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.
I've considered contributing to this thread a few time, but not knowing what is pertinent to share held me back. Also, the size of Bianca's reactions to the Cacophony makes it fairly clear that more is not needed.
As to how you could make things easier... Maybe have a recap of what Bianca knows? But that would be a lot of work. Also, maybe add constraints to the size of the advices posts, like "no more than 1000 words'. It would make the thread as a whole easier to read, advice posts would be quicker to make, and hopefully it would give a bit of space to new players.
Oh god no! Do you want another haunted forest? Because this is how you get another haunted forest. Only instead of remote almost-wilderness just outside your borders, this time the haunting occurs on your fields, which you need intact and uncorrupted in order to not starve.
Also, personally at least, I want us to guide Bianca away from 'slaughter your enemies in order to use their bones as fertilizer' tactics.
Spirits and their behaviours are interesting. They seem to be forever frozen with either emotions and thoughts from the time of death, if their death was unusual enough in the bad way, or with overall theme of their whole life. But spirits of the Forest People seems to be weirder, with their ability to understand complex negotiations and current world more like people.
"Fine. I will take from the people all their captives and set the table-rulers and some warriors and all the greatest of the layers of roads to direct them to build a road all the way to Wrul. And when they get there, their bonds I shall bestow on Kahl.
"Or, no. As I choose from among the people the best warriors and from my singers and table-rulers also their best, so too I shall choose the best of these bond captives and send them to Kahl. She will have the best companions and guidance the Free People of the Nine Nations can offer.
"But before they are sent, indeed before Kahl returns, all the victorious warriors will be divided into great raiding parties. And though harvest is moons away, we will take all of the foodstuffs we can find of any sort, sown or tended, stored or afield, livestock or game. And it shall not go to feasting but, as much as possible, to the larders and stores of the Nine Nations.
"And even before that, I shall discuss with the wise people how the NIne Nations may become the Ten with the addition of the Galugr. Or if, perhaps, they should be made part of an existing tribe. There are far fewer of them than there are of any of the other tribes. But the bonds of marriage and bonds of blood will not, I don't think, serve to tie them into another tribe. Some may bring a lesser giant into their marriage and some others may join to the lesser giants in their own way. But of these unions there is no product. And though it is not the only reason, wise leaders and elders council peace between families and tribes for the sake of their children's children on both sides."
[X][Captives] Set the captives to building a great road to connect the Nine Nations to our new city of Wrul
[X] [Compensation] Tell the tribes to bring them into the Nine Ways Pact
[X] [Desolation] While the warriors are still gathered, steal food from all surrounding peoples
[X][Cacophony] I Just Write
Dear Bianca,
I am Just Write. Yes, I know it's a weird name. I have been watching this communication for some time, but have kept my silence until now. Anyway, now that introductions are complete I have another bundle of advice to send you, both in general and in particular.
First, Black Cat has already described much of the process of Science, but has failed to explain why it is necessary. In our world, there were thousands of years of glacial progress and effectively no change within a mortal's lifespan. After science was adopted as the primary way of gaining understanding of the world, we went from a society not terribly different from the Nine Nations' current state to having the ability to instantly burn entire landmasses to ash, communicate instantly across hundreds of miles and send expeditions to other worlds within less than 300 years. We are a mere fifty years after that point, and we are currently working on forging our own suns, creating a true cure for aging with no magic, and making an entirely new type of being out of steel, lightning, and logic.
As a corollary, every last bit of knowledge we have imparted to you was obtained by using the Scientific Method. Any system that follows consistent observable rules can have those rules uncovered by science, opening amazing possibilities to anyone with sufficient understanding of the rules. The rules between our world and yours are demonstrably different, as spirits, magic, and the underworld do not exist here to the best of our knowledge. As such, at some point the knowledge we can impart will become inapplicable to your world due to differences in the underlying rules. When that occurs, the only way to keep making progress will be through the Scientific Method. That said, there are some requirements for the Scientific Method to work at its best.
Your society must be able to support a sizable population not occupied with food production. Scientific research and the closely related Engineering are full-time occupations that do not leave their practitioners much time for other activities.
Science absolutely requires the relatively open exchange of information. Scientists and Engineers are ALWAYS building on each others' work to make new and grander discoveries, and they can't do that if everyone is hoarding information away from each other. You can still restrict the information available to foreigners, but within the Nine Nations information must be freely shared for best effect.
Science works best with very precise measurements. Measure all information gathered as precisely as possible using consistent units to do so.
Scientific knowledge is NEVER considered absolutely proven, it simply fails to be disproved. Attempts to disprove an idea MUST take the form of a physical (or magical, in your world) experiment that will provide informative results regarding the rules of the universe depending on how it responds.
A scientific idea that survives several attempts to prove it false by experimentation is referred to as a theory. Theories are not completely immune to being disproved, but experiments claiming to disprove a major theory should be subjected to greatly increased levels of scrutiny.
In order to be considered valid, an experimental result must be replicated by multiple scientists. This is to prevent any given scientist's biases and preconceptions from altering their perception of the experiment's results, and keep charlatans from deliberately polluting the pool of scientific knowledge for their own ends.
An additional warning: There is little stopping another group (probably in a city) from eventually developing the scientific method of their own accord. As cities by definition can support a population that does not produce their own food, they will have an advantage in the speed at which research progresses, and will almost certainly have a significant head start by the time you hear of it. THIS is what the advice about cities crushing you if you did not begin changing your society was originally about.
NOTE: Engineers are not scientists, but often work closely with them. An Engineer's job is to use knowledge of the world's rules provided by scientists to achieve useful results. Effectively, an Engineer is a specialized table-ruler, responsible for constructing bridges, buildings, useful devices, new methods of farming, and most other applications of scientific knowledge that will be useful to the common people. As an incompetent Engineer can easily be the cause of disasters causing the deaths of large numbers of people, it is important to ensure they are rigorously trained and tested for competence. As an example, an incompetently engineered dam can burst, unleashing a massive wave that destroys dozens of towns and villages downstream. Meanwhile, a competently engineered dam can provide an artificial lake with plentiful fishing and drinking water, as well as massive amounts of power for water-motivated machines. Now for more specific topics, I have several pieces of advice to give you. Please bear in mind that I will be going into extreme detail for all of these pieces of information. I am now going to expound at length about diseases and the treatment thereof.
Categories of Diseases and Treatments
There are several subtypes of disease; while you have been made aware of germs and some of the ways to kill them, you are likely not aware of the various subtypes among them, as well as the subtypes of non-germ disease. As such, I will list them here, along with several particularly common and nasty diseases from our history and how to effectively prevent or treat them.
Germ Subtypes
Bacteria: One of the most common types of germ, Bacteria are truly alive in every way that matters. They can grow on their own, move around under their own power, and emit toxins. Because of these capabilities, it is very hard to immunize a person against a Bacteria caused disease, but by the same token they are relatively easy to kill. Alcohol always works, as does honey. Additionally, raw Garlic root contains a substance that is poisonous to many species of bacteria but not to humans; it can therefore be effective against Bacterial diseases.
A word of warning. All life changes over generations to adapt to its environment. As Bacteria have very short generations, they therefore can adapt to many ways of killing them very quickly; we are currently going through a crisis where many of our means of killing Bacteria no longer work because they were overused enough for the Bacteria to adapt to them.
Viruses: Strictly speaking, a Virus is not alive. A Virus is an object that slips inside a host cell (the smallest units of life making up the bodies of living things) and steals control of the cell to force it to make more Viruses. This process is known as infection. As a Virus is not alive, it is naturally very hard to kill. Fortunately, the body does have a way to defend against Viruses by recognizing infected cells and killing them before they can release the Viruses they make, but this takes time to reach its full effectiveness.
It is possible to make a person's body immune to a Viral disease such that they cannot be dangerously infected. To achieve this, it is necessary to either find a closely related virus that is less dangerous, or damage a virus such that it cannot steal control of a cell without completely destroying it. The less dangerous or damaged virus is then injected into the patient's body, allowing their defenders to learn how to defend against that specific virus.
Parasites: Less common than Bacteria or Viruses but no less awful, Parasites are fully living creatures that survive by leeching off the wellbeing of another creature. Some Parasites live outside the body, but the most dangerous are those that take up residence inside a host. In the case of parasitic worms, these parasites are in fact large enough to be clearly seen. The most reliable way to deal with a parasite is to deny them access to a host, the exact methods of which vary by parasite.
In addition, every single germ-caused disease only exists in finite quantity at any given time. As such, it is possible to drive them to extinction, meaning that they will never harm another person ever again. In our world, we have already eradicated two diseases, and we have several more on the brink of extermination. This is much easier for Viruses and Parasites than it is for Bacteria, as Viruses and Parasites are dependent on harming people, while Bacteria can exist just fine outside of a living being.
All germ-carried diseases must additionally spread from person to person by some means. It is therefore possible to arrest the spread of disease by isolating the victims from all possible opportunities to spread their illness until they either recover or die. This practice is known as a Quarantine in our world. If someone dies of a germ-caused disease, BURN THE BODY IMMEDIATELY. This will kill almost all germs in their corpse and prevent them from spreading.
Internally Originating Disease Subtypes
Deficiency Diseases: To put it quite bluntly, there are a large amount of specialized substances in various foods that a human must get from their food and cannot make themselves. Failure to eat enough of these substances will cause a human's body to start breaking down in painful and debilitating ways before eventually killing them. Fortunately, Deficiency Diseases are very easy to prevent and cure; just make sure the patient is eating enough of the correct foods and they will not become sick with a Deficiency Disease.
Allergies: As has been mentioned, the human body effectively contains its own army dedicated to fighting off Germs. Sometimes, the body's army mistakenly identifies something harmless as a Germ, and begins attacking it. This tends to cause swelling, pain, excessive snot production, sneezing, coughing, and general misery. In the worst cases, an allergy can cause the windpipe to swell shut, suffocating the unfortunate victim if immediate action to force the windpipe open is not taken.
At your current development level, the best you can do for those who suffer from allergies is to simply keep whatever substance makes them miserable away from them.
Autoimmune Diseases: Like an allergy but worse, this is what happens when the body's army identifies a critical part of the body's workings as a dangerous threat. Depending on what the body's army is targeting, this can range from irritating, to excruciatingly painful, to deadly. In most cases the only option is to deliberately weaken the body's army using specialized drugs, but this obviously increases the victim's vulnerability to germs. I do not know how to make the drugs that weaken the body's army, and therefore cannot share this knowledge with you.
Cancers: Sometimes, the body's cells don't stop growing when they're supposed to. This inappropriately growing cell mass will form a structure known as a Tumor, sucking away resources from their victim and causing all sorts of other problems. Eventually, cancerous cells will spread throughout the body in a process called metastasis. After metastasis, curing cancer becomes MUCH more difficult. Cancer of any type tends to be fatal if allowed to develop untreated.
Though the risk of cancer cannot be totally eliminated, it can be vastly reduced by avoiding excessive exposure to sunlight, and not partaking of vices involving the inhalation of smoke. Tumors can be surgically removed with difficulty prior to metastasis, and there is a fruit native to warm climates known as the chili pepper that may be effective against cancer; the same substance that makes if feel like the chili-eater's mouth is on fire may be amazingly effective at halting the growth of cancerous cells. The reason I say may is that we are still in the process of experimenting to find out if this is true.
New research in mice and human cells suggests that capsaicin, the compound that gives red peppers its spicy flavor, may slow lung cancer progression.
www.medicalnewstoday.com
Specific Diseases and Treatments
Below, I will explain in detail some of the more notorious diseases that have menaced us throughout our history, along with effective treatments. Many of these probably will not exist in your world, or at least not in the parts you have visited. However, they will provide very effective examples of how various diseases can be treated, and what measures are effective to prevent their spread. If you recognize any of these diseases as something the Nine Nations are afflicted with, be sure to tell me.
Bacterial Diseases
Bubonic Plague
The Bubonic Plague is an incredibly nasty illness that at one point killed half the population of an entire continent in an event known as the Black Death. The disease can be identified by the swelling of several points on the victim's body into large black lumps, chills, high fever, muscle cramps, and gangrene of the extremities (fingers, toes, nose, lips). Bubonic Plague usually does not spread directly from person to person; it is spread by a flea carried by rats.
As said flea cannot travel without the rats it travels with, killing the rats is effective at halting the plague's spread. This is another reason having lots of cats around is good. Any method effective against bacteria in general will be effective against Bubonic Plague; at your current level of advancement, that basically means that the victim needs to eat LOTS of raw Garlic until a week after they appear to recover.
Cholera
Another very lethal illness, Cholera is spread by drinking water or eating food contaminated with shit. There's really no nicer way to put it. Cholera kills by making a person shit until all the water in their body is gone. Prevent people getting sick with Cholera by making sure shit can't enter sources of drinking water or food, and heating suspect water or food to a boil in order to kill anything living in it.
If someone is sick with Cholera, they can be saved by providing them with lots of additional clean water with a small amount of sugars and salts added; this needs to be kept up for a few days to prevent the patient from dehydrating until the disease passes. It is very important to dispose of all the shit a cholera patient produces in a manner that will not allow the cholera to continue spreading.
Syphylis
Syphilis is primarily spread by sexual intercourse, being an example of a sexually-transmitted disease. It will cause grotesque deformations and severe misery in the affected, including reddish nodules all over the body. Many patients of Syphilis will ultimately die of the disease, but not before years of suffering have passed. There is a cure for Syphilis, but the Nine Nations currently lack the capability to produce it. As such, you should focus on preventing the spread of the disease; this is one of VERY few cases in which I would argue in favor of castration. It is very hard to spread a disease with sex if the capability for sexual intercourse has been removed.
Appendicitis
Appendicitis is distinguished not by what bacteria causes the disease, but by what organ is afflicted. The Appendix is a small organ attached to the large intestine in the lower right portion of the body, just over the waist, and below the navel. In the event that it is infested by harmful bacteria, the Appendix will swell causing extreme pain in the victim until it eventually bursts. After that happens, death will follow shortly after.
The single most reliable way to prevent death from appendicitis is to physically remove the appendix from the victim's body before it bursts using surgery. During surgery, the surgeon's arms should be rendered as germ-free as possible by thoroughly scrubbing with strong soap and alcohol up to their elbows. A very small very sharp knife known as a Scalpel should be sterilized via boiling before being used to make an incision. Remove the Appendix with as little damage as possible to blood vessels or other organs of the body, make damn sure the incision isn't infected (a bit of alcohol may do the job, but it's GOING to hurt), then sew the incision shut with sterilized needle and thread. It is possible for the patient to still die from surgical complications, but they're a lot more likely to live than if the appendix had been left in.
As you do not have a safe means of rendering a surgical patient unconscious, it will likely be required to tightly strap the patient to the operating table to prevent them from flailing around.
Smallpox
One of two infectious diseases to be entirely erased from the world in our history, Smallpox was a nasty disease with a 30% chance of being lethal if left untreated. Smallpox could be recognized by the scale-like rash that would appear all over the victim's body with a small depression in the center. A case of Smallpox would manifest symptoms roughly twelve days after initial infection and could last several weeks.
We know of no way to actually cure Smallpox, but it is relatively easy to render a person immune prior to infection. A small amount of powdered material from the scabs of Smallpox sufferers blown up the nose of a person will give them a mild case of the disease, after which they will be immune. A safer method involves the closely related bovine disease known as Cowpox; it is closely enough related to smallpox to confer effective immunity, but is nowhere near as dangerous for a human patient.
HIV
It must be clarified that the virus known as HIV almost certainly does not exist in your world at the present time. In our history, the disease only originated within the last century. Be grateful for this fact; HIV is a disease that slowly breaks down the body's army of defenders over the course of several years, leaving them immensely vulnerable to all manner of other diseases. Effectively, without drugs that you will not be able to produce for at least a century, HIV is a slow painful death sentence. HIV is primarily spread by sexual intercourse, but can also be spread by contact of other bodily fluids.
Parasitic Diseases
Malaria
A microscopic (too small to see) parasite that lives in warm climates, Malaria is transmitted between victims by biting bloodsucking insects known as mosquitoes. As with many diseases, the victim will suffer and probably die after a long, excruciating ordeal. Prevention largely involves reducing the number of mosquitoes in the area as much as possible: destroy bodies of standing water where they breed, make use of specially-targeted poisoning, and use tightly-woven mesh netting in windows and around beds to prevent mosquitoes from entering. A useful fact to know for this is that Mosquitoes can track carbon dioxide, a gas emitted by both breathing and fire. Therefore, a clean slow-burning fire can be used to lure Mosquitoes into a trap.
There are certain drugs that can inhibit the parasites, but the plants they originate from are not likely to be found in the regions you know of.
Guinea Worm
An awful example of a parasitic worm, Guinea Worm is contracted by drinking water contaminated with microscopic Guinea Worm eggs. Up to a year later, the worm will emerge from the ankle of their victim and induce agonizing pain until it is removed by winding it around a pole and manually pulling it out. Guinea worm is easily preventable by telling people about how it spreads and providing water filters capable of removing the worm's larva from drinking water; boiling probably also works. Seriously, Guinea Worm is awful.
Hookworm
A rather subtle parasitic disease, Hookworm can cause all manner of breathing problems, chest pain and bowel distress. Over the course of years, the victims will eventually wither away to almost nothing as the worms inside them steal away the nourishment they consume. The worms proceed to lay their eggs in the shit of their hosts, providing yet another reason why effective disposal of shit is very important. Hookworm larvae can enter a host through the feet, meaning that good shoes can block the worms from entry. Hookworm larvae cannot escape a pit latrine deeper than two men are tall.
Deficiency Diseases
Scurvy
The eventual result of not eating enough fresh fruit, Scurvy can take up to a month to develop. Sufferers of Scurvy will become extremely lethargic, develop spots on their tongue, bruise easily, have their teeth loosen, have trouble healing, and eventually die. This disease can be both prevented and treated by ensuring that the patient eats an adequate amount of fresh fruit, though certain vegetables will also work. Specific fruit juices can also act as a preventative for Scurvy.
Rickets
A deficiency disease that particularly afflicts children, Rickets is the result of insufficient Vitamin D. The symptoms include a general softening of the bones, possibly leading to bowed legs, stunted growth, general bone pain, an enlarged forehead, and difficulty sleeping. Notably, Vitamin D is one of relatively few things the body needs that it can make itself, but to do so it needs direct sun exposure. Alternatively, eat more fish.
Beri Beri
A deficiency disease caused by excessively processed grain. Beriberi can lead to impaired senses, weakness and pain in the limbs, heart rate issues, and swelling of various tissue. In severe cases, Beriberi kills by total failure of the heart. Beriberi can be easily prevented by encouraging the bran of grains to also be eaten; either the bran can be milled into the rest of the flour, or it can be eaten as a separate dish.
Lenses, Optics, Telescopes, and Microscopes
Now for a completely different topic that you will only find useful now that the production of clear glass is within the Nine Nations' capabilities. As I am certain you have noticed, a curved glass surface will bend light passing through it. This can be used to clearly view another party from miles away, or view things that are too small to see normally, including germs.
There are two basic shapes of lens: convex and concave. A convex lens bulges outward like the surface of a ball; light passing through bends (or refracts) inwards towards the center, converging at a focal point. A concave lens is indented inwards; light passing through it refracts outwards, away from the center. For most applications, a mix of both lens types tends to be useful.
To make a precise convex lens, a heavy turntable is required; make an Iron mold with an indentation the rough size and shape of the lens desired, then fill it with sand. Firmly attach a piece of glass to a rod with a resin-based adhesive, and use that rod to hold the glass in place in the lens mold as the turntable is set to spin. This will grind the glass piece down into an even convex shape. After one side is ground to the desired shape, change which side the rod is attached to and grind the other side if desired. Once both sides are ground, significant amounts of polishing will likely be needed to remove the last grit and imperfections for a fine image. In the case of a concave lens, the turntable should instead have a very smooth iron ball mounted to grind the glass block against, but the method is otherwise the same.
A telescope is a device for seeing things clearly from a long distance. To make a basic version, a convex and a concave lens of different sizes are needed. The convex lens should be bigger than the concave lens. To determine how much distance should be between the two lenses, it is necessary to determine their focal length, or the distance it takes them to focus light to a point. To do this for a convex lens, hold the lens outside on a sunny day, and observe how far you need to hold the lens from a surface to focus the sun's rays to the smallest possible point. This distance is the lens's focal length.
Finding the focal length for a concave lens requires the use of a convex lens; mount both lenses on stands along with a white piece of cloth on a frame. Aim the convex lens at some distant object with the cloth behind it. Put the concave lens between the convex lens and the cloth frame, and move it around until you find the distance such that you can move the cloth without the projected image on it becoming blurry or changing size. That is the correct distance for those two lenses to be mounted apart to make a telescope. Simply mount those lenses in a tube at that distance, and when you look through the smaller lens (referred to as the eyepiece), whatever you are looking at will seem closer.
A microscope is basically a telescope but backwards. Making one is very similar, save that the convex lens should be sized as the eyepiece. The smaller the concave lens, the smaller the things a microscope can see, but at a certain point it becomes very difficult to correctly mount the lenses at the proper distance, or precisely grind a lens. In addition, a bright light source is often needed to clearly see whatever is being looked at with a microscope; the amount of light a lens can collect is proportional to its size, and microscope lenses tend to be very small. A single convex lens can also be used for looking at very small things, but is a bit less effective.
Also, the method of establishing the focal length for a convex lens can be used to light a fire; beams of light carry energy. Focus enough of that light in one place and things get very, very hot. It is possible to build a weapon that shoots sufficiently powerful and focused beams of light to make its victims catch fire or explode, but to do so requires more than just lenses. You should not expect such to be built for at least two centuries at a bare minimum, unless magic makes that sort of thing easier for some reason.
