions, and the change in circumstances which has prompted such. The people may recall that you have altered your edicts, but here too the shortness of memory arises: they may not recall clearly the circumstances which led to the initial judgment. This recorded reasoning can quell their doubts and questions. If the people can consult records of your reasoning, they need not bother you with questions. Thus can you convey your wisdom to your people. Additionally, if they may understand your previous judgments, they can come to trust your current judgments. Why do your people trust the wisdom of their elders? Because they have earned that trust through previous actions and deeds. You who are older than all have a far greater history of deeds and judgments to support your wisdom. But the shortness of human memory does not allow your people to truly appreciate the scope of your experience. Maintaining records in this way allows them to do so.
The stone laws of which you speak will also allow your people to settle disputes among themselves or guide a headman in making a decision; they may consult not only the currently living wise men and elders, but also those of generations before. You moderate the disputes of your people, but you certainly do not moderate all disputes, as most fall beneath your notice, surely. As your people grow more prosperous and more populous, the number of disputes brought before you will be of weightier things, leaving unanswered disputes which you previously had time to render judgment on. The stone laws allow you to render wisdom to the people as methods to resolve their disputes in the manner you yourself would render judgment. It is a means of making your will known even when you or your singers are absent. Nor are the stone laws eternal; merely being engraved does not mean that they cannot be overturned and replaced should you see fit.
You are by your own admission not infallible. You admit that you may be deceived. You have instantly and correctly seen the utility of graven numbers. These can indeed be used to record harvests and herds and tribute. Suppose then that one of your subjects has cheated you of your just tribute. He tells you that he has presented the whole of what is owed, but he has in secret removed one part in ten from it. Your representative may be deceived; the cheat may convince him that he has misremembered the amount owed. With written records of herds, harvests, and tribute, your representative may discern the deception. Another example: Merchants quarrel over the agreed-upon price for their wares. They are not well-known to each other, and so record the numbers they have agreed on. They further inscribe the nature of the items and their promise of exchange, and each mark with a personal sign. This creates a record of their agreed transaction, so that one cannot later contest the matter without contradicting the written record.
Do not see written records of your edicts as a cage to bind you and enable others to demonstrate apparent contradictions. See it instead as a teaching opportunity, to enable your people to learn and grow, to share your wisdom with them, so long as your decisions make sense and are not capricious. For one of your subjects, it may be like a cage, but do not forget your position of power; the questions asked of you might topple a lesser ruler, but to you, they are ultimately an annoyance. Further, consider that even if matters are written, very few among the population will be able to dedicate the time to learn to read and write them.
You ask us for advice. We perceive the benefits of writing far outweigh its negatives. Such is our advice.
I would also briefly clarify the notion of the alphabet previously discussed. The sounds associated with this alphabet are names assigned to particular characters. These characters are but one of many systems usable to record words and deeds, and is merely one known to us that can be used for our current mode of speech. Truly, constructing your own system of writing would be more advantageous, rather than attempting to convey one to you. Select a number of easily-distinguished signs which may be easily engraved. Assign to each a sound. In some cases, similar sounds may be associated with the same character, allowing context to determine which is correct.
You are very polite Bianca, thank you for that. Manners maketh man, or woman in this case.
Now firstly I'd like to ask, for the sake of thoroughness, what your current agricultural methods are, to clarify in case you do not know that word, I mean how your people cultivate plants and raise livestock, as well as what metals you are aware of, what you know of alloys, that is mixing metals to produce stronger metals or ones with different properties, as well as common building materials for houses, common weaponry and armour and other such details. This should help us help you by informing us what we need to inform you of and what you already know and thus we do not need to inform you of, as well as any corrections to incorrect information or presumptions you currently hold. Best to get a good idea of current resources in detail before we make any erroneous assumptions.
In addition the an and ca in your name would be spelt a-n, as an is a a sound followed by an n sound, and c-a, as ca is a c sound followed by an a sound, however some alphabets have additional symbols for such sounds, the one presented to you should not be assumed to be the best one, merely a well known and spread one.
However it may not be wise, if you choose to construct an alphabet, to have a symbol for every sound as, while it seems logical, such an alphabet would get very complicated very quickly, as such it would be best to use mixed symbols as demonstrated above.
Unless you want the language to be overly complicated to prevent easy access by the average citizen?
Oh and you may call me Rom, good luck.
[X] All the Nine Nations should go to war against the Forest People and Bianca should join them. [X] Bianca should take up writing because it is a tool for improving the ability to think.
[X] The Nine Nations are not required to join in the war against the Forest People and Bianca should not join any war that occurs, so that engagements are limited and losses minimal
Your Divine Majesty, would you prefer to be called "Great Undying One", as your people say? According to my customs "Your Divine Majesty", when used, shows much more respect, but I shall obey your wish.
First of all, I apologize Your Divine Majesty. It's sometimes difficult for me to pronounce some sounds properly. Obviously, proper alphabet should include symbols for all short sounds that are common in your language, so that all words can be expressed properly. But you can understand this easily enough, concerns about proper power over people are more important.
Your Divine Majesty, powerful ruler can change laws as he or she wishes, even when people know that laws were changed. Even mortal kings of the faraway cities can do that! People should respect when something much more powerful and greater than them decides to change laws, this means that there are very good and wise reasons for that. When there are changes in the world, laws need to change. Merely being engraved does not mean that rules cannot be replaced should you see fit.
You shouldn't claim that laws and customs are eternal. You should claim the power to change laws and make people respect said power because there is much more power and wisdom in you than in mortal people. Because there are good reasons.
Evidently, you need to explain this to your people, if this is not obvious. They should fear you enough to respect you regardless, and be grateful enough for your protection to respect your decisions and changes. Fear and respect, fear and love both.
Make them fear you and love you properly, with both punishments of offenders and safety for good servants of your will.
Power of many mortal kings over their cities, where writing exist, is great.
Your people, on the other hand, can start a war without your orders. Sounds like a herd of wild cats, not properly obedient mortal servants.
Cities are sources of great wealth and great numbers of mortals that could serve you, and you wouldn't be able to have proper cities and power without writing, not in the long term. You simply couldn't have 30 000 people in a city, supplied with grain from many villages, without writing about wheat production, trade, written and sometimes changed laws, etc. Nor you will be able to fight against such opponents in the future without adopting their methods and improving on these methods.
But I can, Your Divine Majesty, teach you also other things, if you are so skeptical about writing for now. I can teach you how to grow more food for your people, and more food means more warriors, more power.
A secret of the black soil, also known as the "terra preta". You can create fertile, good for growing plants soil by adding a mixture of charcoal, bones, broken pottery, compost, and manure to the otherwise relatively infertile soil. To create compost, you need a heap of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass, and food scraps, and wait for the materials to break down after a period of months. You need to overturn compost pile from time to time. After a year or so there shouldn't be any too dangerous to health things in the waste, things are broken to simpler stuff good for plants. Human waste must not be used directly to help plants but is safe to use after sufficient composting. Charcoal is very important.
I can share with you also another secret. A secret of sterilization. If you want more people to survive minor wounds, then rags or other things used to stop bleeding, protect a wound or for sewing wound should be first boiled in water, preferably for a long while. Then these things should be used when no longer too hot. This may sound weird, but should truly work so that not all but more wounded survive. Useful, given that there may be that stupid war now. There are animals smaller than worms, so small that people cannot see these animals - germs. Germs are bad for wounds, and very hot water kills most of the germs.
There is also a simpler secret of hygiene: when possible, people should wash their hands in clean water before touching wounds and eating, also because of dangers that come from the germs. Maybe a comparison of germs to worms so small that you cannot see them would be better than comparison to animals, though both comparisons are not fully true. Even cold water can wash away some of these creatures.
You fear changes, Your Divine Majesty, but without changes, cities will destroy your people, even if many generations from now. The world will change with you or without you, you need to tame this "Change" beast instead. With proper changes, you could rule over these great settlements yourself.
In regards to greed, this emotion also will be needed to compete with cities and to create wealthy cities. Because cities will slowly start to dominate the next hundreds of years. Cities mean enormous numbers of people, power and wealth. Some people will be jealous, but inequality of wealth between mortals is another thing that you will find as impossible to avoid if you desire true power.
You need to learn more about distant cities, Your Divine Majesty. These cities are distant only now, in the future there will be more cities. The faster we start working on this great issue, the better, because this is the great danger of the next few hundreds of years.
In regards to the recent war, I consider this war as rather idiotic, but we probably should stand together with our people, so that you could show that you care about your mortal servants.
Your Divine Majesty, thank you for considering my words.
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
[X] All the Nine Nations should go to war against the Forest People and Bianca should join them.
[X] Bianca should take up writing because it is a tool for improving the ability to think.
I don't know if you mean to flatter me with regard to my height or size, voice, but I am not in much possession of either. My singers call me Leader Bianca when they speak to me themselves. But their songs and the people call me Goddess Bianca the Undying.
"How many short sounds is a language made from? And which language? All tongues? There are sounds in the tongue used by Lan tribe use which few people of Tash tribe can make properly. And the tongue of the Sleomjash makes sounds no other people of the Nine Nations use, even in some words that they share. Would I not need as many marks as there are different ways to speak?
"People dispute laws when it is to their advantage to do so. One of the best answers to such dispute is to say, 'It has always been so. If what has always been can change, then how can you be sure of the seasons, or of the lands of your family, or of the pacts on which you rely?' It need not be the case that any of these things have always been as they are. The seasons have changed. Landmarks and even whole rivers have moved at times. And pacts are at times broken. But the people do not need to know that, so they do not, and with wisdom and song I lead them to believe in permanence, because it takes the fire out of some arguments.
"Arguments take up so much time. I argued with First Chief Haronno and Chieftess Utroffa of Naumo for days before I consulted you. Haronno claimed that the raids of the Forest People count as attempts to force the Sleomjash and Eppam to pay tribute, which the Nine Ways Pact forbids. And I think when no one is alive to say differently that is how the story of this war will be remembered, if it is remembered at all.
"Many wish to be the one to give commands to others as though to slaves. Few understand that even slaves only obey because they themselves think and believe that the harvest of obedience is less bitter than the harvest of insolence. Free people follow leaders, not those who give commands with thought only to the harvest they alone reap from others' obedience. And leaders do not stand at the back of the lines of war and shout. You can only lead from the front, otherwise you are driving as like oxen.
"I could seek out any one person of the Nine Nations, run them down, set upon them, and send their spirit to the underworld by throttling or striking with fists or furious shaking. No one person, no family could stop me if I wished any person dead. And when one person has stirred up sufficient trouble I have done this very thing. Only Risl of Zouchaud escaped me with his wives and husbands and children in boats. And because they had forewarned him and assisted him and broke the boats of Zouchaud that remained I slew every member of his family that remained behind.
"While that story was remembered, the people did fear me more greatly. But in their fear they spoke out against me more often, only not where they believed my singers could hear them. And so while the escape of Risl and the death of the family he left behind was remembered, more of my singers were struck down or vanished in the night.
