Cacophonous Interlude is NOT active
(the QMPC does NOT hear what you write right now)
Next story update : Sometime in July would be nice
Next vote closing : TBD
Progress toward next update : 3,146 words
Code:
Anything I post that's not in text blocks or in spoilers
may be understood to be said by the QMPC, with the
exception of the Collaboration Post
(see Collaboration Post for details on itself)
Code:
Players do not need to use code blocks or spoilers
outside of cacophonous interludes
If you use code blocks, please limit yourself to 32 lines
and your lines to 57 characters, so that people on mobile
can read them without scrolling within the code block
Code:
This is not meant to be Plagiarism Quest.
You're not discouraged from using outside reference
material or quoting other sources. When you do, please
cite your sources in spoilers or a code box.
Code:
I have added some players who contributed a fair amount
the last two times as thread collaborators who can update
the collaboration post. If you'd like to update the
collaboration post too, contact me by PM and we'll talk
about it.
Check the Collaboration Post and read the latest story post in the Threadmarks to get a rough idea of where things are at.
If you're not already involved in the game, portions of either of these may be difficult to follow. But you can skip to the line that says "B R E A K" in the latest threadmarked story post and skim from there to get an idea of what's going on.
If there's no corresponding Closing The Vote post in the Informational threadmarks for the latest story post in (normal?) Threadmarks, then the game is in a cacophonous interlude and the QMPC will hear what you post, unless you do so with spoilers or code boxes. The NOTICES portion at the top of this post should also tell you if the game is in a cacophonous interlude.
So you can engage with other players, make suggestions, ask questions, and propose plans and you can compose a message to the QMPC all whether or not the game is in a cacophonous interlude. And once it is, you can vote and/or send a message to the QMPC by creating a post in the thread.
If you want to vote, simply do so as you would in other quests on this board. You may look at other players' votes to see how yours should be formatted. And you may check the tally to see that yours are counted as you intend them.
If you want to send a message to the QMPC, though, keep in mind that they are a creature of their time. They may not understand what you mean if you don't take the time to make it clear. This game rewards and demands work from its players. When a player wants to introduce a concept or tool or technology to the QMPC, that player will probably need to expend effort to explain it carefully, and take into consideration the limits of the QMPC's understanding of the world.
I think this is similar enough to Graeber's 'interpretive labor' that we can use the term colloquially to describe what is being asked of players. Put yourself in the mind of the QMPC and ask yourself how such a person can be made to understand what you want to tell them.
The QMPC has different values than we do. They have different assumptions about the world and objects and forces within it. Their goals may not align directly with number-go-up or color-get-big gaming agendas. But they want something, and will listen most attentively to players that tell them how to get more of or closer to what they want.
The Quest Master posts story updates that have 3 parts.
Quest Master Player Character responses to player posts made during the last cacophonous interlude
An update by the QMPC following a break of varying length but usually some number of years, covering what the character believes is worth mentioning
Requests by the QMPC for direction on a number of issues, which the players will provide in the form of votes
Following each story update, players posts are audible to the QMPC until voting is closed.
This is the cacophonous interlude.
Players may convey any information they can represent in text.
No images, sounds, or hyperlinks will get through (this is my limitation, not a limitation of the game, so please do not try to transcend it with clever protocol tricks).
Players may use spoilers or code blocks to communicate with each other without doing so in ways the QMPC can hear.
When votes are tallied, the QM collects player posts so that it may be known what the QMPC heard.
Votes are tallied in the conventional fashion. So only votes in the most recent post by each player are counted. [X] marks what the player is voting. And only identical write-ins accumulate.
Some votes are querying the players for their preference, in which case the only suboptimal answer is that which does not accurately reflect the preference of the players who nonetheless chose it (I don't think these kinds of misunderstandings can be helped).
Other votes are intended as puzzles where there is a choice the QM believes would best meet what they believe to be the goals of the players.
However, in these sorts of votes the QM has in mind a choice that would provide the players with what the QM thinks they most want, but which is not listed in the available votes.
In this way, clever write-ins are encouraged.
QM reads player posts, researches their suggestions, checks notes for precedent, determines what the QMPC thinks they already know on the topic, what they're right or wrong about, how likely they are to engage with the topic, how likely the QMPC's followers are to follow-through in the matter, and finally what the result is going to be later on.
QM composes QMPC's responses to player posts made during the cacophonous interlude and updates their notes.
When narrative benefits from uncertainty and chance, QM devises tests for QMPC or other characters and makes those tests using die rolls on a post made just for that purpose.
Skill or attribute tests will be made with a largely undocumented homebrew modification of the Burning Wheel system, mangled to suit the format of this game. (The Burning Wheelis a good system and I encourage you to check it out.)
Tests may be a contest between two characters or against a static target with tiered results.
The rules being used and followed will be described in each post in which tests are made by die rolls.
Normal mortals count 7s and better as successes.
Heroic characters and characters who are otherwise innately magical count 6s and better as successes.
Demigod characters and characters who otherwise possess some spark of divinity count 5s and better as successes.
New gods and characters who have otherwise stolen the power of Old Gods count 4s and better as successes.
Old Gods count 3s and better as successes.
Sorcery and other magic skills lower the threshold of success by 1 to a minimum of 3 only when they are the skill being tested, not when they provide a bonus to other skills. Players may note that Old Gods' threshold of success does not improve when they use magic.
Bonus dice provided by Kahl's Warhorses and any incendiary devices more complicated than a burning arrow reroll 9s & 10s and keeps successes. These same bonus dice cancels successes on 1s & 2s, rerolls those, and additional 1s & 2s cancel additional successes. More 1s, 2, 9, or 10s mean more rerolling and more successes or cancelations, but only in the manner of the original die. That is, a 1 or 2 that comes up when a 9 on a bonus die is rerolled don't cancel successes or lead to further rerolling.
Research project results are determined by percentile dice with results falling into 5 tiers.
Uh oh: something has gone horribly wrong
Nuh uh: failure, but the boring kind
Huh: partial success
Uh huh: full success
Whoa: superior special case success
When players expect a test to be coming up -- for example if they vote for an invasion or to send a diplomat to manipulate a foreign leader -- they can improve the odds of the test turning out the way they want by providing the QMPC with advice specific to that matter. If the advice is not mistaken or outright bad, there will be at least a chance it will help. That is, decent advice adds dice.
QM composes the QMPC's post-break update, player vote questions, and player vote options.
GOTO 1
The QMPC is intended to be the only character the players will interact with in this game. (It's kind of possible that the players could maneuver the QMPC to surrender control of the Astute Cacophony to another character, but unlikely.)
The QMPC is a small, evil woman who knows magic and has not died, despite looking like she probably should have at some point. She goes by the name Bianca the Undying. Her early life took place in the Paleolithic, in which she has said that she traveled around quite a bit and came to understand the malleable nature of populations of people and animals and even the land itself. At some point she was trapped underground, to her displeasure. She remained trapped for a very long time.
When Bianca got out, she found her way to a community of eight tribes living pastoral and agrarian lifestyles in the local Copper Age. She made these people hers and they relied on her for magically enriching their fields so that they did not need to slash, burn, and move around a bit, unlike their neighbors. Bianca and her followers formalized their relationships into the Eight Ways Pact. Later, another tribe joined Bianca's followers bringing small horses and the Bronze Age and their pact was updated with a ninth directive.
Bianca has an agenda that requires her to have more power than she does right now. She believes that achieving divinity will get her that power.
No. Plants around that place are automatically warped by enraged spirits. More plants, rainfall and water sounds like literally the worst advice possible.
I advised for something exactly opposite, that is, destruction of plants and stone walls. For now it seems to be working, somewhat.
No. Plants around that place are automatically warped by enraged spirits. More plants, rainfall and water sounds like literally the worst advice possible.
I advised for something exactly opposite, that is, destruction of plants and stone walls. For now it seems to be working, somewhat.
Stone Walls, okay. Destruction of plants is what got us into that mess, among other things, so I'm more than a bit sceptical that it will help any. You fight death with life, not with more death. Besides, the long-term goal of is to drive it back and remove the haunting, not merely to contain it. Obviously, those new plants would need to be protected from the corruption somehow, I'll amend that in, as well as asking about the current containment success.
No. Death of animals, humans and the Forest People. Ask her whether plants produce spirits after death if you are unsure, but I'm pretty sure that the answer is "no". Nor water or fire.
No. Death of animals, humans and the Forest People. Ask her whether plants produce spirits after death if you are unsure, but I'm pretty sure that the answer is "no". Nor water or fire.
Water and Fire definitely don't leave spirits, was said so in an earlier update (unless plankton counts maybe). That's not what the aim of that is. The aim of the water is to counteract the element of 'everything here burns to death' while at the same time weakening any fire-aspected spirits (propably most of them).
As for plants, normally that may or may not be true, but given how closely linked the Forest People were to the forest and in turn the forest linked to their death, I'm pretty sure that even if not, reforestation is thematically appropriate enough and opposed to the haunt's thematics enough to do something. It's got elements of 'undoing a past wrong' and 'appeasing the dead', in addition to the overarching 'life triumphs over death (if with a bit of help)'. Also, where plants grow, animals will follow.
Thematically too, cutting the entire thing down... doesn't fix anything. If anything, it's just completing the deed that created the haunt in the first place by finishing the Forest People's home's transformation into a dead wasteland where everything living has been murdered.
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe starving the haunt of any anchor is, in fact, the correct response. But frankly I don't think so, and while it merits cautiously asking the expert (Bianca) wether she knows and if not, to carefully find out, I definitely wouldn't simply assume so.
I see haunt thematics not as "death", but as "this forest is back, but this time utterly pissed at you" (and at everything). We will see, there is no harm in asking Bianca.
Edit: Keep in mind that not the whole of the former forest is haunted, but only slowly expanding part that was in the best (!) shape at first.
And the last hides their face, but I think it is one of the thieves. They have a long knife of dark bronze that is said to hum at night and hide in the daylight. Once again she demands, in Erweh's name, tribute for my slights against the his claimed domain of the underworld.
So from what I understand, you were unable to recover all that the thieves stole, and now one returns demanding tribute. This merry band of heroes could safely be considered thieves. As far as I am concerned they have already received their tribute from this theft. Erweh's priestess should have chosen her envoy more carefully.
Could demand tribute in return for her envoys' slight and insult against Bianca.
We should ask if Bianca can still float in water...
It may be important in the future to know if she can swim.
Also, when she says she is untiring does that mean she can maintain her best sprint indefinitely?
I feel like "mummy" implies that her body is in some way shriveled & dead looking.
Once we have some people skilled in sword making, we should look into equipping her with some of those cool jumping / running stilt things.
Basically strapping curved spring steel to extend the length of the leg.
For one who is invulnerable, does not tire, and can perfect their use over decades, these might be quite useful for her.
FYI "Spring steel" is similar to a very good sword steel.
Could some sort of primitive flippers be fashioned to improve swimming?
Ok, let me explain what I know about steel making, from the lowest to the best quality.
First, you have wrought iron. Made by heating ore until it is red hot, normally in a bloomery, and hammering out the slag. The ore is 'worked' until it is usable, has many impurities (up to 2% in weight) and low carbon content.
How can this be improved? Well, you can try to make the impurities more homogeneous along the piece of metal. By folding (more common in Japan) and/or welding (more common in Europe), one spreads the impurities as to avoid them gathering and forming a weak spot. This process also facilitates the introduction of carbon, helping in turning the iron into steel.
Aa time went on, however, bloomeries got bigger and a problem surged: the ore was heated so much that is iron started to smelt. This resulted in a large amount of carbon mixing with the iron, resulting in cast iron, far to brittle to be useful.
One way to counter this is through the use of crusibles. You put in one iron ore and a layer of glass above it before sealing the crusible. The iron, heavier than the slag, gathers at the bottom while the glass smelts and makes a protective layer that prevents it from oxidizing with the hair inside the crucible.
This results in refined iron free from impurities. This iron can then be used as it is, or put in a other crusible with the desired amount of carbon to make steel.
As for how to make spring steel, well, IIRC, the normal way to harden iron is by heating it and then letting it cool off. However, one can heat it and then submerge it in oil to quickly cool it, resulting in an incredibly brittle piece of steel. Then, it is heated slowly until a layer of blue oxidation has formed around it, at which point it becomes flexible. The blue layer also protects it from rust, and late plate armor was often 'blued' as decoration.
This is just a small clarification, I plan to go more in detail with actual sources next time we can talk with Bianca. I saw that there were some problems when explaining iron-making, you think this will help?
The new job's a hassle and there was also the flu, but it's sure nice hearing from you, pal.
Less flippantly, I do have a new job. It does take up a lot of my time. But more importantly my time management process hasn't caught up to my new job and I've let things slip that I'd rather I hadn't.
I'm working on this. There's a chance I'll have something up this weekend.
The new job's a hassle and there was also the flu, but it's sure nice hearing from you, pal.
Less flippantly, I do have a new job. It does take up a lot of my time. But more importantly my time management process hasn't caught up to my new job and I've let things slip that I'd rather I hadn't.
I'm working on this. There's a chance I'll have something up this weekend.
Don't stress too much. Just nice to get an update on timetable now and then. Been checking the page too often even tough I should get an email when it updates
It would be better to have even one update per 3 months than no update at all, we are patient, we simply love the quest and want this to live even if sleepily. ^ ^ Thank you for your answer. ^
The new job's a hassle and there was also the flu, but it's sure nice hearing from you, pal.
Less flippantly, I do have a new job. It does take up a lot of my time. But more importantly my time management process hasn't caught up to my new job and I've let things slip that I'd rather I hadn't.
I'm working on this. There's a chance I'll have something up this weekend.
Could the time for voting be a few days longer this time? Last time it felt a bit short, as I did not have any prewritten text and my own timetable is quite full as well.
Could the time for voting be a few days longer this time? Last time it felt a bit short, as I did not have any prewritten text and my own timetable is quite full as well.
I'd really like to get an installment out by the end of the month. So far the next post is over 5,200 words and I'm starting Bianca's reply to maximillian.
However, on top of the job I have a live-in tenant whose lease ends on Friday and whose move-out might start being lively and exciting even before the month ends.
So, yeah. Happenstance willing, I'll get an episode out before 2019-06-01 0000 PDT.
I want to determine what the results are from Kahl's mission to trade with a city. To do that I'm going to roll 2d10 as percentile. The results will be measured against the following scale.
Kahl starts at 0 Trade Value
01 - 05 : Bandits! -2 Trade Value, roll again
06 - 30 : Nothing, or near enough; +0 Trade Value, find another city target 2
31 - 65 : Very little worthy or willing; +1 Trade Value, find another city target 4
66 - 95 : Quality goods & good trades; +4 Trade Value, find another city target 6
96 - 100 : Jackpot! +10 Trade Value, find another city target 8
Code:
Outcome of Trading at a City:
Quality goods & good trades
Total Trade Value : 4
Code:
Outcome of Finding Another City:
Another city is found
I want to determine what the results are from Kahl's mission to trade with a second city. To do that I'm going to roll 2d10 as percentile. The results will be measured against the following scale.
01 - 05 : Bandits! -2 Trade Value, roll again
06 - 25 : Nothing, or near enough; +0 Trade Value, find yet another city target 3
26 - 60 : Very little worthy or willing; +1 Trade Value, find yet another city target 5
61 - 90 : Quality goods & good trades; +4 Trade Value, find yet another city target 7
91 - 100 : Jackpot! +10 Trade Value, find yet another city target 9
Code:
Outcome of Trading at Another City:
Quality goods & good trades
Total Trade Value : 8
Code:
Outcome of Finding Yet Another City:
Yet another city is found
I want to determine what the results are from Kahl's mission to trade with a third city. To do that I'm going to roll 2d10 as percentile. The results will be measured against the following scale.
01 - 05 : 'Bandits!' -4 Trade Value; feud with local rulers
06 - 15 : Bandits! -2 Trade Value, roll again
16 - 25 : Nothing, or near enough; +0 Trade Value
26 - 55 : Very little worthy or willing; +1 Trade Value
56 - 85 : Quality goods & good trades; +4 Trade Value
86 - 95 : Jackpot! +10 Trade Value
96 - 100 : Play royalty and grift the whole kingdom! +20 Trade Value
Code:
Outcome of Trading at Yet Another City:
Very little worthy or willing
Total Trade Value : 9
The party of heroes did not come to the Nine Nations to make merry or to make friends. They came to enforce Erweh's rule. However, their preparation to do so did not take into account the possibility that the locals would play host to them with feasts, celebration, and good company while their host's pseudo-deific, ostensible ruler simply avoids them.
Still, there will be trouble.
I want to determine what kind of trouble the heroes manage to make. To do that I'm going to roll 2d10 as percentile. The results will be measured against the following scale.
"I don't like these outsiders coming in and making demands. But I will see them treated as well as any guest might be, and we shall see what comes of it.
"Similarly, I do not like parting with gold and I feel that beating it into coins is starting a dangerous trend toward discord. But, at the same time, the Nine Nations need more bronze and more of many other things besides. So be it.
"In the matter of the lost cattle, at least, I have no reservations regarding your advice. It will be good, I think, for the lesser giants to remain aware of their neighbors and good for the free people of the Nine Nations to remain aware of the lesser giants. There is danger in any distance growing between our peoples."
[X] [Stake] Give Kahl all she asks, and a singer, and a table-ruler, and more warriors
[X] [Shortage] Let the Galugr trade additional summers of labor to Eppam and Zouchaud for more cattle
[X] [Heroes] Hare made the underworld, get someone to ask Her about this
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
This is Black Cat, Great Undying One.
I recently whispered for days with my fellow Voices, we discussed what we should share now, so let's say a few new things.
Let's start with definitions, that is meanings of words, needed to understand.
Privot, definition: the central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns.
Lever, definition: a rigid bar resting on a pivot, used to move a heavy or firmly fixed load with one end when pressure is applied to the other.