Trebuchets, Catapults, and Ballista
Devices you are almost certainly able to construct, Trebuchets, Catapults, and Ballista are all mechanisms for flinging large projectiles long distances. This can be used with firebombs, or simply large stones if you wish to batter down a fortified wall from a relatively safe distance. Generally, firebombs are a much more practical option. Catapult is simply an umbrella term for any device that launches another object using purely mechanical forces.
Trebuchets are mechanically the simplest, but are also very heavy by nature of their mechanism. A wooden arm should be mounted on an off-center pivot, such that it can swing vertically. A bucket containing a large amount of heavy material should be affixed to the shorter end of the throwing arm, while a sling loaded with the desired projectile should be affixed to the long end of the throwing arm such that it will release at the apex of the swing. When released, the weight will fall, swinging the throwing arm upwards and launching the projectile in a long arc. The basic principle of a Trebuchet has now been described.
There are many, MANY possible improvements, but I will leave you to invent them yourself; it will be good practice at science and engineering for yourself and any scientists or engineers you train. In general, Trebuchets are exceedingly good at launching very large projectiles as they are built bigger, but are less portable and difficult to re-target. An example of a good time to use a Trebuchet is if you want to lob gigantic firebombs over the wall of a fortified location.
A Ballista is basically an oversized crossbow in terms of operation and general concept. The biggest difference is that instead of using an actual bow to store energy, they use a pair of wooden arms mounted within twisted bundles containing LOTS of rope. These are mounted in a heavily-built frame that both prevents the ballista arms from swinging too far forwards, and supports the rope bundles used to mount the arms. As the bowstring is pulled back, these bundles of rope twist and stretch; when released they snap back to their original position, snapping the bowstring forwards and launching whatever projectile they were loaded with. I would of course recommend firebombs as ammunition, but an overly large arrow would also work.
Ballista are more easily aimed and transported than most Trebuchets, but cannot launch anywhere near as large projectiles. I suspect that a Lesser Giant could be armed with an appropriately built Ballista like it was a regular crossbow, and could use it with great effectiveness.
This is an outright lie on your part. You get your information from the same source as any of us; namely the archives built by our society to store and share our knowledge. Knowledge largely obtained through science, or at least empirical observation.I will only partially concede this point. There was indeed progress prior to the widespread adoption of science. However what cannot be contested is that it was far, far slower. The adoption of the scientific method directly increases the knowledge and options available to any society that does so on a large scale.I will counter with the example of the Trinity test. In that case the experiment was known to be extremely devastating, and was therefore carried out in a desolate environment far from anything important. The same principle of keeping dangerous experiments far from anyone they can harm also holds true here for magic.I will concede this point. At present, there is not much need for a large number of engineers.You are probably correct on this point for at least the next two thousand years or so; widespread science generally requires widespread literacy. In order for this to be a credible possibility, a means of easily duplicating written text is required, which does not exist yet.The point was explicitly as an example! I outright told Bianca most of those diseases probably weren't a worry for the Nine Nations at present, and were meant purely to illustrate some of how diseases worked and how to prevent their spread.
You may choose to go by Demon, but we're the same species; namely the variety of human native to this Earth. You are playing the role of a demon to the point that it is undermining our task as advisors.
In my case, I want to improve the living conditions of the people on Bianca's world; as Bianca's communications are the only way available to do that, I will therefore advise her.
In addition, Science is a process not a religion. The crucial difference is that a religion cannot afford to admit error or incorrect information. Meanwhile, the process of Science is fundamentally built on being willing to admit that an idea is incorrect in the face of empirical evidence, and use the knowledge of what ideas are wrong in order to get closer to the truth.
If you are going to persist in this ruse of being from a different world, you can at least spell the name of the planet correctly. E A R T H, not U R T H.
Actually, making Penicillin simply requires
-the ability to do microbiological science (conveniently, I just told Bianca how to make a basic microscope)
-finding and growing the correct species of mold
-a way to refine the antibiotic s produced by said mold
One last note for Bianca: I believe you may be able to force spring to come early, and winter to start late next year, purely by altering the amount of clouds over the Nine Nations. After all, you have mentioned an ability to alter the weather through magic. As I mentioned during my talk of lenses, light carries energy to heat things up. Similarly, warm things release light, though unless they are very hot it is not of a color that humans can see. By forcing the Nine Nations to have clear days, you increase the amount of the sun's rays that reach the ground. Come nightfall, cover the entire Nine Nations with clouds; this will prevent most of the light and/or heat from escaping, and should also be when rain or snow is allowed to happen. Combined, this will allow you to warm up the entirety of the Nine Nations, allowing a significantly longer growing season next year.
"When I have sorcerers to spare and time, 'Just Write,' I will surely use every method of investigation at hand. And the Method of Expert Knowledge described by the Black Cat and other voices is on the tablets of record. We will use it when the time comes for such things.
"In the immediate present, the people will tend to do things as they have done them because they know that way works. There is no time in this year or likely the next to draw people away from the tasks of feeding and clothing and defending the people. And since all they did was apparently to the fruitless end of seeking to become my priesthood, Burgeck no longer undertakes the seeking of truths toward which I set them.
"I foresee that As long as it is said that the black metal and glass were taught to the Burgeck by me, then there will come a time when the people say to themselves, 'Our stores are full, our herds innumerable, our fields fruitful, our youths many. Let us seek secrets from Bianca as the Burgeck did before so that the idle among us are busied and we all live better lives.' And when they come to me in that way, there will be time for your methods then.
"The Burgeck sought to live like the priests they have known other gods to have. They meant to keep their herds and their lands. But they also meant to enjoy the works of the other tribes given to them in my stead. And they meant to have authority to speak for me.
"What people would you have me raise up, 'Just Write?' What people should not hunt or keep herds or sow and harvest? How should people be chosen to live by the work of others? This is the same question that arises in the matter of 'armed forces' and 'guards' and 'inquisitors.' Which people should be chosen to have power over the others that they should say, 'Feed me while I do not feed or cloth or arm or make tools for you?'
"I do more greatly favor this 'open flow of information' now, voice. Erweh and his priestess are surely in part to blame. But if the people of Wrul knew the making of baubles of glass, that self-styled god of the underworld would not have as easily raised such a host. So now I will see that singers travel with any trading group. And for trader's prices they will teach the stone words and make tablets of words in front of the outsiders. And in those words they will answer the riddles of makings.
"Always there will be greed. And thieves will still come for my hoard. Land, also, is precious and there may come a time when there are so many cities, as you voices have claimed, that one makes battle to take fields and pasture from another. But let them not march over the land against the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations only because the people know the making of some wondrous thing the outsiders do not.
"On the matter of units of measure and 'precision,' there is discussion among my singers and table-rulers over what unit is best for what situation. In this matter, they say this one is better, in a different matter, another. It is a dispute I will not waste my time on as it would take the knowing of too many things to know best. But I have told them that if so many of one unit always fit into another, they must choose one of the two to use and the other to set aside. Whether they should choose the smaller unit and use it in greater counts or the larger unit and speak of apportioning, I do not instruct them. In time, I do believe some units will be chosen to be used always. But in the meantime I see little reason to involve myself more than I, on the advice of you voices, already have.
"Surely you do not think all people at all times should keep in mind things such as, 'It is not proven that the sun is very far away, it simply failed to be disproven?' No one-- No, that is not true. Some certainly will make time for such foolishness. For there are both foolish and oddly particular people in the world. But for others, for the greater numberings of people it is surely best that they think, 'The sun is very far away, so it is known to be.' Is that not so?
"And if a thing is only done once in one place but cannot be done elsewhere in other places, what use is it to talk of that thing as proof of any fact other than that it happened? Some wonders may be worked only in a special time and place. Some require acts that one can only do a single time, such a death or their first experience or certain things. At times the forces of magic take on a nature that allows works of greater range or power or some other particular.
"There was a time long, long ago when for, I think, many decades I was able to shove a thunderbolt directly through the left eye of person or beast at twenty paces or less. Then my misses grew greater in number, and thunderbolts came to require more-- ah. Well, they ceased to come as easily. Now thunderbolts must be called down and are a waste of sorcery for their wanderings and for the broadness of the time in which they might begin or cease.
"I remain wary of speaking even to you in your madness of the nature of magic. But I know not what might be 'proven' by such things. And I do not think you would, either, if you knew the manner in which magic is done.
"Sometimes a seed takes. Sometimes it does not. If we know only that a seed has taken once, but not other times, that does not tell us that the seed will not take. You will have to better explain your advocacy of doubt, voice, before I may much instruction of it to others.
"A city has already tried to crush me, in case you did not understand that, 'Just Write.' I will scatter the next host and the one after that. But I think in any case I will hear of them before they rise too greatly. Even now, my singers travel outward to look in on the Known Cities and to see what their hosts do.
"If your experts of knowledge are not meant to achieve anything of use, then there is no place for them in the Nine or Ten Nations. I will take these others, who make things of use. A table-ruler who applies knowledge such that wondrous bridges or useful devices are built is a fine person to have among the People. But how can you speak highly of anyone who does not make anything of use? And when the people know why their buildings fall on them, then of course I will see that all the thing-making table-rulers understand these things, and as many of the people as well. They do take it upon themselves to build things from time to time in any case.
"Among the people the burning of the dead is only done during the harshest of years. It is a sign that one family does not trust their neighbors to abstain from cannibalism. And so, as it leads to discord, I have forbidden it.
"But in the times where both sickness and discord are common, lives caught up in discord are more easily preserved by intervention than are lives caught up in sickness. So I will consult with my singers and we will arrange for the burning of all the dead.
"There is, though, in the matter of immediacy, an issue. Not all thought to be dead of disease truly are. The people observe bodies for a span of some days before burial. At times, those thought dead awake, whether they were thought dead to disease or age or misadventure. Further, always for someone there is hope. And that is a difficult and often fruitless thing to try to take from people, especially the grieving. How would you take and burn the body of their loved one who they do not yet believe to have passed?
"I do not know what use it is to know that some diseases are objects too small to be seen which trick the body into duplicating them, others are tiny living things that will change with time and do not need bodies to survive but sicken bodies when they live -- what, in? Around? On them? -- and others still are tiny things that may or may not be too small to see and which breed as life does but require bodies of other, larger living things from which to draw sustenance and shelter. Unless the worms can be seen, how can we tell the difference? And if honey kills the tiny stick monsters, should all people eat honey at all times? Or is this about woundcare again?
"If the people at some time suffer no famine of the land or the body, they it seems we may note what they eat. And when the land is enfamined or if bodies are sickened, we may compare what they are eating to what is known to be free of body famine. Then we might know what sickens them or what can be done to restore them to health. I know voices have said that this or that thing should be eaten, fruit and meat and such. I do not know what of these things we have, save for the fruits that only grow where winters are easy. We do not have those, for our winters are not easy.
"Perhaps we should steal some easy winters from somewhere else…
"There was once a man of… Bima Nolco was it? Or perhaps Lan? No matter. There was once a man who came before me in part of a dispute. He slew the sheep of another family, opened their bodies in the field, and left them there. I think he had slain some tens of sheep before he was stopped.
"The deprived family demanded recompense. But the man objected that his neighbors had been hiding wolves among their sheep by dressing them in fleece and making barter with them, that they should go out to slay the sheep of other families only and shelter among the sheep of the family that bargained with them.
"He said he could tell some of his neighbor's sheep were wolves from how they moved and other matters of their seeming. But when he sought to slay them, always the wolves tricked him. And surely with my wisdom I would see that he was right and, further, know which were which.
"I would not have it told so, for I know it was foolish and a waste of time, but I did go out with the man to see his neighbors' flocks. And despite his assurances, claims, and shoutings they were just sheep.
"Madness is rarely contained. If a person comes to believe one thing that is not true, they may come to believe others, perhaps easily or perhaps with difficulty. And what untrue thing they believe may not be known to those around them. The mad may not speak of it, and might take unfortunate action without warning. So it is to live among people.
"This man, after the family that neighored him had recompense and after he was beaten sorely by them, came to believe that his dearest spouse was not a person, but a spirit. There are spirits who come from adults who are cast out of the marriage, who died while feeling the summit of their betrayal and abandonment. These spirits of loneliness may pretend to be a wife or husband to the unwary, foolish, or insensate. But they are not so hard to tell from living people and rare besides.
"In this man's case there was no spirit. Instead he consulted a witch to drive the spirit away. And the witch, knowing spirit from person, informed his marriage and his family of his new madness. That was all some few years later, and he had made himself distant from all but his dearest spouse -- who he then accused of being a spirit -- and he was unliked by many. As I remember it, his dearest spouse was broken in the heart over the matter and took to wasting away. I don't know which of the two died first, as the spouse passed the next winter or the one after and the madman died of bad digestion -- or poison.
"This is what I came to think of when you describe the discord of the armed force of the body. And I think of what damage very likely discord among armed forces of a tribe or city would do.
"And the full uprising of those armed forces against the body itself, though led of confusion for surely they will die with the body, I can see in a confused uprising of an armed force against a city without which it that armed force cannot sustain itself. That is, though, also much like your invading tiny animals which live on or within another and who sicken their host to death. And that is what I would expect all city life to come to, ultimately.
"How can these diseases of body discord and revolt be known from diseases of body famines or of tiny life? Surely tumors are well known everywhere. When a person takes on lumps within or without, those may consume them. And these are, I think, less like an armed force and more like the priests or merchants or kings of a city, redirecting the food and water from those who keep their neighbors alive to those who contribute little, or nothing.
"And the wrongness of tumors is easily known from their very being. So some who dare to cut themselves do at times seek their removal. I don't know that this process goes any worse than other cuttings of the living, really. But it doesn't go well. Still, with cleaner and sharper tools, with better woundcare and the burn-sealing of flesh. Perhaps some bold people might outlive their lumps. We may find out.
"Fragrant smoke from certain herbs, woods, and powders is treasured by the people. And by me. I may no longer eat or drink, but I do enjoy pleasant odors.
"Already rats are the enemy of the people for the eating of grains and on occasion other stored foods. If more than one cat could be kept in a village without them each taking to contest to drive the other away, I would ordain that the people should do so. As it stands, the people set their dogs against rats as well. But there is a small problem there in that the dogs which best hunt and kill rats are the same dogs which hunt and kill unwary fowl and even at times goatlings and lambs and, should they rove in numbers, sheep and perhaps pigs and their piglets. If a manner of dog could be bred which hunts rats with fervor but not the others, we could have fewer rats. And should this plague or one like it come, fewer of the fleas of rats in particular.
"When the gathered warriors of the Free People of the Nine Nations encamped around their walls on hillsides, preparing and waiting for the Hosts of Wrul, I did direct them to put all their shitting holes far away and downhill from any drinking places. And still the shitting sickness did take many of them. Though in the countings of the table-rulers it is known that in the Hosts of Wrul there were more per hundred which took up the shitting sickness and more per hundred sick that perished. I have told the people that this is because of where they dig, where they shit, how clean they keep, and that they feed those beset with shitting sickness the water and salt and honey until their piss has little odor. The people do understand that when someone has the shitting sickness their shit will carry that illness to others, and are careful or careless of that as suites their natures.
"I think, 'Just Write,' that you misunderstand either the taking of balls or fucking. An ox does not mount cows so often as a bull. Well, cows mount each other as it happens. But an ox may mount and enter a cow, or even another bull. And so it is among people as well. Truly, a man without his balls does not so eagerly seek to join himself to others, at times to their frustration. But if a disease is spread by fucking then taking a man's balls will not make him safe to all the world.
"The addition to the bowel you speak of is known to me. In studying the bodies of the dead to determine the nature of illness, I have observed any number of organs inflamed or oozing. And that one does not stand out. But if it is a thing that happens every so often I will make a study of those who die of pain in that area. And once we understand what suffering is a swollen bowel addition, we can begin to learn this butchery of the living and the safe-making of it. And if the person would die anyway, there is no need to restrict this study to secrecy or the unwanted.
"And while I can watch for cattlepox and see what to make of spreading it to the people, you said, '30 out of every hundred die if the pox is left untreated,' but you did not describe its treatment. What can be done to better save those who suffer from the pox?
"When diseases are found, wherever they are found, we will take an accounting of the biting things that may spread them. And again and again the topic returns to the proper disposal of shit. Yes, yes. It is noted that shit is bad and should not be allowed to enter waters.
"There are winter illnesses that might be your diseases of bodily famine. There are little in the way of fresh fruit to be had at any time of the year and less in winter, of course. What else staves off the scurvy?
"But more sun protects against rickets and more sun causes more cancer? This, I think, is a choice opportunity for a trial. I can exhort the people to sun themselves to excess and the table-rulers may take measure of the increase in their health on the one side and the increase in their tumors on the other. And then we may know more of this. I will see about it.
"I suppose the people would appreciate their grains so milled that the husk is not known. That is not feasible at this time. But I will have it recorded that if it ever is it should still be avoided for this reason. Or perhaps there will be another trial. Who knows.
"Wait, 'Just Write.' Tell me how glass is made clear. Is this a matter of polishing? How is polish made? What resins may be used to fix the clear and polished glass to a rod such that it will not damage the glass?
"Beyond those concerns, I think I understand the mechanism you describe. It should be a potter's wheel with an iron bowl on it which is filled with some manner of sand. Now that glass-making has taught us all how different sands can be from one another, is there anything I should know about this grinding sand in particular?
"I wish to see the sky wanderers better. I wish to know more of the everchanging surface of the moon. And I wish to see the tiny life that causes disease and which defends against it and know their measure.
"I will have the singers and table-rulers whom I send with Kahl made to understand your over-thrower and rope-twist throwing mechanism. If they are understood properly, perhaps she will unseat those on the walls earlier than she might otherwise.
"I could not change the skies over the whole of the Nine Nations. I do call for rain at times when water is short. But these are not those times. The rivers and streams still run and there has been flooding. It is only that the winters are longer. If matters become dire, I may attempt to contest the clouds at all times, when they should be here and when they should be gone. But these long winters are not something the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations have never known before and they will know them again."
Depend on how long the siege is, which I think is not long. I believe the army being defeated in the field(which had to be supplied from the city) should mean an automatic surrender.
Is there a list of Blanca's accomplishment and changes made to the 9N somewhere? Like, I have no idea where we are technologically in term of agriculture. I knew we have crap iron and started producing glass.
The information is there, but it is spread throughout the story that must be searched through. A summary would be much more efficient without wasting Blanca's time.
I know there is a tendency among voices to infodump basic, foundational knowledge to Blanca, but it must be noted that it takes a lot of time to consider said thought and effort. Rather, you should tailor your advice to the context at hand.
The specific details of disease doesn't matter. Description of HIV is completely useless to her. However, surveillance and regulation of whorehouses and prostitution is a lot more useful for public health. Mainly, you check the prostitutes bodies for sign of sickness, and any men they came into contact with, and quarantine and treat them.
Deficiency diseases can be summed up into: "Varieties in food is essential for human health."
Siege weapons are worthless without a foundation in military strategy and how to use those weapons, as well as the logistics to support it. The 9N right now do not have any professional armies. Yes, they won a battle, but it's clear that they're unpracticed in the way of warfare. Professional soldiers mean that they can execute battlefield maneuvers and fortify positions well. It's important to build that first, along with an engineering corp.
Indeed. We are advising a ruler of a nation, not a group of scientists, doctors, engineers, or philosophers. Leave the science, math, and philosophy to them.
We should concern ourselves only with Blanca and her concerns. If we have to advise her on science and other fundamental subjects, we should just focus on bootstrapping and leave most of the details to them.
This save Blanca's time and effort and progress the plot.
Anyway, with public health surveillance, prostitution and whorehouses are unlikely to be a thing in the 9N, but the newly captured city, Wrul, will likely have whorehouses that we can implement public health measures.
If there are veteran professional soldiers, we can use them to build the core of the 9N army. Ditto for any engineering corps.
At this time, I believe we will benefit more from expanding the production and quality of our glassware before embarking on the next scientific endeavor. Currently, our glassware are semi precious objects. Any telescopes and microscopes are going to be very expensive to make. For example, how are we going to source charcoal and coal? How are we doing to deal with pollution?
Ditto for growing mold to produce antibiotic. If you want any useful quantity of medicine, you're going to need to produce them reliably in an industrial quantity, then you need to make sure that it can be delivered to the patient in the useful dose. Where are you going to find your biochemists to do all of this? How much resources will that take away from farming? These are all the difficulties I found on wikipedia.
Really, the most important thing to do is still agriculture and improving agriculture through developing cheap quality of iron until we reach a population density high enough to sustain the occupations required to produce antibiotic, let alone all the other numerous chemical and pharmaceutical products.
"I find that sudden rewards do little to ensure loyalty in times years later if there is not sustained reason for loyalty. But Kahl has enjoyed many gifts from me throughout her life as a warrior and warleader of Lan, as a traveling trader, and even now. So she shall be made by gifts to continue to enjoy my interest in her life.
"I do mean to demand tribute from Kahl and whatever family she makes for herself in the Known Cities. And, yes, fine livestock for breeding and bond captives of skilled crafters had crossed my mind.
"I think I will not be able to drain those cities of their baubles fast enough to reduce discord. People will come on the rivers and the pack train trails with more baubles for whatever the city makes. It is inevitable, I think, as the voices have said. There will be inequality. There will be strife. There will be ends to the ordered acts that keep the city alive. But until then it shall serve the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations in whatever way they make it to do so.
"The food being sent from behind the Hosts of Wrul is likely to be eaten by their remnants that are currently fleeing in that direction now. But perhaps there will be more, there. I imagine taking that food for these captives would just be making a decision about who starves, and when. I would rather the farmers survive and the people in the city starve. Farmers may continue to produce food when things turn around. But if the farmers starve then there will be no turnings around. And then all the people have gained is a delay of their starvation.
"And, yes, there is the matter of the slower warriors that Kahl did not bring with her and what comes of them at Wrul.
"Is the spread of disease by fucking really so great of a concern?