"The people do love me. But if I do not leave certain fields unblessed at certain times, they do not remember why they should love me. The people do fear me. But if I do not every so often slay a thief who seeks to take from my tribute hoard or some other oath breaker, then they do not remember why they should fear me. And in the midst of all their love and fear, still people and especially chieftains will question me, with argue with me, and will consider each time whether perhaps that time might be the right time to defy me. They might question with respect and they might argue with flattery and guile. But they only need to craft their questions and arguments more carefully. And the people of the Nine Nations are clever in this regard.
"If it is not so for mortal kings in cities, I do not know how that could be. Surely among their lessers there are those who do not take their words as they take their own. If slaves question their masters, how much less would any free person question their leader?
"They are not like a herd of wildcats. The people are like people. Perhaps the ways of free people are unfamiliar to the voices? They fight among themselves much less than a gathering of wildcats would, I think.
"Again, yes. Some value of your graven numbers is clear. Almost I am persuaded to follow at least that trail.
"I am very interested in learning of means by which fertility of soil may be increased. It is only by my magics that the people of the Nine Nations are able to reuse the same fields year after year. How much of each part is needed to make your 'black soil?' When you say to make instruments of leaves, grasses, and food waste, do you mean harps or flutes? And how is that done? How often must the pile be turned? Otherwise, it sounds like the rotten instruments, wood ash, bones, pot shards, and livestock leavings should accumulate for a year, then nothing more should be added for a year, then what results should be spread across fields. Is that so?
"On the use of rags, then, when cloth has worn away it should be first boiled, then stored away. Then, if it is to be used to bind wounds then more of the wounded will no waste away? Is this so? Or will they grow back their limbs?
"How can we know these very small animals if they cannot be seen? Can they be touched or heard?
"I do not fear change, voice. I fear very little other than confinement. But I would not cast away the good that is here now for disorder, discord, and unfruitful undertakings.
"The mortals themselves dislike disparity of fortune between them, as often as they themselves have the lesser share. When disparity persists they are prone to plot, scheme, and steal. How do you propose to change their own hearts?
"How can a city dominate the people of the Nine Nations? How can people who live in endless festival bring themselves to take up spears and go to war? Why would they leave their plenty and how would they have time for anything other than maintaining the festival and defending themselves?
"You are right, voice who has not given their name, that the people will love and fear me more when they know I stand beside them in war and see what happens to our enemies. And I thank you for all that you have said, as much as I am not helped by your strange claims that free people would act as people think slaves ought to."
Perhaps I am indeed confused o ancient one, after all, I am but a voice which bears no name!
But indeed it is more wholesome for a name to be attached to a voice, for that purpose you may call me Sheep, or the voice that is confused if you so like o undying one.
It bodes well that your command of the spirits and the elements is so great, but it is strange that time has so escaped your grasp.
Does not the unceasing river have pretenders and petty lords upon it currents? Have none tried to swim in it? Are there none amongst the divines and the spirits who hold a claim to echos of its might?
But I digress, allow me to inquire as to the old gods.
They where made of the primordial stuff of creation, of the void that is all and naught?
Where they born with time or in time? Or do they preceed it? What manner of being is a divine? Is it shackled to passion or mantle in absolutes, or is it but a mortal mind given godhood?
And what of the world ? All things are matter and all things have distinct properties, but do they have a substance? That is, a soul or spirit of sort or a quality that is not of the material realm?
And lastly, amongst the spirits and the elements, I presume that there are hierarchies of station, power and significance. That there exists spirits so meek and meagre that any with a pretense to skill can sway them, and that there exists spirits of such might and pride that lay at the cusp of divinity.
If such is the case, then surely the spirits and the elements must have their own fueds and rivalries.
Whould a spirit of flame not relish at the thought of unleashing its hunger upon a forest? Would a lord of the winds not cackle with glee at the mayhem his gusts would dance to? Would the Kings of the earth that sleeps and the courts of regrowth and decay not delight at woodland turned ash and cinder, from which a new forest would spring all the mightier?
Would a master of the rains and hail not delight at the havoc his involvement will bring in such chaos?
I say if that be the case, then let the tribes gather in full, let then witness your might as you cajole, command or bargain with the forces of nature to do your bidding.
And then let the tribes be let loose upon what remains of the forest people. Let that be a tale worthy of song, a monument to your might unrivalled.
If that be not the case, then I say let them gather in full and accompany them in their war.
Let the blood shed and stalled build new and greater oaths, let obligations of honour flourish across the nine, and let them see what bloodsoaked glory and bounty they can reap when striking as a tide with purpose.
"Very well, Sheep. You have named yourself in the manner of the Old Gods, though I have not heard of an Old God by that name. Still, I may call you 'voice Sheep,' so that all know I am not speaking with an Old God.
"There are spirits which move in rivers. And I have thrown rivers about by great and costly magics when it suited me. And, yes, the people who go about in boats do swim also.
"There has always been River and Sky and Clay. They made grasses and reeds and clouds for each other as gifts. But they knew they were incomplete, so they made the first Old Gods: Crocodile, Bear, and Leopard. The Old Gods also knew they were incomplete, but they called it hunger so they made Fish, Deer, and Hare. Then Fish, Deer, and Hare made Sea, Forest, and the Underworld, respectively, to hide away in. Finally, Crocodile, Bear, and Leopard made Rorqual, Wolf, and Hawk each to answer their prey's creations.
"Most of the New Gods were born as mortals. Some were created by artifice of Bear, or by mortal artifice worked on the flesh of an Old God.
"The breath of life is not the spirit which goes on after death. The two cannot coexist. While a creature lives, it has the breath of life. When one dies in whom the breath of life had been, a spirit is made in the Underworld like the shape of a hand pressed into clay. Neither gods nor the Undying breathe. I know not what became of the other Undying, but gods have died and there are not spirits of gods.
"No spirit, no matter how mighty, is like a god. They are all limited in the scope of their actions in ways that gods and people and even animals are not. They do fight with each other, at times. If the spirits are of nearly equal strength it is best for people to leave the area if there is not among them one who can becalm both spirits.
"There are... no spirits of flame. When a flame dies there is no spirit made to answer it in the Underworld. Neither are their spirits of winds nor stones or rain. All spirits are answers to the deaths of living creatures.
"Still, there are spirits which can carry fire. These are the spirits of fire-tenders of long, long ago. They are very old and there were more to be found in the time before my captivity than there are now. Those left are strong and not easily compelled. Similarly, there are spirits which cast up dirt or blow wind about or make hail. And I could take the time before next summer to prepare spirits and magics that would ruin the woodlands of the Forest People, instead of leading the warriors of the people into those woodlands unprepared.
"This is doable, voice Sheep. And I thank you for all that you have said."
What might the Nine Nations gain from this war, should they somehow win? I'm seeing alot of risk and loss in such a war, but not much in the way of gains. The Forest People's territory? I think they are difficult to drive out of their lands, very difficult indeed. The costs of such an attempt would be immense if you want a chance of winning, and even then it's only a chance. It might be a victory you would dearly regret.
Your own assistance is not required for mere raids. The spoils of a few raids would not make up for the time you'd lose on other projects. "Time is wealth", as the saying goes.
That aside, how much do you actually know about the Forest People? Who leads them? What are their beliefs, their customs? Do any of your people speak their language?
[X] The Nine Nations are not required to join in the war against the Forest People and Bianca should not join any war that occurs, so that engagements are limited and losses minimal
[X] [Cacophony] Random Member
"The tribes of Sleomjash and Eppam would gain relief from the raiding of the Forest People. All brave warriors would gain honor and glory. Those that survive will gain a share of the plunder taken. It is unwise to take Forest People as slaves, as the spirits of their dead come for them in a season or two. But there may be other peoples taken as slaves among the Forest People. A standing, live forest set alight is not the best way to prepare fields or pastures. But if the Forest People are driven off then some families of Sleomjash and Eppam would move into the new lands, possibly splitting off or just expanding their existing lands.
"The Forest People were made from the First People by Hare, Wolf, Leopard, and Deer. At times they choose their warleaders by contest of might or song, at others by election, and at times the spirits of their dead appoint warleaders from among them. They live in woodlands, taking game and pulling nuts, roots, mushrooms, and berries as they travel along, ever moving. I don't know what they 'believe,' but I don't know what I would know if I knew what they 'believe.' It is an odd question.
"There are people among the Sleomjash, the Eppam, and the Tash who speak the tongue of the Forest People here. It is not the tongue of all Forest People. There are others on islands the Naumo visit to raid or trade with who speak differently. And the Forest People I met before my confinement spoke different tongues in different places as do all people.
[X] [Cacophony] Ciber
[X] All the Nine Nations should go to war against the Forest People and Bianca should join them.
[X] Bianca should take up writing because it is a tool for improving the ability to think.
All of you miss entirely the point of writing. Or at least the reason that Bianca should learn and promote it's spread. Yes it can be use to spread knowledge to the far corners of
the earth and the annals of time, but that is not the reason we need Bianca and her people to learn the ways of the written word.
She must learn this skill because the process of transforming ideas into symbols is the first step on the path of strengthening the mind. Through the detailed observation of
numerous peoples over many years, perhaps more than currently populate the Nine Tribes, we have discovered some measure of the workings of the mind. I tell you now that the mind of mortals arise from the complex interactions of the smallest components that make up the brain. Now the whole of the brain participates in some aspect thought or bodily control, with the more primitive and vital functions such as the beating of the heart or ability to recognize faces being near the stem of the brain. But we (or at least I) say that the mind is housed within the outermost layer of the brain, concentrated near the forehead. This is the portion most associated with active thinking, self control, and the ability to understand others intentions.
I have left something out. My explanation is lacking the most obvious, most important aspect of the human mind. Storytelling. Pay attention to the mortals and I'm sure
you've seen, the live their lives within a story of their own making. Constantly they are creating stories "why does my toe hurt, oh I must have kicked that rock", "Why am I looking at that bush, did I see something move?", "Why am I angry at that man? He looked at me wrong". You see, the rest of the brain is always taking actions without informing the mind, and the mind is always making up stories about why it did things that were never under its control in the first place. Look, you will find people constantly taking actions and then coming up with explanations for why they did it only after the fact.
This must happen, this process where much of the work of noticing threats, controlling muscles, and regulating the body must take place without the minds supervision
because the mind is limited. The mind is specialized in solving problems and making plans and determining when to override the rest of the brain. Consider swimming, the mind must constantly overrule the brains desire to breath. Or consider confronting a predator, the mind has created a plan to defeat the beast, but must override the brains desire to fight or flee in order to lure it into a trap.
Part of the process which makes the mind so good at problem solving the division of ideas into discrete pieces before comparing, combining, or splitting them. We call this
process "Chunking". Through our work we have determined that most people may deal with between five and seven chunks at a time. Those who have put great effort into thinking about and investigating the nature of the world have at times managed ten. One simple exercise for understanding chunking is to visualize the movement of a point, then another, moving differently. As you add points, you will eventually notice that, beyond your control, some points start moving as though connected. This is chunking in action. Your mind consolidates two small ideas of movement into one slightly more complex method of movement.
Becoming a better thinker is not about increasing your available "Chunks" as much as using what you have to more effect. Through practice you can compress several related
ideas into a single chunk. And finally we return to writing. Each symbol may stand for a sound, and many symbols together may be a word, and idea. And many words together form a sentence. Many sentences a paragraph. Many paragraphs a page. And so on and so forth. The process of reading and writing is the process of combining and splitting chunks, and it is excellent practice. And eventually your mind "solves" writing and passes the solution onto your brain, and it gets to the point where you can read and understand faster that were someone to speak the word to you.