Saw, definition: a tool consisting of a tough blade with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and moving it forcefully forth and back. This force may be applied by hand, water, or another power source.
Reciprocating motion is a repetitive up-and-down or back-and-forth motion.
Back-and-forth like a saw.
It's possible to convert circular motion to reciprocal motion. Circular motion, like a waterwheel. This is how you can have a waterwheel powering a saw.
A smaller wheel should be fixed to the axle of your waterwheel. This small wheel has single peg sticking out of its face near the edge. And upon said peg rests one end of a lever, and as the wheel rotates, the peg changes in height. Alternately lifting and dropping the lever. Thus creating a reciprocating motion.
Thank you very much for that explanation. ^ ^
For grinding grain circular motion is better, if you use that power to rotate grinding stones.
Another matter. Mouldboard plough, the great improvement in ploughing fields and thus the production of food. The plough has wheels on the front, so that it could easily be taken from field to field. The major change for the better lies in the way the plough cuts. On the frame ahead of the share is a bronze or iron knife, placed vertically to cut the sod and to make it easier for the share to enter the thick soil. Behind the share is a curved, wing-like board, sitting diagonally to the frame, to lift the cut sod and throw it clear to the right, like a wave breaking. This is the mouldboard, and it permits land to be ploughed at its wettest. As each furrow is ploughed, the plough team can make a turn at the end of the field, and then return to make a furrow parallel with the first, going in the opposite direction. The result is a series of ridges and furrows, with the highest point of the ridges at the centre of the field, running like a kind of spine down the centre of the ploughed area. This allows the water in the field to drain off to the sides.
James Burke, 1978, Connections, page 63
Dam, definition and a pretty useful idea: dam is a barrier constructed to hold back water and raise its level, forming a small pond or lake used to generate more power with channels that lead to waterwheels or monjolo, and as a water supply for irrigation, more reliable even during droughts. With cunning gates and channels, even risk of flooding may be lower thanks to dams.
In regards to other matters and some of your previous questions...
Outhouses: at least some people obey you in regards to soap, bathing, handwashing, boiling of things that touch wounds, etc, right? Then let at least some people obey you in regards to outhouses, for pretty similar reasons. Perfection would be great, but anything is better than nothing, as I said many times before, and a long time ago.
About cutting open living humans, both as punishment and to learn more about the human body, healing, and diseases: I believe that ten years ago, or so, you considered exactly that as possible use of your time - though we advised for roadbuilding instead. So, why so much reluctance now? Of course disease can easily follow when people do not know about germs (and about handwashing and about boiling of knives used to cut people and about other such things), or discord can follow if they cut open innocent people instead of disgusting kinslayers; but these concerns are smaller when done only by you and wise people selected by you.
You said something about: "covering mouths and hands while working with the sick and dying and dead", because there was a Voice who suggested that before. I have strong doubts that this would be more useful than handwashing with soap or with strong alcohol. The cloth would need to be boiled after all uses.
Basic care for sick people obviously offers more benefits than risks, when people wash their hands and tools used in healthcare. As we mentioned previously, a long time ago: clean water, clean bedding and rest are often good enough for mild diseases.
Blacksmith, definition - a smith who forges and shapes hot iron with a hammer and anvil.
Hammers and other tools for blacksmithing should be made out of metal. If you want much more proper metal, you need to use some metal for proper tools at first.
An anvil is a metalworking tool consisting of a large block of metal with a flattened top surface, upon which another object is struck with a hammer (or "worked").
You asked how "to change the instructions for life". Selective breeding, that is breeding these animals and plants that have desirable characteristics, as was mentioned before. Direct modification of these instructions would need so enormously complicated tools, that you wouldn't be able to create these tools for hundreds of years even when supplied with extremely detailed descriptions.
Thin hides for writing? A parchment, in other words. Try drying at ordinary temperatures under tension, most commonly on a wooden frame known as a stretching frame. Skins needs to stay in the unhairing bath for eight or more days before stretching. In the weird world that I know about, dehairing liquor was originally made of rotted, or fermented, vegetable matter, like beer or other liquors, but an unhairing bath is better with lime.
Conquest: if you could have the Army, and manage to make identity of the Army stronger than identity of separate tribes, then you could slowly add some of the warriors from the conquered tribes to your Army, no reason to draw only from the Nine then. Also. You could make it so: that when the Nine Nations conquers another nation, then the Nine benefits from the conquered one. But then there is no reason for the conquered nation to always only pay tribute to the Nine and to never benefits from anything. Because after some time you can attack yet another tribe, and make even previously conquered one benefit in exchange for less trouble. Nine benefits from the Tenth. Then Nine and the Tenth benefits from yet newer conquest. Obviously, there are limits to this, because the world is finite, and territories that can be controlled are even more finite, but it's doable for some time. New conquest to satisfy not only the Nine, but, in a lesser way, to satisfy even the previous conquest.
As was said a long time ago, doing cooperative tasks together, common enemies, common duties, and common symbols - like a flag, mentioned a long time ago - are great to create a new identity, identity of the Army included. Maybe try and test this very slowly and carefully, for example with 9 or 18 people at first, one or two from each of your tribes.
Young people have, generally, less developed identities than older people. Willing 16 year olds, with potential to be better and stronger when older, could be good enough for your first tests.
Wikipedia
Curiosities: The world is round and moves around the sun. There is a force called gravity that keeps things on the surface of the world. Gravity gives weight to physical objects. There are very complicated numbers to describe this better, but let's maybe leave this as a curiosity for now.
Summer is a warm season because the days are longer and the Sun is high in the sky, giving direct light to the ground. Winter is a cold season because the days are shorter and the Sun is low in the sky, giving indirect light to the ground. Both the changes in the length of the day and the height of the Sun at noon are caused by the tilt of the world's spin axis with respect to the plane of the Earth's path around the Sun. At any time, in any season, the northern and southern hemispheres (halves of the Earth, that is halves of the world) have opposite seasons.
The polar night occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of the world when there is constant night during winter. During summer there is a constant day in these places, but heating is still not sufficient and these northernmost and southernmost regions of the world are forever frozen.
There are also lands that are forever hot, around the equator. The Equator is the imaginary line on the sphere, with equal distance from poles, dividing the world into northern and southern hemispheres.
Plants from the forever hot places rarely can survive cold properly, so the fact that not all trees can give any fruit may be not a deliberate fraud of a trader.
The scientific method. Scientific method refers to ways to investigate phenomena, get new knowledge, correct errors and mistakes, and test theories.
The most useful method for obtaining new knowledge without our words and without magic, though much harder than simply hearing from us, obviously.
There are a few essential steps in science.
1. Ask a question about the world. All scientific work begins with having a question to ask or a problem to solve. Sometimes just coming up with the right question is the hardest part for a scientist. The question should be answerable by means of an experiment.
2. Create a hypothesis – one possible answer to the question. A hypothesis in science is a word meaning "guess about how something works". It should be possible to prove it right or wrong.
3. Design an experiment. If the hypothesis is truly scientific, it should be possible to design an experiment to test it. An experiment should be able to tell the scientist if the hypothesis is wrong; it may not tell him or her if the hypothesis is right. Usually, scientists want to test only one thing at a time.
4. Experiment and collect the data. Here the scientist tries to run the experiment they have designed before. Sometimes the scientist gets new ideas as the experiment is going on. Sometimes it is difficult to know when an experiment is finally over. Sometimes experimenting will be very difficult. Some scientists spend most of their lives learning how to do good experiments.
5. Draw conclusions from the experiment. Sometimes results are not easy to understand. Sometimes the experiments themselves open up new questions. Sometimes results from an experiment can mean many different things. All of these need to be thought about carefully.
6. Reproducibility of experiments is an essential part of the scientific method, so experiment ideally should be done again from time to time, to be sure that there were no mistakes.
To shortly summarize this useful method for obtaining new knowledge without our words and without magic: Scientists try to let reality speak for itself. They support a theory when its predictions are confirmed, and challenge it when its predictions prove false. Scientific researchers offer hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experiments to test these hypotheses. Since big theories cannot be tested directly, it is done by testing predictions derived from the theory. These steps must be repeatable, even by other people, to guard against mistake or confusion by any particular experimenter.
Scientific knowledge is testable. Such knowledge can be proved only by testing things, not arguments alone. Arguments are not enough.
A few examples.
Hypothesis: closed pots when heated too much are destroyed by steam that cannot escape.
Experiment: heat five closed pots with water and another five closed pots without water.
Collect data. How many pots were destroyed? Mainly these with water inside or these without water inside?
Draw conclusions from the experiment.
Replicate to be sure that there were no mistakes.
Or perhaps... Something more useful!
Hypothesis: compost is more important for bigger plant yields than charcoal.
Experiment: select thirty similar fields. During the next five years, use compost alone on ten fields, charcoal alone on ten fields, and both on yet different ten fields.
Collect data. How do these yields compare? Draw conclusions from the experiment, create a bigger theory from the smaller hypothesis. Replicate experiment a few times in the future, to be sure that nothing weird, like a very dry or wet year, interfered with previous results.
And yet another example.
Hypothesis: there is a herb that is better than nothing for healing people
Experiment: observe 20 ill people. Try to use that herb on 10 of these people
Collect data. Are there any differences between the health of these people that used tested herb and those who not? Draw conclusions from the experiment. Replicate from time to time in the case of any doubts.
Of course writing of all details and numbers is essential.
Simple Wikipedia, wiki that uses only simpler English words and is designed for non-native speakers. Slightly modified and simplified even more. Also, regular Wikipedia.
People that at the same time are good at complicated thinking, numbers, writing and love Knowledge about the world more than themselves are very, very, very rare. But if you ever encounter such a rare person, draw them out of the tribes like your singers, teach these methods, provide needed things, and make them your full-time scientific researchers.
Of course, the Burgeck tribe can do testing for now, but testers that know scientific principles and love Knowledge are better. Keep this in mind.
By the way, when I hear Voice Sheep, I sigh. He wants to explain to you trust like trust is only possible if nothing changes and everybody is equal forever. It's not true, and it's possible for people to share many identities, not only their family or tribal identity. In fact, he says the same stuff that utterly average tribal elder could say while pretending to be wise.
I have no idea what I f***d up about bloomery. Lack of proper ores, or some sort of deeper issue? Iron ore should be reasonably common. They certainly should use metal tools to work metal, not stones, but this is surely only a small part of the problem.
I tried to talk about even simpler bloomery, and something evidently is not right. Maybe we need to much better explain iron ores. She knows about copper, there are no tin deposits around, lead is unknown, gold is known but not around, likewise silver, mercury is probably unknown.
Let's try again.
Bog iron deposits, that were in fact mentioned a very long time ago but with less detail, can be identified by: withered grass, a wet environment, grass-dominated vegetation, and reddish-brown solutions or depositions in nearby waters. Wooden or metal sticks can be stabbed into the ground to detect larger ore deposits. Layers of peat in the bog can be cut and pulled back using knives to extract small, pea sized nodules of bog iron.
Definition: A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat, a deposit of dead plant material. You can burn compressed and dried peat for heat, by the way.
Honestly, I think that better things for warriors, like better shields or bows or stuff, are not yet useful to Bianca. Her people would use that in a few raids, then enemies would copy after a few years. Long-term effect? 0. Or even negative, this is why I constantly consider sharing the black powder, and then change my mind. Better raids for a few years, at most.
Do you know what we need? Methods of permanent conquest. And more food, more production, better and less tribal (or at least more advanced tribal, somehow) organisation. Supreme unified identity, ideology of conquest, ideology of superiority, etc.
If somebody could support my message, the one with the proper plow included (also, the scientific method and curiosities, but simple enough and in fact simplified, no quantum mechanics included xD ), it would be great.
I can trade somehow, add something reasonable to my message, or so.
"In the years since its introduction, the monjolo has quickly spread throughout the Nine Nations and in every place grain is grown, the people know where the nearest is. But, still, improvement is possible. I will task the Burgeck tribe with devising means to grind grain by turning stone against stone. And this 'saw' as well. I do not see how the level returns back as the peg on the wheel rotates back around, just now. But I expect that if it does not occur to me when I see it then some clever person will do better.
"Already, there is an instrument of cutting on every plow as that is their purpose. These are usually copper and sometimes only stone or wood. Bronze headed plows are known, but uncommon. And the cutting head, you're telling me, is not all a plow can be? Instead, Black Cat, you tell me that the plow should lift the loose soil and cast it aside to create an empty channel and a piled mound. I think this will require more force than the plows currently in use. And perhaps this is where we'll see the need for your horse collar.
"The people know, too, the use of dams for flooding their fields. And they have adapted their dams to the monjolo and will likely adapt them further to water wheels and similar. Concrete and stone have allowed them to build better dams, as well, on their way to building better bridges, which is a less certain matter.
"You were right and many people have come to prefer emptying their bladder and bowels into a covered pit outside their home, into which the chamberpot is also emptied. And if one pit comes close to being filled, if it was not dug deep enough, the squatting place overhead can be moved and the pit emptied by slaves and dug deeper. There will be problems, I think, when certain disused and poorly looked after squatting places rot in their timbers. Then some unfortunate who does not know they are the last person to enter the place will fall and, if they do not die in the falling, will be buried by broken timber in something like the worse place to be buried. But the people will learn and do mostly better afterward.
"The people have come to understand that they are surrounded at all times by impossibly tiny life. There is some confusion between these living things and spirits, which are also often unseen. But my singers are persistent in their corrections and in time I believe the smallest living things will be widely understood to exist in the world.
"And so the people are told that tiny living things in their dough cause it to rise and when it does not rise it is because these things are absent or dead. The people of the Burgeck tribe found that dough kept in the icehalls rises less, even when the frostbitten portions are broken away. So the people understand that tiny life dies in very cold places, but perhaps not all of it dies. And baked bread, it is known, cannot be added to dough that would not rise to make that dough rise so much more. So tiny life will die to heat.
"The brewers also understand that it is tiny life carried on the wind that turns their barley and water mixtures into beer. And they are working with their beer curds and such to find ways to choose the tiny life that makes their beer, rather than risk whatever the winds bring them. But there have not been any great accomplishments in this regard. Little is known of the quality of beer before it is tried and some years' beers are more fondly recalled than others.
"The people also know that certain substances kill tiny life. Fruit can be kept in the boiled-off-and-dewed-down extractions of beer, if fortune favors the operator of the device and they make few mistakes. And fruit in this ways keeps for as long as it holds together. Some fruit breaks up with time and in the burning waters, even if it does not go bad. Still, the fruit taken from this may hold its shape and color, but its taste is much like the taste of the burning dew.
"There are, as I said there would be, many who take fright of all manner of tiny life and forswear bread and beer and keep their mouths covered at all times and wash excessively and beg their families always for more soap. But everyone around these people can see that they are not well, and so the people have not come to believe that their wellness is much helped by taking such great measures to avoid all the tiny life.
"My singers understand that living hide is armor against the tiny life. And the openings in this armor are gaps through which tiny life may enter the body. They know that the hale body is prepared to fight off tiny life, but that this expends substances or motive that are not unlimited, and enough small fights weaken the body against greater fights. This we have established with animals at my great house.
"So, then, it remains best that those who are ill are not further attacked by tiny life. And when one has taken bad food or comes to much coughing and phlegm or is weakened by wounds they are kept clean, as is their water and their bedding. And some improve and others do not.
"I and my singers and the eunuch and his students have opened up a few living people, in secret. The motions and actions of the heart and lungs and bowels were informative, but nothing that was not already known in some way. Either the wise understood it in some way or your words brought it to me or we learned enough from animals. We know better where people may be stabbed to be most swiftly killed by spears or long knives. But in hindsight we could have learned nearly that much from the dead.
"Wound care and the understanding of medicines may, I think, be much more improved by the infliction of suffering on people who cannot prevent it. And in this it is well known that the wound does ill and the testing is in what improves it. So if the people come to imitate the practice then they have nearly the same opportunity to better their understanding as the wise do. The problem, so far, has been keeping track of what was done, exactly, and determining which thing done brought weal or woe.
"Indeed, there is one field of knowledge which is easily the most improved by opening the bodies of living people and observing their function. And that is the ways of wounding a person and causing a person suffering that does not swiftly kill them, but instead prolongs their suffering. The ideal presentation of killing a person as performance requires the combination of skills which are not easily obtained, knowledge which was until recently rare, and a disposition the presence or absence of which may not be clearly known from everyday behavior. When I feel these performances were called for in some other than myself, the show the people get has depending far too much on fortune. Now the matter of knowledge, at least, may be better covered. The skill still requires practice, even my own much practiced arts of inflicting suffering are lessened by decades of disuse. And it is a bad sign for common peace when opportunities to practice abound. But the stone knowledge, at least, will give us a better place to start when next there is some benefit to be had from grisly demonstrations of the consequences of disobedience and discord.
"Ah. The ways of smithing do explain some of the problem that Burgeck faced with their one good bloom. Either they will need to cast great plates of bronze and hammers too to smith their blooms or they will need to find rocks so hard they do not break. We never were able to melt the black iron items from my hoard. I will see if they can be worked into an 'anvil' and hammer suitable to blacksmithing.
"I don't know what tanning measures my singers have attempted in their pursuit of duplicating the thin, thin hide wrapped around the rod. But I will mention leaving it to soak longer and trying different soakings like lime.
"I have spoken with some of the chieftains about 'conquest.' They know tribute, of course, and their tribes have collected it from outsiders. There is some interest in ranging farther and collecting greater tribute, even in setting one outsider tribe to always and forever pay tribute to them. Some summer, perhaps soon, one or more of them will go out to see about it. I don't know if they'll find sense in taking those paying tribute with them out to collect tribute from others. But I can allow them to make that choice themselves. I will tell them about it.
"I did try out flags, Black Cat. The people found little use of them and they were each and all eventually repurposed as clothing or other easily understood purposes of cloth. And still, with regard to your army, the people will need to understand the need for it, as will I.