"If you feel that my understanding of battle comes short, voice, I challenge you to correct that. And having tools of war and an opportunity to use them, or at least to hear of their use by Kahl of Lan, seems to me like an improvement over having neither.
"Please, do tell me how to improve what warriors I have now.
"Ah. I see. You don't mean to watch those that trade fucking for food or favors or baubles. You mean to take measure of the health of all the people by taking measure of the fuckwrights. Are these better examples of health because they are so intimate with so many who may not be intimate with each other? And does their closeness allow some diseases to pass that might not otherwise? And so a table-ruler taking measure of the health of all the people in a city knows better what diseases are present throughout the city? Why didn't you just say so?
"Yes, voice. I do like the plan that rulers of distant cities should come to my great house and present themselves before me. It would be good that they are reminded of to whom it is that they owe tribute.
"What quantity of medicine is useless, voice? Even if only a small amount can be made, there may be one sick person I would like to see saved. And so if I have only enough medicine for that one person, then it is of use.
"The people themselves would certainly like more and better glass. They are fond of the stuff to the point of ridicule, especially outsiders with their hoarding ways.
"But, yes, it is always best to learn how to better feed and house and keep healthy and protect all the tribes of the Nine or Ten Nations."
I think we should all recall the "epilogue" of the last game where we gave OtherBianca to much healing and not enough food making. So there was to many people and not enough food.
Let word of your might spread far and wide.
[X] [Captives] Build The Road Of Tears
Khal is but a mortal. Singers will help ensure a smooth transfer of power to Bianca upon Khal's death.
[X] [Seizure] Send singers
May lead to short term discontent, but long term they will make great shock troops.
[X] [Compensation] Tell the tribes to bring them into the Nine Ways Pact
The only option that is a real solution.
[X] [Desolation] While the warriors are still gathered, steal food from all surrounding peoples
[Lever Lift Pump]
Some years ago Glorious Leader desired knowledge of an improved type of pump. It took far to long to gather my wits, but I have returned from the data-stacks. Let me tell you of the [Lever Lift Pump]. This pump moves water vertically through the action of a person at the top forcing a lever up and down. The lever pivots near the edge of the pump output and has a rod connected to the other end. This rod spans the entire height of the pump's interior, transmitting the force of the lever to a mechanism at the bottom. The mechanism is a cylinder connected to the rod such that when the rod moves, the mechanism is forced through the pump pipe. The mechanism carries a one way valve which allows water to flow upward but not downwards.
In operation the height of the pump pipe is filled with water. When the lever forces the rod forces the mechanism down, more water flows into the pipe. When the lever forces the rod forces the mechanism up, the one way valve prevents flow causing the mechanism to lift the column of water & a volume of water equal to the area of the circle of the pipe by the distance of travel of the mechanism is expelled from the top of the pump.
The woodworking required for this pump is probably simpler than for a screw pump, but it can be a challenge to make the mechanism fit the pipe well enough to block water and loosely enough to be moved. For that you will want to use a couple [Oh-rings]. An [Oh-ring] is a pliant ring of material used to form a seal. Cut grooves near either end of the mechanism to hold the [Oh-rings]. You can experiment with rings cut from leather or made of rope and soaked with grease or oil. What works best is very application specific.
The one way valve can be a simple as a flap of material, but better ones will allow you to pump more water easier by preventing back flow.
[Proper construction & maintenance of a fireplace / chimney]
To prevent fires you should be cleaning the soot out of your chimneys at least thrice a year. When building a chimney it should be obvious that you don't build it out of flammable materials, but surprisingly many people have made the mistake of building a chimney out of wood covered in clay. While easier than stone or brick, this can be a major fire risk. The heat of the fire will eventually degrade the clay, and unless you are regularly inspecting the interior of your chimney (you aren't), you are at risk of your house randomly burning down.
Stone and Concrete are adequate but not preferable chimney materials because they both contain tiny pockets of water that can heat up and cause spalling like in a mine when you set a fire to weaken the rock. The best material is of course bricks.
[Blanching]
When freezing vegetables, try briefly boiling and then rapidly freezing them to improve final taste and texture. Things can be cooled more quickly if you press them between two already cold surfaces or submerge in salted ice water. Use salted water because it can get colder before freezing.
[Airlock]
If you add a small entryway with a door on either end to your ice house, you can reduce the escape of cold air when entering and leaving.
[Question]
Do any of the nine nations know of the making of cursed objects?
"Yes, voice. I do find your Road of Lamentations to be a fine use of the bond captives of the Hosts of Wrul. Those that do not seem to be of most use to Kahl in her schemes will build the road by which travel from the Nine or Ten Nations to and from Wrul will occur. And many tears along the way are sure to be. The escaped warriors of the Hosts of Wrul will have to find food somewhere, and the crews of captive layers of roads will be one of their targets, their own former host-mates. Likewise, of the people they drove out on their way, surely some return to their lands seeking their own life. And instead they will find their land run over twice and parties of strangers baking bricks from their clays, gathering food from their lands and afield, and perhaps even living in their homes at times. So many tears.
"I believe I understand the mechanism you describe, voice, and also its intent If one end of such a flute is set in the water of a well or stream and the lever is worked then the water will be drawn out the top. And the well can be dug as narrowly as the flutes body, so as to be of greater ease of use and also less of a danger to the unwary or distraught. And unlike the captured screw, this pipe can draw water while fully upright.
"I will direct the people that their firepits and chimneys both should be built wholly of fired clay bricks without stone or wood of any sort. Perhaps fewer of them will take to crumbling in, as that is troublesome and deadly.
"I will have the singers at my great house test your boiling and cooling of vegetables. Icehalls are used more to store meats and such, though some cheeses and root vegetables are also stored within them. In Burgeck there was a great icehall with a domed ceiling so high, I am told, that I could only reach it by standing on the shoulders of a tall man and in which they took to storing their grains as well as meats. It fell in on itself in a great winter storm and some grain was ruined. They needed a witch to handle the spirit, there, before they could dig out the food. But they did recover most of the grain and were not overly starved on account of the accident, though they had much less meat than they planned on having.
"I do not know if anyone wishes that icehalls would be colder than they are. They seem sufficient. However, I can see the wisdom in planning for a future in which some new need calls for them to be even colder, so long as there is no danger or impediment. I will try out your two-door construction at the icehall at my great house. Though I wonder how that will affect the rituals of hospitality. Will the spirit greet their 'guests' at the first door or the second? We shall see.
"There are several sorts of curses, voice. In one case the object is merely haunted by angry or troublesome spirit. I can make some objects of this sort by compelling the right spirit to fix its attentions to the right object, but it is better to unmake them. Some others operate by means of magics that may or may not be understood by the person examining them. Of these, I can reproduce the effect or two or three sorts and at least one of those I think any sorcerer of note could puzzle it out if given the chance and go on, in moons or years, to make their own cursed tools. Beyond that, there are items cursed by the gods, old and new. When I become a god, then I will look into that. But I do not regard study of those to be useful just now, especially for the danger involved. And finally there are some cursed objects which operate by no means understood. These could be cunning and subtle examples of any of the above. Or they could be something else entirely."
Oh Undying Bianca, the Demon greets you who return victorious from war, valiant and bedecked in the blood of your enemies. I rejoice.
[X] [Cacophony] Kiba
[X] [Seizure] Send the best singers, table-rulers, and warriors
A city, fine and ripe. Delicious tribute juice shall flow from between our soldier-teeth as we bite in.
[X] [Captives] Set the captives to building a great road to connect the Nine Nations to our new city of Wrul
If we work them hard enough they may not last the winter, which solves some of our food problems.
[X] [Compensation] Tell the tribes to bring them into the Nine Ways Pact
The Lesser giants have proven themself trustworthy, and bled and died for us. If we did not make them one with us, we would appear insincere and of little honour.
[X] [Desolation] While the warriors are still gathered, steal food from all surrounding peoples
Even if we distribute out current stores of food in the most fairest of manners, that will not change that there simply is not enough food, and that people will starve. If we suffer a famine now, this will set us back decades in the advancement of the Nine Nations. Offended neighbours is merely an impetus for future expansion and not nearly so problematic. We were considering extracting tribute in any case.
Let us not forget Kahl of Lan is also the one that caused the war in the first place.
To prevent winters from killing fruit trees Bianca, you may perhaps consider fruit walls, which are an interesting thing I have learnt about recently. By building thick walls and planting fruit trees next to them, the walls will protect the trees from wind, reflect sunlight onto the trees, and absorb heat from the sun during the day, which means that they will stay warm during the night, and keep the fruit trees next to them warm as well. Over time and with a labyrinth of such fruit walls, you can create an area that is considerably warmer than the surroundings.
We are being told to eat local and seasonal food, either because other crops have been tranported over long distances, or because they are grown in energy-intensive greenhouses. But it wasn't always like that. From the sixteenth to the twentieth century, urban farmers grew Mediterranean fruits...
www.lowtechmagazine.com
Someone or something sharing in your prestige does not decrease your prestige unless they are spectacularly incompetent, and may increase it if they do well. Like mirrors of gold that reflect the light of the sun if properly aligned. Dogs are merely one tool that can be linked to your prestige. Already your singers are known as your Singers, and when they do well, they add to your own incandescent glory.
As I have explained before, adding soda ash decreases the quality of the glass, which is why it is a last resort to add it.
However, if the soda ash appears to be the culprit of failed glass, then by all means experiment with adding more or different types and trying find a better proportion of ingredients for glassmaking.
Lode-stones do not align with the stars, but with the aura of the world. Deep underground there are rivers of molten iron, and by their flowing they produce an field magnetic which shifts the baptized lodestones to consistently face the same direction.
Ships of metal stay afloat by the lightness of the air within them. You merely need to shape the metal into the proper shape, so that their displacement contains sufficient air.
I think that that could work, but we must take care that the city does not break free of Bianca's control.
Groundwater drawn from shallow tubewells in Bangladesh is often polluted by nearby pit latrines, which are commonly used toilets in rural and sub-urban areas of the country. To determine the minimum safe distance of a tubewell from a pit latrine in ...
If you want to know something specific, it's best to just ask Bianca. Here is what she said most recently when I asked about the current state of agriculture.
If you want an actual compendium of what we've told Bianca so far, how she has acted upon it, and how it has worked out, then you or another voice will need to make it, for none such exist currently.
This is false, all my knowledge is born from the bloodstorms, and gained by me through arduous scrying and ritual.
The bloodstorms tell me this is mostly false, a vast oversimplification of the process of human advancement, and fetishizes science too much.
On the fifth hoof, science might not be the best tool to experiment with such highly dangerous fields as magic, where failures or incorrect hypotheses can render large areas of land uninhabitable.
The only engineers Bianca might currently need are architects and siege engineers. We are in the age of artisans.
I believe that the Cacophony is an unique artifact. We are probably safe from the sciencocalypse.
Half these diseases don't exist, and may never exist. The other half is beyond the capabilities of the Nine Nations to treat currently. And probably a third of these are not in any way present in the part of the world the Nine Nations are currently located in.
- Glass (capable of forming into vessels)
- Writing (Primarily on clay tablets)
- Arabic Numerals (our table rulers love these)
- Glazing (ash & salt)
- Parchment (no paper atm!)
- Soot Ink and Reed Pens (seems sufficient)
- Iron (I don't know the details but I believe it's currently shitty and we lack good iron ores)
- Bronze (We haven't found any tin in our lands, but we're importing)
- Pit Latrines (UNSAFE PRACTICES)
- Distilling (Bianca calls it redewing)
- Table-Rulers (Dedicated clerical administrator types)
- Saddles + Stirrups + Recurved Composite Bow (Wen Mongol horde)
- Arches
- Timekeeping and Calendars (We now have a concept of the solar year, yeah!)
- Monjolo (Water hammers used for grinding grain and breaking rocks)
- Prototype waterwheel powered devices (deemed not worth the effort and demolished)
- Wheelbarrows (of the superior central wheel design and the inferior front wheel design.)
- Icehouses (inhabited by spirits.)
- Hemming (You won't believe this one crazy trick this housewife discovered to prevent fraying!)
Animals:
- Beekeeping (pretty good)
- Loner cats (European cats are the worst cats. Every village has a single cat to hunt vermin like rats. We cultivate a catnip equivalent)
- Donkeys (mule breeding has been suggested, outcome unknown.)
No I don't. I am Demon, a demon. I have no knowledge this strange Land of Archives and Empires of Observation you speak of, but I shall consult the Bloodstorms on the matter.
Unlike you humans of "Urth" I was not tasked with anything. I share my wisdom with Bianca because it amuses me and she seems sensible. What are the alien motives of you "Urthians" to advise Bianca? Is it to spread your religion of "Science"? Did your Emperor of Observation command you to this task to scout Bianca's world as the forerunners of an invasion from "Urth"?
Crops:
- Wheat
- Barley
- Lentils
- "Beans"
- flax & "fibrous plants for cloth and rope"
- "herbs for flavor and medicine and dyes"'
- Onions
- Misc fruits, nuts and berries
Recent 9N advancements:
General:
- Germ Theory (There are tiny things living everywhere!)
-- Hi-jean (people wash semi-regularly)
--- Soap!
- Selective breeding
- Charcoal
- Terra preta
- Cement
-- Concrete
- Roadmaking
- Crop Rotation (needs improvement iirc)
- Sodalime Glass (capable of forming into vessels)
- Glazing (ash & salt)
- Iron (I don't know the details but I believe it's currently shitty and we lack good iron ores)
- Bronze (We haven't found any tin in our lands, importing tin)
- Pit Latrines (UNSAFE PRACTICES)
- Distilling (Bianca calls it redewing)
- Saddles + Stirrups + Recurved Composite Bow (Wen Mongol horde)
- Arches
-- Domes
- Timekeeping and Calendars (We now have a concept of the solar year, yeah!)
- Monjolo (Water hammers used for grinding grain and breaking rocks)
- Prototype waterwheel powered devices (deemed not worth the effort and demolished)
- Wheelbarrows (of the superior central wheel design and the inferior front wheel design.)
- Icehouses (inhabited by spirits.)
- Hemming (You won't believe this one crazy trick this housewife discovered to prevent fraying!)
- Sail boats (still pretty crude iirc)
Literacy:
- Writing (Primarily on clay tablets, Phonetic)
-- Word spacings, punctuation
- Arabic Numerals
-- Math
- Table-Rulers (Dedicated clerical administrator types)
- Parchment (no paper atm!)
- Soot Ink
- Reed Pens
Animals:
- Beekeeping (pretty good)
- Loner cats (European cats are the worst cats. Every village has a single cat to hunt vermin like rats.)
- Donkeys (mule breeding has been suggested, outcome unknown.)
Crops:
- Catnip equivalent
- Clover
- Hemp (not currently used for anything iirc)
- Identification of iron ores
- Better iron smelting
- The uses of Hemp
- How to make paper
- How to make bridges
"It is true, Demon, that it is better for me that the outsiders starve than that the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations starve. There are already starving outsiders who cause trouble for the villages at the edges of the tribelands at the edges. They are mostly incapable of too much. It is the desperation of the dying that drives them, and it drives them as much to uselessness as it drives them to trouble.
"Now is not the time for the planting of trees, I fear, Demon. Many saplings die in the cold winters, their first and most vulnerable years make them most susceptible to failure. But when the winters are less harsh again, I will have trees planted on the south side of walls that run east to west and see that the quality of their fruiting is evaluated.
"It is true that my singers are known as mine and add to my glory as they borrow from it. I don't know why you suggest doing the same with dogs, in particular. Is there something about dogs that makes them suitable for such a project over, say, cattle? Or horses? Or bowyers?
"Voice, please tell me more finely the degradation that excessive soda ash makes in glass. Will it be more clouded? More brittle? Will it shatter more easily in heatings and coolings? The people of all tribes are fond of glass and will take up its making. My singers will encourage them in diverse attempts with various differences. And my table-rulers will endeavor to record the results and the differences. And perhaps that will be enough to learn from. Or perhaps not.
"In my many years I have observed that people are more likely to reject change, even if it kills them, than to adapt gracefully. After the rivers have flooded and torn away houses or whole villages, people do not choose to build in new places but focus their efforts on determining just how they built before and repeating it. The same is true for the colder years. The same is true for new beasts in the woodlands, or for the absence of beasts once well known.
"One of the most useful lies my singers use is to say, 'so it has always been done,' about things that have never been done before. I cannot rely on people to change with the times, whether the change is the course of a river or the lengthening of winters. I must press them to change by my hand, or they will mostly die and those who are left will likely as not be displaced by others.
"If lodestones align with the winds of the world and those winds are determined by rivers of iron deep underground, then it is those rivers that are aligned with the pivot stars. So, to restate my question, why are the underground rivers of iron aligned with the pivot stars? Also, how may I find these rivers and capture their wealth of metal?
"I will supply a metal worker with some gold, as it is easily worked, and instruct them to make a ship of gold that will float on water. We'll see what we see.
"I suppose it is true that warriors sitting in a city will deplete stored food. All the more reason that cities should fall, if they need warriors to defend them that eat more food than can be afforded to them. How is it that cities come about at all?
"And, yes, I will answer questions to the limit of my care to do so.
"If I learn of any other who has something akin to the Astute Cacophony, I will immediately set for myself the goal of their death and my acquisition of the focus of their Cacophony. This is all the more reason why I keep you secret. For I am certain they would do the same.
"I do not keep up with every change my singers and table-rulers make to the order or manner of their doings. It is important to know the greater whole and to direct them toward my goals. But I do not know every song of theres or the contents of every tablet. There are so many more important tasks that learning to read and write. And in any case, I have attending to me the best readers and writers to be had. Why should I bother with learning myself?
"No, demon. The Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations shall be the bandits."
As the greater whole we surely sound utterly mad, but I try to be reasonably sane myself. I simply remembered about case hardening only after thinking about iron for a while and hearing whisper of another Voice.
There were great improvements in agriculture and yet there probably will be famine. I had hoped for more "breathing room", that means more time, and a great rise in the population before any issues happen, eh. Besides war, the climate of these last few years was surely awful. I hope that outsiders are in worse shape and that our techniques at least lower death rate.
Killing all of captives? No. Surely our people would know when to starve or kill slaves when it may be sadly needed.
Killing all captives now could be also bad for morale. Surely there are also non-combatant captives that followed the Army, like women or children, and it's one thing to kill during raids, and other to slaughter weak captured slaves like animals.
Maybe give some of them to Kahl? She may find them useful.
A city ruled by someone who believes in Bianca sounds great. Let Kahl rule and enjoy wealth, but make sure that she remains loyal and that her city would help you in the future wars instead of attacking you. And perhaps suggest courts of justice to her, to better manage discord in Wrul, offer such rights even to the poor of Wrul, and they should love Kahl despite paying tribute to her - after all, they are accustomed to even worse tyranny and inequality, and may love a few "basic rights".
Maybe visit the city yourself?
You could even encourage Kahl to expand and conquer. "Empire of Wrul" sounds nice, as long as the new rulers of Wrul would serve you. Hmm. "Empire" means basically "kingdom that conquers and rules over many other kingdoms and lands". "Emperor", king over other kings.
But you would need to retain control over the new rulers of Wrul. Send faithful servants like table-rulers and singers to both help Kahl and to ensure that both Kahl and the new changed Wrul would always serve you.
Yes, what an interesting thought. You could even use Wrul as a way to see how cities and kingdoms work and to experiment with these city-based solutions that could sow discord among the Nine but are safer and possibly beneficial in cities. There is discord in Wrul anyway, so no great harm is done if something may cause discord. And some of my ideas about "rights" may even keep discord under control. Yes!
I was skeptical about conquering a city before, but now, when Kahl started to do this for us, hah! Why not!
Would it be possible to arrange things in such a way, that if and when Kahl dies from old age or misfortune, one of your more reliable and obedient servants could easily replace her? Something to consider for the future. Your table-rulers and singers among new rulers of Wrul would be certainly helpful.
Would written on stone tablets oath of the eternal alliance between the Nine and the new rulers of Wrul be possible? Hmmm!
The Nine Nations are composed out of the free and proud people. It would be useful if the Kingdom (or Empire) of Wrul could serve you more like a dog than like a free person, though obviously, Kahl is free and proud - but she would die from old age after a few decades, and for now, she should be grateful. Hmm. As I said, in the more distant future one of your servants should replace Kahl, I think.
Remember to advise Kahl to seize the wealth of the rich of Wrul, to replace rich of Wrul with Kahl and your servants, but try to be slightly better than previous rulers for the poor. Then discord would be limited. Yes.
I know about the great Empire that conquered half of the world, the Roman Empire. Romans had courts and written into stone laws rights of the free people, and a few rights even for outsiders or conquered, to reduce inevitable discord of the conquered. Any person, even from a conquered tribe, could be added to the free people as a reward for service in the Roman Army.
Do not try to introduce full equality of wealth inside of Wrul! Their customs are too different for that to work. Cities are too different. There is need to wisely balance things. And these differences may be useful for a few things, even if there will be always some discord in Wrul.
Proper courts of justice are essential. With conquest completed and the city firmly under control and initial looting done, then breaking of laws and theft in Wrul should be judged by table-ruler and singer according to presented evidence and with the right of accused to speak. Disputes should be also judged before the court of justice, not with feuds and violence. The city guard should guard streets, but not punish tyrannically, they should bring criminals before the court. Inquisitors should be introduced to search for evidence of crimes like hunters for animals, but even they should avoid killing without obvious and direct order from the court, Kahl or you; usually they should present gathered evidence to the court. As I said, introduce and use "rights of the people" to limit discord in Wrul, limited tyranny that the poor could consider better than previous tyranny.
Kingdoms and Empires benefit their rich rulers, but under unusually wise governance there can be benefits even for the poor. I agree with your First Servant Table-Ruler about that, more discord is caused not only by existence of the rich, but mostly by bad governance. Proper governance brings even to conquered and poor roads, more trade, more food, a way to judge disputes before courts, safety from raids. Of course they need to obey and pay tribute, but they also benefit when their rich rulers are wise.