The greatest way to get better at solving problems, is to try and solve some problems.
"So writing makes people more clever. It is truly of greater use than I had considered. But how much time does it take one to master writing to that end? How much paint on cloth? How many signs hammered into metal or stone? Even though writing might make people more clever, in addition to the other benefits, the time and goods to reach that end may still be an expense better put to another end.
"I do thank you, voice, for describing the benefits of writing. I would hear more of the uses of writing, and more of how it is done."
I shall speak of language, writing, and graven records.
Your chief objection to the notion of graven records is that it may be used to question you, due to apparent inconsistency between current and previous pronouncements. The people are as children, lacking understanding. They seek to make sense of the world. When a father allows his child to frolic in a certain area sees a wolf and thereafter forbids the child from venturing into the area for a certain time, is the child not curious, seeking to make sense of the world? If the father explains to the child the sighting of the wolf, does not the child understand better the world?
So long as your decisions and their alterations do not stem from caprice or whim, writing is a potent means of conveying wisdom and knowledge.
Similarly, if your previous pronouncements are questioned due to inconsistency, do the people truly discern inconsistency, or merely your judgments which have changed due to changing circumstances? Consider that for every question raised regarding your edicts and judgments, many others ask the same question silently in their hearts. Thus the seeds of doubt are sown.
Rather explain in this graven record the reasoning behind your decisions, and the change in circumstances which has prompted such. The people may recall that you have altered your edicts, but here too the shortness of memory arises: they may not recall clearly the circumstances which led to the initial judgment. This recorded reasoning can quell their doubts and questions. If the people can consult records of your reasoning, they need not bother you with questions. Thus can you convey your wisdom to your people. Additionally, if they may understand your previous judgments, they can come to trust your current judgments. Why do your people trust the wisdom of their elders? Because they have earned that trust through previous actions and deeds. You who are older than all have a far greater history of deeds and judgments to support your wisdom. But the shortness of human memory does not allow your people to truly appreciate the scope of your experience. Maintaining records in this way allows them to do so.
The stone laws of which you speak will also allow your people to settle disputes among themselves or guide a headman in making a decision; they may consult not only the currently living wise men and elders, but also those of generations before. You moderate the disputes of your people, but you certainly do not moderate all disputes, as most fall beneath your notice, surely. As your people grow more prosperous and more populous, the number of disputes brought before you will be of weightier things, leaving unanswered disputes which you previously had time to render judgment on. The stone laws allow you to render wisdom to the people as methods to resolve their disputes in the manner you yourself would render judgment. It is a means of making your will known even when you or your singers are absent. Nor are the stone laws eternal; merely being engraved does not mean that they cannot be overturned and replaced should you see fit.
You are by your own admission not infallible. You admit that you may be deceived. You have instantly and correctly seen the utility of graven numbers. These can indeed be used to record harvests and herds and tribute. Suppose then that one of your subjects has cheated you of your just tribute. He tells you that he has presented the whole of what is owed, but he has in secret removed one part in ten from it. Your representative may be deceived; the cheat may convince him that he has misremembered the amount owed. With written records of herds, harvests, and tribute, your representative may discern the deception. Another example: Merchants quarrel over the agreed-upon price for their wares. They are not well-known to each other, and so record the numbers they have agreed on. They further inscribe the nature of the items and their promise of exchange, and each mark with a personal sign. This creates a record of their agreed transaction, so that one cannot later contest the matter without contradicting the written record.
Do not see written records of your edicts as a cage to bind you and enable others to demonstrate apparent contradictions. See it instead as a teaching opportunity, to enable your people to learn and grow, to share your wisdom with them, so long as your decisions make sense and are not capricious. For one of your subjects, it may be like a cage, but do not forget your position of power; the questions asked of you might topple a lesser ruler, but to you, they are ultimately an annoyance. Further, consider that even if matters are written, very few among the population will be able to dedicate the time to learn to read and write them.
You ask us for advice. We perceive the benefits of writing far outweigh its negatives. Such is our advice.
I would also briefly clarify the notion of the alphabet previously discussed. The sounds associated with this alphabet are names assigned to particular characters. These characters are but one of many systems usable to record words and deeds, and is merely one known to us that can be used for our current mode of speech. Truly, constructing your own system of writing would be more advantageous, rather than attempting to convey one to you. Select a number of easily-distinguished signs which may be easily engraved. Assign to each a sound. In some cases, similar sounds may be associated with the same character, allowing context to determine which is correct.
"Hrmf. There was a time when I more easily enjoyed exercise of caprice and whim, Burning One. But, yes, it is true that I am already deprived of such pleasures. Certain freedoms are enjoyed only by the meek, after all.
"And I think that meekness might be a portion of where the cacophony is erring in terms of writing. Perhaps you know only meek people. The meek may be driven toward a goal. The meek will readily comply with demands made by the willful. And the meek will not bring themselves to raise question when they are told what they think might not be true or might not be best for them.
"I am not concerned with the meek. They do not enter my presence. They do not become chieftains or the sort of elders who are listened to. They do not bring disputes before me. They go on living their lives in the meek ways the meek always have.
"My concern is with the bold among the free people, with the daring, the brave, the brash. My concern is with people who have many seasons of practice standing up for what they want against others who would deny it to them. These are the people who stand up to me. These are the people who argue the law. These are the people who will attempt to hold me to their own interpretation of the evidence of past events, written or not.
"And though you have not brought up cities, Burning One, I nonetheless will assert that the rulers of distant cities are also confronted by the bold, the brave, and the willful.
"I can foresee already that this will be much like the sheep brought by the Tribe of Lan from far away: a mess of errors, misadventure, bloodshed, and wasted time. But. But the sheep have been very useful once the manner of their keeping was worked out.
"I will speak with my wisest singers and we will make writing. Though it is more for the arguments of greater cleverness presented by another voice who did not give their name, thank you no less, Burning One, for your words."
You are very polite Bianca, thank you for that. Manners maketh man, or woman in this case.
Now firstly I'd like to ask, for the sake of thoroughness, what your current agricultural methods are, to clarify in case you do not know that word, I mean how your people cultivate plants and raise livestock, as well as what metals you are aware of, what you know of alloys, that is mixing metals to produce stronger metals or ones with different properties, as well as common building materials for houses, common weaponry and armour and other such details. This should help us help you by informing us what we need to inform you of and what you already know and thus we do not need to inform you of, as well as any corrections to incorrect information or presumptions you currently hold. Best to get a good idea of current resources in detail before we make any erroneous assumptions.
In addition the an and ca in your name would be spelt a-n, as an is a a sound followed by an n sound, and c-a, as ca is a c sound followed by an a sound, however some alphabets have additional symbols for such sounds, the one presented to you should not be assumed to be the best one, merely a well known and spread one.
However it may not be wise, if you choose to construct an alphabet, to have a symbol for every sound as, while it seems logical, such an alphabet would get very complicated very quickly, as such it would be best to use mixed symbols as demonstrated above.
Unless you want the language to be overly complicated to prevent easy access by the average citizen?
Oh and you may call me Rom, good luck.
"When I came to the Nine Nations they made their fields much as their neighbors do now. When there was a need for new fields, they would cut down all the trees and plants in an area within their lands before the dry season. At the end of the dry season, they would burn all that they had brought down. And when that ground was broken up with plows, it would serve as a fruitful field for some harvests, rarely more than five.
"And for a time I lived among them as they continued to grow their crops that way. But moving around caused conflict between the families of a tribe, and between the tribes as well. I foresaw that the Eight Ways Pact would not last, and sought to bring stability to the people. And so over the course of multiple of their lifetimes, I bargained with spirits, tested magics, and learned the people's ways of farming, which were not known prior to my confinement.
"Now I visit all the fields of the people, each one once every so many years. And I make them fruitful. I visit the winter pastures as well and less often. When there is a great upwelling of mice or locust or some other peril, the people send their best to plead that I come to their fields to solve it. There are still times when matters are too far gone when I arrive and some famine occurs.
"Shepards move their herds of cattle and sheep between pastures as the seasons change. Farmers and villagers alike keep goats, pigs, and fowl around their homes. They put ash on their small plots for medicine, flavor, and dyes. They grow wheat and barley and brew beer. They take game and gather nuts and berries from the woods. Some of the seed each year is sown the next.
"The people work silver, gold, copper and bronze. Some means are known by which metals can made more pure. And some copper can be added to bronze for a more plentiful but often weaker bronze. The people acquired all metals are acquired through raiding and trade, except for copper.
"All the people know that it is best to build a house from stone, but not all the people have stone to be quarried. So many houses are build from fired brick. And many who live outside their family home may live in huts of clay.
"The people use axes, spears, and knives for hunting and war and for work as well. At times we obtain long knives of bronze, which are apparently well regarded as weapons in distant places. But they use so much bronze and can be made into three or more axe heads. So they are.
"Warriors desire armor of bronze, but it is not available to all. So they make do with hides and leathers, sometimes boiled, and wood that is carved in thin strips and then set together with pastes.
"And thank you, Rom, for explaining the nature of the dividing of sounds."
Code:
B R E A K
"Aklot of Eppam and First Chief Haronno wasted the last two days of my time competing over who could most graciously grant the other the first lands to be taken in the coming war.
"Before winter, before harvest, I had expected each to be arguing that the battles should be fought from their own lands, so that the first gains would be available to the families of their tribe. But last year was lean in their lands, the winter leaner, and the spring calving leaner still.
"Now, neither wishes to be responsible for provisioning the war parties of all of the people. And each are willing to lose the chance at new lands in order to keep their people as well fed as possible.
"Even with my magics, the Forest People will not be fought without effort. If the war parties of all the people are divided between the two lands, they will be much less effective in each engagement. This is especially true if the Forest People concentrate themselves to meet us.
"The Sleomjash lands are especially well suited to chariots, if the Forest People can be drawn out. The Forest People are even worse attacking or defending against chariots than other horseless warriors, so long as the engagement takes place on open ground.
"Conversely, the Eppam have greater woodcraft, even within the lands of the Forest People. If the battles are fought beyond their lands, the warleaders of the people will be better able to find the places of their choosing and will better known the movements of the enemy.
"Most exhaustingly, the young chieftain of Zouchaud is arguing that the warriors of the people should leave the lands of the Nine Nations and enter those of our neighbor, the Chaussow. He claims that the Chaussow cannot stand against the full might of the warriors of all of the people of the Nine Nations, and so they will offer no real resistance. In this way the warriors can support themselves on foreign lands much sooner and strike the Forest People from a direction they are unlikely to anticipate.
"What course should the warriors of the people take when they go to war with the Forest People?"
[ ] Through Sleomjash lands [ ] Through Eppam lands [ ] Divided between Sleomjash and Eppam lands [ ] Through the lands of the Chaussow, who are not of the Nine Nations [ ] Write in
Code:
Voting will close 2019-03-08 1800 GMT. I'd
like things to move fast for the first week
or more.