"Don't make defenses for that magician, Black Cat. He was a thief and a cheat, I can tell you for sure. Even if the world is round and spins and all that madness and even if these trees bear fruit, the magician will still be a liar.
"Though, if I get your meaning, then I should send traders to the east and the west for herbs and trees, yes? That is good to know.
"Oh, good. More structure and guidance for the people of Burgeck Tribe. So, let's see. Firstly, they choose a question about the world like... 'Is the world flat?' Then then set forth their under-statement: 'The world is flat.' Then they design an experiment like… finding the edge. If the world is flat and the sun goes around it there must be an edge for the sun to cross. And then… Well, hmm. Do they travel to the west forever, seeking an edge. Perhaps not. Still, for the sake of the example, if they don't find an edge then the world can't be flat. But if they do find an edge then… Uh, I guess the world might still be curved but have an edge?
"Eh. I'm sure it will work out.
"I don't know if I could kill a god by myself. But I don't plan to. All of the gods who have died were killed by people. Those were clever people, people in great numbers, and people with cunning strikes from ambush. But they were only people, and they killed gods. Hawk hides somewhere among the Fisher People. Hare rarely leaves the underworld. Fish may already be slain, so long have pleas to Her gone unanswered. Wolf is… as wolves which are not gods are, skittish and everready to bolt but also to strike. Only Rorqual faces every challenger who travels to the depths to seek Her, breaking their boats and crushing them. Aside from Rorqual, each acts with the knowledge that they can be killed at any time and not as though it is an impossible and unexpected doing.
"Surely if Erweh had no fear of me he would come himself to exact tribute. I may not be ready to slay a god in this moment, but I do think I can ready myself.
"I know not if the people of Burgeck tribe did attempt to bloom the bogstones to which you'd previously directed our attention. I will have them do so, and we'll see what comes of that.
"And you are right, Black Cat, that secrets rarely remain so for overlong. The Free People of the Nine Nations and any others with only a limited time to live and experience may come to believe that a secret can be kept. But having seen many times their years, I see that any useful secret is either lost to those for whom it should be a heritage or spreads also to those to whom it would never have been bequeathed. Now that stones will speak for ages to come, I expect it will be more the latter than the former."
Hello again Undying Bianca, it is me Dragon. I will first try to answer some of your questions before going forward to the matters at hand.
Uses for linen (or flax, both names are used where I come from, but linen is used more often for the ready made fabric, and I will now use this name):
I will start with the one I promised before, the making of armor from linen cloth.
This is called a gambeson in my world, and I will now explain a version called "quilted layered linen gambeson". This is basically just a tunic made from lots of layers of fabric. It will be a lot of work to make one, but the protection can be really good. You can use less quality fabric for this, at least for the inner layers
First the pattern (how to cut the fabric). I would suggest using a tunic pattern where you only have one piece (The "front" and "back" pieces meet at the shoulders with arm fabric sticking out of here, and a hole for the head in the middle). This way there will e less sewing.
Now cut around 30 layers of fabric in this pattern. Of these only around 7-15 should be with sleeves (arms) and the rest without so that the arms can move freely. Some testing should be done to get the best result. Of the layers with no sleeves around 7 should be cut so that it is first turned 1/8 part around so it is diagonal to the other layers (45 of our degrees if some other voice have happened to explain them yet). This will make the thing more durable. You can use even more layers than 30, but it is more work, and heavier. Try out which amount is good for the weapons you have.
When the fabric has been cut, all the layers should be put on top of each other, and then they should be sewed together. For this i suggest you use strong linen thread, that have been made smoother by pulling a lock of beeswax over it. I would also suggest making a small cup fitting on an finger to help you push the needle trough the fabric. Sew lines from up to down with a distance of around the length of your middle finger (the longest one). This ill take long, probably a full week of work.
When this is done sew the thing into a tunic, making a collar with around the same number of layers as in the arms is probably be a good idea.
Now you should have a gambeson, it was a lot of work but the protection should be good, at least better than that of hides, and it should be easier to repair than that made from ides or wood. It can be worn as the only chest protection or together with your other protection. It will not protect well from strong crushing damage like heavy clubs, but better against cuts (which are those most prone to cause fever and death)
To try your gambeson:
Here is some ideas how to try out the gambeson without harming people in the process, a small piece is enough, no use to ruin the whole thing:
Take a leg of a freshly killed sheep (drain the blood first) and put the gameson on it (fasten with straps r have a piece that fits around it). Hang this from a branch or similar. Now have your warriors try to hit it with different weapons, and you will see how well it protects. You can have an unprotected leg to compare to. Even tough some hits may go party trough it should be lot less than whit no protection.
The meet can be eaten after the testing, as long as it haven't been left to hang until it spoils.
Tools
Could you tell me something about the way thread are made and cloth are weaved by your people today, especially about the tools. This will help me give you some suggestion for improvements if I know any. We call the thing cloth is made of, and I wonder what kind you have. We call a wooden thing you use when you make thread a spindle, which might be what you have. A spindle is basically just a straight stick, with an weight close to the other end of it. The weight should be balanced so that if you let it hang from a thread fastened from one end it is straight down. This could be for example a rounded wooden piece the stick goes trough.
Saw: You said you had some problems with people falling in when breaking ice whit a hammer. That made me thinking that you might not have a saw. A saw is a longish flat piece of metal with one of the sides made into a zig-zag pattern, called teeth as they resemble the teeth of a predator. All the teeths should be made sharp. Pulling this against wood while pushing it against it some will cut the wood. This cutting can be made to ice as well. As you do not have iron yet this might wear out fast, but this way only a small hole in the ice to start from and then you can do sawing next, with less cracking. If your ice gets much thicker in the winters than in my instructions, you can also wait for that which will make it crack less.
Some other time i (or someone else) could tell you about drills, with a big drill you could make the starting hole with even less breakage, and you can get nice holes in wood as well. After drilling/sawing a hole in the ice you can even sit on the ice and fish from the hole, without the need of the boat. Be careful with ice in places with running water tough, as there it tends to be more thin and easier breaking. If ice is clear and dark it is usually harder (and better for your ice house) than if it is white and unclear.
icepick
If one falls in water these are a good thing to have hanging in a rope easy to get. This is basically an handle with an sharp metal pin (like a nail, if you know what that is) sticking out from it. One in each hand will help one to pull themselves up from the ice, even alone if need bee (but the friend with a rope is a good idea, don't leave that out).
Sails
You asked another voice about using cloth to catch wind in boats. This cloth is called sails and I will now try to explain some ideas on how to use it. Here you can use either wool or linen cloth, as long as the weave is dense and strong. The fabric should be quite thick.
To use a sail you need something called a mast. The mast is a pole going straight upward from the middle of the boat. This should be well fastened to the boat. To get the mast stable you should fasten ropes from the top of the mast to different parts of your boat, at least to the front and back.
There is many ways to fasten a sail to the mast, this is called a rigging. I do not have time to tell you all about this at this time, as we have many other things to discuss, so I will choose one called "square rigging"
Here the idea is to have a square formed sail fastened at the upper end to an horizontal pole and the lower corners to ropes. Lets call this horizontal pole a boom. The sail should be square formed as the name suggest. As you will probably not be able to weave wide enough cloth fasten as wide pieces as you have so that the seams goes from up to down, this will hold better.
To use the sail you need to have a rope system where the rope is fastened to the boom, then going up to the mast trough some loop and back down again. Pulling this rope will lift the boom up to almost the top of the mast.
all corners (up in the boom and down in the cloth) should be fastened to ropes that can be made tighter or looser to better catch the wind. This rigging is good for sailing in the same direction as the wind is blowing but bad to sail against the wind.
About the boat: As the sail is pulling from high up, the boat can not be to light or narrow compared to the size of the sail or it may flip over. I will suggest trying first with smaller boats before trying to build bigger. Do always have oars with you. You will need a rudder to keep the ship going the way you want. This is basically an wide oar that can be fastened to the side or back of the boat.
Here is some problems you may encounter and how to maybe prevent them. If the sail is to narrow compared to the boat, the ship will turn toward wind, without you being able to prevent it . If the sail is too low, the sailing will be slow except in hard wind. If the sail is too high it will pull too much, and the boat is in danger of breaking or tipping over if you don't pull it lower, even in not that hard wind. To make the ship less pone to tip you can put heavy stones in the lowest part of the boat, (for example under a separate floor). This is not needed in smaller boats where just a few persons fit, but in boats of 10 persons or more this should be thought about.
About sailing: The sail should fastened with the ropes so that it is taunt. If the sail is flapping it is either too loose or your boat is too much against the wind. Sails can take a boat not only in the same direction of the wind, but also sideways to the wind, to do this, pull your rope so that the sail is not straight forward but a little turned so that the wind can catch it. The rigging that I explained is not the best for this, but it is a good version to start with.
Monjolo: The fact that people from nearby villages can use this is great, and I suggest you will try to get them built at least in the larger villages of the nine nations first, at least when possible. Large villages usually have smaller close by, and there are in this way most people that will get the usefulness out of it.
Scissors: With your current materials, a similar scissor to this one brought from afar is I think the best opinion. This was probably made by a smith (person working with making things out of metal. I do not know how this would be done by your current way of melting and casting, but if some other voices have old you about smiting with hammers and anvil, the idea is to first make the ends into knifes (you can sharpen them afterward) and then turn the bit between into the loop. These will be handy to have when cutting fabric etc. A good pair of scissors are better in some tasks than the best pair of knives.
For measuring distances:
Here is some short descriptions of tools that might help with your measuring and mapping project, tough i do not have time to go into details. First you should maybe decide on a measuring scale. For example the length of your foot or something else. This way you can always know that if someone says a ting is 10feet what the length is.
Odometer: A cart or chariot wheel turns a gear as it rolls; after every specific distance, lets say 100 of your feet, a pebble drops into a box, giving a running count of distance traveled.
Cross-Staff: A staff a bit shorter than a man with a sliding crossbar. The user points the staff at one point and slides the crossbar until it appears to touch another desired point. The distance along the staff indicates the visual angle between the two points (I hope angles which is the amount of turning was mentioned earlier by some other voice).
Preserving food:
You seem to be doing quite well with this already I do not have much time to go into this before moving on to your matters at hand but I will try to give some advice:
The main think that would be good to know is that all food is keeping best in a dark dry place. If the place for keeping food is warmer then dryer becomes more important. It also depends on the food. I will try to give examples.
Grain will keep better as whole than as crossed/grinded and grinded seed keeps better than bread. Dried thing holds best in dry places that does not have to be cold, as does dried berries an meat. A shelf is better for most of these, except maybe the grain that wont fit on a shelf. this way mouse and rats will have a harder time to reach them. Also packing it into an non airtight bag will help you to not have rats find them.
Most fresh things keeps better in cold, like milk, and stuff done from it and meat, even salted meat can be good to hold in the cool. Also fruits, berries and eggs will keep better in cold than in warm, tough fruits can also be dried and thus kept in warm.
Bread is better in dry than in wet and cold, because dried bread can still be eaten while moldy bread should not (if it have green or white small stuff growing on it is probably mold)
d can still be eaten while moldy bread should not (if it have green or white small stuff growing on it is probably mold)
If you want to keep food fresh (like bread softer for long, one thing you could try is taking linen fabric and dip it in beeswax. This fabric can then be used to wrap food in. This will make the fabric more airtight and beeswax, like hon
If you want to keep food fresh (like bread softer for long, one thing you could try is taking linen fabric and dip it in beeswax. This fabric can then be used to wrap food in. This will make the fabric more airtight and beeswax, like honey helps against the growing of germs in food.
You use already salts and drying which is good. Dried meat does not have to be stored in salt, if it is properly drying just a dark dry place will do as long as it is properly dried, which means it is tough too bend and the same color trough, but not yet broken when bent. As little fat as possible is good when drying beat, as the fat spoils in this way faster than the meat (it goes rancid). It will keep even better if it have been salted and put spices on first, as many spices or herbs as well as salt helps against germs.
You can also just salt the meat if you put it in lots of salt as the salt will take all the water away from the meat.
Things put in pots and covered in honey sounds good for sweet things like berries. You can try to cook the berries with the honey to make "jam" a sweet substance that can be eaten with bread etc. The pots for this and other things you cover with honey can make to preserve better by pouring molten beeswax either on top of your jam or on the thing you closed the pot with if you had any, this will help your food keep as air wont be able to brig germs to it.
There is much more i could tell but now I do not have the time.
About matters at hand:
[x] [Heroes] Hare made the underworld, get someone to ask Her about this
But if the answer takes times to reach, make the heroes your guests in the meantime. But set some warriors to watch them. There is a risk they are really more thieves come for your horde, and not all on the quest they say they are. Or maybe even think to win glory by harming you.
I am against the opinion of killing them, at least before asking Hare, killing servants of another undying entity might give you more trouble than what it is worth.
[x] [Stake] Give Kahl all she asks, and a singer, and a table-ruler, and more warriors
When she goes to the city, give here what she asks if it is not too much. If your economy is the same as it was in my world at your time, make coins only the size of your nail and thin. Also silver or copper can be used as money. If you send gold think how much things costed when bought from the magician, your traders wont be able to take with them back an endless amount, and a bigger amount to trade with will also attract more thieves coming against them. People outside the nine tribes are greedy and often risk their life for even small amounts of gold. That is why the soldiers are important. A sack the size of two big fists of a man should be enough gold if the standards are similar. Think also to not have all gold in one bag because people that seem rich will be asked a higher price
When taking back plants, seeds are usually better than plants, as plants/trees often wither when traveling. It is also important to see that the seeds are from a place with similar weather as yours. Otherwise they might not grow as you don't yet have technology to keep an area warm for them to grow on. This is also why I would advice against the citrus that another voice mentioned. They won't grow where you live, and also eating a lot of berries or fruit that can grow where you live help against the sickness mentioned. It is more of a problem if you can't get fresh (or even dried) fruits or berries.
Bartering; even if gold is not that high valued in the 9 nations, you should not throw it away, tell her to first rather offer a low price than a high price, as the seller will probably first ask a too high a price.
Buying knowledge: If someone in the city knows the secret of smelting iron this would be a valuable person to get, or one that is good at counting or building. Don't show too much interest tough.
[x ] [Shortage] Let the Galugr trade additional summers of labor to Eppam and Zouchaud for more cattle
But I think they could trade labor to the other tribes as well, even tough the travel is longer to get there. And I would like you Undying Bianca to go to their lands and bless their cattle, to get the matter rectified properly. Also have another singer or tableruler go there and check the counting
One last thing:
Lastly I would like to advise against going to war with a city that another voice again suggested. You do not yet have the weapons to go trough a wall often surrounding the city, and cities are very full of people that will resist you. It will only end in sorrow
In case you did not hear Black cat in the chatter of voices he tried to tell about an good improvement to your plough:
Another matter. Mouldboard plough, the great improvement in ploughing fields and thus the production of food. The plough has wheels on the front, so that it could easily be taken from field to field. The major change for the better lies in the way the plough cuts. On the frame ahead of the share is a bronze or iron knife, placed vertically to cut the sod and to make it easier for the share to enter the thick soil. Behind the share is a curved, wing-like board, sitting diagonally to the frame, to lift the cut sod and throw it clear to the right, like a wave breaking. This is the mouldboard, and it permits land to be ploughed at its wettest. As each furrow is ploughed, the plough team can make a turn at the end of the field, and then return to make a furrow parallel with the first, going in the opposite direction. The result is a series of ridges and furrows, with the highest point of the ridges at the centre of the field, running like a kind of spine down the centre of the ploughed area. This allows the water in the field to drain off to the sides.
"Thank you, Dragon, for describing your 'gambeson.' Warriors will already, at times, place rolls of fabric under their armor in places, like their shoulders, where they expect blows to fall more often. I will introduce to the warriors whole armor of cloth, used alone or under armor of hide or layered woods and pastes or copper and bronze. And they will no doubt judge its effectiveness with their lives.
"Though perhaps this is a good case for Black Cat's method of study. I see no reason to limit the tellings of gambesons to the Burgeck Tribe. But I can direct those that would be of my priesthood that they should form and execute tests of the cloth armor in its various uses.
"There is, however, one matter of confusion here, I think. Cloth in the 'tunic-like' manner you describe may be made because it is so very long but not so very wide, though quite wide, still. But if the same sections are to lie at one-eighth turn to the warp, they could only come from a very wide cloth, the making of which the people do not know. For now the turned portions of your gambeson may be made from smaller pieces sewn together.
"But if your instructions assume greater looms then I would know how those, too, may be made.
"Additionally, there is at least one matter of what I believe to be an unnoticed gap in information. If woven cloth is cut, its edges will fray in time and especially with washings. For this reason, knitting is preferred for shapes of cloth such as socks and leggings. You state so plainly, though, that a tunic-shape should be cut from woven cloth and sewn to itself. So perhaps you know something of how fraying may be prevented. In the immediate, Burgeck will make do.
"Cloth is either knitted or woven on a loom, where the weaver sits with the loom strapped to them. There are a pair of rods at each end to hold the warp wide. And the far pair is attached to some post or wall, against which the weaver will pull the warp taut by leaning back. Another rod is tied to half the warp to heddle the shed open, its partner rod sits in the opposing shed. The final two rods are the batten, which drives woven weft into the warp, and the shuttle, which carries the weft through the shed. Threads of wool and linen are known. Some other cloths have come to us in trade, but cloth wears away in years of use. The people do use spindles, which appear much as you described them.
"Wood is chopped by axe and split by wedge. I will direct the casting of flat strips of copper with 'teeth' along one long edge, have them filed sharp, and tried on wood and ice. As you say, these may wear down fast. Also, there is ever the risk of tool loss in ice collecting. So better bronze is unlikely to see use in this way until and unless I acquire much, much more of it.