City-based kingdoms and Empires are tyranny, but they bring peace and safety. Wise king should balance tyranny with freedoms and basic justice and rights of the people.
Maybe we could demand regular tribute from the tributary servant Kingdom of Wrul under leadership of our loyal people.
Though we must remember that Kahl of Lan is pretty ambitious and greedy, not exactly like our servant table-rulers. We shouldn't demand too much and keep her under control and loyal as much as possible. Let her depend greatly on our servants.
Maybe the poor people of Wrul could like new regime. I believe that equality in cities is impossible and that Kahl of Lan and various Bianca's servants should become new rich rulers of Wrul, but to better control discord the poor could be offered more than before and some basic rights. Everyone remembers when I suggested separation of courts of justice from the city guard for example.
Bianca's pet Kingdom/Empire of Wrul, when Kahl replaces their rich rulers, could have professional full-time Army that would serve Bianca when needed, machinery to break walls of other cities could be included.
Demon. And person or creature called "I just write". Hello. I feel that I'm the only person that tries to be coherent and explain to Bianca that sometimes I answer not only to her, but also to other Voices that she may hear only after a while if at all. Our manner of communications must sometimes sound pretty chaotic.
I sometimes have no words when I hear what my fellow Voices say, or when I hear faint whispers of what they want to say. I can only sigh.
Voices want to talk about consistent doses of antibiotics while you need advanced machine age to create proper antibiotics. Seriously, why. My fellow Voices, why waste time.
Something useful instead: windbreaks. By planting rows of trees between fields and pasture, you can reduce damage to the soil from too strong wind (such damage is called soil erosion). These trees can be used as additional sources of fruits and sometimes wood.
Fields are planted in rows of different crops surrounded by rows of trees. These trees provide fruit, wood, or protect the crops from the wind.
Windbreaks are also planted to help keep too much snow from drifting onto roads and provide the most basic shelter for animals, as well as shade during summer heat.
This is the sort of advice needed, not a long rant about impossible-to-manufacture antibiotics or diseases that exist half of the world away if at all. Sigh! And no, garlic is no antibiotic. There are some minimal germ-killing properties in garlic, but nothing great.
What is also useful, let me think... I know.
The hipposandal is a device that protects the hoof of a horse, and was a predecessor to the horseshoe.
An early form of hoof protection was seen where horses' hooves were wrapped in rawhide, leather or other materials for both therapeutic purposes and protection from wear.
The hipposandal was the next step in the development of hoof protection, where the sole of the boot was made of metal. It included an oval-shaped cup of thick metal that enclosed and protected the hoof, complete with a fixation system. The device was fastened to the hoof by metallic clips and leather laces. The hipposandal increased ground adherence of draught animals, thereby giving them better traction, and protected the hoof on rough ground. To further improve traction, the bottom of each hipposandal was grooved.
Even later the nailed iron horseshoe was introduced. Do you know what a "nail" is?
Ligature: in a medical procedure, a ligature consists of a piece of thread (suture) tied around an anatomical structure, usually a blood vessel to shut it off.
With a blood vessel the surgeon will clamp the vessel perpendicular to the axis of the artery or vein with a tool called hemostat, then secure it by ligating it; i.e. using a piece of suture around it before dividing the structure and releasing the hemostat. Hemostats belong to a group of instruments that pivot, similar to scissors but dull.
Much better than cauterization if done perfectly, and absolutely needed for more complicated interventions inside of the human body, but may need proper tools, more time, precision and as always properly sterilized everything. As always, experiment on prisoners, or pigs, or other animals. I mentioned cauterization before because cauterization is simple in comparison with ligature.
To try to, for example, remove infected appendict without ligature is folly, and even with ligature, firm hand and experience: death rates of such great interventions are high with tools that Bianca can use. Still, it can be sometimes better than certain death of not doing anything. And certainly experiments can and should be done.
I think that I know a nice way to make more people drink germ-free boiled water more often. Drinking tea. Now, you lack the plant known to me as "tea", but herbal tea is possible. Herbs, spices, or other plant material thrown into hot water. Of course herbs used for herbal tea by healthy people should lack poisons or medicinal uses and taste good... Do you know "mint"?
Some improvements are simple to explain and valuable, but long rants about greenhouses or antibiotics or many other things that are impossible to make, are not.
And as I said, the city of Wrul can be very valuable for experiments that could be too dangerous among the free people of the Nine, while discord among the common people of Wrul is less important and can be controlled. But Bianca needs to keep Wrul on the leash, Kahl and future rulers of Wrul should believe in Bianca.
If we talk about rants, I'm halfway tempted to present Kahl's conquest of Wrul as "liberation" to the poor of Wrul.
New and better rulers, the old ones were bad! We shall offer you rights to be justly judged before court, no beatings without just reasons! We shall introduce "black soil" invented by the wise Undying Bianca and you shall enjoy more food even after you pay us tribute as was always proper! Our wise Bianca knows even how to prevent diseases!
Good propaganda. Somewhat true even, so the best propaganda.
Some discord in unequal cities always happen, but we can try to wisely balance things.
Freeing slaves owned by the current rich rulers of Wrul would be also a very good idea. They should be grateful and cause less discord while paying tribute and obeying new rules and laws.
"Suggest that Kahl and any future rulers must present themselves to Blanca the Undying every year for banquets and celebrations?". What a fascinating suggestion from one of my fellow Voices. Yes, maybe not every year, but once per two or three years, for example, some sort of a festival... To retain more control over Kahl.
Yes. And children of these Bianca's servants that shall become the new rulers of Wrul should spend some time in the Nine and around Bianca from time to time. Yes. To keep these servants and Kahl under control.
And I hear a whisper of another Voice now, he tries to speak about antibiotics again and claims that it's simpler than I believe. Well. Sounds to me certainly not as something "simple". Maybe explain how to make sulfuric acid instead?
Seriously, wouldn't be more proper to start with XIX century practical chemistry? Mentioned acid, for example, is an ingredient in about half of the chemical industry. "simply requires"... christ. Simply for a XX century civ.
What else can be said... If we use "Queen" (Queen is basically a word for the female King) Kahl to experiment with some solutions safely away from the Nine, and if there may be Inquisition in Wrul, then a few words about investigating crimes sounds useful.
What is most important during criminal investigation? Basically to establish which individuals had the means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime.
There was once a case of a person murdered with a sickle, agricultural tool. It was solved by an investigator who instructed everyone to bring his sickle to one location. (He realized it was a sickle by testing various blades on an animal carcass and comparing the wound.) Flies, attracted by the smell of blood, eventually gathered on a single sickle. In light of this, the murderer confessed.
It's also possible to, for example, distinguish between a drowning (water in the lungs) and strangulation (broken neck cartilage). These are only examples, experiments with animals and dead bodies would be surely useful to train Inquisitors.
Another practical example. A farm laborer was convicted before the court of justice because of the murder of a young servant, with undeniable evidence presented to the court. Victim of this crime had been drowned in a shallow pool and bore the marks of violent assault. Guards and investigators found footprints and an impression from cloth with a sewn patch in the damp earth near the pool. There were also scattered grains of wheat. The clothes of a farm laborer who had been threshing wheat nearby were examined and corresponded exactly to the impression in the earth near the pool.
I also thought more about family feuds. In many nations that I know about, blood feuds were common when there was weak enforcement of law (or where rulers and their servants do not consider themselves responsible for this kind of dispute). Guards, criminal investigators, and courts of justice should mostly solve this problem even with inequality of wealth present.
The practice of feuds has mostly disappeared with more centralized societies where very vigilant law enforcement and criminal law take responsibility for punishing lawbreakers.
We also many times mentioned "centralization", but never with a proper explanation of what this word means. Centralization of authority and power is the systematic and consistent concentration of authority at a central point or in a person. Centralized governance of Kingdom or Empire depends on many written records and table-rulers and hierarchy of table-rulers, all serving the Emperor or a King.
In the nation known to me as the Chinese Empire, centralization allowed very firm control over great territories, including those conquered from other nations. First Emperor and his advisers ended feudalism in China by setting up new laws and regulations under a centralized government full of servant table-rulers. In centralized Empire, when Emperor decides to create a new law, then all of his cities and lands obey and enforce. In feudalism villages around the city are owned by the rich warriors, but in centralized Empire or Kingdom servant table-rulers are appointed to manage such affairs and may be easily replaced according to the will of the King or Emperor.
In the highly centralized Empire, the Army, Guard, and Inquisition are rewarded with wealth to remain loyal, but serve the Emperor and his law, instead of doing what they want. Table-ruler servants, not warriors, can be appointed to govern whole conquered cities. Army of the Empire full-time train for war, Guards full-time guard streets of cities, Inquisitors full-time search for crimes and evidence, table-ruler servants full-time help to govern and only when people disobey table-rulers then Guards or Army starts to act with violence, and courts of justice judge disputes.
Risk of population growing faster than food production is a valid concern indeed, dear concerned Voice or whisper. Obviously famines are even less pleasant ways to die than diseases. I very much try to give Bianca both methods to produce more food and better healing methods. If you can propose something more in regards to food, this would be great.
By the way, I think that Bianca, or servants of Bianca, should conquer and rule the whole world. Great idea, right? Problem with invasions solved, there would be eternal peace. Well, with some exeptions in regards to discord of the conquered and in cities, but as I said there are wise methods to reduce these risks.
I also agree with these Voices that want to say that Kahl is only mortal. Even if she lives a long life, fifty or sixty years from now she should be dead. Then Bianca's servants should be ready to assume more centralized power over Wrul in their faithful service to Bianca. Bianca must enjoy power over these cities, even if only from distance and through servants. It's a folly to give them secrets of baubles and hope that they wouldn't attack ever again. In fact, I believe that all cities should be conquered and their ruling rich people gradually replaced by Bianca's servants.
I also agree that Bianca should finally learn how to read and write, not only depend on servants in regards to reading and writing. And it's not fully true that nothing that is written can be a secret. You can use old and no longer known tongue to write secrets, then you and only you can read these and thus retain details better.
This thought returns me to my old idea of encouraging one main tongue for writing and trade, in this case not for secrets, but on the contrary, for widely spreading these words that should be widely known by your people. Just as the use of unknown tongue can make the written word a secret, use of 9 tongues in writing, even if known by many, cause... Confusion among table-rulers and singers, surely? Maybe there is some sort of mixed tongue that they use? Then such mixed tongue should be encouraged among your servants and singers.
In regards to written words on parchment, "codex" is generally better than a scroll. Take a number of sheets of parchment. Codex, also called "book", is usually bound by stacking these sheets of parchment and stitching one edge to a spine, which may just be thicker leather.
The codex provides considerable advantages over scrolls: compactness, sturdiness, efficient use of materials by using both sides of the sheet of parchment, ease of reference (sheets may have numbers, "you should open this book on the page 32" for example).
Scrolls may remain better for maps, though. Codex is great for long written stories or long written wisdom (or folly, sometimes, if the writer is a rich idiot).
Writing may be also used in propaganda, to persuade people how wise their ruler or God is, even though the utility of this method remains limited when only a few people can read and write. Still, stones around roads, bridges, dams and big buildings with words like "this exist thanks to the great wisdom of Bianca" use few resources and yet should help at least a few people to think about you more often and respect and love you more. Such words would be even true, as only thanks to you people can build truly great things, and true propaganda is the best propaganda.
My fellow Voices, creation of the great road between the Nine and Wrul sounds like a fine idea, and it's tempting, but I believe that it's infeasible with current resources and without conquering tribes between the Nine and Wrul. I understand that some among you want to starve most of the slaves to death while working, but we have no army or police (guard, inquisition) to properly control that, the road would need to be very long, and it's mostly land of outsiders - and this would mean constant raids. Tempting, but for the future.
I have a few questions at the end of my words. I would like to ask about current uses of hemp - anything is produced from hemp? I remember that I had a few suggestions in regards to hemp once. Also, is clover used to feed animals and to help with basic crop rotation? And is dried peat burned sometimes to save more wood for other uses?
I'm not sure that we have infrastructure for control of slavery-based roadbuilding designed for extermination through labor (let's be honest, that would be effect even with control), with almost no food and through lands of many outsider tribes. I voted for that, but I must seriously reconsider after some thought. Though this may be amusing attempt. It's highly possible that most slaves would escape and project would grind to halt with banditry and raids. Not only we lack army and police, this is not even our territory, SIC.
[X] [Captives] Send them to Kahl
[X] [Seizure] Send the best singers, table-rulers, and warriors
[X] [Compensation] Tell the tribes to bring them into the Nine Ways Pact
[X] [Desolation] While the warriors are still gathered, steal food from all surrounding peoples
"Erweh is taking them to ruin while Bianca takes her worshipers to prosperity", "Bianca is a tangible god who walks among the people she cares for" unlike Erweh... I like such words. Strong words. Many of these who obey Erweh should be persuaded with both wise words and power to respect and obey Bianca istead.
Building a road to Wrul is among ideas "awesome but impractical", in my opinion.
Devil Girl. Less raiding and more peacefully buying food with glass would be actually interesting during usual times... It's much less interesting after a few years of tragically bad weather around. Surely starving people wouldn't even want to sell.
To elaborate on the information provided by Just Write:
As a corollary, a scientific idea is useless if there is no way with which to attempt to disprove it, independent of wether that attempt is successfull or not.
Especially because of this, several rules for properly using medication:
Take them regularly. Three times a day, once in the morning directly after waking up, once in the middle of the day, and once in the evening right before going to sleep, is a good rule of thumb for most medicines. Try to use consistent doses.
Do not skip a dose. In antibiotics, medicines that directly kill the beings that cause an infection instead of merely strengthening the body or alleviating symptoms, it gives the pathogens respite, and time to adapt. In other medicine, it still disrupts the desired effect, but does not affect, or even exacerbates, harmful side effects.
On the other hand, if you do skip a dose, do not try to catch up by doubling the next does, as most medicines are harmful if take in too large amounts at once. Simply resume regularly taking the medicine as if nothing happened.
Third, for the same reason, take antibiotics longer than may seem necessary, a week after all symptoms have ceased is a good guideline. Even after all symptoms have ceased, there may still be a small amount of pathogens left, which without the help of the antibiotic may be enough to resurge the disease, this time in a form that is adapted to resist the antibiotic.
Lastly, do not use medicine if it is not necessary. Do not skimp if it is or even if it might be necessary, either, to be used in such circumstances is their entire purpose after all. But using antibiotics every time you merely have a runny nose increases the exposure that potentially harmful bacteria get to them so they may adapt and better survive in the future, and less critically with other medicines, depending on the specific medicine they may have significant harmful side-effects, which may outweigh whatever you intend to treat.
The exact symptoms of Allergy vary mostly by which parts of the body are exposed to the allergenic substance, additional symptoms include irritation of the eyes, difficulty breathing even with an open windpipe, skin rashes, and general stomach discomfort - if the allergen gets into the blood such as after a venomous animal sting or bite, the whole body may be affected.
Extreme cases may also cause Anaphylactic Shock, which in addition to the above symptoms may also cause irregular, weak, or too fast or too slow heartbeat, as well as anxiety, confusion, or passing out. If this is the case, the patient should lie down with the feet elevated higher than the body and head, and consciousness and stomach permitting, be made to drink and to eat sweet foods, both in frequent but small amounts.
Especially problematic is allergy to a medicine. In this case, you will need to seriously consider wether giving said medicine is worth it or will cause things to get worse. It can be valuable to have multiple different medicines for the same affliction, so that if a patient is allergic to one, they can be given another.
In case of swelling of the airways that cannot be forced open by other means, make a small vertical cut along the windpipe in the dip between the collarbones, the sternum, and the larynx, and insert a tube through the cut into the windpipe so that it's lower end points downwards into the lungs, and air can flow through it.
Obviously everything involved in this, the skin where you make the cut, the knife and the tube and anything you may hold the pipe in place with, as well as the hands of everyone touching one of these, needs to be clean and sterilized.
Take care not to cut too deeply - a cut can be deepened if it is too shallow (it helps if you pull the edges of the cut apart to expose the bottom), but not undone if it is too deep.
Getting the patient extremely drunk prior to the operation may help dull their pain. There are also plants whose extracts can be used as painkiller and to make a patient fall asleep during the operation - the opium poppy and henbane, for example, and especially a combination of the two used simultaneously. I'll try to include them in a later post about various useful plants, whenever I get around to that.
Cowpox as the name says, is contracted from cows. It can be intentionally transmitted by touching a spot on an arm to a cowpox pustule, and then scratching that spot.
Tapeworms
Long, flattened worms composed of segments, the adults of which can usually seen with the naked eye. Depending on the exact type they may reach a length of anywhere from a fraction of a finger's thickness, to longer than a man is tall. Each type of tapeworm has two main groups of host species, one of which is carnivorous, the so-called definitive host.
It is infected by eating infected animals of the second species, the intermediate host, and in turn spreads tapeworm eggs via it's feces, from where they may get into soil and water and onto plants, and infect the intermediate host. Humans may take the place of either, depending on how they got infected.
In definitive hosts, the tapeworm attaches itself into the intestines and leeches off the host's food. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, increased appetite and weight loss, and deficiency diseases, or may remain unnoticed. Most reliable indicator are the egg packages in the host's feces, flat, rectangular, whitish objects about the size of a grain of cereal, which may change size or move about.
In intermediate hosts, the worms burrow through the intestine's walls and swim through the blood, in order to reach the host's organs, where they nest and damage the surrounding tissue, and depending on species sometimes form cysts around themselves, bags of tissue often filled with clear fluid. If a cyst ruptures, wether from an impact or during surgery to extract it, the most likely result is a severe and potentially lethal case of anaphylactic shock.
Symptoms vary by which of the host's organs are infected, most often the lungs and liver. In the lungs, they may cause coughing, shortness of breath or pain in the chest. In the liver, they may cause pain and abnormal tenderness in the abdomen, swelling of the liver, yellowed skin, fever and/or aleergic reactions.
In the muscles, rarely they may cause pain and swelling, progressing into atrophy and scarification. Under the skin, they form sometimes painful knots. In and around they eyes, damage and loss of sight.
Most dangerous are tapeworms in the spine, where they may cause pain, numbness, and difficulty moving, in any or all parts of the body, and in the brain, where they may cause a wide variety of inflictions of the mind and the senses, death, and most frequently also seizures, episodes lasting up to a few minuts of loss of consciousness and/or uncontrollable twitching, shaking, and cramps, which may be strong enough to break the patient's bones and tear apart muscles.
Tapeworm infections in both kinds of hosts can persist for decades, and it usually takes between months and a few decades for symptoms to show.
Tapeworms like most diseases are treateable, but I don't think you're able to produce the necessary medicine yet.
To prevent infection as a definitive host, the most important measure is good hygiene. Don't drink disinfected water, and regularly and thoroughly wash your hands. Also thoroughly wash any plant parts or mushrooms harvested from lower than waist height. Properly dispose of any feces by the means that others have described earlier. Keep clean any tools and surfaces used to slaughter animals and prepare food.
To prevent infection as an intermediate host, be careful about consuming meat. Inspect slices of the meat of slaughtered animals for cysts - convex lenses and microscopes can be helpful for this. And either discard outright, or thoroughly cook any organ meat and any other meat you suspect may be infected, so that even the innermost parts of it reach levels of heat that are lethal to the tapeworms - even meat that you feed to dogs and cats: Infected animals close to human settlements increase the risk of infecting humans.
Trichinosis
Caused by microscopically small worms, this disease is exclusively transmitted by eating infected meat - the worms do not lay any eggs that can survive outside of a host body. As such, it is found mostly in carnivores, but that includes mice and most importantly pigs.
After consumption, initial symptoms may be caused including various digestive problems such diarrhea, nausea, belching, and chest and stomach pain. After about a week, the eggs laid by the initial wave of worms into the lining of the intestines mature, and the resulting worms burrow into the bloodstream and migrate into the rest of the body, causing swelling, muscle pain, fever, weakness, and especiall characteristically, swelling around the eyes and small blood clots under the fingernails. The worms may also settle into the brain and spine, with similar results to tapeworms. A sufficiently severe case of Trichinosis is fatal after four to six weeks.
Again, I do not believe that you have the means to produce medicine against Trichinosis yet.
Infected meat can be identified similar to that of tapeworms, but because of the smaller size of the worms you will almost assuredly need a microscope. Because they are very rich in blood vessels, the worms especially infest the tongue and the diaphragm, the muscle membrane separating the lungs from the stomach cavity. Use meat from these body parts for your inspection. Again, consider discarding infected meat outright to be safe, in a way that no other animal is able to eat it.
Also like tapeworms, trichinosis worms can be killed by cooking the meat sufficiently thoroughly. The meat of pigs and of carnivores should never be eaten raw if you can afford it, nor fed raw to other animals. Curing, drying, or any other means of preparation is not a reliable way to kill worms, neither Trichinosis nor tapeworms. And yet again, follow proper hygiene and keep any tools and surfaces you use to prepare food and to slaughter animals clean.
Additional measures to reduce the risk of trichinosis is to keep pigs inside pens whose floors can be washed (ideally the floor is made of stone and slanted and contains a drain at it's lowest point), and to prevent them from eating the carcasses of other animals, including of mice.
Firebombs are also much more expensive, and of limited use against stone structures. Even against people, like all flame weapons they are usually less useful for killing enemies directly, and more for igniting surrounding plants and buildings, for causing terror, and for making barriers that enemies are reluctant to cross.
The torsion spring rope-bundles have to be twisted in a specific way: Take a bundle of parallel ropes, and affix them into the frame so that they remain parallel, but have some slack. Thread a lever through the bundle, and pull the long arm backwards to twist the bundle. Thread a second lever through the bundle in the same place as the first one started, remove the second lever, and pull the second lever back. Repeat this, switching the levers, until you can't pull it back any more. Use the remaining lever as your bow arm.
