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.
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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 think that we should try to focus on improving transportation up to XVIII century standards. Bigger horse-driven wagons with suspension and privoting front axle, things like that. Anybody is interested in these?
I would like these introduced, but I always struggle with proper explanations of devices and items. Machines and crafts are not my field of hobbies/expertise (and English not my native language), so help would be veeery appreciated.
Not as sexy as trying to teach her steam engines, I know, buut...
I think the big problem is that she doesn't feel the 'pressure' of needing such things. Transportation and other 'Scary Changes that Destroys Perfect Society'(tm) came about from increased demand...aka in this case increased amount of people. I feel that we should hit the food and medicine bits pretty hard, and once there's a lot of infants, then children, and eventually adults to take care of, we present the cool stuff as a 'need' rather than 'what are these mad voices telling me'. Focus on an overabundant surplus, to the point where you have enough listless people who want their own things. Partially destabilize her reign so that not only she relies on us for solutions, but get her to open up on magic as well.
In other words, since we are dealing with a magical controlling 'mother'-figure tyrant, we try and sell her ways that would unwittingly create a massive population boom, forcing her to expand and consider ways to relieve pressure (aka the famed armed forces and what not).
She seems to be rather open to transportation improvements; that's not one of these matters where she is reluctant. There are now roads and ships after all.
I'm in complete agreement about agriculture and medicine, but there are limits what can be done without much more steel tools, and to have more steel tools we need to transport iron ore etc etc. Things are connected.
I want to determine how successful Bianca is when she and everyone she thinks might be useful in the fight go out to face the amalgamation of very pissed off Forest People ghosts.
Sorcery cannot be used directly against spirits to this end. Instead this is a contest of will, and Bianca's force of will is about as high as you'll find in a person (7). Bianca gets a bonus against composite spirit entities for her modest research success (1). While not directly tested, Bianca's sorcerous skills contribute greatly to the task (3). Bianca has all the worthwhile wise folk to consult with and witches that could get to the fight with her (2). Rudimentary surveying techniques and dugout shelters allow people to work well past the passing of the leading edge of the storm (1). Dedicated messengers and reasonably well-built roads even at the edges of Tenner lands greatly improve communication right up until they can't get through the storm (1). If Bianca and crew can weaken the amalgam enough, they might be able to finish it off, in a sense, by bargaining with it and sealing it away (1). Along with those witches are a lot of newly (and unstably) powerful Galugr who have bargained with forces they don't understand for power they believed they couldn't get any other way (1* this kind of magic use has more potential than it's understood to have and is equally fraught with danger so it rerolls 9s & 10s and keeps successes, and cancels successes on and rerolls 1s & 2s and additional failures cancel successes; more 1s, 2, 9, or 10s mean more rerolling, but only in the direction of the original dice).
Bianca will be rolling 7 + 1 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1* = 16d10 + 1d10*. Bianca is magical herself so she will count 6s and better as successes. She will be rolling against the force of will of the amalgam, more or less.
4 or fewer success = Tenner lands wrecked, Bianca trapped in Underworld in combat with the spirit for centuries
5 or 6 successes = Tenner lands wrecked, Bianca Bianca trapped in Underworld in combat with the spirit for 100 years
Twelve years after the inception of the Stormwoods Host, Kuwuzt the Great of Zouchaud, King of Enonl and First Chief of the Ten Nations dies in the 121st winter of his life. In the decades prior, he had prepared Gazark son of Yash daughter of Haput daughter of Kuwuzt to take his place as the ruler of Enonl and First Chief of the Ten Nations. Everyone around him knew his will in the matter and held Gazark in high esteem. But there is a contender with broad support, especially in the populous homelands of the Ten Nations.
I want to determine the results of the contest for leadership between King Gazark the Bright-Eyed and Kartz of Lan the Master of Hosts.
This is going to be a test of Gazark's leadership, a skill which he was taught by the best and which has been battle-proven (5), as he gathers support and makes his argument to the undecided. Gazark is a ruler and respected for it (2). His great-grandfather was careful to connect Gazark to his most important connections (1). Few if any living mortals remember a time when Gazark's great-grandfather was not First Chief and inertia is a thing (1). As a King, Gazark is far, far richer than the overwhelming majority of Tenners and can use his wealth to curry favor (2).
King of Enonl Gazark the Bright-Eyed will be rolling 5 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 11d10. Gazark is mortal and not heroic and so he will count 7s and better.