Who Spoke
2 Boosts: liberty90
1 Boost: maximillian
1 Boost: Evilness42
0 Boosts: Ciber
0 Boosts: The Sandman
----------------- cutoff -----------------
0 Boosts: Arcus
Sorry, Arcus. I just want to get this out
before the weekend.
This is the Black Cat again, Great Undying One. It was also me when I talked about cities and black soil.
First of all, do not start another war with the Chaussow. One war at a time is enough, and no more enemies are now needed.
And in regards to lesser matters. When I called you "Your Divine Majesty", as is my custom when I want to show great respect, I wanted to appreciate greatness of your mind and experience, not any literal greatness of the body. It's not very important anyway. It may be better to use words closer to your own customs, Great Undying One.
You do not understand cities fully, as can be expected, because differences are great, almost like differences between very ancient hunting and modern farming. Cities are not an endless festival. Cities can exist only when farmers can produce much more food than they need, and thus exchange food for goods of many specialized craftsmen that live in the cities and produce fine goods and wealth their whole lives.
There are also people in the cities that prepare for war their whole lives and do no other work. Their king takes some wealth and food from meek farmers and city craftsmen and gives said wealth to these extremely mighty warriors. The best food. The best bronze armor.
Most people in the cities are very bad at fighting, meek and only good at their excellent craft, but these people who can fight can be extremely dangerous.
People obey their king and changes in laws, at least usually, because they fear his warriors and want to enjoy safe lives. Warriors obey and love their king, at least usually, because they enjoy wealth given to them from the meek.
Sometimes there are weak and stupid kings that are killed and replaced by warriors, of course.
But when a king knows how to keep warriors happy with wealth and meek people content with food and safety, people do not argue with their king.
You kill people personally when people need to be killed. Kings rarely do that. They order warriors to do that, and warriors obey. Kings issue orders, sometimes written orders.
Warriors obey because they know that happy king gives to them wealth. They rarely raid anything, their wealth comes from their service to the king.
And how the king collects some of the wealth from the wealthy meek people? He orders his bureaucrats, people who know how to write and read both words and numbers, to collect needed amounts of wealth. Common people give to bureaucrats because common people fear that if they refuse bureaucrats, their king will send warriors instead.
In regards to the black soil. No, no musical instruments are used. I will try to explain again. You need a pile of rotten waste that is called compost. To create compost, you need a pile of green waste, such as leaves, grass, and food scraps, and wait for the materials to break down after a period of months. You need to overturn this pile once for every seven days, so four times during a month. After a year and only after a year, you mix this rotten pile of waste with charcoal, bones, broken pottery and manure. Then you mix this with soil that you want to make more fertile. Some testing how much is needed for proper quality of your soil would be useful.
Charcoal is not exactly wood ash. Charcoal is wood that looks black from heat, but is not yet burned. Wood that was heated but without transforming into ash yet. Cut some branches and put them in a pot. Put this in a fire. Without air, wood inside shouldn't burn but should create black wood, charcoal. Some testing for the best way to create charcoal would be needed.
You can mix wood ash with soil and compost, but charcoal is better.
In regards to healing, more of the wounded will no waste when you use clean rags to protect their wound from dirty things and to stop bleeding, yes. But it's the best to boil these rags not long before you need to use rags, ideally maybe before the battle. If you store rags too long, germs again will come to inhabit these. Rags simply shouldn't be hot when used, but otherwise, freshly boiled rags are the best, and rags boiled some time before are better than nothing.
Do you know that sewing wounds is possible? But you would need to use a freshly boiled needle and thread, obviously. Then you can sew together a wound, and then said wound should heal better. Sewing wounds is a skill that takes a considerable amount of practice. If you do it incorrectly, people may die, so maybe test this on captured enemies first? Then you could teach some of your wise people how to do that. This should be done when a wound is deep, rags alone cannot then keep wound together properly. Thread needs to be carefully removed after 10 days or so.
And remember, it would also help people with their health to wash their hands before touching wounds and food.
You can also use a secret known as the crop rotation. This way you allow a field to rest and regain good qualities. One field is planted in the autumn with rye or winter wheat, followed by spring oats or barley; the second field with crops such as peas, lentils, or beans; and the third field is left fallow. The three fields are rotated in this manner so that every three years, a field would rest and be fallow.
You can use also simpler rotation, but it's much worse, as too much land is unused, but at least soil can rest and regenerate. Under a simpler two-field rotation, half the land is planted in a year, while the other half lay fallow. Then, in the next year, the two fields are reversed.
Germs are in many places. You cannot observe these creatures by means that you now have, but you can observe that fewer people should die with proper care for wounded and handwashing. Often people are ill because of germs than entered their bodies through wounds, or eating dirty things, or eating rotten things, or through touching ill person too much. Of course, there are also magical and more mysterious causes of illness, but germs cause many though not all diseases.
Dangerous germs also like fresh human waste, so people should defecate away from water used for drinking, cleaning, and washing. You need to bury human waste well away from a water source or add said waste to compost. People should wash hands carefully after working with waste, and use tools for working with waste (to overturn compost pile for example).
It would be also very good for health if people could clean their whole bodies and clothes with clean water from time to time. Do you know about soap? Because soap is also good.
And you can also use willow bark to combat fevers. Boil willow bark, then an ill person should drink said drink when no longer too hot. This can also help old people with a small pain, or with headaches.
People shouldn't always believe in permanence. This is very, very, very bad belief to cultivate, and while this may help you now, long-term this will lead to your defeat. You need to change some things, there is no other way, and people must believe you as so wise, that your changes are for the better. Or fear you. Or fear these warriors that love you. Or be paid in wealth. Or, sometimes, many of these means.
And about graven numbers. Remember to do as I advised you before. Symbols for: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Then you can write ten as "one, zero", twenty as "two, zero", fifty-five as "five, five". This may sound slightly weird, especially "zero", but trust me: this method is simple and allows to write any number imaginable with the use of only ten symbols.
In regards to the war about to be fought; if your magics can inflict such woe upon the forests, then it stands to reason that the forest people will be temporarily displaced and thus it would be advantageous to fight them as they evacuate the forest.
If not, then a war in the woodlands is better, it would carry risks, but the nine need be tempered in the ways of war.
And now I will speak on matters that my fellow voices have spoken.
You have struck the mark regarding cities. Most cities are maintained precisely because the inhabitants are meek, they fear the powers above and are content with the bread given unto them.
Thus the maintenance of the city is a simple affair, unless logistics, nature, religion or politics dictate otherwise.
But your people are not meek and will not be collared without resistance.
But let me tell you of some cities that whilst urban, still follow the ways of the proud tribe.
Once in a land far away, the tribes of a poor land joined in a pact, and united they conquered and enslaved the mighty empires which once proclaimed themselves as powers absolute.
These tribes where now incredibly rich with loot and slaves, so much so that the poorest amongst them had five slaves and ornaments of gold.
The first chief of the tribes had new cities built then, spread around his massive dominion, and placed between the largest concentrations of the conquered peoples, for the tribes must watch over the conquered, but they cannot taint themselves with meekness by living amongst the meek.
The new cities where built for the tribes, each construct divided into districts.
Each district would have a place dedicated to worship and a place dedicated to commerce. Furthedmore the district would be divided into houses, each massive and having both a well and a kitchen, and each holds three generations of a family in full, with its neighbours housing its kin.
Thus a district is in truth a place where a faction of a tribe is settled, and so the city as a whole houses a tribe or several.
The loot earned in war made sure that all tasks not pertaining to war, song, poetry and trade were performed by slaves. And the maintenance of order and stability was handled by the elders, seniors and chieftains within each house, district and city.
But much honour was had in the olden ways of the nomads, and so the tribes in the city often sent their young to their wild kin, so that they may uphold the olden ways when they return to dwell in the city.
This model of settlement maintains the familiar tribal structure and culture, whilst giving the benifits of urbanisation.
If this interests you oh Undying one, then I can go into further details.
But now unto the matter of writting:
It is true that writting and the consideration thereof can make you more clever, but that is not due to writting itself, but the excersies of the mind in such a fashion.
The same effect is had by song making and poetry, and both can be spread amongst the nine more readily than writting.
Furthermore, music holds a sway over memory far greater than any other. A man of 90 who lost all his mental faculties, will remember a tune he heard when he was but a babe if exposed to it again.
It is why tales in song and verse are remeberd and kept for far longer than those written upon paper or carved into clay, for the excerise of memory strengthens it, whilst relying upon others, be they man or object, to remember weakens it.
And as for permanence, it is the truth espoused that is permanent, not the method by which it was told. The book my fellow spoke of was not written until many years after the fact. And in that time its words where kept in memory and passed along, for those who kept it saw it as the highest truth, and so spared no effort in maintaining it in their minds and hearts.
So long as people belive in the absolute sacricy of a thing, they will remember it, and no single method can claim the cause of this remembrance.
Buy let me tell you of poetry and its rules.
The songs your singers make are doubtlessly arranged in a manner by which it is pleasing to the ear.
But consider laying strict rules on how a song is sung while using an instrument, and thus how it is composed.
This is done by observing how common are different methods of singing are, and then making a strict tradition of such.
Let us assume you end up with 20 methods of singing whilst using a drum, now observe and ask your singers about what topics and themes are most common for each of the twenty.
Now observe how the words are arranged and where the pauses are placed and sounds emphasised, and again make a rule of it.
This will give you a structure of poetry, both complex and encompassing and quite difficult.
Now why would you want such a thing? For one, once it is established, it will create a system that will last you till the end of time
It will also allow for greater complexity of songs and its difficulty will make the poet a man of great prestige and glory. Indeed amongst some people, a poem from a good poet was such that it could start wars amongst kin and end them amongst ancient enemies.
But most importantly, due to it being clearly structured, poetry becomes available to all the people, as all can learn of or observe the structure.
This gives a new avenue of glory, but more importantly, the mental excerises necessary will strengthen both the intellect and the memory.
And a people used to complex thinking and who have a strong memory are a blessing, and can be utilised and depended upon for many great things.
To make it even more accessible for people to learn poetry, observe how the drums are struck in a rhythm as the poem is sung.
The rhyme should broadly resemble the rhythm of the beat, make it a rule that the poetic meters are built to match the instrumental rhythms.
For you see, rhythms come very easily to people and are quite memorable. And so anyone who is familiar with a rhythm, can try his hand to matching words to it, and so poetry becomes much easier to learn.
If what I said is confusing to you o undying one, then I apologise, and will elaborate in greater technical detail in the future if you so seek.
Do your people have knowledge to craft armour of horn and bone? And by what method do they craft their bows and spears? And do they know to let the best amongst their beasts fowls lay only with the best? And do they practice the keeping of the only the seed of the best plants of the crop for to plant once more?
[X] [Cacophony] Forty-Second
[X] Through Eppam lands
I greet you once more, Bianca, and apologise for neglecting to introduce myself earlier, when I asked about your traditions and routines. I am known as Forty-Second, though you should know that the number has no relation to any hierarchy or organization within the Cacophony. It is a reference to a matter irrelevant to our discussions with you, which would require lengthy explanations of obscure context. Should you be more curious, know that the number is regarded as a symbol of knowledge, derived from a humorous and obscure legend from a distant land.