I believe an overly large arrow is simply called either a bolt or a javelin.
An onager consists of a single horizontal such torsion spring, moving a throwing arm akin to a trebuchet's. They are simple to make, but during firing the momentum of the arm causes the onager to rear forward like the donkey that gives it it's name preparing to kick out, which requires you to adjust your aim after each shot.
A ballista can be made more powerful for the same draw weight if the arms do not point outwards as from a bow, but instead point inwards towards the projectile rail. However, the frame required to mount them like that is heavier and bulkier than with a normal ballista, making this variation most useful for static ballistae that do not have to be moved.
"It does seem, Black Cat, that the outsiders around the lands of the Nine or Ten Nations are in much worse shape than are the Free People of these Nine or Ten Nations. And as the years of long winters have passed and my table-rulers have taken counts, it has seemed to me that fewer of my people are dying in these times than died in other hard years. I have no counts from the years I remember, but my unnumbered reckoning is that the people now fare better than they otherwise might.
"You are right, voice, that even among the chosen there are some or many that may hesitate to slay people who are not warriors, who are unarmed, who are helpless. But there can always be found a sufficient number who are not so troubled, or at least not so troubled in the moment. Slaughters of people of any sort on the battlefield or in camps or in the fields of villages does, I think, worsen the numbers of those who fall into the warriors' despair.
"And I suppose that since there has been a great battle, the greatest I have ever seen, the coming years will see the warriors' despair afflicting the Free People of the Nine or Ten Nations in greater numbers than ever before. And I suppose that would be so even if all of the captives live, which they will not. So tell me, Black Cat or other voices, what mat the people do to ease these afflictions? What can the family or spouses of a warrior who comes to the disquiet, the unease, the frights, and the desparings do to restore them?
"Already the warriors know that those who are chosen, and boldest, and most fearless, and most unhesitating are numbered fewer among those with the warriors' despair. Some think that the truly bold never despair, but my singers have long known otherwise. In one lifetime, I think, a person might easily miss these things. But I lived lifetimes enough to know better, even before I was entombed.
"Nonetheless, all warriors strive to be the sort of warrior who does not despair. Witches of certain power may mould the manner of a person with only more difficulty than they compel the behavior of spirits. And many wise people know of comforting herbs that soothe the despairing. Some even know of comforting spirits for the same.
"Kahl surely has her own ideas of how she will treat the people she means to subjugate, as do others who are looking to her feats with aspiration. I will direct my singers and table-rulers to guide them away from playing favorites among those they conquer, as you suggest, and we will see what comes of it. But inequality breeds discord and I do not know that inequality may be removed from cities without methods and knowledge no one yet has.
"Similarly, I cannot ensure Kahl's loyalty. I can only strike her down if she forsakes my instructions. The same is true of whoever rules her city after her. Surely if my singers travel to and from the city, and my table-rulers as well, then the city rulers will be less likely to turn away from me. And I do mean to keep my people as my own, Black Cat, no matter whom they rule over.
"And in the cities or among the tribes, know I do not seek an absence of discord for its own sake. I seek an absence of discord because people in conflict are not one people, but two or more peoples. And no good comes of trying to side with neither. If I am to hold the place of honor and power I hold over the Free People of the Nine Nations they must be one people.
"For now, all nine tribes are equal, after a fashion. And so they are one people who all pay tribute to me and no other, who do not slay each other as outsiders, who do not steal from each other too terribly much, and who stand together against outsiders, after a fashion.
"But cities are not fed by their people the way villages are. They must draw food from the surrounding lands. And when there is not enough, then the means by which that food is drawn will be weighed against the ability of the farmers and herd-keepers to defend their own lives -- for they will surely starve otherwise. And if the means of the city are found lesser, the city starves. And if the means of the city are found great, the city starves in the next year. For without farmers and herd-keepers, there will be no food.
"This is only one way that cities can die. I spoke with Servant of these matters at some length in the first years after he was brought to me. And we still speak of it now and then.
"He told me that at times the people of the city who have less will take up arms against those with more. If they are put down, the city is weakened for their injury. If they are not, the rulers of the city are overthrown and the city is weakened for the disorder. At other times, foolish rulers make poor choices, and the city is weakened or ruined.
"And whenever a city is weakened, the people of the villages may choose to stop feeding the city, thinking their lot will be better in the struggle. Or someone like Kahl may lead a host of warriors against them.
"Measure these facts against the Nine Nations, which have stood for many generations under my guidance. Not once has an entire tribe been destroyed, whether slain or made to serve another. I don't know how long Wrul has stood. But I am certain that it has fallen or come close to falling at times. And the Nine Nations have not.
"So I will keep my singers' eyes on the Known Cities. And I will learn what may be learned. And if there is a discordant path to what I want I will not set it aside for the strife and suffering it brings. And understand, voices, that I am not with the Nine Nations because they struggle only a little with each other. They struggle only a little with each other because I am with them.
"I may ask for the entire city of Wrul as a tribute from Kahl of Lan. You are right, Black Cat, that it would be best that the city were ruled by a table-ruler representing my will, rather than an exceptionally successful warleader. The counsel of Kahl of Lan is not much desired in her own tribe. Or, rather, those who seek her counsel are regarded even by her own family of being unwise in doing so. Outside her marriage, she is looked upon as overly-given to wanderings and greed, even for the tribe of Lan. Had she not gathered like-minded people to her from within and without the Nine Nations, Kahl of Lan would had to have either changed her ways or faced being cast out in winter.
"She has done great things. But that does not mean that whomever she would chose to rule after her would.
"But, yes, in the meantime I will have laws made and seen them written in stone. And these stone laws will not play favorites among the previous people of Wrul, but only set aside myself and those who are under the Nine Ways Pact.
"Tell me more of what 'base rights' you mean that the people of Wrul should have?
"The accused should be allowed to speak? Why wouldn't they?
"Is this 'enclosure of judgement' a place where my singers and table-rulers are meant to pass judgement?
"Feuds are how people try decide disputes among themselves, eventually. I do not allow them in the Nine Nations, and do not mean for them to be allowed in whatever cities I influence, either. But violence? How is that to be avoided? When the bold contest with each other, they will take to violence before any other can prevent them.
"If there are city guards and inquisitors in Wrul, I will see them replaced or… adjusted by people of the Nine Nations. If there is trouble enough to make need enough for guards, how is it that the guards find the time to take every disobeyer of the law to the 'enclosure of judgement?' Though, yes, no wrong-doer should be punished by people who are not of their family. If they are to be beaten to injury or even death, it should be by their kin and not 'guards.'
"Tell me, though, what 'rights' you mean that which people should have. Is it only that they should be judged by someone who did not catch them or accuse them?
"When someone among the Free People of the Nine Nations finds another to have wronged them, they bring their complaint to the family of that person. They demand recompense and that the person be beaten for their wrongdoing. If the family agrees, they pay the recompense and beat the wrongdoer until injury or until the wrong people tell the family, 'Stop, it is enough.'
"If the people who are wronged do not call for a stop and the wrongdoer's family wish that the wrongdoer should die, they may beat them to death. But this is not so common, and if the pretense of accident is not sufficient when my singers tell me of the matter, some moons or years later, I do at times come to beat or slay a member or two of that family and perhaps of the wronged to remind them that the power to rightly take a life directly within the Nine Nations is mine only.
"If a family wishes that one of their members should die, they cast them out in winter. Without access to the heat and shelter of the family house this is nearly always deadly, though there are exceptions.
"Long ago, when my singers were somewhat new to the Free People of the Nine Nations, one of them took to quarrel with her sister. They were both women of latter age, nearly venerable, and had between them a lifetime of dispute and enmity. So in one winter my singer just happened to shelter with her family for a time. And the sister who was not my singer, having charge of the family and being a skilled guide to the thoughts and minds of her kin, established one night her claim that her sister was no singer of mine, but a pretender, having never been anything of any significance but instead given to falsehood. And in having shamed her family and wronged me, the sister who was not my singer said that the other should be cast out.
"Though my singer was not unskilled with words and persuasion, her sister had well prepared her family, perhaps having built toward that end over the course of years. Also, many among my singers are given to falsehood, as that is the start of stories. And so my singer was cast out of the house of her family in the middle of a storm in winter.
"This much is customary, that those cast out should be cast out in the worst weather. In this way they are more likely to die before raising any other trouble. Killing a family member in this way is not without risk, and on a handful of occasions the one so cast out has taken vengeance on their family that very night by setting fire to their house or bringing a great tree down on them, or both.
"It is likewise customary to warn the houses of others in the village, to tell them that one will be cast out that they should not allow in. 'Oh,' they will say when the outcast comes knocking, 'A cannibal spirit has come for us and so we must keep the door fast.' And I later learned that the family of that sister who was not my singer had told her neighbors that one member of them had taken to cannibalism and that they would cast them out but did not wish to say who beforehand, lest they be warned. And those neighbors claimed that they knew not that it was my singer who came to pound on their doors.
"Fortunately for herself, and ultimately for what remnant of her family and village would survive, my singer knew by song the ways of the winter hunter. And though she had never done so before, by the same song which my singers used to teach winter hunters, she made for herself a shelter and, having no fire, thought to bring livestock into the shelter with her. And so my singer lived through the night, and the next. And when the storm ended she made her way to another village, as they are often not so far from each other, where she received hospitality as is proper. She returned to my great house directly in early spring and told me what had happened.
"Now days, the people know that it is not their place to decide who is and is not among my singers. And now those thought to be pretenders -- as some have been -- are brought before me that I may judge and slay them myself. And the people know this because I slew my singer's treacherous sister, and some others of her family, and others in the village who I judged to have known they were refusing entry to my singer. And only for the sake of my singer's pleading did I spare the rest, whose lives and living places I would otherwise have taken all and burned and cursed the ground.
"But this is not a matter of the rights of the singer, it is a matter of my own right that my singers should have passage and hospitality by the Sixth Part of the Nine Ways Pact. And the deceitful sister did not do what she did by her own rights, but by the right of a family to cast a member out of their house in winter, that they should die.
"When one family has grievance toward another and the other does not accept that one or more of their members should be beaten, it is taken to whatever authority might be there in that village. This may be one elder or several or a warleader whose judgement is respected by all or at least by many. And if the aggrieved or accused family does not accept the decision of the village leadership, whoever that may be, they may take it up with me. But I am harsh, and so the other families of the village will tell the dissenter, 'Let this judgement be; do not call the attention of the Undying on yourself or you will suffer and we will likely suffer with you.'
"And in this way the people are encouraged to solve their own problems. But it is murder to kill anyone outside your own family or to directly kill a family member outside the beatings of punishment observed by the wronged. And when there is murder, even if no one raises complaint, my singers bring it to my attention and I repay blood with blood as I determine will most thuroughly discourage further disorder.
"I do not know that this can be made to work in cities where there are so many people and so much disorder. But at the start, at least, these same laws will be set down.
"And when it is time for planting trees again, Black Cat, I will direct that a measure be taken of fields. And then when we know from which direction the harshest winds come into each field, perhaps I will direct that trees be planted as walls to hold back the wind, that the fields should have shields but not shades.
"Your horse sandals sound like they will require a very large amount of metals. Four cups of bronze or iron per horseback rider or eight cups per chariot. But I think I can see how horses with such metal shoes would travel far, far better. And though I am unclear on how the metal allows pulling horses to pull with more strength, it should be easy to prove one way or another.
"Black Cat, you say that you are not mad, and then you ask me if I know what a nail is? Hrumf. I have twenty, as most people are born with and as some keep all their lives.
"I do like hearing of a tool which pivots like scissors but is blunt, so that it holds a vein closed. And I can understand how that the addition to the bowel would need to be held closed and then tied off after the sickened portion is cut away. And, yes, the issue of cleanliness of tools and hands and thread and unfortunate are understood. Tiny monsters and all that.
"And have we not spoken of mint before, Black Cat? Perhaps that was another voice. Do you suggest that mint should be put in boiling water? This is done with various herbs as medicine, mint included. But I think you mean that mint should be ground and boiled for the sake of the pleasure of the one drinking, rather than their health. And that is different. I will have the traders ask after plants that are likewise thrown in boiling water from far off places.
"Bond captives in Wrul will need to work out their bonds in accordance with whatever oaths they are held to. But, yes, none of the Free People of the Nine Nations should make captives take bonds for life. If there are slaves, I will direct that they are freed, though no less subjugated.
"And of course the rulers after Kahl will know me. I will send them out and call them back. Should I take Wrul as tribute at the death of Kahl of Lan, the people who rule the city will be my own.
"How is your inquisition separate from the guards or the enclosed judges, Black Cat? Yes, it may be important to affirm that each accused of wrongdoing had the ability and the opportunity to take the law-breaking action. But is motive to be guessed at? And these other clever stories, do you only mean by them to encourage me to gather the clever to me? I already do this in my singers and table-rulers, though there are clever people who are not suitable as either.
"Clothing will not always leave a mark that lasts to be seen. Murderers will not always leave blood on their blades. Do you have any advice on this topic beyond 'Choose clever people, call them inquisitors, direct them to find the guilty, and raise them above others so that they may question them and make other demands as necessary?' Truly, that is not bad advice, if some are to be raised above others. But it brings with it all the objections I have made to such a plan in the past.
"If I am to raise some people above the others to be guards, and judges, and inquisitors, who is… Who is doing whatever it is that a city does that brings food in from the farms? Is that the guards who force the farmers to give over their food?
"I will see how a city runs itself, first. And perhaps later raise up some people to all of these roles together. But in separating them out I expect that it will only make more and more people who do not bring in food or make tools or do anything else the people know and understand are needed. Yes, there will be strife in the cities, I suppose. But there's no call for making it where it isn't yet.
"Your observation agrees with mine, Black Cat, to the extent that there have been fewer feuds among the Nine Nations in the many, many years since I demanded they bring their disputes to me. I will add some direction that it should be the same in Wrul.
"And you say rich warriors owned a whole village each! How is it that warriors among the people living in that village did not rise up against those that called themselves the owner of their homes? Or did they, only to be put down every second or third generation?
"Then again, I suppose the people would have some conflict with the appointed table-rulers as well. It is not as though the Free People of the Nine Nations do not conflict among themselves. There are disputes between villagers and their counsel or their chief or even the chieftain of their tribe.
"How are the guards and armed forces and inquisitors made loyal to the commander? If it is through having better clothing and tools and baubles than their peers, how do their peers not turn on them, to take what they do not have, or at least take to scheming out of envy?
"And would not the chosen table-rulers and so forth fear being replaced and losing their wealth to such a degree that they would hide their sins and take to scheming against me?!
"And, further, I do not have time or attention even now to choose a table-ruler to say what should and should not be done in every village of the Nine Nations. Surely the commander of table-rulers did not, either. How is the decision made that this or that person should be raised above the others? How much less time, if I am to conquer the world?
"My singers and table-rulers do not write in nine tongues, Black Cat. There are disputes over which words to use when different words are used for the same thing in different tribes. And there are disputes over what signs should make up a word when it is said differently by different tribes. And, of course, this is especially the case with Sleomjash in both manners.
"It is a single tongue written, but one under dispute.
"Oooh… To write on both sides. Yes. That will be very well received, I can assure you. There are some among my singers and table-rulers who would slaughter all the beasts in all the pastures and all the wilds of the world and still not have enough parchment.
"At the direction of Servant, my First Table-Ruler, there are already many tablets of fired clay or stone which proclaim my deeds. He has insisted on having one fixed to every work of any significance. And, likewise, he directs that they be first removed from any work which fails before any other brick or stone is removed from the site.
"Black Cat, the villages between Wrul and the Nine Nations were already weakened by hard winters. Then the youths of the gathered warriors of the Free People of the Nine Nations set upon them when poison and rot and fire. Then the hosts of the King of Wrul marched over their lands twice, taking from them their food and such. And soon the great warparties of Kahl of Lan and the chosen of the chosen of the gathered warriors of the Nine Nations will pass through them in pursuit of the Hosts of Wrul. They will not require conquest, only perhaps some degree of rescattering if any of them pull themselves together. I doubt any will. The Road of Lamentations will not be so much hindered by these.
"If any amount of peat is burned it is not of much note.
"To grow clover it would first need to be harvested from the wilds, then sown in tilled fields, then harvested for its seed again. This has been done to some limited degree. But no one is pleased to put so much work into a task that does not feed people. It does not feed their livestock, either, not anymore than they are already fed at pasture.
"Hemp, though, is well liked by those who know of it. There are a few fields around my great house and some nearby villages have asked for the seed and I believe they grow it as well.
"Erweh also walks among the people… somewhere. And he can be touched, just as I can. Still, it may be worth informing outsiders of my people's prosperity, as that reflects my wisdom. What other god has so preserved their people from starving in this years of short summers?"
I did ask for the source of garlic root being an antibiotic.
Anyway, yes, natural variation is an extreme limitation of unrefined medicines. But using varying amounts of plant per dose doesn't make it better. At least some basic consistency there is a start.
Have you ever tried to identify a particular species of mold? Or tried to avoid cross-contamination while working microbiologically? It's not quite as trivial as you make it sound.
"Voice when next sickness abounds I will see that some of your regimen of medicine is evaluated. And I have made note of your descriptions of the care to be taken for those whose bodies riot against them. But when you say that medicine should not be taken outside of illness, what then of the advice of the Black Cat regarding mint, oh voice?
"The necks and collarbones of creatures that are not people are very different, I think, so I do not know if much live practice for your neck-fluting with be meaningful. But there are corpses for this sort of thing. And that should do, I think.
"I do know of poisons that may, if used with care and not too much misfortune, cause one to sleep instead of to die. Please do tell me more, voice, about the plants you mean for your poisons to come from.
"I do know of gutworms that are sometimes found in those who have wasted away. And, of course, lumps and bags misplaced in bodies of people and beasts, which are taken as a sign of unsuitable meat. Long, long before my entombment, I knew of many beasts of which I have long not seen the like. Among these was a great creature of thunderous gallop with a great spire of a horn, which I saw the end of. All of them, every one, were riddled throughout with tiny bags of fluid which burst when prodded. And they wasted away. And in the beasts that ate their corpses I did find gutworms.
"So it still is, now, then. These gutworms infest the flesh of beasts that take food from the ground upon which they that feed on those beasts shit. Yes, I see. But prevention is the same as prevention of many other matters: only that the people should wash their hands and their food and place their shit pits downstream from where they drink. Yes?
"I do not think that many pens for hogs can be made so great as you describe, or that hogs can be kept from eating the mice that come in to eat what is fed to the hogs. But it may be that a proscription on uncooked preparation of meats of beasts that eat other beasts is easily encouraged among the Free People of the Nine Nations by some number of seasons or generations of repetition by my singers.
"You have offered no medicines for either of these invaders of the body. But the understanding you and other voices offer of the nature of body invaders suggests that once the invasion has occurred the right course is to strengthen the body by food and drink and to weaken body and invader both by means of poisons. Until you can other particular poisons, I suppose my singers and table-rulers and I will simply have to make our own trials.
"Yes, the fire pots were not reliable in the great battle with the Hosts of Wrul. They burned friend and enemy alike. But when they affected the enemy more greatly they were of wonderful aide. Some warriors have ideas of beeswax and different shapes of pots that might allow the use of such things with less danger. But I think for the most part the people are more inclined to drink the redewings of beer than to keep them for battle.
"I will tell Servant and the other the table-rulers that I send with Kahl of Lan of these mechanisms for hurling, that they can be built outside the city of Wrul if it does not submit to her."
Eh couldn't people simply exchange their glass for food from outsiders? Simpler than raids right? You want less baubles and more food! So why steal! Why the hell most of us support stealing stuff.
Cat and Demon say stuff about windbreaks and fruit walls I think. Nice. But you meed to remember that crops need sunlight to grow. Wall to the north of the trees! Rows of the trees between BIG fields this is only windbreak to slow wind not a forest! Fields still mainly for crops not trees! Common sense you know.
And steel is nice but bronze can last longer. Sell glass buy bronze and tin. problems of baubles solved and more needed bronze for tools that wouldnt ever rust. Instead of hoarding encourage trading baubles away. When you see useless bauble its not useless but a chance for more metal plows thanks to trade.
Not trade caused war but Erweh. But hey enemies defeated and more bronze! Nice war!
People! Rats and shit and corpses and dirty hands and dirty bodies and fucking ill people and touching ill people and sneezing people and water that touched anything like that are BAD. And eating only bread is bad. See we can say this simply and without wasting her whole day.
You take tribute gold baubles and stuff. Could you use that to make useful machines instead of useless baubles for your hoard. Golden pots for redewing sounds maybe stupid but SOMETIMES useful. Also your singers could use USEFUL baubles in scientific research.
Could you take someone skilled for one year as tribute(his time as tribute) and make him research or teach or? Not sure thats good idea only thought. Its possible to also draw guards and soldiers and servants as tribute for limited time like it's not the only way but alternative to paying in wealth like cities or having slaves. Also you could pay for example with nice food and unlike most inequality this disappears soon.
"Glass or gold, voice, whatever it is that is most precious to greedy people, it must always be remembered that these things cannot be eaten. There are fools that will trade their food for precious things such that they starve, but these are rare. If outsiders only have enough food that they should not starve, then the only way to obtain that food is to take it from them. To leave them anything in return is only to suppose that you might come back to collect that thing after the outsiders died of deprivation.
"And yes, I do see what you mean that the walls of fruit trees and the shields against the wind similarly must always leave openings to the south, where the sun is.
"I do agree that baubles ought to be traded away for tools. But now the people make more baubles, and I do not make every choice for each one of them, so many elect to keep some baubles. And then their neighbors ask after them, and they must share. And then there are baubles throughout the lands. And then outsiders desire the baubles but the people do not share with outsiders as they do with each other. For that is folly as the outsiders do not share back. And so there is some trade and also some raiding. And eventually, it is now apparent, the King of Wrul learns of the baubles and raises a host to come and take them. And then he dies at my hand. Hah! That part pleases me. But what a mess he has left us with.