"A small and sharp, narrow-pointed copper pick in each hand could, I do see, help someone pull themselves out from broken ice. And if they are hung from a belt they will not be lost in the falling. Perhaps even the saw could hang from the harvester of ice, and so a more valuable metal could be risked… It bears considering.
"All of the people dig out boats for use on rivers and such. But only the Zouchaud and the Naumo assemble larger boats of the planks of several trees and regularly take these into the sea. I will make your suggestions of sails to them, and they will make of them what they do. It is good that you have included solutions to some problems that may occur, as well.
"What my singers have told me of the monjolo is that they are built where circumstances allow them to be easily built. And in at least one place a young marriage moved to a site well suited to monjolo and started a new village which has prospered as much as such a small thing might. The people home themselves with regard to terrain and circumstance. How could I say, 'This larger village should have a monjolo,' when all the nearby waters are slow?
"Some clever member of Burgeck Tribe did reproduce the scissors I had seen before. There are and handful of them around and they are well regarded as tools. But the bronze they are made from is too precious for many to be made and copper scissors too often break or come to stop flexing back open.
"I do not see the use of your cross staff, but perhaps it will become apparent to the road layers. A chariot-wheel counter, though, sounds like an excellent means to measure the distance down one path or another. The layers of roads, then, will have a better understanding of the benefits of one path over another, and of material they will need.
'The length of my foot is overly short for measuring distances. The number of foot-lengths between villages will be very large and unwieldy. One hundred turns of a chariot wheel, though, might be better. Or perhaps a thousand turns?
"Thank you for your guidelines, Dragon, on the preservation of food. I think it is more helpful to tell the people, 'If a good is best kept dried, it may be kept warm for longer; but if being dried does little good then it will not keep in warm places,' than to give them specific examples that may or may not fit their circumstances. I will tell the bee-keepers, in whose families there is and perhaps always will be the most wax, to try waxing linen and wrapping bread in it. And I will tell them that it is the tightness against air which so keeps or does not the food in the case of waxed linen. Sealing by wax is known. But it may be that it is not being used so much as it might, as wax is still newly more readily available.
"You are correct that setting myself against an undying entity is not to be considered lightly. But consider that Erweh has set himself against me already. Still, I have listened to the counsel of the Cacophony against setting out in violence.
"I do like your idea of sending coin of lesser metals as well. I have, as it happens, far more silver than gold. And I there is more copper in the Nine Nations than I could send in many pack trains of Lan. If these are kept in many small bags and in small pieces that may be counted out -- and if Kahl is as clever as she seems -- then there should be better prices and, if theft occurs, lesser numbers of coin may be lost. Yes.
The Demon that is I greets you once more Undying Bianca, she of the thousand tablets. The theft from your hoard was troublesome of the most extreme sort. Is it possible to lay some sort of tracking spell upon items you find to be of interest? Perhaps marking it with your blood or some such.
If not, consider hiding and rubbing strong smelling spices or herbs on treasures you truly value, especially adding fresh when you play host to foreigners, and training tracker hounds.
In fact, if you have not yet, begin selectively breeding a specific type of dog for their ability to smell and track. Dogs can smell specific scents buried up to 40 footspans underground under the right conditions, which would also be useful for recovering buried treasure in the future.
Glass
May this humble Demon now describe to you how to make a simple form of soda-lime glass? I shall assume you say yes.
For this glass you will require three main ingredients.
First, the silica, from fine sand or crushed quartz. For sand, the cleaner you can get it, the better. Coastal, river or desert sand is probably the best available. If using sand, first sieve it using cloth or wicker, to remove pollutants, with a mesh fine enough to separate out tiny rocks and so on. Pre-roast the sand in a kiln to get rid of some of the remaining contaminants. It may be, though unlikely, that your area has non-silica sand. If so, then it would be much more difficult for you to make glass.
Second, the soda ash. Seaweed, water plants, or plants growing along the coast, such as saltwort, or in other areas where the ground is salty, should be burnt, thus creating the soda ash. The lumber of the beech tree may also be used, but is not recommended.
Third, the lime. Crushed snail shells, bird eggshells or seashells should be roasted in a kiln or oven, turning them into quicklime, then preferably ground into a fine powder. It should be noted that this quicklime will degrade over time and should be used relatively quickly after the roasting. If you know of it, limestone may also be used after roasting. Natural caves are usually inside limestone.
These ingredients should then be mixed together in clay pots, crucibles, whose inside is lined with lime. The rough proportions is seven parts silica, two parts soda ash and one part quicklime.
Thereafter place the crucibles in a kiln, and attempt to completely melt down the mixture contents. Perhaps aim for the same heat as in a pottery kiln, and of the same duration, or at least several hours. Hotter and longer is better if possible. Leave it to cool down several days. Hopefully you will find inside the crucibles glass, a material similar to obsidian, but hopefully somewhat transparent like water, ice or crystals.
If initial attempts fail, try for higher heat or longer firings, or add more soda ash. This is because the soda ash is a flux, which greatly reduces the heat needed to melt the silica in the sand or quartz. It also reduces the quality of the glass however, which the lime counteracts.
When you have managed to melt the mixture inside the pots into glass, it is probably easiest to smash the pots to retrieve the glass inside. This glass should be relatively valuable as a trade good.
There are more advanced methods to shape and form glass into actually useful forms, but for now I wish to focus on merely successfully making it. You can however, grind and carve these glass ingots like stone, this is called cold cutting, or melt them to form them, even at lower heat to merely soften them, instead of the high heat needed to melt the silica to form glass.
Glass recycling is a good policy. Remelt broken or useless pieces of glass after grinding it up, which is easier than making new glass, and may actually increase quality.
Pottery can be made proof against water seepage by glazing it. While there are many methods, I will be focusing on two, ash-glazing and salt-glazing.
For ash-glazing, after the pottery has been dried and is ready to be fired, or after it has already been fired once, sieve ash from the burning of any sort of plant material, and mix the fine ash with water, optionally adding some clay as well, mixing it, and then applying the resulting slurry to the pottery. Wait for it to dry, and then fire the glazed pottery at a relatively high heat.
For salt glazing, during the firing of the clay when the pottery kiln is at its hottest, throw salt into the kiln.
The glazing essentially works the same as the soda ash in glassmaking, in that they act as fluxes which allow certain elements in the pottery to melt easier, resulting in a smooth, glossy, waterproof finish to the pots.
Glazing, especially ash glazing, is quite variable, so it's hard to give definitive guidelines for it.
Lodestones
Now that you have iron oh Undying Bianca, if only a little, have you heard tales of any stones that attract irons towards itself or is attracted towards iron? If not, you may try searching in areas where lightning has struck for such stones, because they gain their strange properties by being tempered by lightning it is said.
If you do happen to find such stones, they are lodestones or waystones or journeystones, magnets, which can help you to tell direction. Much more importantly however, they are useful for removing iron flecks from sand so you can make better glass.
Lodestones are invariably made from magnetite, which is usually black, one of the more common iron ores. Consequently, if you do find some, you might look for further rocks that look similar to the lodestone, though they will not have its powers.
Beaches can also have black sand, which may be magnetite.
DO NOT heat or smelt a lodestone once found, or it will likely lose its useful properties.
Sign Language
There are several factors that your Singers may use in making sign language. The hand formed into a sign itself, the orientation, the location of the hand, and possibly motion of the hand. Deliberate manipulation of the rest of the body such as the face or shoulders, can provide additional information, acting perhaps as descriptors for the sign words.
Time:
All I have told you of time, is done and measured in these proper manners, because such brings good luck in the sunless and moonless demon realm from which I hail. That was a lie.
I divide the day as I do because the time of the dawn and the sunset is not constant, and it seems odd to divide a day from noon to noon to my sensibilities. Surely the time the sun shines uninterrupted is all one day?
The division of the day comes from a time when the day was divided into ten hours, and two hours for the twilight added, and thus twelve more hours assigned to the night to match those of day.
It takes a moon I know of twenty-nine and a half days to go through it's complete cycle of waxing and waning. Dividing this time into equal segments, multiples of seven came the closest while being convenient, with four weeks of seven equalling twenty-eight days.
Initially there was an occasional leap day added to this weekly system to keep it in time with the moon, but this was eventually abandoned. Ultimately, the tracking of the sun and its year is more important than the tracking of the moon because of seasons.
There is no strong reasoning for hours or weeks, or indeed months I have told you of, though day and solar year follow what is, and are useful and practical and logical.
But it is the system I and several of the other voices use, and I explained so you could know what I mean when I speak of an hour, and when I speak of week, and when I speak of a month. You may adopt it or not as you see fit, but keep it in mind when I speak of time in the future.
If you need to track time at night for some reason, you may make candles and place them next to markings, and tell how much time has passed by comparing the burning candle to the markings.
Or you can make large ceramic bowl standing on legs, and before firing poke a thing hole in the bottom with a small stick or other thing long implement, and glaze it to be waterproof, or if for some reason you can't glaze it, after firing melt beeswax and cover the bowl with it, poking a stick through the hole again to make prevent the wax from blocking it. Markings for time measuring may also be made along the inside of the bowl before firing.
You now have a water clock, and the time it takes for water to completely flow out through the small hole when the bowl is full should always be the same amount of time. The bowl could be placed above another bowl, so you can reuse the same water when you need to reset the water clock instead of fetching new water.
The water clock could possible be standardized by making the bowls the same size by making them on specific standard molds.
Wet cloth:
They should protect against arsenic gas a certain extent, and also against smoke and dust. I will note that such face masks should not be considered as perfect however, they merely help.
They are less likely to favour their family, because they don't have family, either because you take in orphans without families to become eunuchs, or separate the eunuch from their families, so they will grow distant over time, and cannot make new family members through siring children. I do not claim it a perfect system certainly, but it is a system.
Scrolls:
A wooden rod with thin leather wrapped around it?
Ah, a scroll. Useful things those. While less durable than clay tablets, they are certainly more convenient.
If you succeed in making parchment, hides stretched on frames, as described by other voices. And glue or nail or sew them to wooden rods, to make scrolls, you will still need something to write on it a scroll with yes?
By mixing together animal glue or plant gum, and water and then adding that to soot, you can create a good sort of black ink. Glue being made from boiling animal bones and skin, and soot being the black residue released upwards by flames, often found in chimneys and the like.
Lamp and candle soot, bone soot and pine soot is particularly good for this. Form the mixture into pellets or some such, and let it dry, which may take weeks or months. Grind pellets into a fine powder and mix with water when you wish to write. Drying is not strictly neccessary, and more water could be added to the soot and glue or gum and stored as a liquid ink, but I believe pellets are more convenient. As to the actual instrument to write with, I would suggest reed pens.
Take any common reed if not too think to comfortably hold in one's hand, cut them into shortish sections of around one to two handspans, and make an oblique cut at one end with a sharp knife. This is the beginning of the nib of the pen.
Remove the pith from the cut in the reed, and make further oblique cuts in the same location, aiming to make the tip of the nib quite thin. Then trim the edges of the nib to thin the writing point to the desired thickness, cut off a small amount of the very tip of the nib in a slanted line, and make a lengthwise split cut through the nib that will allow the ink to flow better.
Some reed can also be carved away on the backside of the nib to make it more flexible.
The reed pen is held in the hand, it's nib is dipped into a bowl of liquid ink, and then pressed onto parchment or other writing surface, and moved around to form letters.
A similar process can be followed to make quills from feathers, if desired.
Walnut Ink
Other potential inks is walnut ink, made from the slightly rotten husks of walnuts, boiled in water for half a day, before straining the liquid through a piece of cloth to remove the pieces of husk, and boiling the remaining liquid to get rid of excess water until it thickens slightly. Then a small amount of vinegar and salt can be added to prevent it from rotting, and it can be stored in containers. It should produce a dark brown ink.
It can also be boiled completely dry into crystals or powder, which are then mixed with water to create liquid ink.
If you ever have unneeded rusty iron, it can be added to the water during the walnut husk boiling to darken the colour of the ink (and be reused).
There are several reason the trees may not be bearing fruit. Some plants require a mate of the opposing gender for their flowers to be pollinated and create fruit, you may not have both genders for those types of trees among your three. Or they are not being properly pollinated. Perhaps put a beehive near your little grove so the bees may pollinate the flowers.
Or perhaps the area you have planted the trees are too cold and their flowerbuds are damaged during the spring frost if there is such. There is little solution to this except for attempting to transplant them somewhere warmer.
Undying Bianca of the Walled Hoard, could you tell me when next we meet of how your people farm now, and how well it seems to be working? Further and more, the progress of that dread ghost of a forest.
[X] [cacophony] Demonic Spoon
[X] [Stake] Give Kahl all she asks, and a singer, and a table-ruler, and more warriors
Perhaps even give her a full host of warriors and invade a city. I remind you again of the shadow forest encroaching on your lands, and the need to move away from here.
If Kahl should happen to find for sale fruit with a orange, yellow or green rind whose flesh is divided into sections, these should be purchased, as they are hopefully Citrus fruit, which are useful for staving off sickness and scurvy.
[X] [Shortage] Let the Galugr trade additional summers of labor to Eppam and Zouchaud for more cattle
[X] [Heroes] Make no promises, but have the band of heroes made as merry as possible.
-[X] Then kill them by ambush.
Fear not, for our holder can hear all our foolishness repeated to them over and over again for as long as they wish to waste time on it.
I thought it we had a bit of too long a streak before people began introducing the scientific method, the solar system and galaxy, gravity, the periodic table and apparently how atoms and subatomic particles work. We were doing so well at sticking to more relevant topics too.
Might as well go all out and introduce her to quantum mechanics no?
"The hounds of the Nine Nations serve a number of purposes, Demon, and have come to have differing shapes and dispositions better suited to those purposes. Wardogs, especially those of the tribe of Tash, are larger and more relentless in a struggle. Hunting dogs track and run better. Guard dogs raise alarm more readily and are overall more suspicious. And the dogs that watch herd are of necessity better at keeping company with sheep and cattle while being light sleepers as guard dogs are. When Sleomjash Tribe came to the Free People, they brought with them lanky hounds that kept up with chariots at any speed slower than a full charge, and there is some sign of those still in the hunting dogs of the Sleomjash and Lan tribes. But I think those dogs were suited to certain chariot-ridden hunts on the plains the Sleomjash came from, and not the lands of the Nine Nations.
"It is good that you told me there are uses for 'glass.' As I have said before, the Free People do not need more trifles to sow discord between them until they decay or pass into my hoard. But, yes, it does little good to spend overmuch time on the making of useful things if the material itself cannot be formed. So this is another task for the Burgeck. I have grown to enjoy it when they jump to attempt whatever strange course of action I set before them. Perhaps this is why it benefits to have a priesthood? I do not know. I still see risk that they will exercise too much power over their fellows, as do other priesthoods, and in that way lead to strife. Only I should have power over the Free Peoples, for they are mine alone.
"As much as it serves well for the tribe of Burgeck to test out many of the steps given by you voices, there are potters among all of the people. And both the ash and salt glazes you describe sound simple enough for any to do. I will have the potters around my great house try it first, of course, so that we know we have the right of it. Then there will be a new song of clay and fire to spread among the people, and that will be that.
"I have some pots and more platters from far off lands which have a finish like a thin layer of the clearest ice. One platter in particular, though it is smooth to the touch it has the appearance of ripples in water, trapped in an instantaneous moment. A chieftain of Gawdtha slew… Hmm. I believe it was the cousin of his husband or wife. Another person in his village, in any case, owned the platter and allowed all his kin and their spouses to look on it. And the chieftain's mind became fixed on its wonder until he murdered for it. The resulting feud took some number of other lives, including that chieftain, before it was brought to me and I took the platter as tribute and another two lives, I think, for justice. I do not even allow my singers to look on that wonder. It has no curse on it that I can tell, but it fascinates the eye and the mind.
"In any case, I once thought those were cleverly carved from stone to resemble pottery. But now I think they are simply well glazed.
"I also have in my hoard dark stones which cling to each other, but only in certain configurations. In a differing configuration they struggle against being made to touch. They were stronger, I think, when they first came to me. I do not know the nature of their manner and would like to learn more. And I will tell the people to be on the lookout for such things, though surely they already are. No one could come across such a thing and not think it is a wonder. And I will show the stones to the elders of Burgeck Tribe which oversee the bloom-seeking, so that they might know at least one sort of stone to seek, in addition to the bogstones.
"We have found little use for any tongue of fingers. Some among my singers took up its making as a means to communicate between themselves in secret, even though they might be in the company of others. But there's little that can be said in such a way in the small number of signs that may be given without others known that signs are being given. If any who is without hearing but still has their voice is young enough to learn to do so, they will learn to hear words in the silent motions of lips. And if they're too old to comfortably learn that, then surely they are too old to learn the tongue of fingers. And how would that work? All those around them would also need to know hand-signs. I do not understand when this would be useful. And my singers, though there are many among them fascinated by any chance to be clever, have found no case in which it is worth the trouble.
"I can't say I care for your time measures, and what I assume to be the time measures the other voices use. If the sky is clear and the moon is out, all will know where it is in its cycle. How is it that all know what day of the week it is when that day is uncoupled from the moon? Does everyone count the days all the time? That seems unlikely. Why would they need to do so?
"But if I say, 'Do this thing once on the full, then on half, then the new, then the half again,' it will get done four times a moon. And if the count is lost it may be checked again the next time the sky is clear and the moon is out. If two people are keeping count and one of them makes an error this way or that, once again, the truth will be known when next they see the moon. If everyone keeps their own count they will have to call for another, and who's to say that other is not also missing a day?
"It would be convenient if the seasons matched the cycles of the moon. They do not. And so it seems we must keep separate count of days of the moon and days of the seasons of the year. And until I need to say, 'Do this thing so-many times each day,' and need some sort of precision in that then I have little need for hours, either. I can see how such might help the waterings of the road layers in the summertime, but they make do as they are.