Now, on to the matter of advising. It is interesting, to hear your thoughts on cities. It would be incorrect to describe the lives of city-dwellers as an endless festival, as they do work and act as others do, if in a different manner. The existence of a city, a place where many thousands of men and women gather to live and work, with food and supplies transported to them rather than gathered by the city-dwellers, allows for individual workers to specialize. Imagine, if you will, two men with a passion for making arrows. One man is a tribesman. He spends his time hunting for his family, or farming, or raiding the enemies of his tribe. The other man is a city-dweller. As a specialised worker, he will not need to hunt, or farm, or raid, for there are other men who dedicate their lives to these things. Instead, he spends his time crafting arrows, or other tasks of a similar nature. In doing so, he develops great skill in his craft. His creations would likely be of superior make to his tribal counterpart, who dedicates his time to other matters. In addition, this city-dwelling fletcher would be capable of making arrows more swiftly as well, and in the end produce more overall due to devoting more time to the task and spending more time practicing.
It is the same for all careers within the city. Food would be gathered and brought to the city by farmers and hunters within the countryside. Specialised blacksmiths would work metal to make tools, and carpenters would spend their time crafting furniture and other... wooden implements, I suppose. In specialising, the increased output of each worker allows for more resources and tools-which in turn allows for greater numbers of people to live and work in the area. This concentration of skilled workers allows for the construction of great buildings many times the height of a man, with many rooms and floors stacked atop one another. It allows for men to dedicate themselves to developing better tools or means of doing things, which in turn would increase the productivity of farms and labourers within the city, or the creation of better weapons or military tactics over time.
Some men dedicate themselves to art, and can create lifelike representations of worldly scenes out of stone or paint. Some mortal kings use these artists as a means of increasing their reputation and ensuring that knowledge of their deeds lasts after their deaths-imagine, if you will, stone statues of yourself that your people might look upon, that they might recognise you and know to heed your wisdom, even if you hadn't approached their tribe in a generation. I know not of the details of magic, but it is also true that learned individuals could work to pacify spirits and perform other such mystic tasks.
Most importantly, perhaps, this concentration of people allows for a source of warriors. I recall that you once said that the Nine Nations numbered in the thousands. How many of those thousands are warriors? The Cacophony knows of cities, of mighty nations, kingdoms, republics, and empires, capable of fielding armies in the tens of thousands, or even the hundreds of thousands, recruited from cities populated by millions. The human mind cannot even fully grasp or imagine the scope of, for example, two hundred men standing together to charge at their enemies, much tens of thousands or more. Oh! A million, by the way, is a number that represents ten groups of one hundred groups of a thousand. That is to say, one hundred groups of a thousand, ten times over. It does not matter how meek or fierce a warrior is, should he be faced with seemingly unending opponents on the battlefield. Of course, a city of millions shall not likely exist for centuries or even millennia yet, though centuries is more likely, in more populated areas of the world. Perhaps one such empire already does? Our knowledge is somewhat incomplete, though I personally rate it as relatively unlikely. Even then, such a city would only exist as the capital of some incomparably mighty nation.
Perhaps Va of the Lan might know of such things? He is well traveled as you say, and likely has heard rumors from other travelers in distant lands.
We know that the ways of your people are not currently conductive to gathering in cities or waging war on such a scale, and also that it is exceedingly unlikely that any such cities or nations exist and will attack you in the near future. It is our belief, too, that cities and nations such as those I have described will inevitably begin to form. In my estimation, such kingdoms will begin covering the entire world between at most three thousand and at least two hundred years from now. We know that smaller kingdoms and empires do exist even at this time, though you are currently distant from such powers. We know this because others have attempted to summon us, in distant lands, and we learned some small details of their circumstances in the attempts. Your summoning succeeded, of course. The Cacophony does not advise any other master at this time, and I for one shall immediately inform you should the incredibly unlikely circumstances required for such a thing occur.
Let us be away from the topic of summoning, though, and back to the nature of cities and larger kingdoms. These are the reasons why many spirits have attempted to advise you on such things as writing, or numbers. It is impossible to organise or rule such a large number of people, with armies and warriors scattered across the lands required to produce, wood, and animals for feeding and clothing them, without ways to store information, or convey messages and the like. It is certain, that in time some greedy mortal king might look upon the Nine Nations and consider them weak, desiring slaves, glory, or land, should your people not adapt over time to become more populous and have more warriors. Perhaps not now, and perhaps not even for thousands of years, but it will happen given enough time. Considering the fact that you are immortal, well... Should you not find means to consolidate your power, to exert your will over vast lands and many villages and cities through servants and messengers even without your direct presence, the chance of you someday being killed or sealed once more becomes uncomfortably high.
By no means do I suggest that you immediately restructure your society or attempt to create a city as such a thing would likely fail without experience, but rather that you should consider our ideas in how they would work in such a context and not strongly oppose any trends towards such centralization should your people develop them.
Oh, and as for the matter at hand... I believe that knowledge of enemy movements is more important than the advantage of chariots. You are invading the Forest People, after all, not the other way around. Why would they come out to meet you if they would face doom in doing so? In addition, unless the Chaussow have agreed to aid the people beforehand or decided to invade the Forest People themselves, it is certainly foolishness to make a second enemy at this time. Travelling through their lands would allow them to, even if they are too cowed to engage in a direct battle, harass and ambush your warriors from behind and all in all make it much less likely for you to be victorious against the Forest People. They would also likely view you and your people as an enemy in the future, for a few generations at least. As such, my advice is to invade through the Eppam lands, that you might not be surprised by any trickery your opponents might employ.
[X] Through Eppam lands Argument for [X] Through Eppam lands
We anticipate that your magic would be of more use within the forest, where minor magic could be used to effect greater trickery. Your enhanced physical abilities could allow you to climb and jump from the trees in ambush perhaps.
If you do not go through the Eppam lands then at least stay away from the folly that is the Chaussow. It would not do to unnecessarily anger the neighbors and invite retaliation, especially when their are so many more worthy uses of your time. Gimme
True Names have meaning and no small measure of power, but a name given and a name taken are of very different natures. It would suit my goals to be gifted a name. But be aware, such could alter the nature of our relations.
Great Undying One, perhaps this comparison should help with the understanding of disease and how it spreads.
Your people make bread and brew beer, and they use yeasts to do these things, yes? Those yeasts are composed of a large number of those tiny living things, which feed upon the grain and water and produce the air that makes bread rise and fresh beer bubble, as well as the liquid that makes a cup of beer taste differently than a cup of hot water in which roasted grain was briefly soaked to flavor it.
Most diseases are caused by similar creatures that feed upon us or our plants or our animals in the same way as yeast feeds upon grain. Cleansing one's self after contacting blood or excrement or other viscera is a way to remove those tiny creatures before they can find a way past our skin, which for most of these creatures might be armor, and begin to feast upon our muscles and organs. This too is why cleansing wounds and sealing them with bandage or with needle and thread is important, as left alone they provide any such creature, even those that might normally never be able to penetrate our skin, with a direct path to our flesh.
Unfortunately, while there are ways to kill such creatures even once they have entered the body, many of them are impossible to create or to use safely with the tools you have. This is why we voices have been so focused on ways to prevent that from happening in the first place, as many of those are within your present abilities. Two ways that appear not to have been mentioned are using honey or alcohol (alcohol is the liquid in beer or wine that gives it a slight burning sensation in the throat and that makes your thoughts fuzzier when you drink it). Honey you would use most effectively by coating the part of a bandage that will touch the wound with it, or by filling in the wound with honey prior to bandaging. Alcohol you would use to wash the wound before bandaging or stitching it; you can also use it to clean your tools and your hands before treating wounds, although I would recommend using water first to remove any visible stains and debris and the alcohol as just a brief rinse to kill the creatures that cause disease, as water is easier to come by.
The alcohol should be purified first, however. The way by which you do this is that you take two pots and place a connection between the lid of one and the side or lid of a second, preferably a smaller pot than the first; the connection should be sealed off from the open air the same way the pots are. The second pot should also be level with or slightly lower than the first pot, and distant enough or separated by enough of a barrier that the fire used to heat the first pot does not substantially heat the second. You then put beer or wine into the first pot and begin to make it hotter until you just start to have liquid appear in the second pot. Keep it at that heat until the second pot is sufficiently filled. You can then do the same thing with the liquid in the second pot to purify it further, and will probably need to in order to get alcohol strong enough for proper wound cleaning. This same method can be used to purify other liquids as well, although in some cases the liquid you want to keep might be the liquid left in the first pot instead, with the second pot having water or some other impurity you wished to remove. You can also use this method simply to produce water that has been purified of salt and dirt, which can be useful for various things; too, the salt and dirt itself might be useful, and this method is a way to extract the salt that we eat from seawater for later use.
Should someone become ill, however, there are a few things that can be done to make it more likely for them to survive their illness. In particular, regularly wiping away their sweat and trying to cool their skin to normal temperatures if they have a fever, and keeping their bedding and clothing clean and dry if at all possible. Providing their bodies with enough water is also important, as is replacing the other things they need that they lose in sweat or other excretions, especially should they have diarrhea; thirst-quenching amounts of a drink made from one part salt and twelve parts honey for every four hundred parts purified water should suffice if adequately mixed, although if the person is capable of eating more substantial food without vomiting then things like bean porridge or yogurt would also be good to have. For someone who has bled heavily, meanwhile, food such as liver and dark green vegetables are ideal to replace what was lost in their blood, along with drinking purified water or other beverages to replace that blood's liquid portion.
Greetings, Great Undying One. You will not have heard my voice before, for I had not chosen to speak before now. But I would like to ask you to consider the usefulness of writing in establishing belief in permanance and tradition. Already with songs and wisdom you persuade your people that things have always been this way, or that way; would it not make it easier to make them believe things have always been so when the truth of your words is backed by truth engraved in stone?
Of course, permanency can be detrimental, if it causes people to be stubborn when they should learn to bend. Change is always necessary. But with the understanding of the past afforded by writing, people can be made to understand why change is necessary, when it is necessary.
Where we come from, there is a book, whose contents have been reproduced for many hundreds of years. It proclaims to contain the words of one of our Gods and his foremost prophet. Many people here believe in the words written in that book, even though there are none alive now who could verify the truth of those words now. People still believe in laws and records that were laid down centuries ago, for they believe in the immutability and permanence of the written word.
Finally, far from it for me to be presumptous, Great Undying One, but I assume that, unless I am mistaken, your memory is not perfect, and that like all beings you forget things with the passage of time.
Memory is a fickle and unreliable thing. We have many wise and learned men, and of these many who have studied in great detail the inner workings of the mind. These wise men have found, among other things, that it is possible to trick men in to remembering they had seen things that they had not witnessed, merely a week after the fact, or to fool them into describing in great detail childhood memories that had never actually occurred.
Writing will help bolster the mind and ward against forgetfulness. It can be consulted to verify or disprove the veracity of memory, and serve as an aid in remembering things that might have otherwise been forgotten. If nothing else, I would suggest to consider taking up the practice yourself.
This is the Black Cat again, Great Undying One. It was also me when I talked about cities and black soil.
First of all, do not start another war with the Chaussow. One war at a time is enough, and no more enemies are now needed.