"It is when the baubles are not traded away that they are useless. And it is when the baubles are unequal between the people that there is discord. And it is when the baubles that unequal between the Nine or Ten Nations and outsiders that there is battle. So I have decreed that the ways of making baubles should always be made known to outsiders. And so my singers will accompany the pack trains of trade to teach the outsiders to read and to make for them tablets telling the making of baubles.
"And yes, Erweh and most particularly his priestess caused this war. But also the greed of the King of Wrul did. And also the baubles his greed was for did.
"I do like your suggestion that the Free People of the NIne or Ten Nations should make tribute to me of their labors for a time. I will see this done and find what good I can take from it."
[X] [Seizure] Give Kahl of Lan more 'treasure' to purchase more power
[X] [Seizure] Send table-rulers to 'assist'
[X] [Seizure] Send singers
[X] [Seizure] Succession Crisis. Inform Kahl of Lan to make a point in the weakening of the king's table-rulers, that Erweh is taking them to ruin while Bianca takes her worshipers to prosperity.
[X] [Seizure] Make a visit yourself
- the idea with this one oh holy Bianca, is that you could visit Wrul yourself after a brief period of Kahl's arrival to seal you are a tangible god who walks among the people she cares for. Present as both of power and benevolence.
[X] [Compensation] Tell the tribes to bring them into the Nine Ways Pact
[X] [Desolation] Draw from the granaries of all using the same system that fed the gathered warriors
[X] [Desolation] While the warriors are still gathered, steal food from all surrounding peoples
"And, yes. I do find I like your idea, voice, that I should attend to Wrul so that the city people know that I can come to where they are when I wish and do what I wish there. But surely they will already know that I am real for the people who saw me in battle will return to the cities and tell those there of my terrible might and magic."
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B R E A K
"Greetings, voices mad and wise and loud as you are! When last we spoke it was the Summer of Year Twenty-Four and I had just crushed the Hosts of Wrul. Hah! What a fine, fine day that was. I always do especially enjoy ending the lives of heroes.
"It is now early spring in the year Twenty-Nine, and though the winters do remain hard, for three years in a row now the first thaw has been earlier in the year. The weather-wise might counsel against taking for granted that matters will continue to improve for the next decade or so. But the people celebrate what they do, and it's not like this can be kept secret when there is a table-ruler in every village of note keeping count of the days as they keep count of everything else.
"Since last we spoke, I have learned more about rebellion, for there have been three.
"The first occurred among the bond-captives that were made to build a road to Wrul. These betrayed their oaths of service and turned on the Free People of the Nine Nations who stood over them and directed their labors in the laying of roads. They fashioned what arms they could from what they had and attacked!
"Of course, these defeated warriors and captives from the camps of defeated warriors were no great threat to the Free People of the Nine Nations. How could they be? So they lost and they died in great numbers. Others fled. And the Free People of the NIne Nations who struck them down were not so willing to take on bond captives of oathbreakers. So there was some death to axe and spear and much scattering. And of the scattering there was death to starvation and thirst and eventually winter.
"So many vengeful spirits now congregate that if any party of the Nine Nations wishes to travel to the place where Wrul stood, they will need to take a different path. And even on that path, travelers had best beware. Every moon, the angry spirits of the dead spread further afield seeking revenge and home.
"Not that anyone has good reason to travel to where Wrul stood. Oh, there are still some people digging through the rubble for metal and baubles. For there is a great deal of rubble and there had been a great wealth of bronze and trinkets.
"Kahl did not make Wrul her own city. She uncitied Wrul instead.
"Firstly, the fleeing hosts of Wrul were caught between the chosen of the chosen I sent with Kahl and the warriors serving her for money which she had left encamped around Wrul. The remaining hosts of Wrul afield, I am told, were greater in number and in arms than either Kahl's camp or Kahl's returning gathering of warparites. But they were weakened by defeat and lacked leadership to hold them together. And so they were crushed again and scattered further.
"When the city of Wrul saw the hosts of their King crushed on the plains outside their walls, they took to crying out and wailing. And when Kahl had come into the camp, she shouted to the people on the walls of Wrul that if they would open the gates that day she would be merciful.
"The gates were opened twenty-three days later, and there was then very little mercy.
"Kahl will tell anyone who asks that she changed her mind about ruling Wrul. That the people of the city were not worthy of her as a ruler. But my singers saw her face when she realized that she had lost control of the warriors serving her for baubles. And when Kahl has passed or perhaps even before then, her story will be told as a warning.
"I am told that even before the gates were opened, the mechanisms of hurling that had been built according to my words, informed by you voices, were already tearing away at the walls and at buildings within the city. Once the city was opened to the host of Kahl, the makers and users of the mechanisms of hurling took to making sport of them. One would bet another that they could not strike one certain point, or that they could fell a building in fewer bolts or stones. The mechanisms did, at times, slay their makers and their users. A snapped cord or freed axle flung some beam or such that would stave in a skull or otherwise break a person's body.
"Kahl and her spouses and the warriors and other Free People of the Nine Nations who were there took much from the city as raid loot. And they returned with gold and silver and a real wealth of bronze and even a great massing of tin. They took also many figures fired or cut from stone. And my singers did secure every written word they could from the city, its stone laws and scrolls and many tablets of clay. Most of it is of no use, the worthless prattle of people who do not live long enough to understand how insignificant the events of their lives truly are. But once the worth of the words are known, the parchment may be scraped and reused. And the rest, tablets of stone and clay, can be set aside for my singers to marvel over as they are inclined to.
"The warriors and others who served Kahl for riches took slaves from the fall of wrul along with their share of the spoils of works of craft and of raw goods. And then they returned to Liavint with great riches and the many, many slaves who did not escape or die along the way.
"And there was, in that winter, a rebellion of all the slaves of Liavint, and also many people slave or what passes for 'free' in the villiages that the Giantess of Liavint took tribute from. Without enough food for all the people of the city and the slaves also, there was death from the struggle and death from starvation. My singer who I had sent to gain understanding of the city left when it became clear to him that food was short, as did many others. He has written that it was only by his charm and craft that he was able to find a place at the cookfire of a village some days distant from Liavint, charm and craft and joining in marriage with the widowed daughter of that village's chieftess. So some distant village has a better and more learned singer of songs than they would ever have brought up themselves. Also I am short one singer. But mortals die often enough in any case, so the shortage is not so profound for me.
"Oh, that reminds me. Servant, my First Table-Ruler died on the way to Wrul. He wasn't so old that his passing was expected, but neither was he so hale that his death is any great surprise. As with the death of any person of great importance to other mortals, the witches traveling with Kahl's host feared his spirit might return and meddle in the camps and such. So they burned his body in fine cloth and with cups of gold and silver. And when his spirit came to the camps around Wrul, the witches bade it to return to the underworld. And when the spirit refused, they bade the spirit to look to the stars, which Servant had known so well. And guided by the stars the spirit of Servant left going south, to seek the land of his youth.
"Such wandering spirits rarely find what they seek and are mostly spirits of seeking which move about the land and bring some sorrow with them. In time they weaken such that a witch of some strength might compel them to rest as the witches in Kahl's camp were unable to.
"At the direction of my table-rulers with her, Kahl did raise a great pillar of stones some way north of the ruins of Wrul. And there were marker stones placed to speak of the life of Servant, my first table-ruler, my first First Table-Ruler, the teacher of many others. It will in all likelihood be knocked down and its stones reused as that is the way of people and stones. But for some years to come it may stand. And perhaps longer for the mess of spirits spreading out and mostly south from the road-layer's rebellion to the north of that.
"I have a singer in Liavint again. The Giantess rules there, again. But there are fewer people in the city. And in the villages around the city there are often warriors and even Giants of the family of the ruling Giantess. And the villages are made to endure and to house and feed these. In this way does the Giantess seek to prevent another rebellion.
"It's said that the people of Liavint took to cannibal acts in that first winter of the rebellion. It is said that there were slaves in the pots of the Giantess and her family. And it is said that there should be another rebellion. And perhaps there will be, perhaps one of the making of the Free People of the Nine Nations, as that it something they now do.
"In the spring of the year Twenty-Six Kuwuzt of Zouchaud, the First Chief of the Nine Nations, led many ships of clever devising to Enonl. In those ships they brought goods for trade with arrowheads and other baubles of glass. And in those ships they also brought the chosen of the chosen from among the warriors of all of the Nine Nations, even the mightiest warriors of the lesser giants.
"And when they came to Enonl, the rulers of the city did not dare strike against them, because they were too many and too mighty in battle. But still the treacherous rulers of Enonl plotted. And they sought to poison the Free People of the Nine Nations to whom they should have offered proper hospitality.
"And it is well for them that they plotted. For the Free People of the Nine Nations that had come to them had plots of their own. Though they were many, they were not so many that they could take the city as Kahl tried to take Wrul. If, for example, they built the mechanisms of hurling they believed that the warriors of the city would come out in such great numbers that the warriors of the Nine Nations would need to leave.
"So instead, Kuwuzt of Zouchaud spoke to the lowest people in the city of Enonl, the slaves. And there were many slaves there. And he told them of the Nine Nations, where there are no slaves. Where captives of bond serve their moons or seasons or years and then leave free. And he told them of the words the Free People of the Nine Nations use among themselves, "Your household has so much and mine has so little and this is a wrong that only you can make right." And he told them that if the people of the city with more would not make things right, then taking their excess wealth from them would at least make things more right.
"So the slaves of Enonl rose up in the night in the late spring of the Year Twenty-Six and brought all the chosen of the chosen with Kuwuzt of Zouchaud into the city where they slew most of the warriors and those who gathered wealth to themselves in their sleep.
"Kuwuzt calls himself the King of Enonl, now. And the people there, warriors and meek alike, call him that, too. Many of the chosen of the chosen returned, but many also sent only for their spouses and children and perhaps others of their families, calling them to join them in Enonl.
"Kuwuzt is exceptionally bold, as fitting a hero and one who became chieftain of his whole tribe so young and eventually the First Chief of the Nine Nations. But even so, he will not turn away my singers who I have sent to the city after him on boats of Naumo making. And he will not refuse the guidance of table-rulers I send to assist him, though he also will not turn away from the direction of his foolish, mortal heart.
"The laws of Enonl stand mostly unchanged. Some are made different by Kuwuzt. Some others like those regarding slave-taking, are made different by the uprising of the meek against the strong. But it is not much of a changed place.
"Still, I will hold all the Free People of the Nine Nations to the Nine Ways Pact. And so I have called for all the new rulers of Enonl to present themselves before me and make tribute every so many years. We shall see how that holds up.
"As with Servant, the Free People of the Nine Nations ever more frequently burn their dead rather than keeping the body in the ground or some other place. Still there are some who regard this as an insult from their neighbors. But with time I know I and my singers can change the people in this fashion.
"There are a remarkable number of people now who are missing a foot or a hand, an arm or a leg. There were always some about who had lost a limb to misadventure. But my table-rulers can show that the current abundance -- three times what there were before -- is due to the great battle against the Hosts of Wrul and to the cleaning of wounds and the cutting of flesh by cleaned knives and the sewing of flesh by cleaned needle and thread, and to honey. The hero witch who I took as my captive has well learned the ways of cutting and washing. I think his place in the doomed camps of the road-layers prevented a worse haunting and, in fact, any notable hauntings at all prior to the rebellion.
"As the foreign hero completes the remainder of his oath-promised seasons of service to me, I have pressed him to take up a life among the Nine Nations and in the villages around my great house. I cannot devise his desires of men or women, as he is welcome to almost any who seek his bed but is said to lack much enthusiasm for what happens there and is otherwise uninterested. Likewise I have asked him what he seeks in life and his only answer was, 'Peace,' of all nonsense for a warrior to say. It may be that he will go some other way when his oath to me is completed, though I would rather he did not.
"The charioteer son of the King of Wrul, on the other hand, was sorely smitten by some members of the family of Kahl of Lan already in a marriage. And when his oath was completed he joined to them in marriage and persuaded them to leave the family of Kahl and even to leave the Tribe of Lan. That marriage has started a new family in the Tribe of Gawdtha, I am told. They keep horses, as you might expect of a hero of the chariot.
"The follower of Erweh who fought like one afflicted with the foamings, who was only stopped by the piling of bodies, who I took as my own captive at the great battle with the host of Wrul, that one refused any oath of service to me or any who would follow me. Not that I would allow another to hold that one's oath, but that the hero said so without being asked.
"So I made the hero into a sacrifice at the site of the battle, to carry a message to the underworld. Against his very heroic will and by an ordeal of such length that no normal mortal and few heroes might have endured it, I compelled that one to seek Hare in the underworld. The hero's spirit will tell her that I would like to learn her thoughts on Erweh's claim of domain over the underworld, her creation. It may take that spirit some time to locate Hare, hidden in the place of her making. And it is possible that Hare will send no reply. I have not received one yet.
"Like any other mortal, heroes grow old and die. It is only worth so much trouble to keep one around, because soon they like anyone else will be gone. Still, a hero with the wisdom and power of a witch would be of great use to me for as long as he lives. As his will is not yoked to his fuck-mindedness -- what fuck-mindedness the hero has -- I am unsure of what I can use to bind him to my people. What say you, voices?"
[ ] [Witch] Raise him above others, that people should serve him all his days
[ ] [Witch] Teach him secrets known to no other living witch
[ ] [Witch] Give him gifts from Bianca's hoard
[ ] [Witch] Just ask him to stay; and if he refuses, kill him
[ ] [Witch] Write In
"The people of Galugr Tribe are too few to act as a nation as do the other tribes of the Nine Nations. For now they are treated as such, but even with their individual might, they do not bring so much to the shared tasks as do other nations, and this shames them. The other Free People of the Nine Nations already look on the Galugr as something less because the crafts of their hands are poor and because they are so few. And the lesser giants to the distant north continue to regard the Galugr as unclean in some way. There have been some brought into Galugr tribe to marry that have come from distant places as travelers or slaves. But still they are so few when numbered against any other tribe of the Nine Nations. How should this be resolved?
[ ] [Integration] Let it be: they will grow in time
[ ] [Integration] Declare that the families of the Galugr should be part of Sleomjash Tride
[ ] [Integration] Declare that the families of the Galugr should be part of Eppam Tride
[ ] [Integration] Divide the families of the Galugr among the tribes and move them to new places to live
[ ] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
[ ] [Integration] Steall all the children of the lesser giants to the north
[ ] [Integration] Let the Galugr die out; help this along subtly
[ ] [Integration] Write In
"Kuwuzt of Zouchaud and the others of the Free People of the Nine Nations in Enonl are still bound and benefited by the Nine Ways Pact. And so they make no tributes to the temples to Fish and Rorqual in the city, though they do observe the rituals of respect for those gods and for the sacred place of River, Clay, and Sky there. But they must make tribute to me. And when they come to pay me tribute, they should bring the tributes of the people of the city.
"I have considered your idea of tribute of labor, voices. And I will have as tribute the best of the crafters of Enonl who can travel to my great house. But beyond this and baubles and metals and preserved food I do not know what I should demand of a city. What should I have of Enonl, voices?
[ ] [Levy] Let the city folk decide what and who of their best they should send
[ ] [Levy] Demand written materials and writing materials
[ ] [Levy] Get deposed rulers of the city to advise Bianca
[ ] [Levy] Get their magicians
[ ] [Levy] Get their traders
[ ] [Levy] Write In
"The business of cities has become the business of the Nine Nations and therefore the business of me. I will see Enonl, and perhaps the others. But there is time for many things and there are many things on which to spend my time. When should I visit?
[ ] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl
[ ] [Tour] Visit Enonl when matters in the Nine Nations are more settled
[ ] [Tour] Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint first, then Enonl
[ ] [Tour] Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers, then go see Enonl
[ ] [Tour] Go find cities beyond those known, then visit the known cities
[ ] [Tour] Write In
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Should I tell Bianca about hot air balloons and possibly basic steam engines? In the case of steam engines, I'll be explaining how they can be useful for travel, and potentially powering mechanical harvesting devices to massively increase farm productivity. I'm also planning on explaining in more detail some particularly useful chemistry; specifically gunpowder, exactly what chemistry is required to produce clear glass and an effective glass polish, and some basic chemical fertilizers. Also, advice on preserving Vitamin C through winter.
I think we should pay some attention towards food production, and the other requirements likely too come from extra population from from improved survival and hygiene. I've also been thinking having Bianca commission maces or gauntlets suitable for battle
Should I tell Bianca about hot air balloons and possibly basic steam engines? In the case of steam engines, I'll be explaining how they can be useful for travel, and potentially powering mechanical harvesting devices to massively increase farm productivity. I'm also planning on explaining in more detail some particularly useful chemistry; specifically gunpowder, exactly what chemistry is required to produce clear glass and an effective glass polish, and some basic chemical fertilizers. Also, advice on preserving Vitamin C through winter.
Hmm...
Me against my brothers.
My brothers and I against my cousins
My brothers my cousins and I against strangers
[X] [Witch] Teach him secrets known to no other living witch
ALSO
[X] [Witch] Just ask him to stay; and if he refuses, kill him
Give him your oath. He may have peace in death or peace as your servant. Having one who can assist in the magicking of the fields in years when you are not available could be invaluable, and if my reading is correct then he will not likely claim power for himself.
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
Though their craft is weak, they may yet be useful in the building of roads and mining of metals. Though I am uncertain on this precise course of action. Could result in dead traders.
[X] [Levy] Let the city folk decide what and who of their best they should send
Use this as an opportunity to test Kuwuzt. He aught well know what tribute would be appropriate, and should he fail then you will have learned where his loyalties lie. Besides, we will have a better idea of what the city has to offer once it has been visited.
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl
Now is the time to finally see a city because it serves the dual purpose of surveying that which you already control. I would also make a point of spreading our improved farming methods to the cities vicinity. Additionally, the type of pump which is just taught you is ideal for wells within a city because it allows less surface contamination reach the water table. Oh, the water table is sort of the way that underground water is shaped depending upon the arrangement of various levels of permeable or impermeable layers of stone, clay, and soil.
She knows well about fertilizers. Could you explain, for example, threshing machine?
[X] [Cacophony] liberty90
[X] [Witch] Raise him above others, that people should serve him all his days
[x] [Witch] Give him gifts from Bianca's hoard
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
[x] [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten Nations
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
[x] [Bianca] Learn to read
This is Black Cat, again with more advice. Welcome Leader Bianca, Great Undying One, Glorious Leader or, as I said a very long time ago, Your Divine Majesty.
A way of thinking about the world: as I said 20 years ago, I will say again, and there should be more evidence for that now, with the need to introduce more widely our many improvements, with written records and with people finally seeing changes during their lifetimes: permanence is a bad way of thinking. It's better for you and your power if people believe that there is change for the better that occurs thanks to you, wise Bianca, and thanks to science, science that is obviously invented by you, because no human would be wise enough. If and when there are occasionally changes for the worse, it's thanks to your evil enemies, or bad understanding of your words. You should direct your singers to slowly change details of relevant songs to reflect this way of thinking instead. With better farming, horse-riding, sails, conquest of a city, iron, glass and tons of other changes, only idiots believe in permanence. Promotion of obvious idiocy is bad, and even if this was a way-of-thinking that was once useful - it's no longer useful.
If you want to lie, then lie that you invented even fire or agriculture hundreds of years ago. Not that such lies are needed in my opinion, iron is impressive enough as change for the better and true enough.
It's good that you keep us as secret and that you can say that our improvements are your own wisdom. It's good for your power and respect.
Uses of scientific research are not always obvious at first, but often results can be applied to practical engineering later, when somebody figures out how.
And besides, in the nations that I can remember/see/imagine, scientific experiments were often done in the giant places of learning, Universities. Some few among table-rulers and wise people for a few more years studied more than only reading and writing but also things like healing, surgery or engineering. They had building with many tablets, scrolls and books to help with that, and during their studies over existing wisdom they could conduct also new experiments and try to invent new machines. Yes, this is yet another place that wouldn't produce it's own food and would need to be supplied, but benefits of more education and sharing of techniques among for example healers are pretty obvious, and new research could be something that is done in addition to such a basic function. Eh, we must give you much more food production again, I understand that.
There are many alternative ways to conquer, I shall now present you with yet another one: total destruction of the outsider tribe. I recently thought about a interesting way of conquest. Instead of making outsider tribe servant of the Nine, that would rebel from time to time, you utterly destroy their villages and make all of their people into bond-servants of the Nine. You distribute these bond-servants equally among the Nine, to destroy their unity, to destroy their families and tribe utterly, and settle now empty land with people of the Nine. There is no permanent slavery, so bond-service of captured people would end, but then what could they do? You destroyed their home. You destroyed their unity. Perhaps many would leave to their probable deaths among the wilds, but others would join marriages of the Nine, as their home is not only conquered, their home is destroyed and settled by people of the Nine. More people and more land for you, no long-term discord as two or three generations later last remnants from the ways-of-thinking and customs of the scattered conquered tribe would be utterly destroyed, maybe besides a few truly useful pieces of wisdom.
This way is obviously harder to do than usual conquest. Utter destruction of a tribe and stealing their land comptelety like never settled wilds is a hard work. But outsiders around the Nine are greatly weakened anyway...
The most dangerous or useless people from the destroyed tribe, like bold warriors that would forever hate you or elders, could be of course worked to death, or maybe to worse health - so that they are not in condition to cause discord after their bond-service ends. Copper mines and roadbuilding are nice for that, but remember to use much smaller and easier to control camps. Beware of yet another haunting and killing too many people at the same time and in the same place.
I disagree with some of my fellow Voices and with you about sharing baubles with outsiders. I would like you to wage wars with them and conquer them all anyway, so their desires to attack are not very problematic in my opinion, and with outsider desire for baubles the Nine could buy more metals for weapons and plows. There is never enough metals. But, well. At least share only shiny baubles? Less visible inventions, inventions that produce more food, like the black soil, teach only to people firmly conquered. So that there is always more food and people under your power than under power of your enemies. I hope that this sounds reasonable?