"I suppose it may be that the days of blood better fit four weeks of seven days than one month of not-quite-thirty. I might often forget such things as, like breath, they have long ceased to trouble me. But I know that few people's days match to the moon but instead trail or lead it or vary so much that little may be known unless two moons pass, or more. If you had told me, 'The days of blood most closely match twenty-eight and so this cycle is the best fit for the people over all,' I might have been more closely interested. But I think instead things will stay as they are and I nonetheless thank you, Demon, for informing me of the terms you and other voices will use.
"Every innovation seems to require more of what prior innovations provide. How many fields of flax and hemp and flocks of sheep will the Free People of the Nine Nations require in order to produce iron for all the tools and weapons they desire?
"Wet cloth, certainly. I likely need only have my singers spread the word among the people that wet cloth over the face will lessen the slaggers' sickness and they will find the cloth to do it with.
"And I do take your point regarding separation of eunuchs. Before I made my singers I did myself draw in a company of orphans and unwanted children. I raised them with the intent that they would be my eyes and lips among the tribes. But in the tribes many of them found what they most wanted and what I did not give them: family. I did not make those castoff people want to serve me more than they wanted anything else and I do not know how to do that. So instead I found people who already want something more than anything else, something only I can provide. And though what a person wants can change in time and my singers do sometimes make marriages and join to families they largely remain mine.
"My singers have been testing paints on the scroll every few seasons and the results have not be too our liking. I will direct them in the making of pens and ink and we'll see if that works better.
"I have three strange trees all different from each other. I suppose their differences might only be in their seeming, and one might still fuck another to some manner of fruitfulness. And I should have considered the bees. One or another of you voices had, in the past, suggested bringing hives near to flowering things. It should be a regular thing, I think.
"In late spring, the field is plowed in close rows so that the ground is broken up. Water is applied if rain is not forthcoming. Seed for the crop to be grown in that field in that year is scattered throughout the field. While the field is growing, none may walk on it so that the plants are not trampled. Water is directed to the field again at times while it grows to make up for missed rains. Then the fruit of the field is harvested according to its kind. And afterward the field is burned.
"Every so many years, depending on local supply, each field is covered with black soil before it is plowed. And every so many years I visit each field to work my own magic on it so that it prospers.
"Farming works well. The people are fed and their granaries are close to fullness, leading more prosperous villages to expand them. Nearly all the Free People of the Nine Nations live better than their neighbors and better than they did twenty years prior.
"The cursed woods are growing on the whole, I think. The Galugr take pride in their fight against the forest, but it doesn't burn properly and in places it has already overtaken the first wall they set against it.
"I will direct Kahl to purchase some small number of fruit or seeds of every sort she can find, so long as she retains enough coin otherwise to buy as much bronze as can be brought back to the Nine Nations.
Greetings once more o Undying one, 'tis I the voice called sheep.
The nature of trust is a fascinating one, the means to break it more so.
Let me tell you a portion of a tale that should shed light on how a society breaks down:
Long ago amongst a people now forgotten, it happend that an alliance of tribes managed to defeat the great army of a powerful king.
Celebration where held in every village, and the tribes in their joy chose the greatest chieftain amongst them, the one who slew the king and led the war efforts, to be their king.
This chieftain took the name of Puny Dog upon his crowning, so that all the world will come to respect and fear the lowest of names.
This Puny Dog built a great Palace in his village, and from its halls he declared many a law.
He declared it law that any and all visitors to the village must first come to his royal residence, and there they would be honoured guests of the King for all of their stay.
He declared it law that when the king's cookfires are kindled, all are to come to his hall and partake of his generous bounty.
He declared it law that the herds of his people can only graze on fixed lands at fixed times of the year, and that for the rest of the year, they will give feed to their cattle from the palace stores.
He declared it law that the wilderness is his, and that none may hunt in it, and that all is under his protection, and none may feud or raid without his sanction.
He declared it law that his herds are kept separate from all others, and that no beast is to mingle with them.
These were his commands, and you can see the reason behind them. The king wished to change the ways of his people, to make them more alike the settled folks he bested in war, and he wished to elevate and empower his own person and position.
In his way, he cared for the tribes, and indeed his laws provided them peace and plenty.
But the tribes where free and mighty, they knew of honour, pride and dignity, and would not suffer any damage to them.
By denying them the chance to welcome and honour guests, the King mocked their hospitality, by denying guests their ability to go where they please, he derides their liberty.
By denying the tribes their own cookfires, he insults their competence and ability to provide.
By restricting the grazing lands, he insults their wisdom and ownership of their own cattle.
By denying them the rights to hunt, raid and feud, he insults their honour and prowess.
By separating his herds, he declares that their cattle is lesser than his.
All that adds to slights against dignity, pride and ancient tradition.
Discontent raged within the tribes, and only their kinship with the king, and the great love and respect they held for him since he was but a chieftain kept them at bay.
Until one day, the King's cousin, a man named Listener, received his niece as a guest.
The niece, a woman named Cheer, had with her a mare that she tied to a pole outside Listener's house.
The bindings where ill made, and soon the mare was free and began to wander about.
It followed the horses of Puny Dog as they were led to the spring to be fed and waterd.
As it froliked amongst the King's Horses, Puny Dog, riding his own steed, discovered the foreign animal amongst his own.
He took his bow and arrow, took aim and let loose.
The arrow struck low, in the mares udders it buried itself, and blood with the milk did mix and into the dry earth it spilled.
In pain the beast wailed and quickly fled to whence it came. To Listener's house it arrived and screamed its last.
Cheer ran to her stricken beast and wailed at the loss; what shame! What calamity! She screamed.
She has come to her kin as guests and now her cherished mare is by an arrow slain, how low has her tribe fallen that they cannot protect their own?!
Listener promised her that a greater beast than her horse he will kill in vengeance.
The next day, all the elders and chieftains of the tribes under Puny Dog, gathered around the Kings stables. For they knew that Listener is hot headed and will bring catastrophe if he does what he intends.
But listener was not after the King's Horses, he was after their owner.
Puny Dog was known to hunt alone, for he was a great warrior, the equal of forty.
On that day Listener and his relative Shaggy Maine, approached the King, and there they told him that his tyranny has gone too far.
As a warrior they loved and admired him above all others, as a chieftain they held him an exemplar of honour, but as king they saw naught of him but callousness and tyranny.
They are his kin, his warriors, his friends and trusted men, that is no way to treat them.
He informed them that he is now King, and the relationship between himself and all others is of subject and lord, they are not his peers for him to treat as he did in the past, kingship has its own demands and dignities, and he would not break them.
Furious at Puny Dog's dissmisal, Listener shouted for the king to turn back to him, but was ignored.
Again he called and again he was ignored.
On the third call, he threw his spear, and deep in the Kings spine it buried itself.
This act would start a war that would last forty years and see two entire tribes exterminated.
Vengeance will beget greater vengeance, ties of honour, blood and duty would war amongst one another.
A Madness took hold of the people, and dearest friends ended each others lives in tears, mothers would morn and rejoice at once as their sons and husbands fought their fathers and brothers.
To name but a few of the tragedies, The king's daughter, Songbird, would see her mother, Listener's sister, killed.
The King's brother would kill his own two adopted sons, Listener's nephews.
The tribes had a honour duty to their blood family, to their marriage family, to their tribe, to their king, to their guests and to their friends.
A society breaks when these pillars of honour are set against one another.
When honour demands that you abandon honour, there a society breaks.
As for the matter of the priestess, I say she has well exceeded the limits of hospitality.
We turned her down the first time, and now she has the gall to return and demand tribute.
An example need to be made.
I say kill her vaunted heros, butcher them and torment their spirits infornt of her eyes, show her your might and power and then send her back to the godling who commands her. After all she is an envoy, and it is dishonourable to harm an envoy.
And as for the matter of Kahl, give her what she asks for and more, but instruct her with this:
Should she find this so called city to be a formidable thing, let her trade and learn of it.
But, of she finds it weak despite its splendour, then let her unleash the warriors and take by force all that they desire.
And as for the giants, a good way to create bonds and ties amongst a people is to have them shed blood and earn glory togather.
So let the giants raid for cattle, and let the Eppam and zouchaud raid with them!
[X] [Heroes] Write In : An example
[X] [Stake] Write In: Opportunists
[X] [Shortage] Tell Eppam and Zouchaud to assist Galugr with stealing cattle from outsiders
[X] [Cacophony] maximillian
"Hello, Sheep Voice. I will think on your tale, for there is a lot to it. It is true that the rules of honor and law should not be set against each other or theirselves. People make especially poor choices when all the choices they believe they have are poor. And capricious edicts are all the more likely to go awry. There have been, at times, high chiefs of the Free People of the Nine Nations who deceived themselves into believing their every word was wisdom, that whatever law or judgement entered their mind was best for all the people. These I slew quietly, often by sorcery or poison."
[X] [Heroes] Hare made the underworld, get someone to ask Her about this
[X] [Stake] Give Kahl all she asks, and a singer, and a table-ruler, and more warriors
[X] [Shortage] Let the Galugr trade additional summers of labor to Eppam and Zouchaud for more cattle
Greetings, Undead One. You may refer to this voice as Empty Husk.
I would have preferred to give you my advice sooner, but alas, only recently have I heard you call for aid.
I admit that I haven't inspected the advice of the voices and your arguments as closely as I should have, but I still hope that you find my own advice useful.
Firstly, I would like to focus on some suggestions in the making of shields.
With the materials you have currently available, I see three types of making shields at your disposal: leather, wicker, and wooden.
Wicker shields are those made by the weaving of branches, normally around a frame of sticks that give it structural strength. Depending on your resources, these could be ideal to mass produce for your people.
As for your leather shields, I'm not familiar with the quality of their quality so I'll share what possible improvements I know of in hopes that you can add them to your own.
For the material, I would recommend either hardened leather or thick rawhide, preferably the former.
In case you don't know how to make rawhide, one simply has to de-flesh a fresh animal hide and let it dry while stretched, normally by tying it to a wooden frame. Don't stretch it too much as you want it to grow thicker once dry. If the later has dried before one could de-flesh it, soaking it in a solution of softwood and hard wood's ashes and water for half a day should allow to soften it, or a few days if you also want to de-hair it. It should be about as resistant to blows and cuts as hardened leather, though more affected by humidity and prone to rot. May be more useful in arid places.
Now, I assume that your shields have a shaft fastened to the central ridge of the shield from top to bottom, right?
If they don't, then consider making a series of short cuts parallel to the central ridge at either side of where the staff would be while the leather has yet to harden and pass long strips of leather through them, as if weaving. The cuts and stips should make it easier to add a hilt and loops of leather to fix the staff into the shield. Also, consider extending the staff to that a person can rest the shield while standing and still be able to peek over the shield. This would allow your warriors to avoid getting tired before combat and rest more easily once tired.
Lastly, there are wooden shields.
Now, since you only mentioned the use of leather shields, I assume that you don't use wood because your people think you would need trees as wide as men to make shields big enough for use, rather than because you lack wood. So, I'll tell you the art of uniting planks and giving them strength.
First, you will need animal glue, easy to produce by putting bones or rawhide in water and boiling them until the water grows thick. You can also filter it through cloth to remove any solid impurities. Then it is just a matter of gluing the planks side by side until you reach the desired size. Making it close to the shape you want is also ideal, but you can just cut out any excess wood.
Now, there are various things you can do to give it strength:
You can make it rounded to help deflect attacks. Simply soften the wood with steam and put it in a solid mold for it to take shape.
You can add a leather or Rawhide edging. Make a series of holes near the edges of the shield and secure it in place with either nails or stitching. As the leather shrinks after being put on the shield, it will actually help keep the boards together.
You can face the shield. Cover it in animal glue and put on the facing, which can be either cloth or thin leather (assuming you don't want to make it too heavy). This will help you considerably, as where a faceless shield would split apart after the third blow of an axe, a faced shield can be hit five times and hold itself together.
Lastly, it is possible to add metallic bands in parallel to the boards with nails, normally on the back of the shield.
I should also mention that it is possible to add a metallic rim and even a thin metallic layer instead of facing, which of would of course make the shield heavier but also raises its durability greatly beyond that of normal shields, so much so that they would be all but impervious to most arrows, though obviously, metal is far from a luxury at the moment.
As for grips, you can either add a single grip in the middle, normally only done in non-rounded shields by making a hole in the center, fixing a length of wood with nails in parallel to the boards, which gives strength to the shield similarly to the staff mentioned in leather shields, and covering the hole with a metallic cup known as a 'boss' which is fixed normally with nails, protecting the hand and making parrying easier, or leather straps which can be fastened to the arm, normally done when stability is more desired than mobility. To take weight away of shields, consider making the edges thinner than the edges. This might make it easier for weapons to cut into the shield, but getting your axe stick in an opponent's shields often spells one's doom.
Those are the options, which can result in a great variety of shields. Now, this isn't a rule as much as a norm, but heavy and big shields tend to be used in either formation where speed isn't as important as moving as a group and in cavalry where the size isn't such a limiting factor, whereas medium-sized shields are more useful in situation where speed and mobility are more important than staying on a group or the later isn't simply an option, like in skirmishes or while in a forest. My advice is to still fight in formations whenever possible.
There are also smaller shields, which we know as 'bucklers', which don't extend much beyond once hand. So much so, that often they are made fully metallic, though bigger ones are still made of wood with a 'boss', some are practicality just a boss with a handle. Far too small to even cover one's chest, its main purpose is to parry incoming blows rather than protecting from projectiles and its main advantage is how easy it is to carry them alongside a sidearm like a sword or an axe. These are often carried by civilians and archers for self-defense.
Lastly, a last possible addition for medium-sized shields: a fringe along the lower border of the shield made of cloth, leather, and/or feathers, also known as a 'shield apron'. This should provide more protection from arrows and slings to your warriors' legs while not adding unduly weight to the shield. This might be especially useful should you chose a heavy shield that fails to cover the legs of your warriors for formations, as I doubt giving them bronze plates for their legs is an option at the moment.
Secondly, I would like to talk about the making of bows.
Take a branch or trunk and you will see that its center is darker than its borders.
Split the log or branch into pieces big enough to carve bows out of them, like quarters, discard pieces with too many knots or cracks, and then shape the pieces like bows with the dark part being the inside of the bow, known as the 'belly', and the clear part being the outside, known as the 'back'.
Congratulations, you have created a 'self' bow, pretty much the simpler kind of bow you can make while still taking advantage of the properties of the trees (the dark part is better at contracting and the clear part better at extending).
The advantage of this type of bows are the ease with which they can be made and the disadvantage is the size they can reach when made to match the strength powerful archer, with bows known as 'longbows' being around as tall as the archers using them.
Now, this isn't a problem for more stationary troops, but what if you want to use a bow from atop a horse? Well, then there is a series of improvements that can be made to the bow so that it has the same power as a longbow while being about the same size and weight as a short bow, resulting as what is known as a 'composite bow'.
First is the wooden core, which gives the bow its shape. It is often made of multiple types of wood, with hard and dense wood for the center and wood that can endure great stress for the bending parts of the bow, known as the limbs. Now, I want you to imagine an arch made of only two straight lines, like a triangle without a base. That is the shape of the splices where the different types of wood met, joined together with animal glue with the 'point' of the arch directed towards the 'limbs' of the bow, with the libs angled slightly outwards from the belly. Once the wooden core is complete, shape it as wide as a normal bow, but about as thick as a quarter of the width of a thumb's fingernail. Imprecise, I know, but the best measure I can think off that both of us can understand.
Secondly is the horn backing. Take the long horns of animals such as gemsbok, oryx, and ibex or even goat and sheep, though not those of cow as they last shorter with use, and cut them into strips about as wide as you want the bow to be, cutting off the hard tips. Keep in mind, the length of these horns will ultimately determine the length of the bow. Now, file away, or if you lack files, grind away the rough outside until it is smooth and reduce their thickness to about a little more than that of the wooden core. Then, soften them in boiling water and flatten them with the use of weight. Maybe put them between planks of wood and add stones above? Whatever, the next part is gluing the horn strips into the belly of the bow with animal glue. I recommend the making of small groves along the length of the wooden core and the horns make the union stronger, as glue has an easier time uniting rough surfaces than smooth ones. This is also a good time to glue the handle, which would go on the back of the bow between the two horns. I don't know how its size affects the handle, but making it accordingly to the user's hand seems like a safe bet. Once you put all the pieces and the glue is drying, wrap a rope around the bow tightly to make an even more secure joining of the parts.
As for the tips of the bow. They have to point outwards from the belly and can be stiffened with the use of glued bone or horns laths, but I recommend instead making the tips of stiff light wood called siyahs. If you chose to do so, make them an integral part of the wooden when you are assembling it, also joined with animal glue in splices 'pointed' at the limbs, but leave them be considerably thicker than the limbs of the bow. After all, you'll have to add in them the nocks for the string. They must be on the side of the back and carving them more than halfway through the siyahs isn't recommended.
Now, let's add a sinew backing. Take the tendons of an animals' feet and back and let them dry on the sunlight. Then, hit them with a blunt object like a hammer or simple club to separate them into fibers which can then be submerged in animal glue and added to the back of the bow lengthwise. Two layers before waiting a week and adding another two layers seem to be the right amount according to my sources. Securing the bow in place with a string and bounding down the sinew in place to keep it from moving is also recommended. Keep in mind that the tendons of lean animals are better than those of far animals, since these spoil faster.
Once the sinew has dried, it is time to stretch the bow. Pull the tips of the bow together, stretching the belly and contracting the back, then tie them together and then to the handle to keep them in place. The final shape should be close to a circle. I'm unfamiliar with how long it has to remain this way, but I assume it must be a few days.
Once that is done, you may glue what is known as a 'bridge' or 'run' near the base of the siyahs, which is a small horn or wood attachment designed to keep the string away from the bow's limb. This actually increases the arrows' speed when let loose.