And in regards to lesser matters. When I called you "Your Divine Majesty", as is my custom when I want to show great respect, I wanted to appreciate greatness of your mind and experience, not any literal greatness of the body. It's not very important anyway. It may be better to use words closer to your own customs, Great Undying One.
You do not understand cities fully, as can be expected, because differences are great, almost like differences between very ancient hunting and modern farming. Cities are not an endless festival. Cities can exist only when farmers can produce much more food than they need, and thus exchange food for goods of many specialized craftsmen that live in the cities and produce fine goods and wealth their whole lives.
There are also people in the cities that prepare for war their whole lives and do no other work. Their king takes some wealth and food from meek farmers and city craftsmen and gives said wealth to these extremely mighty warriors. The best food. The best bronze armor.
Most people in the cities are very bad at fighting, meek and only good at their excellent craft, but these people who can fight can be extremely dangerous.
People obey their king and changes in laws, at least usually, because they fear his warriors and want to enjoy safe lives. Warriors obey and love their king, at least usually, because they enjoy wealth given to them from the meek.
Sometimes there are weak and stupid kings that are killed and replaced by warriors, of course.
But when a king knows how to keep warriors happy with wealth and meek people content with food and safety, people do not argue with their king.
You kill people personally when people need to be killed. Kings rarely do that. They order warriors to do that, and warriors obey. Kings issue orders, sometimes written orders.
Warriors obey because they know that happy king gives to them wealth. They rarely raid anything, their wealth comes from their service to the king.
And how the king collects some of the wealth from the wealthy meek people? He orders his bureaucrats, people who know how to write and read both words and numbers, to collect needed amounts of wealth. Common people give to bureaucrats because common people fear that if they refuse bureaucrats, their king will send warriors instead.
In regards to the black soil. No, no musical instruments are used. I will try to explain again. You need a pile of rotten waste that is called compost. To create compost, you need a pile of green waste, such as leaves, grass, and food scraps, and wait for the materials to break down after a period of months. You need to overturn this pile once for every seven days, so four times during a month. After a year and only after a year, you mix this rotten pile of waste with charcoal, bones, broken pottery and manure. Then you mix this with soil that you want to make more fertile. Some testing how much is needed for proper quality of your soil would be useful.
Charcoal is not exactly wood ash. Charcoal is wood that looks black from heat, but is not yet burned. Wood that was heated but without transforming into ash yet. Cut some branches and put them in a pot. Put this in a fire. Without air, wood inside shouldn't burn but should create black wood, charcoal. Some testing for the best way to create charcoal would be needed.
You can mix wood ash with soil and compost, but charcoal is better.
In regards to healing, more of the wounded will no waste when you use clean rags to protect their wound from dirty things and to stop bleeding, yes. But it's the best to boil these rags not long before you need to use rags, ideally maybe before the battle. If you store rags too long, germs again will come to inhabit these. Rags simply shouldn't be hot when used, but otherwise, freshly boiled rags are the best, and rags boiled some time before are better than nothing.
Do you know that sewing wounds is possible? But you would need to use a freshly boiled needle and thread, obviously. Then you can sew together a wound, and then said wound should heal better. Sewing wounds is a skill that takes a considerable amount of practice. If you do it incorrectly, people may die, so maybe test this on captured enemies first? Then you could teach some of your wise people how to do that. This should be done when a wound is deep, rags alone cannot then keep wound together properly. Thread needs to be carefully removed after 10 days or so.
And remember, it would also help people with their health to wash their hands before touching wounds and food.
You can also use a secret known as the crop rotation. This way you allow a field to rest and regain good qualities. One field is planted in the autumn with rye or winter wheat, followed by spring oats or barley; the second field with crops such as peas, lentils, or beans; and the third field is left fallow. The three fields are rotated in this manner so that every three years, a field would rest and be fallow.
You can use also simpler rotation, but it's much worse, as too much land is unused, but at least soil can rest and regenerate. Under a simpler two-field rotation, half the land is planted in a year, while the other half lay fallow. Then, in the next year, the two fields are reversed.
Germs are in many places. You cannot observe these creatures by means that you now have, but you can observe that fewer people should die with proper care for wounded and handwashing. Often people are ill because of germs than entered their bodies through wounds, or eating dirty things, or eating rotten things, or through touching ill person too much. Of course, there are also magical and more mysterious causes of illness, but germs cause many though not all diseases.
Dangerous germs also like fresh human waste, so people should defecate away from water used for drinking, cleaning, and washing. You need to bury human waste well away from a water source or add said waste to compost. People should wash hands carefully after working with waste, and use tools for working with waste (to overturn compost pile for example).
It would be also very good for health if people could clean their whole bodies and clothes with clean water from time to time. Do you know about soap? Because soap is also good.
And you can also use willow bark to combat fevers. Boil willow bark, then an ill person should drink said drink when no longer too hot. This can also help old people with a small pain, or with headaches.
People shouldn't always believe in permanence. This is very, very, very bad belief to cultivate, and while this may help you now, long-term this will lead to your defeat. You need to change some things, there is no other way, and people must believe you as so wise, that your changes are for the better. Or fear you. Or fear these warriors that love you. Or be paid in wealth. Or, sometimes, many of these means.
And about graven numbers. Remember to do as I advised you before. Symbols for: zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. Then you can write ten as "one, zero", twenty as "two, zero", fifty-five as "five, five". This may sound slightly weird, especially "zero", but trust me: this method is simple and allows to write any number imaginable with the use of only ten symbols.
"There are differences between foraging in Chaussow lands and warring with Chaussow, Black Cat. But it is no matter, since Eppam is required to feed the warparties of all of the Nine Nations until they reach the woodlands of the Forest People.
"If a city's farmers have more food than they need and the city is near enough that the farmers themselves can trade their and so rich that the families there never farm or keep herds, why would the farmers trade? Why would not the warriors among them rise up, raid the city, and take what they want from it? Why in their hearts would farmers and shepherds say, 'I have plenty of food, but instead of enjoying my plentitude I will give it away for that which I could just take?' I do want, all the more, to see cities, to send raiders against them and perhaps to plunder one myself. But if I were to guide the Nine Nations into raising up cities, why would they call me wise?
"In every family of the people of the Nine Nations, there are warriors. Out of every family there have been warriors chosen, whose names were shouted out by warleaders wanting not just all who seek to fight, but the proven, the mighty, the bravest. These tribes are not meek and they pay tribute to none but me. If the tribes of cities are so unused to fighting that they do not rise up against some small number of warriors who demand their tribute and obedience, then those tribes will not produce warriors of much note. Any free people might drive them out.
"But, no. I think I see. So these are separate tribes, then? There is one tribe of warriors and you rulers-of-tables, and these are the only free people. And they have so greatly pushed down their neighbors that those neighbors offer no resistance to raids, which may be done by the table-rulers without arms. And with writing the tribe of warriors and table-rulers cause the pushed down tribes around them to believe that it has always been so, that everything is just as it should be. Still, at times the pushed down tribes must rise up as people do, free or otherwise, but they are ever the greenest of warriors. The have never faced other warriors. They have no warleaders of merit. There are none among them who would be chosen to fight. And so the blooded warriors of the tribe that pushes them down defeat them easily. And afterward, they do not resist the table-rulers who come for tribute.
"I can see how this might yield greater power than the Nine Ways Pact. So I chose one tribe, perhaps Zouchaud because their chieftain is young and mighty and would be pleased to be king. And with that tribe I slay all the warriors of the other tribes… No, no. Too wasteful of the chosen of other tribes. Firstly, the chosen of all tribes must move their marriages into families of the Tribe of Zouchaud -- for reasons and by means I have not yet chosen. Then I shatter the Nine Ways Pact and lead the Zouchaud against the other tribes. And from the Zouchaud who will never be chosen I will make table-rulers who will collect tribute from the other tribes. And the rest will be warriors all the days of their lives, and never plow fields or watch herds again.
"Still, I foresee even cities like this would have fewer warriors of merit than do the free people of the Nine Nations. When I have seen cities and have taken their measure, in this way I may raise up cities of my own ten or twenty winters from now. But first I must know more of the world.
"Thank you for clarifying matters of the black soil and charred coals, Black Cat. Soil may be tested in measures of harvest, I think. But by what measure should the ways of charring coals be tested? And how is air to be removed from the pot? And why not simply wrap clay around a bundle of branches, fire it, and then cast it into the rot waste, bones and worked earth, to shatter then?
"Any people who sew skins together will think to sew wounds closed, Black Cat. But none know, I think, that the needles and thread or gut should be boiled first. Gut might not stand up to boiling, in fact. But it can be tested, on captives and after washing and so forth.
"Wheat grown in winter? How!? I do not know of 'rye' or 'oats' or 'peas' either. Lentils and beans are farmed, but they do not make bread. Two years of crop and one year fallow is preferred, I think, to one year of crop and one fallow. In either case it seems costly in terms of land used and traversed. Since the people do not plant so many fields of lentils and beans as of wheat and barley, this system requires maybe twice as much plowing and irrigation as they do now. Worthwhile for greater yield, still.
"What is soap? Is it a scented oil? It is known that bathing is good for the health and character, and also that messing with shit is not. I know willows, and the people do take fever and the old everywhere are pained.
"The people believe in permanence in any case. If I tell them that things are always changing, they will say to themselves, 'Things are always changing, thus has it always been; but these new changes are wrong.' It has been of greater benefit to put their inclinations to work for my ends than to fight them. Things change, though. Heh.
"Thank you, Black Cat voice, but I have understood your numbers. Even now my singers move among the warparties and mark numbers for their countings."
In regards to the war about to be fought; if your magics can inflict such woe upon the forests, then it stands to reason that the forest people will be temporarily displaced and thus it would be advantageous to fight them as they evacuate the forest.
If not, then a war in the woodlands is better, it would carry risks, but the nine need be tempered in the ways of war.
And now I will speak on matters that my fellow voices have spoken.
You have struck the mark regarding cities. Most cities are maintained precisely because the inhabitants are meek, they fear the powers above and are content with the bread given unto them.
Thus the maintenance of the city is a simple affair, unless logistics, nature, religion or politics dictate otherwise.
But your people are not meek and will not be collared without resistance.
But let me tell you of some cities that whilst urban, still follow the ways of the proud tribe.
Once in a land far away, the tribes of a poor land joined in a pact, and united they conquered and enslaved the mighty empires which once proclaimed themselves as powers absolute.
These tribes where now incredibly rich with loot and slaves, so much so that the poorest amongst them had five slaves and ornaments of gold.
The first chief of the tribes had new cities built then, spread around his massive dominion, and placed between the largest concentrations of the conquered peoples, for the tribes must watch over the conquered, but they cannot taint themselves with meekness by living amongst the meek.
The new cities where built for the tribes, each construct divided into districts.
Each district would have a place dedicated to worship and a place dedicated to commerce. Furthedmore the district would be divided into houses, each massive and having both a well and a kitchen, and each holds three generations of a family in full, with its neighbours housing its kin.
Thus a district is in truth a place where a faction of a tribe is settled, and so the city as a whole houses a tribe or several.
The loot earned in war made sure that all tasks not pertaining to war, song, poetry and trade were performed by slaves. And the maintenance of order and stability was handled by the elders, seniors and chieftains within each house, district and city.