Custom of throwing unwanted or bad or weird family members to winter sounds to me as terribly wasteful the more I think about this matter. Maybe they could be offered to you instead? These that are useful despite opinions of their family you could use as servants, while truly dangerous ones you could use in experiments/tests or work dangerous enough to often end in death.
Meritocracy. You could devise tests of cunning and wisdom to decide who should be raised over other people as inquisitors, or guards, or chosen table rulers, or other such people. In such a way people who are truly better than average person at hunting crime or at ruling over others or at guarding things would be selected. This way provides much higher quality of such people than simply raising everyone from one tribe over another, idiots included. This way somebody would need to be truly unusually good, and people could believe that sooner or later somebody from their own family may be good enough. Some people could even try to improve their skills or skills of their children, perhaps. They should answer correctly hard questions that would be impossible for idiots to answer, solve correctly hard riddles, be better with numbers than average table-ruler, and similar. Obviously guards would need different tests than inquisitors, and table rulers with more power would need yet different tests; this should be properly designed to provide truly the best people for a given work.
Advancement in such a system is based on performance, as measured through examination and tests or demonstrated achievement. Those who govern should do so because of merit, not of inherited status.
Criminal schemes of chosen table rulers are a problem and inquisitors should look into evidence of any crimes or schemes, obviously. Sometimes Provocateurs can be used, people who would falsely suggest to a table-ruler that they want to help with schemes or crimes, but in truth would only gather evidence and bring table-ruler to justice if he admits to illegal actions. In this same way some inquisitors should check other ones. It should be known among servants that such "tests" exist: your servants chosen over other people wouldn't ever know whether somebody truly wants to scheme with them or test their honesty, so they would do less crime.
My examples of the inquisitor work were just that, examples of a way-of-thinking useful for a inquisitor. Not always there are pieces of cloth or blood, but these are nice examples to show that inquisitors should search for evidence and criminals, like hunters for animals. Sometimes there are footprints that suggest who is guilty, sometimes there are reliable witnesses, sometimes there is something else. Inquisitors should never assume that somebody is guilty only because they don't like him, or that somebody is innocent only because he looks pretty.
You asked: "How is your inquisition separate from the guards or the enclosed judges, Black Cat?". Inquisitors always search for crimes and evidence, while guards: help Inquisitors to bring criminals before judgement, protect your singers and various servants, protect property against theft, and similar tasks. Inquisitors need more wisdom and may be old, while guards should be younger.
Inquisitors should never judge, this should be done before the enclosure of judgement, with objective examination of both Inquisitorial evidence of crime and words of the suspected person. This, among other things, should ensure that people see Inquisitors as less tyrannical - they only search for truth, somebody else is tasked with judgement.
You said: "Perhaps later raise up some people to all of these roles together. But in separating them out I expect that it will only make more and more people who do not bring in food or make tools or do anything else the people know and understand are needed." These tasks are much better separated and specialized, but you are right that if we want to apply such ideas to many people, more food may be needed. Especially if we add full-time Armed Forces as yet another non-farming work. We constantly try to improve your food production. But there is no need to instantly apply such ideas everywhere: you can always start with only a few guards or soldiers, and see how their training works.
Identification parchments: your singers and perhaps table-rulers or other important servants may be provided with a special piece of parchment with their name, approximate year of birth, a unique number recorded also in your great house, fingerprint and words that would say that they serve you. During travels they could use this parchment to show that they indeed are your people, not foreign spies that try to pretend or frauds. Even if they are killed, nobody would be able to use a piece of parchment with obviously different age and fingerprint, or at least not for long.
They may also don't know what number of their parchment would be proper, as there may be order also in regards to that. Decent forgery would be hard if not utterly impossible.
You have a new First Table-Ruler, right? Then his fingerprints could be also included on all identification parchments, to make forgery even more difficult.
Even if a liar or foregin spy could manage to have a piece of parchment, ink, and basic knowledge about how to write false identification parchment - then he would still have only his own hands and his own fingers.
While parchment is far from common, one additional piece per lifetime of a singer and servant looks perfectly doable and worth resources used.
Cities should not only take what they need from villages, they should also give back, or trade for food and supplies, manufactured goods. Not only full-time guards or warriors or inquisitors or table-rulers should live in a city, but even more full-time craftsmen, often with complicated machines that would be too hard to have in villages. Cities are also places where people, both outsiders and villagers, go to trade. While there is inequality, some benefits from existence of cities exist even for the poorer people, as I said many times before.
You once asked what permanent guards should do when they would guard important doors, like these in the walls around your great house. It's slightly depends on the particular place and security needs, but mostly... They should check whether only people who are allowed to enter, enter; whether only people who are allowed to leave, leave; and most importantly ensure that no stolen goods are transported outside. They should also raise alarm and close doors if they see enemies. Everyone should be obligated to show contents of their bags to these guards, to be sure that nothing is stolen from your hoard. Even your singers should show their things, trust but verify to be absolutely sure.
You can test such guards-of-doors with training, false thieves and false dangers. Regularly test how they would act in the case of theft, whether they are effective and truly guard.
It's a pretty boring work when nothing happens, though. So they should be relieved by the another group of guards after a few hours.
About nails... I thought about things called that, not literal parts of the human anatomy. Nail is a small object made of metal which is used as a fastener, as a peg to hang something. Generally, nails have a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other. Nails are typically driven into the workpiece by a hammer, you hammer the nail head.
There are many uses of nails in construction, but you can also use nails to fasten horseshoe to a horse hoof for a long time. Because large parts of the horse hooves are made out of non-living tissue. Some skill and experience are needed to do that properly, too long nails can easily damage a horse.
Some time ago you asked, I think, why some people are born lame. Maybe sometimes there are magical reasons and curses, but I know only non-magical reasons: mistakes in instructions for life (how cells should build the body) sometimes happen randomly. Other possible causes are bad diet of the pregnant mother, or drinking strong alcohol while pregnant. Or simply difficult delivery that damages the child. Most often mother is not guilty of anything, though drinking alkohol is exception. Usually there is no cure, though there are rare exceptions, types of damage are very diverse, like causes.
Ah, and having children with relatives is highly unadvisable, and can greatly raise risks, but this is known to you and present in customs.
When I think about alcohol and children: children also shouldn't drink any strong alcohol. What is more, small children shouldn't even drink beer in ideal conditions, though in practically existing conditions weak beer may be lesser evil than dirty water.
Hugging small children and infants improves their health. Yes, this sounds slightly weird, but it's true. Without any gentle touch and hugs bodies of children work improperly and germ attacks are much more often succesful. This doesn't mean that small children should be only hugged and do whatever they want.
For older children and adults it's much less important, but there are still some positive effects. And of course people cannot and shouldn't be ordered to hug everyone, this is mostly good advice for families and marriages.
There are also benefits for health of the mind, though no, sadly you cannot heal serious madness with hugs.
There are mechanical ways to fly, to answer another of your old questions, but these ways are mechanically complicated. And you had issues even with waterwheels. Not that this is your fault: it's hard to explain very complicated matters with only words, and it's partially our fault. We shall try to improve your machinery slowly and then maybe, after a long time, we would be able to explain mechanical flying machines big enough to be used by you and your soldiers.
Mint is weak enough herb that it would be almost impossible to use too much mint. So mint can be safely used as a tea by healthy people, and thus encourage people to boil their water. Other voices were right about proper and consistent doses of truly strong medicines. I'm not sure whether to call mint "medicine" at all, it's more like beneficial food, like honey, that can also heal but the word "medicine" is not exactly proper. Strong medicines are often poisons when used too much, mint thankfully is not.
Cancer and sunlight... Sunlight is needed for health in moderation, something very hard during winters, but truly excessive exposure increase risk of dark-looking skin cancer after a few years. During hot days of the summer, something like light hats woven out of straw and wearing light clothes instead of working with naked chest - should be good enough. You can scientifically research this if you want, but effects are rather subtle and not too great, so I'm not sure that results would be obvious soon.
What is probably more important is the fact that such a simple measures, along with drinking more water, decrease also risks of the heat stroke, a much more common and immediate issue. That is, illness caused by overheating of the body. This can the most often happen when people work outside during the peak summer heat. Confusion, red skin, weakness and headache are symptoms, and cooling of the body with for example colder water is a nice treatment, while straw hats and drinking more water can often prevent the problem.
Also, some salt is removed from the body with sweat, so a small amount of salt can be well-advised - along with water of course - when people tend to sweat truly excessively. This cure, also with honey, is well-known to you, it's only yet another use.
Scurvy, scurvy and alternative cures... Well, edible green plants, or berries, or fruits are the best, but other than that... Let me think, how small tribes of the forever frozen far north survive... Eh, fresh meat, not overcooked? Fresh horse meat, especially. But I see a problem here, undercooking meat causes risks from worms and other such stuff. A much worse way in my opinion, concerns would need to be very wisely balanced... Fresh horse meat... Fresh liver of various animals... Lightly fried seal meat and liver... But I'm not enthusiastic about this way, a worse way in my opinion.
In regards to the biggest Burgeck icehall that collapsed: maybe additional support for weight of the roof in the middle of the icehall, support pillar, could allow such design to stand for much longer. Especially with a good and deep foundation for the pillar.
In regards to building bridges: a cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out. This pumping creates a dry work environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Enclosed coffers are commonly used for construction or repair of bridge piers/pillars.
Roman cofferdam was effectively a large, watertight barrel made of rows of timber which were bound by metal. Additionally, in order to provide water resistance, the "barrels" could be lined with pitch or clay. These would then be lowered into the river, and allow the water to be diverted from the place of work in order to dig down to build foundations.
What is a deep foundation? Deep foundation systems go unseen by the majority of our population, but make the modern world possible. Such systems are employed for...
madridengineering.com
The foundations of the bridge pillars could be lain directly onto hard rock if it was found, or onto wooden piles which were driven deep into the river bed. This last solution is relatively durable. The wet mud and the lack of oxygen prevents the action of the bacteria which would in other cases destroy the wood.
Pasteurization: people can enjoy much safer milk, and be able to store milk for longer, if you kill some germs with some heat. Only a short while and with heat slightly below boiling, because this is preservation method, not redewing, and we want to retain most of the milk properties and taste. Far from all germs would be killed at these mild temperatures, but this number of killed germs should be sufficient to extend safe storage time by a few days, such milk would be also much safer to drink. You should test that and develop the best method, of course, as proper time and keeping milk slightly below boiling heat may need some skill and experience.
Safety benefits are also important, as sometimes germs in the raw milk are very harmful. Far from always, but often enough to make pasteurization worthwile for health benefit alone, some very basic preservation is only additional benefit.
This measure is designed for milk that people or children will drink. Raw milk should be still used to produce cheese, and cheese is safe.
Mushroom farming. Mushrooms are not plants, plants need sunlight to grow, while mushrooms could be grown even on rotting trees in dark caves, or under living trees where it's too dark for crops. Some mushrooms are poisonous, but many species are perfectly edible. So how to farm mushrooms? Mushrooms reproduce in a weird way, there are no seeds, but... There are much more mushrooms in places where the waste good for growing mushrooms is watered with the water in which mushrooms were washed. Such water contains germ-sized mushroom spores, mushrooms weird method of reproduction. So you can try sprinkling the waste with such a water, leachate from ripe edible mushrooms. Preferably kinds of waste without too many germs harmful to humans: so rotting leaves or wood, NOT human waste. Maybe wooden logs, to not compete with the black soil compost. This is simplification, but may be enough to start farming some mushrooms. Instead of water, try also scrapping a mushroom cap's tissue. You sadly cannot feed too many people that way, but it's a nice addition to variety of the human diet without competing with more productive crops. I would like to hear back about effect of these efforts, or any unfortunate issues.
So, I've wound up trying to teach Bianca the Solvay process for making pure Sodium Carbonate in the pursuit of flawlessly clear glass. The hardest part is explaining how to get ammonia, it turns out.
So, I've wound up trying to teach Bianca the Solvay process for making pure Sodium Carbonate in the pursuit of flawlessly clear glass. The hardest part is explaining how to get ammonia, it turns out.
#Wikipedia
[Ammonia] is a pungent gas given off during the reaction of urine and [Lye].
[Lye] is a highly [Caustic] white solid which my be produced by repeatedly passing water through a mixture of the ash of the [Saltwort] and [Quicklime].
[Saltwort] is an edible, flowering plant that can be found in salty areas such as beaches. Sometimes the plant takes on a reddish hue, its leaves have been described as 'scale like', and its stem has many branches.
[Quicklime] may be produced by burning chunks of [Limestone] in a kiln. Some trial and error will be needed to determine burn time, as it is possible to overburn the [Qucklime], causing it to lose its effects.
[Limestone] is a very common, soft stone composed of the shells of tiny ocean life that fell to the sea floor in ages long past.
[Caustic] describes a material with very high [Acidity]. [Acidity] is a measure of a property of substances which ranges from zero to fourteen. Substances with an acidity of seven are [Neutral], less than seven are [Acidic], and more than seven are [Basic]. [Acidic] substances react with [Basic] substances to produce salts. Highly basic or acidic substances also tend to be more 'reactive', where 'reactive' means dangerous to touch.
I will now list some common materials and their acidity.
Stomach Acid : one and one fifth
Lemon Juice : two and one fifth
Apples : three
Beer : four
Spit : six and two fifths
Rain : six and a half
Absolutely Pure Water : seven
Human Blood : seven and two fifths
Ammonia : eleven
Quicklime : twelve and two fifths
Lye : fourteen
Seriously, Lye has many uses but will literally cause burning style injuries on skin contact.
I am thinking of advising Blanca on military reform. Idea is to form an army of about thousand soldiers drawn from the ten/nine nations and the surrounding cities. They will learn how to fight, make and build roads, and we would have an engineer corp that knows how to build siege engines.
Good luck, Bianca loves her equality of everyone so much, that it's far from easy to persuade her that she should have full-time soldiers and officers, it's not like I was not trying. But you may be better and use different strategy.
For military reform, I think that it would be better to implement some sort of time tax. Say every citizen of the Nine Nations must at some point in their life spend a moon being drilled in proper marching. We could have them do that thing where you run around an obstacle course with the crawling through mud and the sheer wall that you have to form a human pyramid to get over.
Oh.
How many people live in the conquered city?
Should we consider the city & surroundings as a separate tribe?
As far as I understand, the First Chief of the Nine Nations is now also King of Enonl, lives in luxury in Enonl, and all people of the Nine that come to Enonl are raised above locals.
I'm... Unsure that this sounds like the ideal way of doing things.
I am saddened to hear that Wrul was lost to our clutches, though it is a great victory nonetheless. I am glad and doubly glad that my advice to take all steps possible to avoid famine were followed, and worked so well. What happened to the Liavint should be a stark lesson to us.
[x] [Cacophony] Demonic Spoon
[x] [Witch] Offer the Witch seclusion
As the witch desires peace, offer it to him. Let him live undisturbed, called on only rarely when someone of his great skills is needed. If still this is not enough for him, then let him leave peacefully, as he has completed his bond-service. Perhaps this will encourage others to not so carelessly forsake their oaths in the future. Surely you can afford to let one witch live and leave?
[X] [Integration] Send traders and travelers out specifically to find grooms and brides
While stealing the children of the northern giants is tempting, ultimately it merely petty spite with little gain. It takes many years for children to grow into adults that can bring worth, and in this time you may need to suffer attacks from enraged giant parents. It is easier and safer to seek other wandering giants and families and invite them to settle among the Ten Nations.
[x] [Levy] Magicians, Maps and crops unknown in the Ten Nations
Ultimately, it is these that will best benefit us, without hopefully being overly onerous upon Enonl. If possible, suggest that the ruler send the most rebellious Magicians, to cement his own powerbase. While you may have a harder time managing such magicians, exiled far from their homes and without a supporting network of relatives and friends to call upon, should hopefully discourage them from doing anything too dangerous.
[X] [Tour] Go immediately to Enonl. Visit Liavint and Ekaicuint with warriors of the Nine Nations as soon as the years are warm enough that the land should support traveling in such numbers
It is good to visit Enonl now and firmly establish your authority while the memory of you is still fresh. Further, as my larval caretaker always used to say "You can never have enough cities". Of course, she was later assassinated, but I believe the advice is still sound.
"I do not keep up with every change my singers and table-rulers make to the order or manner of their doings. It is important to know the greater whole and to direct them toward my goals. But I do not know every song of theres or the contents of every tablet. There are so many more important tasks that learning to read and write. And in any case, I have attending to me the best readers and writers to be had. Why should I bother with learning myself?
Bianca, you can speak with people and understand what they say yes? Language itself changes overtime, and clearly you can keep up with those changes. The advantages of the phonetic system of writing is that, if you take the time to learn the letters and which sounds they represent you can read most words pretty easily, even if the words and language itself changes, as long as the letters themselves remain the same and represent the same sounds.
Personally I view it as imperative that you do take the time to learn these letters, and preferrably the numerals as well. Someone of your status being illiterate is a bit... embarrassing yes. Plus, you cannot always trust people to report written information to you accurately. As the ancient bloodstorm sages always say, "Trust, but verify"
And what are you to do in a situation where you need to read something but do not want others to read it? Perhaps a secret ciphered report from one of your singer-spies.
"It is true that my singers are known as mine and add to my glory as they borrow from it. I don't know why you suggest doing the same with dogs, in particular. Is there something about dogs that makes them suitable for such a project over, say, cattle? Or horses? Or bowyers?
To answer you Bianca, there is no intrinsic quality of dogs that makes them particularly suited to raising your prestige, and indeed all the things you mentioned can do so. Cattle, horses, bowyers and so on. The quality that is best to focus on however, is uniqueness. Novelty is in the end the ultimate commodity, and that which is hum-drum and commonplace is often seen as not noteworthy.
In fact, it might be a good idea to gather fine bowyers under your name and a fine herd of horse and of cattle perhaps, and at times, send gifts to your distant subjects as signs of your favour. For example, once every decade you may send the ruler of Enonl a fine Bianca Horse, unlike anything he has, or a Bianca bow that only his strongest warriors can pull.
And then he will be greatly gratified by your favour, and your own prestige will be increased, and his subjects will marvel at the splendors of his distant liege, and not whisper to him to rebel. Instead they will say "Truly Lord, the Lord you serve is mighty, to be able to possess such fine bows, such fine horses, such fine hounds, and to be able to gift them away"
"Voice, please tell me more finely the degradation that excessive soda ash makes in glass. Will it be more clouded? More brittle? Will it shatter more easily in heatings and coolings? The people of all tribes are fond of glass and will take up its making. My singers will encourage them in diverse attempts with various differences. And my table-rulers will endeavor to record the results and the differences. And perhaps that will be enough to learn from. Or perhaps not.
The degradation that soda ash causes is that it make the glass more water soluble, that is to say, it is leaky and leaks. It should in other aspects, be as other glass, as best I can divine from the currents of the bloodstorm.
[Saltwort] is an edible, flowering plant that can be found in salty areas such as beaches. Sometimes the plant takes on a reddish hue, its leaves have been described as 'scale like', and its stem has many branches.
Saltwort
Referencing the instructions of another voice, Saltwort is incidentally also a good source for soda ash, but I don't think it is native to this region. For the creation of ammonia I recommend substituting saltwort with whatever form of soda ash seems to work best for making glass.
"There are a remarkable number of people now who are missing a foot or a hand, an arm or a leg. There were always some about who had lost a limb to misadventure.
Prosthetics
Regarding those missing feet and hands Bianca, their afflictions can be somewhat alleviated through the use of prosthetics, of the attaching of false feet and hands made from metal or wood to their limbs. As an example, a cup could be tied to the end of a man's arm, with a metal hook pointing out, which he can use to hook things, like a doorhandle or a bag. Similarly a length of wood can be attached to a leg, to allow a person to walk again, though more clumsily of course.
More sophisticated prosthetics are possible, but such are beyond my knowledge.
"Hemp, though, is well liked by those who know of it. There are a few fields around my great house and some nearby villages have asked for the seed and I believe they grow it as well.
Hemp
Bianca, what is Hemp currently used for? Is it used like flax?
"If lodestones align with the winds of the world and those winds are determined by rivers of iron deep underground, then it is those rivers that are aligned with the pivot stars. So, to restate my question, why are the underground rivers of iron aligned with the pivot stars? Also, how may I find these rivers and capture their wealth of metal?
To answers your questions about the pivot stars and lodestones, I would first like you to explain what exactly the pivot stars are. With my initial ignorant assumptions however, that the pivot stars are stars in the northern part of the sky that remains largely unchanged by the passage of time, the alignment of the pivot stars and the magnetism of the planet is merely coincidence of the stars than based on some deeper underlying mechanism.
Imagine the earth as a giant ball, perhaps a berry or eyeball or some other spherical object. It spins around its own axis, and the field of magnetism aligns with the poles of this axis of spinning, the extreme north and extreme south. You should be closer to the extreme north, based on some of your descriptions of your environment. As such, unlike the other stars which move and change as the earth moves and turns, the pivot stars should remain relatively static, similar yes to a pivot upon which the world turns.
As to getting to this molten iron it is both simple and difficult. Simply dig straight down for about the depth of two million men stacked atop one another, and you will eventually get to this iron. This is probably impossible, but I know not the ways of your magic. Oh yes and partway through the digging process the rock will become so hot that it is in fact molten liquid.
I've considered contributing to this thread a few time, but not knowing what is pertinent to share held me back. Also, the size of Bianca's reactions to the Cacophony makes it fairly clear that more is not needed.
As to how you could make things easier... Maybe have a recap of what Bianca knows? But that would be a lot of work. Also, maybe add constraints to the size of the advices posts, like "no more than 1000 words'. It would make the thread as a whole easier to read, advice posts would be quicker to make, and hopefully it would give a bit of space to new players.