Lastly, we have to give the bow a 'recurve'. Take two curved pieces of wood about as thick as an arm and tie them tightly to the back of the bows on the limbs near the tips. One way to do this (and the only way I know of) is to tie the base of the siyah to a fixed position with the bow's back facing upwards, locate the piece of wood under the limb near the tip, and then use one's body's weight to bend the bow and tie it in place, then do the same in the other end of the bow. Finally, with the pieces of wood still tied to the bow, place it in a wooden stand with the belly facing upwards and only holding the bow at the base of the siyahs. Then, tie a rope to the handle and pull it down gradually over a couple of days. This can obviously vary, but when there is around a head's width between the handle and where the string would be when strung seems to be enough to finally string the bow.
And that is it! Simple, right?
...Yeah, if it isn't obvious enough, the main downside of this bow is how ridiculously hard it is to make. You can choose to only add some features like the recurve or the sinew backing, but a full composite bow can take weeks to make.
Also, since the measures I can give you are vague at best, my recommendation is that you first order some experimental bows to be made with slight differences in the thickness of the materials, the angles of the cuts and so on, then have these tested by tying the handle to something solid like a tree and pulling it by the string with a long rope. These precautions are in place because, well, last thing you need is one of these breaking mid-test and wounding the person holding it. People have broken their arm while trying to put on the string.
Another thing, the way it is shaped may make some people confuse the back and belly of the bow and put the string at the front of the bow. If somebody attempts to shot with the bow like this, it will likely break.
So, what makes them worth it over simple self bows? Well, they can store power more easily, meaning you can get a bow as strong as a longbow for about half the size. Meaning they would be pretty useful for you once you develop your cavalry. Mounted archers are known for being the main force of the second biggest empire in our history.
Now, some things to keep in mind: These bows are more susceptible to moisture, but this can be countered by gluing a covering of leather, especially those more resilient to water like those of reptiles. By putting so much tension in a bow so small, it can actually hurt the fingers of the archer, but this can be countered by the use of a ring.
As for how to use mounted archers, their best use harassing infantry as they can attack from a distance and while the infantry is incapable of closing the distance since horses are faster. Not only that, but if the infantry does attempt to close the distance, well trained mounted archers can actually turn around and shoot at their pursuers while retreating. This means that they can also harras enemy cavalry, supposing their horses aren't overly faster than your own.
As for things they can't do, they aren't effective at taking enemy fortifications, nor at defending a position or taking at enemy position quickly, as they specialize in wearing down the enemy while being able to move away from them.
Lastly, a horse is bigger than a man, so archers on foot can form denser formations than mounted archers, and thus shoot more arrows. It is really difficult for mounted archers to outshoot archers on foot, and thus trying to do is ill-advised.
Mounted archers are also a reason as to by developing formations of foot soldiers. See, most mounted archers can go through their reserve of arrows in around a quarter of an hour, and a tightly packed formation covered in shields can actually just endure and wait for them to do so with close to losses. That is how effective shields formations can be... Just hope the mounted archers don't have people giving them more arrows, then things get complicated.
Anyway, as for other possible ranged weapons, you mentioned slings, but what about sling staffs? Is simple just make a shorter sling and fix it to the end of a long staff. It should be more powerful but less accurate than a standard sling, ideal against big groups of enemies.
As for spear throwers, have you considered the addition of thing loops near the bottom for the fingers and the addition of a small stone wight in the middle to add stability? Most of the voices probably think that this kind of weapon is primitive and should be discarded, but the truth is that war darts have actually still been a weapon ideal to use from atop defended positions even as bows became widespread, as it has shorter range but potentially more powerful than a bow, especially when used from above.
Lastly, let me talk to you about an invention known for laying waste on chariots, cavalry, and even elephants: the caltrop.
Made out of four spikes put together, by it by forging them together or simply nailing them to a small ball of wood, caltrops are designed so that, when thrown, it will always stand in three of its spikes while the other points upwards.
Now, imagine that an army, carrying a few bags filled with these, and then throwing their content on the front of their army. What do you think will happen when the opponent charges at them?
The answer should be evident: the horses will injure their feet and not only be unable of going forward but also of even standing, thus falling to the ground where more of these caltrops lay, leaving their riders vulnerable. Years of taming these animals, breeding them in considerable numbers, and learning how to ride them in combat go to waste thanks to the simpler of inventions.
Of course, this weapon has its limits: after all, it slows the army using them as much as the opposing army and they are really only useful as in defense, discouraging enemy charges, but they do that very well.
I tell you of this not necessarily for you to make use of it right away, but for you to be wary of it. The cavalry you are developing will be an invaluable tool for you in war, even more so if it catches your foes by surprise, but as time goes on there is a chance they will adapt to your forces, so it is best if you already know what you might come to face so that you can adapt to it yourself.
I mean, this one is pretty self-evident, isn't it?
On the matter of blacksmith, it pretty much just means somebody who works with iron, or to be more redundant, smiths iron. There are different names for smiths that work with different types of materials or products.
For example, a brownsmith is somebody that works with brass, copper, and bronze, a coppersmith somebody that works with copper (a redundant distinction, if you ask me), a goldsmith is somebody that works with gold, and a silversmith or brightsmith is somebody that works with silver. As for products, you have coinsmiths, locksmiths, bladesmiths, swordsmiths, weapons moths, and so on.
All in all, they are just names for specializations of those that work with metal, which are generally known as metalsmiths or simply smith's. Also, most of us have grown so familiar with the use of 'blacksmith' that many use it for anybody that works with metal.
Also, glasssmith is somebody that works with glass, even if glass isn't a metal. It is probably called that way because glass also has to be heathen to mold, like many metals.
As for the matter of cities, the other voices have talked about them for long, so rather than try to catch up with your current understanding, I'll limit myself to sharing my opinion and knowledge on the matter. Hopefully, it'll clarify some of your doubts.
What happens when a settlement grows bigger? When a society is prosperous, it is common its population to grow. This sometimes results in expansion, but also is higher density of people living in one place.
Imagine, then, that a settlement grows too big for the lands around then to sustain themselves? In that case, the settlement would be forced to look for other ways to obtain food, and thus, they start making goods to trade with nearby settlement for food.
With time, this leads to specialization. As food starts coming to the city from outside, less of its people focus on farming and instead focus on the making of their crafts, hence where all those types of smiths I mentioned earlier come from.
As you have already pointed out, this city make for tempting targets due to the amount of goods and riches they produce, but the inhabitants of these settlements know this, so they invest their goods and riches in improving their defenses.
Strong walls around the borders, training their own to grow strong and discipline, then giving them the best armor and weapons they can. It comes as no surprise that these settlements are often the most well-defended ones.
Now, let's imagine that you want to stimulate the growth of a settlement to become like this, how do you do so? Simple, with opportunity and need.
Imagine a route or river known for being used by merchants of distant places. These merchants will, obviously, want a place to trade and restore their supplies on or at the end of their journey, so you chose a place along or near this route, hopefully somewhere with some defensive advantages like a hill or so, and place a settlement there.
This way, you have raised the people's opportunity to grow richer. Now they have a place ideal for them to go to and offer goods and services to these traveling merchants, a way of life that many will see more appealing than working the land.
However, there is a problem: need. In the end, somebody still has to work the land, even if they would rather dedicate themselves to a craft. So how can this need be reduced? The answer is innovation. You should already have noticed that many of our advise focus not only on improving the yield of your farms, but also in refusing the amount of workers needed to maintain them. As a result, many farmers will become redundant, which would in turn allow themselves to dedicate to something else besides farming.
Sure, many will probably look for more lands to work or practice their craft within the small settlement, but many would also look for where they can make the biggest gain from their craft. Thus, the settlements were traders tread more often become tempting places for people to flock around.
In the end, the growth of small settlement into cities is a natural development of great trade and a lower need for work for food, as simple as that.
Also, other voices have talked about kings in cities collecting taxes thanks to the power of their army, let me explain that.
The type of government and economic structure they were referring to is most likely 'feudalism'. In this political system, the crown, by which I mean king or queen, own all the lands. When the lands are too vast for the crown to watch over, which is often determined by what means of communication they have at their disposal, they have no option but to give this land a certain amount of autonomy. In order to do so, the crown chooses subjects loyal to them to watch over their lands, resulting to what is known as nobility. Keep in mind, this often results in a decentralization of power as the nobles grow more powerful, which can be dangerous as military aid from the crown often plays a big role in ensuring the loyalty of the nobles. If a nobles starts thinking that they don't need the aid of the crown or that they could even do a better job at governing, it can lead to rebellion.
As you have probably guessed, this can lead to instability and power struggles among the nobles, creating a sence of insecurity. This leads us to the farmers.
See, in this system there are not only peasants but also 'serfs'. These are peasants that, in exchange of protection, work the land owned by the local noble and, should it be needed, join the noble's forces for battle. This is why these nobles can take the grain of the nearby villages so easily, it is their grain and the serfs just work in their land. It might seem like it resembles slavery, but a big part of how a noble keeps their serfs working their land is by making it more appealing than working in that of other nobles. Thus, the nobles that could afford the biggest armies to protect the serfs and was most liked and respected by them would be the most prosperous.
After all, if they think that they don't need the noble or they can do a better job themselves, the serfs can start to revolt...
Also, I didn't mention fear, but shows of force are also useful in assuring loyalty, though not in long therm. If abused, fear can quickly turn into scorn with the lack of respect.
Lastly, and I assure you this is the last topic I'll explain, consider this situation:
A trader comes offers as trade an ornament that, according to him, is made purely out of gold. The ornament is of exquisite craftsmanship, so damaging it to confirm their claim would be a waste. How can you, then, confirm that the ornament is indeed made out of pure gold, and not a mix of gold and a cheaper metal?
Well, first, you calculate the weight of the ornament. Then, submerge the ornament in a container with water and calculate how much water raises with the use of marking, then remove the ornament. Now, take an amount of pure gold of equal weight to that of the ornament and submerge them in the container. Has the water raised to the same level? Well, then thr ornament is indeed made out of pure gold. Has the water levels of water considerably different? Then you might have a liar to deal with.
Why does this work? Well, to explain this, I need to explain four consepts: matter, weight, volume, and density.
Matter is how we call general physical substance. Basically, if it occupies a place in space and it isn't energy, then it isade out of matter. Keep in mind, this definition doesn't count on the existence of magic. Matter is normally measured as mass.
Weight is how much force a physical body is submerged by the local gravity force. See, all matter attracts other matter, with bigger bodies having an easier time attracting smaller bodies, which is why you go back down after you jump: the planet bellow is the biggest physical body around. The bigger the amount of matter of the objects attracting each other, the stronger the mutual pull is. Hence why some objects weight more than others.
And volume is simply how much space something occupates in space, as simple as that.
All of this determine density. See, density is a measure of how much mass is in a determined volume. And different elements have different densities.
So let's say that you calculate the density of gold. I don't know what measure you use, so let's just say that 6 units of weight have 3 units of volume. Then you can say that gold has a density of 2 units of weight per unit of volume. By keeping track of this density, you don't need an equal amount of gold to check with each transaction, but rather only calculate. For example, if an golden ornament weights 10 units of weight, then it must have 5 units of volume.
I hope this proves useful in future encounters with merchants, least more try to paint clay sticks and ornaments in the colors of valuable metals.
That composite bow was harder than it had any right too...
Anyway, @LoserThree, as long as our spoilers aren't 'OCC', she can hear them just fine, right? I don't want this wall of text to trouble those in phone.
Also, can I edit and add more stuff later or would you rather I make a new post each time I want to add something, supposing that affects you in any way?
"The warrior's problem with a shield is that it should be light enough to run across the field of battle with while being large enough to fend off arrows while running. Most often, Empty Husk, shields that do not cover so greatly but which are easier to run with are favored.
"The people make shields of wood and hide and sometimes do put a face of bronze on them. I do not think I have seen a warrior to carry a shield so small it does not cover their upper body and head when held aloft. But then I also know of no warriors who use only their bow, as you seem to suggest might be done.
"On another voice's advice, the Chronicler I think, I did direct certain among the chosen who did not have a fully bronze or bronze-faced shield to put bronze across the upper edge. I believe that worked well enough that the practice has some popularity. A bronze ring all the way around is a reasonable next step, even.
"Battle is no place for hesitancy. So great warriors run into it. And in so running, they carry their shield with one hand at the center of it. This is true whether they run with axe or sword.
"However, some warleaders have adopted the idea of fighting in formation, as was suggested some time back also, I think, by the Chronicler -- though surely another said something about it before then. In this they take their chosen and, carrying larger shields, they make their way across the battlefield at a rapid pace, moving close against each other. They block arrows and even strikes aimed at their neighbors and, because they need not run as swiftly, they carry larger shields. In this case, your shield skirt and strapping of the shield to the arm may be useful.
"Thinning the edge to catch an axe sounds risky. But the warriors can discover if that works or no.
"There is a practice some raiders follow, to bring what they call the 'least axe' to a raid. This axe they hold in their off hand. And they are ready to drop it and leave it if they find something better to hold. A least axe is sturdy but shoddily made, often crudely stone-headed. The raider means to bring it back, tucked in their belt or however. But they may leave it suddenly and without regret. They go in with it and consider themselves more readied to fight than the raiders whose off hand is empty. It may be that some such as these would be interested in a small shield meant for parrying only.
"Prior to my captivity, my craft of bowmaking was honed over a period many times the lifetimes of other people. And still, when I emerged the bowmakers I found among the Fisher People were more skilled than I, with finer technique and greater knowing of materials. I think they do now make bows like the longbows you describe, though not so tall as a man. Perhaps they should? I will inquire. It's favored by this archer among the heroes currently troubling me.
"Your directions for a composite bow, though, are like nothing I've heard. Making a bow of multiple pieces is making a bow that will break when pulled. But your directions are fairly specific and I will have this tried. Surely there is some bowmaker of modest skill in a small village near my great house. I will tell them about your wild assembly of wood and bone and glue and bendings this way and that. We shall see.
"Some warriors do use staff slings. But a bow is better and better regarded, too.
"I know of spear-throwers from the time before my captivity. There are none among the Free People of the Nine Nations who use them. But you are right in that they might be missing out. I will see about making one and show it around.
"I think I might understand the caltop you describe. But I don't know that even copper would be plentiful enough to sow it across a battlefield in a way that limits both the chariots of the enemy and of the Free People. Still, as you say, it pays to be wary and I will have this written for to be taught when it might matter.
"Surely the serfs must rise up against their masters from time to time, Empty Husk. But do you know what does not happen in the Nine Nations? The people do not rise up against me. Some family or village head or elder might overreach their authority so badly that they are killed by those around them, from time to time. But the Free People of the Nine Nations recognize my authority. If I told them that I own their land and that they should pay some local ruler in my stead, well, what happens when that local ruler fucks up? The people will know I have chosen the fuck up, that the fuck up is, in fact, mine. And they will come to think they would be better off without me.
"No, I do not like your feudalism. And if it is to come to pass in the lands around me then I will have the warriors of the Nine Nations prepared to set against it, to put it down, and to drive it out.
"I thank you no less, for describing what it is that you voices expect to come about.
"And that is a good trick, to know an object's volume by the rise of water. I don't know its use beyond the one you provided, but I will see this written so that it is taught when it will matter."
[X] [Heroes] Make no promises, but have the band of heroes made as merry as possible.
[X] [Stake] Give Kahl all she asks, and a singer, and a table-ruler, and more warriors
[X] [Shortage] Let the Galugr trade additional summers of labor to Eppam and Zouchaud for more cattle
[X] [Cacophony] Gavinfoxx
Greetings! I am Fox, oh Great Undying One. First, I will give clarifications of the things you mentioned previously, and then onto other topics.
On the breaking of societies, it depends on the society. The willful changing of the behavior of a people is no simple matter! Though there are some generalities which can be described, when doing so against an enemy. A Spy, or Covert Agent, can be used for more than merely Espionage, or the covert obtaining of secret information from an enemy. They can also be used for Sabotage, which is the term for covert disruption of an organization or people or political entity, and the techniques, stratagems, and know-how involved in doing this. Further, Propaganda are the categories of techniques by which a polity can spread biased information (sometimes partial truths, or actual lies) amongst the populace of an enemy, for purposes of changing the opinions and beliefs, and therefore behaviors, of the population. Anyone astute will notice that nothing prevents a polity from doing this to their own people. Ultimately, I am not an expert on these actual techniques, but there are people in the world I know who make their lives work the advancement of these sorts of knowledge.
As to spaces between words, there are various sorts of pauses between thoughts that signify different things. There are different sorts of pauses in conversation, which should also have markings in the written word. For example, you might use one mark for the smallest of pauses, which I will term, 'comma', another for a bigger pause at the end of a sentence, which I shall term 'period', and an actual vertical space on the page between sets of thoughts for an even bigger pause, which I shall term 'paragraph'. For my next bit of discussion, I will overtly mention these pauses.
In order to make a sand filter COMMA you can suspend sand over some sort of basin in a wicker basket PERIOD Simply pack the sand in the wicker basket COMMA suspend it over the basin with a wooden trellis COMMA and pour the suspect water into the sand at top so it filters through the bottom to land in the basin PERIOD PARAGRAPH
There are many types of pumps PERIOD The screw pump is the simplest design COMMA however PERIOD A piston pump is when a liquid is moved through a tube by a piston COMMA which is a mechanism that almost but not completely seals the walls of a tube COMMA such that the piston can be made to push through the tube COMMA displacing whatever was inside the tube to move out of it PERIOD PARAGRAPH
Ugh, that's enough of that. I'll speak normally from now on. Blacksmithing are those arts of shaping iron, a metal which is often black. Contrast that with Whitesmithing, the art of shaping Tin, which is often white.