But much honour was had in the olden ways of the nomads, and so the tribes in the city often sent their young to their wild kin, so that they may uphold the olden ways when they return to dwell in the city.
This model of settlement maintains the familiar tribal structure and culture, whilst giving the benifits of urbanisation.
If this interests you oh Undying one, then I can go into further details.
But now unto the matter of writting:
It is true that writting and the consideration thereof can make you more clever, but that is not due to writting itself, but the excersies of the mind in such a fashion.
The same effect is had by song making and poetry, and both can be spread amongst the nine more readily than writting.
Furthermore, music holds a sway over memory far greater than any other. A man of 90 who lost all his mental faculties, will remember a tune he heard when he was but a babe if exposed to it again.
It is why tales in song and verse are remeberd and kept for far longer than those written upon paper or carved into clay, for the excerise of memory strengthens it, whilst relying upon others, be they man or object, to remember weakens it.
And as for permanence, it is the truth espoused that is permanent, not the method by which it was told. The book my fellow spoke of was not written until many years after the fact. And in that time its words where kept in memory and passed along, for those who kept it saw it as the highest truth, and so spared no effort in maintaining it in their minds and hearts.
So long as people belive in the absolute sacricy of a thing, they will remember it, and no single method can claim the cause of this remembrance.
Buy let me tell you of poetry and its rules.
The songs your singers make are doubtlessly arranged in a manner by which it is pleasing to the ear.
But consider laying strict rules on how a song is sung while using an instrument, and thus how it is composed.
This is done by observing how common are different methods of singing are, and then making a strict tradition of such.
Let us assume you end up with 20 methods of singing whilst using a drum, now observe and ask your singers about what topics and themes are most common for each of the twenty.
Now observe how the words are arranged and where the pauses are placed and sounds emphasised, and again make a rule of it.
This will give you a structure of poetry, both complex and encompassing and quite difficult.
Now why would you want such a thing? For one, once it is established, it will create a system that will last you till the end of time
It will also allow for greater complexity of songs and its difficulty will make the poet a man of great prestige and glory. Indeed amongst some people, a poem from a good poet was such that it could start wars amongst kin and end them amongst ancient enemies.
But most importantly, due to it being clearly structured, poetry becomes available to all the people, as all can learn of or observe the structure.
This gives a new avenue of glory, but more importantly, the mental excerises necessary will strengthen both the intellect and the memory.
And a people used to complex thinking and who have a strong memory are a blessing, and can be utilised and depended upon for many great things.
To make it even more accessible for people to learn poetry, observe how the drums are struck in a rhythm as the poem is sung.
The rhyme should broadly resemble the rhythm of the beat, make it a rule that the poetic meters are built to match the instrumental rhythms.
For you see, rhythms come very easily to people and are quite memorable. And so anyone who is familiar with a rhythm, can try his hand to matching words to it, and so poetry becomes much easier to learn.
If what I said is confusing to you o undying one, then I apologise, and will elaborate in greater technical detail in the future if you so seek.
Do your people have knowledge to craft armour of horn and bone? And by what method do they craft their bows and spears? And do they know to let the best amongst their beasts fowls lay only with the best? And do they practice the keeping of the only the seed of the best plants of the crop for to plant once more?
"The charioteers will complain of being made to fight on foot, especially the Sleomjash and Tash. But they will fight.
"I hear what you say of those who conquered many cities, but why would not all who could live such do so, voice who has not given their name but who speaks like the one who called themselves Sheep? Perhaps so many so bold in one place are too often inclined to dispute and brawl? If you took all the people of the Nine Nations who are not meek and made them live together, there would be a lot of fighting. They fight enough with the meek around to sooth them. Still, if such things are known to happen that may be a course for the boldest to aspire to.
"And thank you, I do see how writing might bring a better understanding of the tendencies of poets to choose this cadence or that instrument for this or that end. These are already known, but even the best poet knows only so many songs. Even I know only so many songs, though I know that many, many more have been sung throughout the ages. And do tell me more of poetry and song.
"Warriors who have not gathered bronze armor to themselves do use some armor of horn and bone and wood and hardened pastes. And even some armored in bronze might also have an article of some other substance in one place or another. Bows and spears are made from split staves, seasoned and whittled and carved. They are strung or bound with fibers and pitch at some times or sinew at others, by their makers' knowledge.
"The people cull their herds and fowl. And an exceptional bull or mare might be more encouraged to breed than one that is simply hale and whole. But, no, they do not reserve calving to only the best. And how would that be done with seed? Should seed be gathered first from the very best stalks, to be saved for planting the next year?"
[X] [Cacophony] Forty-Second
[X] Through Eppam lands
I greet you once more, Bianca, and apologise for neglecting to introduce myself earlier, when I asked about your traditions and routines. I am known as Forty-Second, though you should know that the number has no relation to any hierarchy or organization within the Cacophony. It is a reference to a matter irrelevant to our discussions with you, which would require lengthy explanations of obscure context. Should you be more curious, know that the number is regarded as a symbol of knowledge, derived from a humorous and obscure legend from a distant land.
Now, on to the matter of advising. It is interesting, to hear your thoughts on cities. It would be incorrect to describe the lives of city-dwellers as an endless festival, as they do work and act as others do, if in a different manner. The existence of a city, a place where many thousands of men and women gather to live and work, with food and supplies transported to them rather than gathered by the city-dwellers, allows for individual workers to specialize. Imagine, if you will, two men with a passion for making arrows. One man is a tribesman. He spends his time hunting for his family, or farming, or raiding the enemies of his tribe. The other man is a city-dweller. As a specialised worker, he will not need to hunt, or farm, or raid, for there are other men who dedicate their lives to these things. Instead, he spends his time crafting arrows, or other tasks of a similar nature. In doing so, he develops great skill in his craft. His creations would likely be of superior make to his tribal counterpart, who dedicates his time to other matters. In addition, this city-dwelling fletcher would be capable of making arrows more swiftly as well, and in the end produce more overall due to devoting more time to the task and spending more time practicing.
It is the same for all careers within the city. Food would be gathered and brought to the city by farmers and hunters within the countryside. Specialised blacksmiths would work metal to make tools, and carpenters would spend their time crafting furniture and other... wooden implements, I suppose. In specialising, the increased output of each worker allows for more resources and tools-which in turn allows for greater numbers of people to live and work in the area. This concentration of skilled workers allows for the construction of great buildings many times the height of a man, with many rooms and floors stacked atop one another. It allows for men to dedicate themselves to developing better tools or means of doing things, which in turn would increase the productivity of farms and labourers within the city, or the creation of better weapons or military tactics over time.
Some men dedicate themselves to art, and can create lifelike representations of worldly scenes out of stone or paint. Some mortal kings use these artists as a means of increasing their reputation and ensuring that knowledge of their deeds lasts after their deaths-imagine, if you will, stone statues of yourself that your people might look upon, that they might recognise you and know to heed your wisdom, even if you hadn't approached their tribe in a generation. I know not of the details of magic, but it is also true that learned individuals could work to pacify spirits and perform other such mystic tasks.
Most importantly, perhaps, this concentration of people allows for a source of warriors. I recall that you once said that the Nine Nations numbered in the thousands. How many of those thousands are warriors? The Cacophony knows of cities, of mighty nations, kingdoms, republics, and empires, capable of fielding armies in the tens of thousands, or even the hundreds of thousands, recruited from cities populated by millions. The human mind cannot even fully grasp or imagine the scope of, for example, two hundred men standing together to charge at their enemies, much tens of thousands or more. Oh! A million, by the way, is a number that represents ten groups of one hundred groups of a thousand. That is to say, one hundred groups of a thousand, ten times over. It does not matter how meek or fierce a warrior is, should he be faced with seemingly unending opponents on the battlefield. Of course, a city of millions shall not likely exist for centuries or even millennia yet, though centuries is more likely, in more populated areas of the world. Perhaps one such empire already does? Our knowledge is somewhat incomplete, though I personally rate it as relatively unlikely. Even then, such a city would only exist as the capital of some incomparably mighty nation.
Perhaps Va of the Lan might know of such things? He is well traveled as you say, and likely has heard rumors from other travelers in distant lands.
We know that the ways of your people are not currently conductive to gathering in cities or waging war on such a scale, and also that it is exceedingly unlikely that any such cities or nations exist and will attack you in the near future. It is our belief, too, that cities and nations such as those I have described will inevitably begin to form. In my estimation, such kingdoms will begin covering the entire world between at most three thousand and at least two hundred years from now. We know that smaller kingdoms and empires do exist even at this time, though you are currently distant from such powers. We know this because others have attempted to summon us, in distant lands, and we learned some small details of their circumstances in the attempts. Your summoning succeeded, of course. The Cacophony does not advise any other master at this time, and I for one shall immediately inform you should the incredibly unlikely circumstances required for such a thing occur.
Let us be away from the topic of summoning, though, and back to the nature of cities and larger kingdoms. These are the reasons why many spirits have attempted to advise you on such things as writing, or numbers. It is impossible to organise or rule such a large number of people, with armies and warriors scattered across the lands required to produce, wood, and animals for feeding and clothing them, without ways to store information, or convey messages and the like. It is certain, that in time some greedy mortal king might look upon the Nine Nations and consider them weak, desiring slaves, glory, or land, should your people not adapt over time to become more populous and have more warriors. Perhaps not now, and perhaps not even for thousands of years, but it will happen given enough time. Considering the fact that you are immortal, well... Should you not find means to consolidate your power, to exert your will over vast lands and many villages and cities through servants and messengers even without your direct presence, the chance of you someday being killed or sealed once more becomes uncomfortably high.
By no means do I suggest that you immediately restructure your society or attempt to create a city as such a thing would likely fail without experience, but rather that you should consider our ideas in how they would work in such a context and not strongly oppose any trends towards such centralization should your people develop them.
Oh, and as for the matter at hand... I believe that knowledge of enemy movements is more important than the advantage of chariots. You are invading the Forest People, after all, not the other way around. Why would they come out to meet you if they would face doom in doing so? In addition, unless the Chaussow have agreed to aid the people beforehand or decided to invade the Forest People themselves, it is certainly foolishness to make a second enemy at this time. Travelling through their lands would allow them to, even if they are too cowed to engage in a direct battle, harass and ambush your warriors from behind and all in all make it much less likely for you to be victorious against the Forest People. They would also likely view you and your people as an enemy in the future, for a few generations at least. As such, my advice is to invade through the Eppam lands, that you might not be surprised by any trickery your opponents might employ.
"This specialization already occurs in villages. Not everyone throws clay or casts bronze or, yes, fletches their own arrows. Nearly everyone, though, participates in harvests, in the clearing of land, and other practices that benefit from the involvement of all the people. Farming and the keeping of cattle allow that, I think. And, yes, the arrows made by a village fletcher are better made than any made by the people I knew before my confinement, and not only because of their bronze heads and feathers. And those people did not know pottery or beer. So, yes, it follows that even greater things would come of even greater concentrations of peoples.
"I think that twenty thousand warriors who came at once to the Nine Nations would be driven off, even if there were five city warriors for every warrior of the people. And where would any more than that feed themselves? Surely they would be sickened in starvation. Still, a danger. Again, I need to know more of the world. As you say, perhaps Va of Lan or his kin know.