We are currently in anachronistic bronze age verging on the iron age. If you can think of any applicable advice that would improve the lot of the average ancient bronze ageian nordic/germanic type, then feel free to share. Systematic and thorough advice on increasing food production would especially be appreciated by me.
I've tried to make a summary of advice that has been successfully applied, which I can repost if desired. I have made no such of advice given but not successfully applied, because clearly if it hasn't that means someone else needs to explain it again, and better.
Some potential topics to go over:
- Papermaking
- How not to have molotov cocktails/firebombs blow up in your face
- Ghostbusting!
- Wtf are nails
- Remedial class on Crop Rotation
- Better furnaces somehow
- Glassblowing maybe
Good luck, Bianca loves her equality of everyone so much, that it's far from easy to persuade her that she should have full-time soldiers and officers, it's not like I was not trying. But you may be better and use different strategy.
Bianca clearly isn't married to the idea of perfect equality, because table-rulers, first chiefs, singers and various other figures of authority and higher status exist. But she rightly sees the widespread massive social inequality of primitive cities as a highly unstable recipe for disaster. She isn't actually wrong, but we need to take our bitter medicine and just tough through the rebellions until we can get something actually civilized.
Should I tell Bianca about hot air balloons and possibly basic steam engines? In the case of steam engines, I'll be explaining how they can be useful for travel, and potentially powering mechanical harvesting devices to massively increase farm productivity. I'm also planning on explaining in more detail some particularly useful chemistry; specifically gunpowder, exactly what chemistry is required to produce clear glass and an effective glass polish, and some basic chemical fertilizers. Also, advice on preserving Vitamin C through winter.
Basic steam engines are a complete waste of time and resources at this point. Trying to make waterwheels and windmills a reality is both far more feasible and has far more utility currently.
Hot Air Balloons don't have massive utility but are a perfectly valid vanity project and can help with mapmaking, so I'm all for it. By all means, suggest the making of balloons of hot air to Bianca.
Bianca. I have heard your questions regarding the finer points of glassmaking and lens production. I also have some more unsolicited advice regarding the improvement of farming. Specifically, labor-saving machines to make bringing in the harvest require far fewer people to harvest and thresh the same amount of food. Also, I will teach a basic method of hoisting a man or woman miles into the air and safely returning them to the ground. Lastly, I will end with how to create a powder that when lit in an enclosed container will violently explode outwards, shattering stones, flinging projectiles at extreme speeds, and which will provide the barest beginnings of the principles used to send ships to the moon or beyond.
Making Clear Glass
Regarding glassmaking, a fairly simple and reliable formula for making clear glass requires crushed Quartz, Soda Ash, and a small amount of the metal Manganese, though the Manganese need not be in pure form; the oxide found naturally in Manganese-containing rocks will suffice. I will now explain each ingredient in sequence, along with the necessary processing for each ingredient.
First, the Quartz is used in the place of common sand. To be suitable, a piece of Quartz must not have any yellow or black veins inside, and if struck with a piece of steel must produce sparks. Quartz that passes this selection process should be heated to the point when the crystals start glowing, then dumped in water. The resulting cracks from the sudden cooling will make the Quartz very easy to crush and grind to the requisite size.
You already know the basics of producing Soda Ash, but the particular type to make clear glass needs to be particularly high in Sodium Carbonate. Generally, the whiter the ash, the better; try different plants until you find one that works. Repeated gentle boiling with constant mixing, followed by drying in shallow pans will eventually purify the Soda Ash to a suitable state. That said, if such plants are unavailable there is a method for the artificial creation of Sodium Carbonate at high purity which I will describe in just a bit, though be aware that it is somewhat complex, and requires a few crucial ingredients of its own.
The Manganese will need to be mined or prospected. Most Manganese-containing rocks are dark grey to black in color, and are moderately shiny, though not as much as a refined metal. Additional steps to identify Manganese-containing rocks are to try breaking them, and scraping them against a surface. Most (though not all) Manganese-containing rocks are brittle, and will shatter if hit against a hard surface enough to break. In addition, most common Manganese-rocks will produce a dark reddish-brown (or just dark brown) streak when scraped against a surface, though I know of one that will produce a bluish-black streak. The Manganese rocks for use in glassmaking should be ground into a fine powder.
The process is fairly straightforwards from this point onwards. Melt the crushed and ground Quartz together with the Soda Ash as normal. With constant mixing of the batch, skim off the top of the batch. This removes most of the unwanted chloride and sulfate impurities from the glass, but there is still enough in there to ruin the batch. Once the skimming is done, ladle the molten glass into water. This will gradually remove more of the aforementioned impurities as the process of melting and ladling is repeated. Once this is completed to the glassmaker's satisfaction, the glass must be moved to a furnace heated to the highest possible temperature for multiple days, and stirred continually to remove bubbles and other defects.
This refined mixture is almost complete, but one final round of letting the glass set, re-melting it, then skimming it one last time. At this point, the powdered Manganese should be added and mixed in thoroughly, though the instructions I found were frustratingly vague on exactly how much Manganese to add. The recommendation for the first few batches is therefore to start with a very small amount of Manganese, and slowly add more until you have reached the correct amount to remove unwanted tints and colors from the glass. Don't forget to anneal the glass during the final cooling stage, of course.
Making Sodium Carbonate
Anyway, the process for making Sodium Carbonate will now be described. The ingredients you will need are salt, water, limestone, and ammonia. The ammonia will be the hardest to acquire, but fortunately this process allows you to re-use the ammonia required. As such, once the process starts you will only need a supply of brine and limestone to keep it going.
The easiest way for you to acquire ammonia will be to use a variety of a redewing apparatus loaded with plant matter; alternatively, load it with urine and lye, as another suggested. For ease of handling I would recommend placing the lower pot on the inside of a specially constructed ice house that attains extremely cold temperatures, since the point at which ammonia boils into a gas is far colder than the point at which water turns to ice. To keep the ammonia liquid for longer once removed from the ice house, I would recommend a double-layered pot with the gap containing some sort of filler; sawdust should serve well enough at the present time. The best possible filler would actually be to remove every single bit of matter between the layers, air included, but you lack the capability to do that right now. It is worth noting that ammonia is also useful for a lot of other chemical processes, so the equipment to make it should be retained.
Once you have the ingredients, you mix the salt and water to make brine, then add the ammonia. A special oven will then be required to make the last ingredient: carbon dioxide. This oven should have two chambers, completely separate from each other. The bottom one is for the fire, which needs to be able to heat the top chamber to temperatures that make iron glow red hot. The top chamber meanwhile should be mostly sealed save for a tube leading to the bottom of the vat containing the brine-ammonia mix. Though honestly, a very tall tube for the reaction would be better; in our history such an apparatus is referred to as a gas-absorption tower, and can be taller than many buildings for best efficiency. As the bubbles of gas released by the super-hot limestone flow up the column of ammonia-brine, a material will start settling on the bottom of the tube. This is Sodium Bicarbonate. Also, the limestone turns into quicklime, which can be useful in applications outside of making Sodium Carbonate; it's perhaps wise to use a bit more Limestone than strictly necessary, just to have a surplus of quicklime.
Anyway, Sodium Bicarbonate can be turned into Sodium Carbonate by heating it up in a pan, which is a fairly straightforward process as long as you don't accidentally set it on fire. The trickier part is recycling the ammonia, which has now reacted with the chlorine in salt to produce ammonium chloride. Once you've filtered out the Sodium Bicarbonate, add quicklime to the remaining liquid while still hot. This will convert the Ammonium Chloride back into Ammonia and salt. Just add the liquid mix back in, top up the tube with more brine, add more limestone to the oven, and you'll be ready for another batch of Sodium Carbonate. Occasional replenishment of ammonia will be required, but not very often.
As a side note, Sodium Bicarbonate (NOT Sodium Carbonate, the stuff you heat up to MAKE Sodium Carbonate) can actually be used to prevent dental issues. Add a bit of water to the dry version of the substance, and you can get a thick paste. Use a moderately stiff (not TOO stiff, though) brush dipped in this toothpaste to scrub your teeth on a regular basis, and it will both clean plaque and kill many of the bacteria living in the mouth, making it far less likely for someone's teeth to rot and cause them problems. It is possible to add mint flavoring to toothpaste without compromising its effectiveness, which may make it more palatable. Under no circumstances add sugar to toothpaste. A batch of Sodium Bicarbonate toothpaste will remain effective for a bit less than a ten-day after being mixed, with more exposure to air making it lose potency quicker. Swallowing toothpaste is probably unwise, but is unlikely to be fatal.
As another side note, this process will also result in the production of Calcium Chloride, a substance somewhat related to salt. It can be used for melting ice through chemical action, or as a food additive. Calcium Chloride tastes extremely salty, but contains no Sodium, meaning that it is not a total substitute for salt. Since the body needs Sodium. That said, the body also needs Calcium, specifically for making strong bones and proper muscle function.
Calcium and Sodium are both metals, though the pure metallic forms don't have anywhere near as many uses. Pure metallic Sodium will explode violently if tossed into a container of water, which though amusing is not terribly useful, since there are far better explosives that can be more easily produced. I will be explaining the creation of one of these explosives at the end of my message.
Lenscrafting Details
The grinding sand for making a lens should be as fine as possible; the chemical properties of the sand don't matter much, but the physical characteristics are rather important. You want as fine a sand as possible to make the surface as smooth as you can achieve through simple grinding, so that less polishing is required after the fact.
As for the polishing, that's apparently best achieved with an abrasive method, though the exact details are frustratingly evasive. This goes similarly for the resin used to hold the lens in place during grinding. I apologize.
Cat Breeding For Socialization
As you have noted, it is currently rather difficult to keep several cats around a village, as they are rather territorial. This can probably be corrected with selective breeding, though it will take some time to fully take effect. Simply round up a bunch of cats into holding pens, and on a regular basis test how well they get along with other cats when not in heat. Out of every hundred cats in each generation, select only the ten or twenty least likely to claw each other's faces off or otherwise come to blows to birth the next generation of cats. After several generations, the cats will generally be far more willing to tolerate each other's presence. Indeed, they may even seek each other out for companionship and support.
Farming Machinery
There are two devices which I will be explaining the principles behind, namely the mechanical reaper and the threshing machine. The former is a wheeled device designed to be pulled across a field, reaping crops it is pulled over. The threshing machine is meanwhile exactly as the name implies, a machine for threshing. Of the two devices, the mechanical reaper is generally simpler, but both are useful enough to warrant explanation. By this I mean that if both devices are used, the mechanical reaper and threshing machine can free up more than two thirds of the people who would normally be required to take in the harvest and process it into an edible form, allowing them to take up other useful skillsets.
The general idea of a mechanical reaper is that as it is towed over the crops, it automatically cuts them down, and collects the cut crops on a platform towed behind the cutter. The cutter in this case is composed of two parts, which can be summed up as a very large comb and a large number of knives lined up next to each other. The general idea is that as the reaper pulls forwards, the tines of the comb hold the grain-stalks in place, while the row of knives moves back and forth, acting like a set of shears thanks to the comb keeping the grain-stalks from escaping. This effect can be achieved with two or three angled gears attached to one of the wheels of the reaper.
The first gear is directly attached to the wheel, the second is at a square angle, such that it is level to the ground. To the second gear, attach a rod hinged at both ends; one end attached to the edge of the second gear, the other attached to the row of knives. This way, when the wheels are spinning, they also cause the row of cutting blades to rapidly slide back and forth. It is possible to make harvesting machines for most other crops, but the precise design used for a mechanical reaper is not the best option for most other crops aside grain.
Threshing machines do not strictly need to move in order to be of use, but you'll probably want to be able to haul them around on a wagon just for convenience purposes. At your current development level, any threshing device will need to be powered by either a large crank (to be operated by either a team of men or a Lesser Giant), or a treadmill. Aside from the chute that the unthreshed grain is dumped in, there are three main moving parts in a threshing machine that the grain will interact with. Aside from that, there are all the various gearing and belt assemblies required to actually transmit power from the crank or treadmill to the machine's various moving parts in order to actually move them in a useful fashion.
First, the grain goes through a pair of rapidly spinning rotors perpendicular to their axis of rotation. These rotors should have tines on them to rub the wheat between the rotors, subjecting it to more than enough force to separate the wheat from its stock, for the most part. For best effect, the rotors should spin fast enough to be visibly blurred.
After this, both the grain and the chaff are dropped onto a sieve; a grate of wires sized to allow a typical grain of wheat passage, but prevent any chaff from going through. This sieve must be mechanically moved back and forth in a reciprocating motion for best effect. This can be achieved using a similar setup to what was applied on the mechanical reaper to make the cutter move back and forth. The grain will fall through the sieve, where you should really have a bin of some sort set up to collect it if you'd rather not have to shovel it off the floor.
The last part is a fan, made out of angled paddles attached to a rotating central hub. The idea is that as the fan spins, the angle of the paddles forces air forwards in a continuous stream. This fan should be aimed at the area just above where the grain lands on the sieve; the idea is to blow the chaff away so that it never lands on the sieve in the first place, while the grain will continue downwards onto the sieve and into the collection bin.
It is possible to merge the two devices into a single machine that does both tasks, which is a device referred to as a combined harvester. However, I will not describe the method to achieve this, for the specific purpose of encouraging engineers within the lands you rule to actually innovate, and start coming up with ideas on their own.
Hot Air Balloons
Not all methods of mechanical flight are extremely complex. The method known as a hot air balloon merely needs a steadily burning flame that is unlikely to spark, a basket sturdy enough for a man to stand in as it is hoisted, a very large amount of cloth, a large amount of rope, and a fan similar to the one I described for use in a threshing machine.
The idea is to make the cloth into a very large bag with a hole at the bottom; to lift a single man the bag will need to be larger than most houses when fully inflated. This bag should be firmly affixed to the basket, since said basket will be hanging below the bag, and is where anyone riding a hot air balloon is to be located. The fire brazier should be affixed to the ropes holding the basket such that it is above the basket, but below the balloon. Then, you need to fill the bag with hot air, as the name hot air balloon implies.
To achieve this, have a couple men hold the balloon's opening up, then blow the fan inside in order to inflate the balloon. Once it's almost completely full, haul the opening of the balloon over the burner. The balloon will quickly become buoyant, floating in the air over the burner and the basket. Eventually, it will become hot enough to hoist the entire basket, with passengers, into the sky. The reason this happens is because hotter air is less dense, therefore all the colder air around it pushes it up.
To come back down, just put out the flame in the burner and the balloon will slowly cool down, letting the whole craft slowly descend. These hot air balloons should probably be kept tethered to an anchor on the ground unless the one aboard can control the winds, since otherwise there is no way to direct the balloon's path in any direction aside from up or down. Uses for a hot air balloon can include aerial scouting, or transport for a small number of people across nearly any terrain. I would not recommend using a hot air balloon to drop unpleasant things on your enemies, simply because of the craft's low weight capacity and the fact that those able to actually steer it will be few in number. That said, there are other types of aircraft quite capable of being used for such a purpose; you just won't be able to build them for some time.
That said, I do have an important warning about hot air balloons: The higher up someone goes, the thinner the air. If a man flies too high without some means of bringing more air to breathe with them, they will not be able to breathe. Therefore, keeping hot air balloons from flying excessively high is critical for the safety of those riding in one.
Black Powder and Guns
Black Powder is the term for the first explosive material our world ever discovered. The ingredients to make it are fine-ground charcoal, Sulfur, and potassium nitrate. As you are already capable of acquiring fine-ground charcoal, I will instead explain how to acquire the other two ingredients.
Sulfur is an element, and therefore cannot be made. It can however be found. You probably already know what the pure form looks like; yellow powdery rocks. It can of course be found near hotsprings and other volcanic locales.
Potassium Nitrate is the trickiest part to obtain. The most readily available source is bat poop collected from the caves they roost in. Immerse the bat poop in water for a day, then filter it, and collect the crystals of potassium nitrate left behind.
Either way, once you have the ingredients, there are two possible recipes, used for different purposes.
Gunpowder is used for propelling projectiles at extreme speeds; the optimal recipe is 75% potassium nitrate, 15% softwood charcoal, and 10% sulfur.
Blasting Powder is used for mining, demolishing structures, and otherwise creating massive explosions. It is made from 70% potassium nitrate, 14% charcoal, and 16% sulfur.
Either way, these ingredients should be ground together, either with a specially-made millstone, or with a mortar and pestle. This produces an extremely fine-grained powder which will explode if lit by so much as a single spark, but is not the final product since the ingredients are prone to separating, and it will not blast with as much force as the final product.
The next step is to dampen this fine-ground powder with water, and place the dampened powder into a press. The goal is to squeeze all the water out of the black powder to produce a hardened dry cake. This cake is then to be broken into grains by any means you deem suitable; for blasting powder the size of the grains does not matter so much, but for the purpose of launching projectiles the bigger the gun (term for a weapon that uses gunpowder to launch a projectile) the bigger the grains you want. Too small grains of gunpowder in a large gun can actually cause the weapon to burst. Sieves of varying sizes can be used to sort the grains of gunpowder into categories as suits your purposes.
Making a gun meanwhile is relatively simple, but at the same time prone to danger. Simply make a sufficiently sturdy tube sealed at one end save for a small touch-hole, ram a charge of the appropriate gunpowder to the back, then ram in the projectile of your choice, which can be anything sufficiently durable and dense; solid balls of iron or lead, sprays of smaller metal balls, or explosive bombs full of blasting powder and wounding pellets are all popular choices for gun-fired projectiles. To shoot the gun, simply apply a flame through the touch-hole by any means. There are all sorts of ingenious mechanisms possible to make this easier, including spring-loaded flint-and-steel spark strikers known as flintlocks, but the simplest is known as a matchlock, in which a burning cord laced with a slow-burning powder recipe is applied to the touch-hole by a simple lever.
The main advantages are the sheer speed and lethality of the projectiles, ease-of-use on par with crossbows, and much easier projectile manufacturing once you've got a large enough capacity to produce gunpowder. The main disadvantages of a gun are explosion risk and much slower loading compared to a regular bow, though with sufficiently ingenious loading mechanisms the latter disadvantage can be removed entirely, to the point of firing tens of shots in the span of time it takes to blink. A gun the size of the mechanisms of hurling already shared with you is commonly known as a cannon, and is capable of being mounted on sailing ships to cause great havoc among enemy vessels and those ashore alike.
Incidentally, guns are the reason that one of my fellow voices mistakenly referred to shooting arrows as 'firing' all those years ago. They were thinking of guns, and the internal quick-burning flames these weapons use to propel their shots.
Citations in a bit, if no-one wants to do them for me.
My fellow Voices. Hot air balloons? Possible theoretically, but... Huh. I predict that more than one would burn and waste valuable cloth before this is perfected. And maybe kill someone. Well.
Likewise, experimentation with the black powder can be deadly. Well.
My fellow Voices. Hot air balloons? Possible theoretically, but... Huh. I predict that more than one would burn and waste valuable cloth before this is perfected. And maybe kill someone. Well.
Likewise, experimentation with the black powder can be deadly. Well.
Yes, there are always hazards associated with exploring new technologies, particularly when those new technologies have a significant chance of going 'BANG' if mishandled. However, once properly understood, these technologies confer immense advantages to any society that adopts them.
For example, hot air balloons allow far more accurate maps to be produced, aid in searching for missing people, predict the weather, and spot incoming threats from much further away.
Black powder meanwhile can drastically increase the scale of feasible mining and construction projects, and a group of cannon loaded with grapeshot could easily rend most of an army's front ranks into red mist and gore with a single salvo.
Yes, there is plentiful opportunity for misadventure when these technologies are first being explored, but the long-term benefits for taking them up is more than worth it.
Why are we talking about gunpowder, guns, and balloons instead of talking about organizations? These are terribly complex technical projects that required long horizon for pay off and even more labor not dedicated to farming.
Meanwhile, we still don't have a mean lean professional military organization.
Blanca, I suggest that if you can easily afford it, form a small permanent group of men(500 to 1000) to be trained as full time warriors. They will be recruited from tribes of the 9N and those from cities you conquer. You will to train in the art of marching, setting up fortifications, formation warfare, road building, and other skills needed to win military campaigns. They will do this as a full time job and they will not do any farming, very much like the soldiers of Wrul.
Their advantage against your warriors is that they are closest group to professional soldiers. While your warriors are at once farmers, hunters, rulers, herder, etc, the soldiers of Wrul are only dedicated to fighting and getting good at it. Their terrible leadership and your generalship are how you trumiphed over Wrul, despite their advantages.
If your armies were more experienced, they would be even more successful. However, due to inexperience, they were unable to execute maneuvers to encircle the enemies. They would be more disciplined in exacting punishment for those who work on the road of lamentation instead of creating a new problem and an incomplete road. Overall, you would have greater success and less death on your side.
If you have an annual festival or a festival every few years, you could organize contest and war games, and you can test if your permanent army is working against those of the 9Ners who are only part time warriors. If done right, they should proved superior to the general population of warriors.
Take it slow, though. We don't want a bloodbath and we want contests to actually measure skills needed to wage war. Adjust and test as you see fit.
Some of the contests you could create are archery contests, wrestling, which test individual skills. Group skills can be tested through war games in which battlefield maneuvers could be tested. Also testable are fort building skills, road building skills, and other skills not traditionally warlike but vital in waging military campaigns.
The festival allowed you to test out how well your professional army as well help warriors of the 9N test their skills. Otherwise, the skills, experience, and knowledge will simply atrophy due to time. The festivals aren't a substitute for actual wars to truly test the military might of your people, but it will leave your people prepared for the next war.
Hey, I explicitly included instructions for harvesting and threshing machinery SPECIFICALLY to address those complaints about taking labor away from farming. With those machines, the number of people who actually need to be involved in food production is greatly reduced, freeing up labor for other projects.