To fully protect someone from the dangers of arsenic, one would need much more than mere wet rags. There are very obscure and difficult to make designs of forges where, if you have a ready supply of arsenic-tainted copper, you can make arsenic bronze in relative safety. Mostly, it's not worth it. Trade for tin, if you want to smelt quality bronze, if you can.
We've already told you much of the arts of changing how creatures life instructions are set up: the cat breeding project, and the horse breeding project. The techniques which work on animals or people which are more advanced than that -- that is, directly working with the instructions of life -- are so absurdly difficult as to be impossible at your level of technology, and this will remain true for some centuries yet. Refinements in the breeding of animals and animal husbandry are a useful endeavor for this sort of thing in the meantime, however.
On the practice of cutting into the bodies of living people: yes, that can be done, and there are many valid reasons to do it. However, until you have FAR advanced your medical arts, herbal arts, supply of clean water, metallurgical arts, sanitation and hygiene practices, et cetera et cetera, it's a good way to get people killed by infection and blood loss. That said, cutting up dead bodies to see how people are put together and how the various organs work and how the processes of life take place is a useful endeavor, though it will take quite some time for that knowledge to be relevant to the actual practice of medicine.
On the topic of us, voices, creating our own weapons, I think what that voice meant to say was, 'the nine tribes will be able to create their own weapons'. That particular voice seemed to view itself as an honorary member of the tribes. I suppose those of us who are prone to pretending we are actual members of your tribes are harmless enough. Let them pretend.
On the topic of stars that move. If your world is anything like the world I know of, here is how it works. First, there is the sun: the star, just like most of the other stars in the sky, except it is much, much closer. This is the source of all life, for it's heat and light continuously pump energy and the capacity for movement onto your world. The sun is so mind-bogglingly large that you have absolutely no context to describe how stupendously big it is. It is shaped in a sphere. Next, are those things which look kind of like stars in the night sky, but which move around more than the actual stars. You are standing on one of these; the world beneath your feet is an actual sphere, like those planets that you see in the night sky. These planets are typically mind bogglingly huge as well, but not quite so huge as the actual Sun or the other stars. These planets continuously circle around the sun, which is why you have 'years', and why the planets that move in the sky seem to move in strange ways. Then, still mind bogglingly huge, but not quite so huge as a planet, is a moon, like the spherical moons which orbit the planet you are on. It's likely that the other planets have moons of their own. Also, in general, 'gravity', the force that keeps you on the ground and from flying off into space, is such that 'down' can be described as 'towards the center of these massive objects'. The reason why the planet you are on (or the other ones) doesn't crash into the sun as it falls around it is difficult to describe and requires math that I won't go into here. A simplistic explanation is 'as it falls toward the sun, it is going so mind bogglingly fast that the spherical sun falls away from beneath it as it makes it's way around the sun'. The same goes for the way the moon orbits your planet. There are other, even smaller objects, like various rocks flying around, which you sometimes see impacting your planet as 'shooting stars' (they aren't actually stars at all) or 'meteors', as they streak across the sky and sometimes land in an explosion of fire. I'll talk a bit about these later.
Okay. Very useful things. I don't think anyone has tried to discuss metals as a general topic. The first seven pure metals that were identified in my world are Copper, Tin, Iron, Lead, Gold, Silver, and Mercury. Do all of these terms translate appropriately? I would expect that there are some groups or people somewhere which know of each of these metals, since they are the simplest to isolate with fairly basic technology. Copper you know. Gold and Silver make beautiful jewelry, and when alloyed together, can make a variety of different alloys based on the amounts. When gold and silver are melted together in roughly equal amounts, you have an alloy called Electrum. Of course, we have discussed bronze, which, unless we are discussing the odder types of bronze, is copper with about twelve percent tin added. Lead is a very heavy and soft metal, fairly common, which doesn't have too many uses, but which will melt in a normal campfire. Mercury is a poisonous metal which is liquid at the normal day-to-day temperatures. Of these metals, the most strategic is Iron. If you have Iron, we can get you the knowledge of how to make weapons that are the envy of the entire world. We've discussed other metals, like Arsenic, another poisonous metal. To this, there are other useful pure metals to discuss, like Zinc or Nickel, which are useful when making various other alloys, but that is barely scratching the surface of possibilities.
If you ever hear rumors of a king's dagger or a king's sword made from a metal from the stars, than they are probably talking about metal from meteorites, or falling stars, which is mostly pure iron with a little bit of nickel in there. If such a thing exists on your world, such a dagger or sword is likely the single most valuable not-inherently-magical item in existence on your planet, because of the difficulties in making iron that is actually mostly pure, and how much better such an item would be at being a dagger than a bronze dagger. That said, if we are talking about the potential of metals, meteoric iron is, in the grand scheme of things, somewhat mediocre. I mean, yea, it's decent, but compared to a good steel, which is a term for iron mixed with certain amounts of carbon, it's just okay. The problem with this whole sort of thing is that making forges hot enough to make good steel out of iron requires massive amounts of know-how. That said, those hottest forges will also get hot enough for you to rapidly identify various other metals by the expedient of melting them into relatively pure forms.
First, I'm going to talk about what some of the ores which can be dug up out of the ground and used as a source of iron actually look like. Limonite is a sometimes yellow, sometimes speckled orange rock. Hematite is a dark, reddish-black mineral that looks slightly melted and shiny. Magnetite is a shiny grey rock, sometimes with triangular crystals of the same material growing out of it. Goethite is a shiny dark grey rock, with often kind of long-ish crystalline formations. Mostly? Look for heavy, sometimes kind of shiny, sometimes dark grey, sometimes crystallized, sometimes red or orange, minerals and rocks. These will often be underground, so don't just look for surface deposits. In order to experiment and see what you have, crush them up and put them in the hottest fire you can manage. And try and find someone who knows how to prospect for mineral deposits, or figure out how to develop that skill in the first place!
That said, if you have large amounts of people digging up various types of rocks to see what they are made of, or making exploratory mine shafts into the earth to try and find some obscure type of metal, or trying to come up with yet another type of ever-hotter type of smelter or forge, then those people aren't doing things which might be more immediately useful for survival, such as farming. This is why, whenever we talk about topics like improving irrigation systems (could you tell us a little bit about how irrigation is practiced where you are? Is it universal?), various new varieties of hand tools for farming, plow designs, new ways of hitching animals to a plow so the animal is pushing against the load rather than pulling it, different sorts of food seeds, or other agricultural techniques, it's extremely important to experiment with these. The better and more productive your farms, the more people that can spend time digging into the ground for things instead of farming.
Finally, a word of caution on the topic of iron. A badly made iron blade is worse than an extremely well made bronze one. The problem with bronze is that the places you find tin are often nowhere near the places where you find copper, and bronze's sheer potential for a weapon is worse than the potential of iron. Iron is, relatively, most everywhere, and when you have some of the secrets of making iron, you can have much, much, much more iron, and eventually, steel than you could have bronze for the same amount of effort.
Please cut this down to something more manageable. There are some parts of merit in it, such as some of the more common elements and how they make substances such as water, but the vast majority such as the not so common elements, subatomic theory, let alone string theory, is unlikely to be of use even as theoretical background and do anything other than distract and confuse her for centuries yet.
"Tell me more about spies and espionage and sabotage and propaganda, Fox. I can send one of my singers far away and tell them to learn all they can and return. Would a spy learn more? How? I have some few singers who were warriors before they came to me. At times I have had singers who were counted among the Chosen, but not now. No less, I could send such a singer to a far off place and tell them to break their means of irrigation, to set fire to their grainery. Is that the limit of sabotage? What more can be done? And my singers already spread 'biased' information. They spread the information I want heard! They make the people believe what I want them to! If you can tell me how to do this better, please do. I would like to know more.
"I… I think I understand what you mean of your pauses, sentences, and thoughts. Thank you for the demonstration. If that is all, then that should be easily added to the speaking stones.
"If you will not tell me of the facility in which the people work with arsenic more safely, then they will do so with wet rags, once arsenic can be found, anyway.
"Any fool can see the sun goes around the world. Even if the world is round, it is still and the sun rolls across its sky. When the world does move it is a great tragedy and many things are broken. Is this some joke, Fox?
"I know of copper, gold and silver. I have black metal that some other of you voices have told me is iron from the sky. Likewise, some other of you voices told me that there is tin in bronze, or arsenic. But I have not seen tin or arsenic. I have never heard of mercury. And, yes, the black metal has not melted for casting. It is shaped only by a great deal of labor and many broken tools.
"Thank you for describing the stones from which iron is bloomed. I was give these instructions to the people of Burgeck Tribe, along with the lodestone and bogstone advice. Perhaps they will fare better than they have in the past."
[X] [Heroes] Hare made the underworld, get someone to ask Her about this
[X] [Stake] Give Kahl some of the gold she wants
To give too much gold will make your trader vulnerable to the greedy people of the city. Only take a small amount on initial visit.
[X] [Shortage] Let the Galugr trade additional summers of labor to Eppam and Zouchaud for more cattle
You must not be seen to overly favor these new peoples. They will live with a little less beef for a couple seasons. There are other things to eat. If they really want, then they can trade. Trade binds peoples together.
It is always refreshing how you can cut right to the meat of the matter milady. Already you reach far. Perhaps farther that I can take you. Should we posses some measure of luck, then the knowledge and tools to directly manipulate the instructions of life may be yours in less than five centuries. Part of the problem is a lack of the tools to make the tools. Tools are needed that can separate the instructions of life from the life itself. Tools to read the instructions. Tools to implant new instructions into smallest life. Then a great deal of observation and experimentation to discover the instructions that will cause our desired changes. This is not an effort for one person, but all that which you have imagined and more may yet be achieved.
Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself. Let us focus on what we can do now to improve your efforts at selective breeding, for such simple means can still achieve great things given time, effort, and cleverness.
[TBC]
The ramblings of the Mad one give proof of a shallow understanding of the secrets that underlay reality. The idea of the particle may be a useful half truth in many contexts, but as a foundation for your education in the truth of the world, it is made of sand. However, explaining the system of quantitized fields to one who does not already know the language of formal meaning may prove challenging. For now you may rest assured that reality does not conform to your intuitions.
"On the one hand, the passage of goods does bind people together, voice. That is true and wise.
"On the other, 'reality does not conform to your intuitions,' is of not much use when I do not hear what thing it is to which reality conforms. If there is a thing you voices will not tell me, inform me of it briefly, I direct you, and move on most swiftly to the matters of which you will tell me."
Code:
B R E A K
"Voices, I have maps to four cities. Two are along one river to the south, one is on another, and the fourth is far across the sea.
"Wrul is the first city that Kahl's packtrain visited. It is on a river they call 'The River' in their own tongue but Kahl found that traders from elsewhere call it Buraghm. They knew of me, there, and something of the Nine Nations. There were Forest People living in the woodlands nearby who were said to have a mighty grievance against me and against the Nine Nations, likely for what happened to the Forest People and their homes near here. Kahl avoided them and suggests others do so in the future. Other than those, Wrul is a city exclusively of the Fisher People. There is a temple there to a god whose name is a secret, another to Erweh, and another to Quar.
"Liavint is further down the Buraghm. They did not know of me there. It's ruled by a giant and when she dies it will probably be ruled by one of her sons or daughters. There are no giants there who are not her progeny or their spouses and the other people of the city are Fisher People and Lesser Giants. There is another temple to Erweh in Liavint, and another to Yula the brother of Ponam, who Erweh is said to have been before he died.
"Ekhaicvint is to the east of Liavint, over great hills or low mountains and at the meeting place of two rivers. The greater is called Oasimb and the lesser Yont. They did not know of me there, either. Kahl found little to trade there, but still much more than supplies for the return. There is a temple to Fish in Ekhaicvint, and no temple to any other one god. There are, instead, many small shrines to many different gods.
"Enonl is known only to traders of Naumo. They claim they can return to it by their maps, but unlike the others I cannot send a hunter to amble their way there and back. It is a city of high walls, even into the sea. There is a temple to Rorqual, another to Fish, and a sacred place of River and Clay and Sky. The Naumo say that the people of Enonl are cruel and sometimes try to take what they bring for trade without giving anything back. It may be that they have even slain whole boat crews of Naumo. But boats are also lost at sea.
"Kahl's pack train returned to the Nine Nations with more bronze that I have seen in one place before. Of course, the only reason I do not have more bronze in my hoard is because I have it melted down and returned to use as weapons and tools so often. And tin. They brought back tin from Ekhaicvint. There was not much and most has been given over to study the making of bronze. But we are keeping some small fragments about so that the people may see what tin is.
"She also brought back fruits and strange hides, gemstone baubles such like the people cannot be dissuaded from picking up and spices too, and also many beasts of burden that are like horses, but different and also louder. These her family means to make a herd of, as Kahl says they are sturdier and also better workers than horses. All seeds from the strange fruits have been gathered to my great house. I will see them planted and we will see what grows from them.
"And the Free People of Tribe of Burgeck have also applied the method of knowledges to cultivating many other wild plants. Some take to it, some do not. Some are of use, most are not. But they are keeping records of their findings, to whatever end. When I have seen the traded seeds grow or fail in my own presence, I will trust their offspring to Burgeck. But it has only been two years since last we spoke and I have withheld some foreign seeds for a better season.
"The winters have been colder, and the springs later. The People of the Nine Nations are not unready and will weather this time well enough. The lesser giants of Galugr Tribe have been sending more of their young people and some not-so-young to serve in the Nine Nations in exchange for grains and other stored foods. These years are not being easy on them, but I believe the years were worse for those who refused to settle, of which perhaps none remain.
"It is the autumn of Year Seventeen and we last spoke in the summer of Year Fifteen. Around that time, heroes came to the Nine Nations to force my compliance with the wishes of the god Erweh. Instead, the greatest of feasts, the most joyous of dances, the most colorful of great tents, and the most pleasant of companionship waited for them.
"I myself avoided them entirely. They spoke with my First Singer and my First Table-Ruler and whomever from the Nine Nations who they wished to. And after a time the heroes came to some disputes among themselves.
"Their sorcerer left first and one of my singers left with him and is no longer mine. I don't know if it was love or power or enchantment that drew my singer away. But these things do happen from time to time.
"Next, their great warrior left their company to join into a marriage within Bima Nolco Tribe. He later stirred up great discord over leadership of the family his marriage was joined to. It did not go well for him, I have heard, and he may have been poisoned. He is still a huge man and is truly very mighty. But now his wind is not with him for so long and a clear day troubles his eyes.
"Finally, the remaining three came to dispute over possession of some item they were unwilling to discuss with outsiders. Each thought one of the other two had taken it for their own self and all three were very upset. The archer took to hunting along the edge of cursed woods and spent the winter with Galugr Tribe before departing to parts unknown. The other two left on their own to travel south, separately.
"For the entire latter half of their visit, they appeared to be beset with misfortune. Their tents would collapse. Food was cold when it should have been hot. The thief once stumbled into an ice hall while drunk. They apparently rude to the frost wight within and lost the tip of their nose for their troubles, though they otherwise recovered. A stinging affliction of groinflesh came on the heroes and some who kept their closest company, though that was soothed as well by common cure.
"There will be strange children among the Free People of the Nine Nations. But otherwise there is little lasting effect of the visit by the heroes.
"There is a great bronze thing like a knife with its edge cut into teeth connected to a waterwheel in the lands of Burgeck Tribe. Or so I have heard. They tell me it cuts wood with remarkable speed. But my singers tell me that it also breaks easily and often. Not only does the knife break, but the turning, forcing, and pushing parts of the device break. And once the whole building came down and they rebuilt it on the other side of the river.
"Kuwuzt, chieftain of Zouchaud, has put sails on his boats and moves about by them. There are problems, and Zouchaud would need a new chieftain if Kuwuzt were not such a strong swimmer. They are working it out, but my singers believe that their problems are problems of boatmaking, not just problems of sail-using.
"Burgeck Tribe has brought me a tribute of glass. It is greenish and murky in its ingot form. But when they break it up and cut it like gems they can choose the best pieces, like any precious stone. And so I have a fine crown of silver and glass, which I find suites me. I may wear it for a few years. They have tried, again, to hide evidence of their failures, but I know that many of their attempts do not produce ingots of glass and that they do not know why. Before you tell me of the uses of glass, voices, you may need to tell me more of its making.
"They have also made iron, now. Though none of it is worth making a tribute of. But it is metal and it has uses, soft or brittle or whatever it may be. If nothing else it is heavy and holds its shape and so it can serve as its own anvil and hammer and also tongs, sometimes. What little iron is being made has so far stayed within Burgeck Tribe. None outside have asked them for it, especially as there is more bronze to be had than ever before. But that will change.
"No new lodestones have been found, or perhaps even stones like lodestones. And the people of Burgeck Tribe tell me differring and contradictory things about what stones bloom and which don't. The only thing that is clear is that the bogstones do.
"A bowmaker wintered within the walls surrounding my great house and made several attempts at a composite bow at my instruction. She believes she is making progress. I do not see it, but that is the way of things very often. Her apprentices bear the worst of it.
"Despite the less generous seasons, I am sure the Free People of the Nine Nations will fare well enough without me for a time and I wish to focus on some task. As I did more than a decade ago, I will leave the people to their own devices and tell them to speak to my First Singer while I am away.
"I am not awed of cities. I have heard a great deal about them from the Lan Tribe and from the singer and table-ruler I sent with Kahl. Still, I might like to sack one.
"I might live among Burgeck Tribe and find out what they are doing right or wrong with regard to their sawing, their glass their bloomeries, their cats, and everything else.
"I might travel throughout the Nine Nations to establish star-watching places, high up and with the appropriate stones, and to teach the people to mark the stars for themselves.
"I could travel among the people around the lands of the Nine Nations, to better understand them so that I can better guide the tribes of the Nine Nations in subjugating them later.
"Or I could revisit the dewing and redewings of beer, to better refine the final result and make the process more reliable.
"What would you advise?"