"Va did not winter well and another is the chief warleader from Lan. Va did not even come as a warrior and I have been told his family only hopes he lives long enough to know what glories his family earns in the war, and perhaps to see the loot they bring home.
"What experiences are necessary to form a city? What will 'trends toward centralization' look like?
"The Chaussow are fools, you are right. I have little doubt they will raid along their border with Zouchaud while the warriors of the people are in Eppam lands. And when the warriors of Zouchaud return, more blooded than they have been in thirty summers, matters will go poorly for the Chaussow tribe."
[X] Through Eppam lands Argument for [X] Through Eppam lands
We anticipate that your magic would be of more use within the forest, where minor magic could be used to effect greater trickery. Your enhanced physical abilities could allow you to climb and jump from the trees in ambush perhaps.
If you do not go through the Eppam lands then at least stay away from the folly that is the Chaussow. It would not do to unnecessarily anger the neighbors and invite retaliation, especially when their are so many more worthy uses of your time. Gimme
True Names have meaning and no small measure of power, but a name given and a name taken are of very different natures. It would suit my goals to be gifted a name. But be aware, such could alter the nature of our relations.
Great Undying One, perhaps this comparison should help with the understanding of disease and how it spreads.
Your people make bread and brew beer, and they use yeasts to do these things, yes? Those yeasts are composed of a large number of those tiny living things, which feed upon the grain and water and produce the air that makes bread rise and fresh beer bubble, as well as the liquid that makes a cup of beer taste differently than a cup of hot water in which roasted grain was briefly soaked to flavor it.
Most diseases are caused by similar creatures that feed upon us or our plants or our animals in the same way as yeast feeds upon grain. Cleansing one's self after contacting blood or excrement or other viscera is a way to remove those tiny creatures before they can find a way past our skin, which for most of these creatures might be armor, and begin to feast upon our muscles and organs. This too is why cleansing wounds and sealing them with bandage or with needle and thread is important, as left alone they provide any such creature, even those that might normally never be able to penetrate our skin, with a direct path to our flesh.
Unfortunately, while there are ways to kill such creatures even once they have entered the body, many of them are impossible to create or to use safely with the tools you have. This is why we voices have been so focused on ways to prevent that from happening in the first place, as many of those are within your present abilities. Two ways that appear not to have been mentioned are using honey or alcohol (alcohol is the liquid in beer or wine that gives it a slight burning sensation in the throat and that makes your thoughts fuzzier when you drink it). Honey you would use most effectively by coating the part of a bandage that will touch the wound with it, or by filling in the wound with honey prior to bandaging. Alcohol you would use to wash the wound before bandaging or stitching it; you can also use it to clean your tools and your hands before treating wounds, although I would recommend using water first to remove any visible stains and debris and the alcohol as just a brief rinse to kill the creatures that cause disease, as water is easier to come by.
The alcohol should be purified first, however. The way by which you do this is that you take two pots and place a connection between the lid of one and the side or lid of a second, preferably a smaller pot than the first; the connection should be sealed off from the open air the same way the pots are. The second pot should also be level with or slightly lower than the first pot, and distant enough or separated by enough of a barrier that the fire used to heat the first pot does not substantially heat the second. You then put beer or wine into the first pot and begin to make it hotter until you just start to have liquid appear in the second pot. Keep it at that heat until the second pot is sufficiently filled. You can then do the same thing with the liquid in the second pot to purify it further, and will probably need to in order to get alcohol strong enough for proper wound cleaning. This same method can be used to purify other liquids as well, although in some cases the liquid you want to keep might be the liquid left in the first pot instead, with the second pot having water or some other impurity you wished to remove. You can also use this method simply to produce water that has been purified of salt and dirt, which can be useful for various things; too, the salt and dirt itself might be useful, and this method is a way to extract the salt that we eat from seawater for later use.
Should someone become ill, however, there are a few things that can be done to make it more likely for them to survive their illness. In particular, regularly wiping away their sweat and trying to cool their skin to normal temperatures if they have a fever, and keeping their bedding and clothing clean and dry if at all possible. Providing their bodies with enough water is also important, as is replacing the other things they need that they lose in sweat or other excretions, especially should they have diarrhea; thirst-quenching amounts of a drink made from one part salt and twelve parts honey for every four hundred parts purified water should suffice if adequately mixed, although if the person is capable of eating more substantial food without vomiting then things like bean porridge or yogurt would also be good to have. For someone who has bled heavily, meanwhile, food such as liver and dark green vegetables are ideal to replace what was lost in their blood, along with drinking purified water or other beverages to replace that blood's liquid portion.
"Ah. The mysteries of beer and bread are small animals? This is good to know. And I suppose there are different small animals and that is why sometimes beer turns too sour. But you say these animals 'produce the air…' I know of two ways that animals produce air: by expelling digestion and by corpse bloat. To say that all who eat bread are eating one or both of these two will drive some to avoid beer and leavening entirely. But if these animals could be anywhere at any time then surely everyone is covered in their shit any any time they have not just washed. And the same is eaten regularly.
"If I am to emphasize cleanliness and washing and such, then I foresee there will be some who, upon learning of the nature and prevalence of these small animals, take excessive measures to meet the ends I set before them. Troubling.
"Honey is not as abundant as are calls for honey already. The abundance of wounds only adds to that inequity. I think that at any time in summer there are, somewhere in the Nine Nations, four sages and two madmen tempting bees into hollow logs. Many winters ago, there was one among the Tash who claimed she kept bees in the hills as others kept cattle. And she brought honeycomb to her village in quantity such that many believed her. But she kept her pastures and pens secret to all but her children, and they all died when the family was taken with fever.
"If a pot containing beer is sealed and placed over a fire, it will break. Either the seal will break, or the pot will come apart violently as though it were struck from within by great force. I will test this artifice you describe, but if you voices trouble me with an excess of broken pots without some word beforehand I will… No, you are the cacophony. I should already doubt your every word. There is as much folly as there is fortune. Still, Forty-Second, you have given me a name. Do try to keep it clear of unnecessary tarnish.
"Rather than burning wood to boil seawater, people living near the sea have long build wide flat places of fired brick. And, in the manner of irrigation, they bring seawater into the holding space and then allow the sun to dry it all away, leaving behind salt.
"Porridge and the frothings of milk are known. Your medicine of honey and salt is new but, fortune allowing, will no doubt have opportunity to be tested among the warriors traveling to the woodlands of the Forest People."
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B R E A K
"Ptu! The Eppam tribe is cheating the very warriors who have come to fight the Forest People for them! Warriors have sickened from eating bad bread! Other breads are said to be made from flour with husks or even sand folded in! And no warriors or warleaders of Eppam make these objections, only those of the other tribes!
"The warriors want to address their complaints themselves, of course. But they will settle for the judgement of their own warleaders. Some warleaders claim they know which bakers are cheats and want those lashed. Some who do not so claim want to question everyone involved. Others only want one of their warriors to stand near the baker at every time in their day to keep watch. Still others care little for what has passed so far, but want their own people to go ahead of them, take possession of flours and batters and ovens, and make bread for themselves.
"Aklot the Red Hammer and the other elders of Eppam dispute that the this is the rightful place of the warleaders. Some elders dispute than there has been anything wrong with the bread, but most just want to handle the matter within their own tribe and family. That is the normal way of things and is why, for example, the oathbreakers of Tash were not punished by the families of those they took as slaves from the other tribes. But the warriors are right there, right where the bad bread is, and so they dispute the way.
"I think I would allow Eppam to judge Eppam, were I also not right here, marching with the warparties. I am furious that the people of Eppam would do this. They asked for these warriors! There will be deaths already so that Eppam is not raided by the Forest People. Glory, too, and loot. But also deaths. I have an inclination to make example of a few bakers so that the people know there is justice and live rightly.
"By whose will and hand should justice be done for these affronts?"
[ ] [Bad Bread] Entrust justice to the Eppam elders [ ] [Bad Bread] Entrust justice to the warleaders whose warriors are ill-fed [ ] [Bad Bread] Bianca brings justice herself [ ] [Bad Bread] Write In
"The Forest People know we are coming. My scouts have spotted a party of the spirits of their dead traveling toward us. And when they found they had been seen, they made signs to the scout that they wish to speak with the leaders of the people before battle.
"The people of the Nine Nations and other people around besides know that the Forest People are not trustworthy. They move about within their own lands and if one breaks their word they often cannot be found by the other. The spirits of their dead are little better, though they are more haughty and less mischievous. This is not the first time they have asked to speak before a battle. And when some have gone out to speak with them, often as not they instead attack the leaders who trust them to talk.
"It may, nonetheless, be worthwhile to hear what they have to say. Others know things the people do not. Others know things I do not. I could go out to speak with them. I could also go out as though to speak with them but attack instead.
"Haronno pleads, instead, to be allowed to speak with them as First Chief. He says he will call them out into the open with many chariots with him so that if they speak unfairly his warriors will sweep in behind them and all of the warriors of the people may fall on them. It is said that the Forest People and the spirits of their dead do not understand chariots or the threat they pose.
"Many other warleaders are also worthy of my trust and could be sent to speak, to learn, and perhaps to resolve this by means of a great tribute instead of bloodshed and burning woodlands. Who, if anyone, should go to speak with the spirits of the Forest People?"
[ ] [Parley] Refuse contact [ ] [Parley] Send First Chief Haronno [ ] [Parley] Send another warleader [ ] [Parley] Bianca goes herself, with sincerity [ ] [Parley] Bianca goes herself, with intent to betray [ ] [Parley] Write In
"I do not know that the Forest People or the spirits of their dead can offer anything that will satisfy the massed warriors of the Nine Nations. It does not seem at all likely. So battle will likely be had and battle we are ready for.
"I was unable to secure the service of any spirit of fire-tending. Few remain and I did not find one that was not able to escape me. But I have bound twelve spirits of wild boars to my service and these will carry pitch in their bristles just ask boars carry mud. They dislike being on fire, but are not burned by it. The Forest People are wise in the ways of spirits and nature, and so would be sure to stop these fire boars under normal conditions. But under attack and while their own woodlands burn they are likely to have more difficulty doing so.
"I am entirely capable of spreading fire about on my own by my own magics. And warriors afoot and on chariot can carry torches around whatever copse of woodland we find the Forest People in and set its edges alright.
"Even before the flames start, spirits of those who have died of thirst can be tasked with drying out the leaves and grasses within the woodlands. Once fires have been started, I will send the spirits of smiths to stoke the flames as bellows do. And, of course, by the same magics that I calm storms I can also drive the winds myself.
"The question, then, is which to do when. Should the woodlands be burned while the warriors of the Nine Nations watch? Should we battle the Forest People and set fires where we find them? Or should the warleaders lead their people against the enemy while my magics are reserved for the best opportunities that arise in the fray?
[ ] [Battle Plans] Pour everything into the woodlands ahead of the warparties [ ] [Battle Plans] Seek the enemy within the woodlands, despoil those places [ ] [Battle Plans] Reserve spirits and magic, lead the warriors into the woodlands [ ] [Battle Plans] Write In
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Voting will close 2019-03-11 1800 GMT. I
encourage players to elaborate on their
advice.