[ ] [Leave] Prepare a great raiding force and go sack Ekhaicvint
[ ] [Leave] Go to Burgeck and correct their missteps
[ ] [Leave] Astronomy Tour
[ ] [Leave] Pretyranny Tour
[ ] [Leave] Build a better put-the-fire-in-the-waterer
[ ] [Leave] Write in
"I mean to spend five years at this, but I could spend more. What say you?"
[ ] [Term] 5 years
[ ] [Term] 10 years
[ ] [Term] 15 years
[ ] [Term] Write in
"And I will leave First Singer Huo in charge, as before. But when the people do not take her word as mine, what should she do?"
[ ] [Reply] "Here is a stone. Speak to it for all the good it will do you."
[ ] [Reply] Have Huo and Servant deflect uncooperative petitions back and forth
[ ] [Reply] They may cast and carry their own record of their complaint
[ ] [Reply] Keep a record for Bianca's return
[ ] [Reply] Write in
[X] [Leave] Go to Burgeck and correct their missteps
We seriously need decent iron.
[X] [Term] 5 years
I consider leaving people without direction for too long as obviously undesirable.
[X] [Reply] There is a new idea: If Servant and Huo share the same solution, then the solution is undisputably valid, but if they don't come to an agreement they could send the petitioner to Bianca for "higher ruling", possibly with an need for additional tribute for possibly wasting her time.
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
I suggest trading glass away for even more bronze, perhaps selling glass to the cities. And perhaps trading some iron away for bronze, as for now, bronze is better.
Water power can also be used to move heavy hammers and crush ore, or help with smithing. This may be even more useful than saws, at least when improved to need fewer repairs.
A word of warning, glass looks valuable now and may be valuable for a while, but it's possible to improve and expand production of glass so greatly that glass would become common and thus uninteresting and cheap. This is another good reason to sell that to foreign traders instead of making your own jewelry from that stuff.
Testing of my plow and the horse collar certainly should be done, yes. There are costs, but the benefits should be bigger than additional costs.
A very long time ago medicine made out of honey and salt was suggested so that diarrhea could be cured more often. This was never mentioned again, but is in use, right?
The cursed woods are our biggest mistake and I feel ashamed about that. Something more needs to be done.
Instead of flags you can simply paint or carve some sort of a symbol designed to show your ownership and rule. This would be much less tempting to reuse, and with time people should understand this custom much better than now.
You said: "The length of my foot is overly short for measuring distances. The number of foot-lengths between villages will be very large and unwieldy". You can simply call 10 000 feet with a new made-up word, like "mile". Talking about 10 or 20 miles is not unwieldy. It's usually the best to have words used for bigger lengths somewhat consistent with smaller ones in such a way, multiples of 10, 100, 1000 and 10 000 are obvious to understand when you know numbers.
I also have a few questions. Could you talk more to your eunuch Servant and ask whether some traders are richer than others in cities and how they manage to be richer without causing discord, or if there is discord how discord is controlled to a manageable size? How their hoards of wealth are guarded? Such information may be valuable. As I said before, some traders with more things than others may help to increase trade and wealth of everyone despite some inequality and risks of discord. It would be good to know how cities deal with these matters.
Some confusion and contradictions between our various Voices may exist because there are at least a dozen of different ways to rule a city or many cities, keep this in mind when hearing us and when considering weird customs of the far-away outsiders.
A bit of advice useful when you want to search for more metal ores: The decent method of cracking big rocks is fire-setting, heating the rock with fire to expand it. Once the rock is heated by fire it is quenched with water to break it.
Freedom of trade: freedom and safety of trade are very important if we want even more traders to travel here with their goods. Your people shouldn't raid or steal from any peaceful travelers or traders that travel inside of the Nine Nations land, even when these are badly armed outsiders. Surely there are enough targets outside, and when travelers feel safe, this brings more trade.
Regardless of travelling outsiders, you should also encourage travel and marriage between various tribes of your Nine Nations, to increase unity, mutual understanding, possibly to unify their identity very slowly and in the more distant future. Maybe ensure that people from different tribes work at roadbuilding projects together, for example, and that your people they can freely and safely travel inside of the Nine Nations.
So, everybody should be able to travel freely and safely.
I will also explain to you something slightly similar to the Army, but more useful to enforce and strengthen your power and your rules and laws. I assure you that NO feudalism is needed for this to work. Servants of the Law, also called "watchmen" or "police" or "guard". These men (and women) are somewhat like soldiers of the army in that that they train to decently defend themselves and receive good weapons from their ruler, but their role is in most ways closer to those that serve, like table-rulers, and they should avoid fighting when possible. Such armed Servants exist to enforce laws and to catch lawbreakers when their ruler is busy with something else, or sometimes to protect singers and table-rulers. They are often trained in the arts of finding stolen goods or bodies of murdered people, learn what to ask people to determine who is guilty of such crimes, and where criminals are likely to escape or hide; how to recognize and track law-breakers like hunters track animals. The best and the most important among such investigators are called "inquisitors". As you once said there were, thankfully very rare, cases when your singers mysteriously vanished, and outsiders tried to steal from you, so maybe you can see how this could be useful. Perhaps they could even end family feuds without wasting your time.
Even if you decide that such armed servants to enforce laws are not needed among your people, you could still use a few dozens of them to better protect your great walled house.
Your old idea to raise orphans was interesting, even if singers are proven as more loyal to their task. I think that some orphans could be raised to be armed guards of your great walled home, or another sort of mentioned armed servants. I see also another solution to their need for true families: make them live around your great walled home, like in a very small city, and encourage them to marry between themselves when very young. As adults, they could leave in theory, but in practice, with their own children and families inside of your wall, most would want to remain as Servants, I think.
Besides orphans, I believe that a few youths of the Burgeck tribe could also be persuaded to become your armed servants. It's true that such service and guarding your things brings much less honor than raiding and other tasks of the true and free warrior, but the Burgeck want to please you very much even when you have very weird requests, right? And this sounds more useful to me than priests, for now. Of course your armed servants should obey you and your rules and orders, not the Burgeck leadership, this is the whole point. Armed guards and inquisitors should thus obey your First Singer if such is your will, you need to explain this clearly.
If you could be persuaded for such a course of action, then I suggest creation of a second wall around your Great Home, that would provide double protection for your home and in the future allow new families of your armed servants to settle in a safe walled space around your home but not directly inside of your home.
To enjoy even more safety of your Great Home, heavy gates in your walls should be always guarded by armed servants-guards, and closed for the night.
Like it's the case with singers and table-rulers, nobody should be forced to become one of your guards. As I said, I believe that there are measures to persuade at least a few dozens of young people that it's good to serve you in such a way.
Do not confuse various forms of police - guards, inquisitors, and other armed servants - with the Army. Armed Forces are mainly for conquering outsiders and protecting against foreign invasion, while police exist to serve their ruler, and to protect his property and his laws from disobedience and theft; we can thus say that the Armed Forces are more like full-time warriors, while guards are more like armed servants.
I would argue again that the Armed Forces would be also useful, because if you leave conquering to the many separate tribes of the Nine Nations that is more likely to make mess of things. I believe that it's obvious that one force under your firmer control could deal with this better and make fewer mistakes. But well, as you wish, remember my words for the future at least.
Important curiosity: the detailed shape of the human skin on the human finger is unique for that human, even among twins. Pictures of these, called fingerprints, may be easily formed by ink or other substances transferred from the skin to a relatively smooth surface such as parchment. Human fingerprints are detailed, nearly unique, difficult to alter, and durable over the life of an individual, making them suitable as long-term markers of human identity. Do you want to be sure that a particular parchment was written by a particular table-ruler, that it's not a fraud? Store impressions of their fingerprints, then order them to include fingerprints on the most important of their parchments, at least when it may be important whether they truly wrote things and not somebody else.
Wikipedia
A few pieces of advice so that more of small children could survive: first of all, human breastmilk, at least if the mother is well-feed herself, provides all the energy and nutrients that the infant needs for the first six months of life, and it continues to provide up to half or more of a child's nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one-third during the second year of life.
When breastmilk is no longer enough to meet the nutritional needs of the infant, unusually well-boiled foods should be slowly added to the diet of a child.
Generally speaking, most children die during their first five years of life, and slower change to a more adult diet should help to reduce that unfortunate waste. Small children are not small adults, bodies of small children are very weak, and germs are even more dangerous than it's usually the case.
I know, you cannot simply order free people how to feed their infants, but you can share wisdom.
And when we talk about children and wisdom, I need to stress again that people should be reasonably nice to children. It's also obviously not something that everyone would obey, but truly, children that are beaten or not cared for properly grow, if they survive, into worse and less useful adults. Most adults are useful enough, you once said, but surely improvements are always nice.
Proposition: encourage and advise people to create bathhouses. A bathhouse is a stone building owned by the whole village, able to be well-heated with chimneys even during winter, where all healthy people can wash themselves and their clothes in warm, well-heated water, if conditions in their own houses are less well-suited for that. A few outhouses for common use could be added outside. Only healthy people should be allowed inside, to not contaminate bathhouse with bad germs. A concrete floor that is clean and can be easily washed would be nice, and of course big containers with frequently changed and heated water. Keeping ill people safely away, bathhouses clean and constantly bringing fresh water and removing dirty water should be custom - I heard once about great lovers of baths, the Romans, but they lacked the germ theory and thus sometimes their bathhouses promoted the spread of illness instead of preventing illness.
Decimal notation: numbers smaller than one often can be conveniently written as zero dot something. For example half of an apple can be written as zero dot five apple. One part in ten can be written as 0.1 . 0.5 when added to 0.5 gives us 1. 0.1 when added to 0.1 gives us 0.2 . One part in hundred would be 0.01.
By the way, I suggest separate symbols for words like "added to" or "multiplied by" or "is equal to". Such words are so often used around numbers that it would be very convenient.
In regards to even more ideas for machines and construction...
A spinning wheel is a simple machine that replaces the earlier method of hand spinning with a spindle. The first stage in mechanizing the process: mounting the spindle horizontally so it could be rotated by a cord (that is rope) encircling a large, hand-driven wheel. The great wheel is an example of this type, where the fibre is held in the left hand and the wheel slowly turned with the right. Holding the fibre at a slight angle to the spindle produces the necessary twist. The spun yarn is then wound onto the spindle by moving it so as to form a right angle with the spindle.
The great wheel is usually over 5 feet in height. The large drive wheel turns the much smaller spindle assembly, with the spindle revolving many times for each turn of the drive wheel.
Windmills and wind power. Windmill harnesses the power of wind and converts it into useful power by means of vanes.
Vane, definition: a broad blade or sail attached to a rotating axis or wheel which is pushed by wind and forms part of a machine or device such as a windmill.
Four vanes are enough. Like two crossed boards, only much wider and curved to be able to catch wind. These vanes create a movement of the axle when turned, the principle is the same as with the waterwheel or even hand-turned or cattle-powered mechanism.
Vanes of the windmill are turned by the wind obviously only when there is strong enough wind. Still, this may be useful to power pumps, on in places very unsuited to waterwheels.
A flange is an external or internal ridge for attachment to another object. Flanged wheels are wheels with a flange on one side to keep the wheels from running off the rails. Wooden rails are basically two wooden planks that keep wheels going the right way, the constant distance between these planks is important. Different planks called rail ties hold the rails upright and keep them spaced to the correct width. Cart with flanged wheels on rails can be used to more easily move loads uphill or downhill for example.
Foundations. A foundation is the lowest part of a building. A building needs a strong foundation if it is to stand for a long time.
To make a foundation, you need to dig a hole in the ground. When the hole is deep enough, it should be filled with a strong, hard material; somewhat like in the case of roads, but deeper. Preferably below the frost line, that is the depth to which the groundwater in soil is expected to freeze during winter. Then build on that, not directly on the soil. This should solve many problems that persist despite arches.
Roofs made out of fired-clay tiles are better, healthier and much safer against risks of fire than usual thatched roofs, though also weight more. Definition, tile: a thin rectangular slab of baked clay or other material, used in overlapping rows for covering roofs.
Do you know how to make big and long four-wheeled carts, known to me as wagons? I can dimly recall that you mentioned "wagons" once, but proper wagons are the most useful with proper roads, so maybe your use of this word was different than mine. But as you now have a few roads, better internal exchange among the Nine Nations would be good.
The main issue is turning of such a long thing, so there is the solution: The front axle assembly of a wagon consists of an axle, a pair of wheels and a round plate with a pin in its centre that sits halfway between the wheels. A round plate with a hole in its centre is located on the underside of the wagon. The plate on the wagon, in turn, sits on the plate on the axle between the wheels. This arrangement allows the axle and wheels to turn horizontally. The pin and hole arrangement could be reversed. The horse harness is attached to this assembly. To enable the wagon to turn in as little space as possible, the front pair of wheels are often made smaller than the rear pair to allow them to turn close under the vehicle sides.
Wagons may be pulled by one animal or by several, often in pairs. Horse collars should be included. Truly great amount of goods can be transported. Wagon can be, for example, 20 feet long.
Brakes, things used to slow down wagons when moving downhill, can be a block of wood with a lever that allow to hold it against the wheel when wagon needs to slow or stop.
[X] [Reply] There is a new idea: If Servant and Huo share the same solution, then the solution is undisputably valid, but if they don't come to an agreement they could send the petitioner to Bianca for "higher ruling", possibly with an need for additional tribute for possibly wasting her time.
[X] [Reply] They may then go to Burgeck and petition you where you are. If they are willing to make the trip the matter might actually be worthy of your personal attention.
[x] [Reply] Still open for opinions, I would like an opinion where we realise the fact that Huo is just a person and might make mistakes, and things could be taken to Bianca if important. For example if Servant and Huo has the same solution, then the solution is probably valid, but if they don't come to an agreement they could send the petitioner to Bianca for "higher ruling", possible with an need for additional tribute for possibly wasting her time.
[X] [Leave] Pretyranny Tour
Pretyranny is the BEST Tyranny
[X] [Term] 10 years
Take some time to make good study of what other do differently.
[X] [Reply] "Here is a stone. Speak to it for all the good it will do you."
Choose a small stone and learn throw it directly at the forehead fast enough that it cannot be dodged. At least then you get to practice a valuable skill.
EDIT : See newer post
[X] [Cacophony] Ciber
Now what lessons should you learn...
...The tribe of Peace could prove a turn.
Long Long ago and far far away.
A turn of the ages. Early Autumn I'd say.
Magic was weak. Spirits were strong.
But not in the way you've used all along.
Warriors strength. Warriors passion.
Let loose to run wild, ferocious & crashin.
All tribes thought themselves wild & free.
Still they gave tribute. still they bent knee.
To a tribe on the mountain. The Ones Who Bring Peace.
The tribes chafed & the burnt, furrowed their brow.
For the tribe on the mountain had now warriors now.
Nor for that matter did any recall.
Did the tribe on the mountain have any warriors...
...At All?
Once a generation, this story repeats.
The young ones rise up, getting stomped into meats.
Looks like I ran out of rhymes...
The Ones Who Bring Peace had no warriors. In fact, their tribe had a strict taboo against violence of any kind ... by the living. With the vast tributes of their subjugated tribes, the Peace were free to spend nearly their entire lives perfecting the art of meditation. There was also a bunch of useless ritual and tradition built up around the practice, but that's humans for ya. Anyway, meditation is a practice focused mind exercises that can help deal with strong emotions, improve memory, allow active control of the mechanisms of thought, and provide conscious control of bodily functions that are normally automatic. Master mediators can deaden themselves to pain, stop their heart, and control body temperature to the point of self combustion.
None of that sounds worth a lifetime of effort or a lesson does it?
The secret of the Peace was that through focused meditation they could control the type of spirit created upon death. If you wronged them, one of their tribe could walk up, apologize, and burst into flame. Remaining entirely calm and focused on their desired outcome as they burned to death. Then their spirit emerges, and burns exactly one in every ten of your tribes-people to death.
Of course this was for last Autumn, and you know how the Vis varies over such times. Still, I think that putting some effort into introducing meditation could improve the utility of your peoples spirits, and people who engage in regular meditation report being more satisfied with their life.
There are many different paths in meditation, but the simplest is to find a quiet place and just clear the mind. Focus on breathing. Not on the motion of the chest, but on the subtle sensations of breathing. The movement of air over skin and the like.
Another path if mindfulness. Instead of quieting you thoughts, you try to sort of detach from them. Notice yourself noticing things is the theme.
Some people have better results while perfectly still, while others prefer gentle repetitive movements.
I've had to bow out of this quest for a while due to finals, but now that I have some time, can anyone point me to the relevant parts on the state of their record keeping? Or, at the very least, give me a quick rundown of what system they're using?
I've had to bow out of this quest for a while due to finals, but now that I have some time, can anyone point me to the relevant parts on the state of their record keeping? Or, at the very least, give me a quick rundown of what system they're using?
Fired clay tablets, wax tablets for temporary stuff, alphabetic writing, arabic-style numbers. Research to create parchment is ongoing. Do you need to know anything else?
A word of warning, glass looks valuable now and may be valuable for a while, but it's possible to improve and expand production of glass so greatly that glass would become common and thus uninteresting and cheap. This is another good reason to sell that to foregin traders instead of making your own jewelry from that stuff.
If by "a while" Black Cat means several centuries, they are correct. Elsewise, they are wrong. The mass production of glass won't be possible without much advancements in mining, furnace-making and several other related fields, or the unusual presence of large quantities of specific resources that are extremely unlikely in our current geographic location.
"Burgeck Tribe has brought me a tribute of glass. It is greenish and murky in its ingot form. But when they break it up and cut it like gems they can choose the best pieces, like any precious stone. And so I have a fine crown of silver and glass, which I find suites me. I may wear it for a few years. They have tried, again, to hide evidence of their failures, but I know that many of their attempts do not produce ingots of glass and that they do not know why. Before you tell me of the uses of glass, voices, you may need to tell me more of its making.