This is also going to be a test of Kartz' leadership (7), he's the one who taught Gazark and scores of other leaders of hosts. Kartz has won glory in many battles (1). Kartz taught the majority of the leaders of hosts currently active in the Ten Nations and the Conquered Cities and most of them look up to him (2). At fifty-three and showing his age, few expect Kartz to remain First Chief for much more than a decade, which a lot of powerful people who don't know what to expect find comforting (1). Unlike Gazark, Kartz lives in Tenner Lands like a Tenner, not in a city as a ruler (2). Kartz' origin as a trader and career in logistics of marching armies have made him a skilled negotiator (1).
Master of Hosts Kartz of Lan will be rolling 7 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 14d10. Kartz is heroic so he will count 6s and better.
The result will be determined by the difference between the rolls.
Heir wins by more than 4 successes = Unity maintained - inherited leadership normalized
Heir wins by 3 or 4 successes = All conquered cities go to heir, 10N lands persist separately
Heir wins by 1 or 2 successes = Civil War - advantage Heir
Tie = Civil War
Kartz wins by 1 or 2 successes = Civil War - advantage Kartz
Kartz wins by 3 or 4 successes = Many conquered cities secede from 10N
Kartz wins by more than 4 successes = Unity & 'meritocracy' maintained
Wow okay, this is interesting. So the original lands are wrecked...by spirits and civil war. Bad as it is, might be a great opportunity to (politely) force a reorg of tribes and what not should we need.
As you may have noticed, this update is considerably
longer than others have been. That is or is mostly due
to increased participation in the last cacophonous
interlude, which is fine and good as far as I'm
concerned. But I'd like players to let me know what they
think, of course.
I'm unlikely to work on the next reply post during
November, as I mean to focus on NaNoWriMo and it's not
super likely that I'll finish early.
As before, The Collaborative Post may be found in the
Informational Threadmarks and I encourage those players
who have access to it to update it with information from
this post. And if you have a minute to review earlier
posts not well-reflected in the Collaborative Post and
update it further, I think that'll be helpful to others.
Finally, if you'd like to have edit power on the
Collaborative Post and don't currently, drop me a PM.
Code:
5 [Juice] Expand the witches who face the tempest with
booned bargainers
4 [Refugees] Take as many as are willing as bond
captives, take whatever the others cannot keep from
being taken
4 [Commission] Have Kartz of Lan teach warleaders and
leaders of hosts
4 [Nepenthe] Write-in: Do not allow people to look at it,
keep it in a closed underground room as such a trap may
be useful in the future.
"The yield of the cursed woodlands is dangerous. It is not well understood. And it is too potent to leave aside in times of need. And we are in such a time as we face the raging spirits of Forest People from the west. So I will bring bargainers with the witches and wise and Free People of the Ten Nations when we go out to turn or calm that swarm of spirits.
"And from those driven before I will instruct the people to take as many as bond captives as who go willingingly, and to rob any defiant people of whatever they have. They would only make trouble for the Free People of the Ten Nations in any case.
"When this trouble has passed, I will make a place where Kartz of Lan will teach warleaders to be leaders of hosts and leaders of hosts to improve in their role. If the land of whatever village in which his family lives is not suitable, I will call him to an open place around my great house. He owes me, and will answer. I will have a place built for him and those he teaches, if necessary.
"And I will have the Glass Tree of Light and Colors hidden away in a hole in the ground within my hoard, so that none may look on it. And in that way it will not work its purposes, magic or otherwise, on anyone."
Hello, Bianca. You may refer to me as Fragment. While I do not wish to speak on storms, it bores me and the others will likely speak of it regardless, I noticed far beforehand some discussion on the loyalties of warriors and your desire to have loyal warriors.
I would suggest ritualism here. Not necessarily magical, but to humans it might seem that way. Most humans do not like giving up what they have attained, especially if they have suffered to acquire it. This can be exploited. Have warriors swear their loyalty to you, pay a personal toll in the privilege of doing so. Perhaps scarring, or branding with a mark of your own.
This results in them placing great worth in having sworn themselves to you. Especially so if they were aware of the price, and paid so of their own will, or least their own will as they believe it so. Clothe the position of being one of your chosen with status, and they will choose it. Bar the door back with their own choice to suffer brandings. No magic nor coercion is needed. They make their own choice, and that choice is by your side.
It also breeds camaraderie, knowing all were brave enough to go through pain to join your side. The more sacrificed and suffered, the more unwilling to turn back, for people have always placed great value on what they pay for. Perhaps you may also incorporate magic into these rituals of loyalty, to empower your chosen warriors so. I imagine there are some spells that can be woven into such a structure.
"This is… not new, exactly, Fragment. But I have never heard it put so directly, and so free of specifics. Something like this is known to the wise, but I think it may have only ever been understood in context of this or that mark, or in terms of oaths.
"For example, my singers give up their families. They may call on any to feed them or house them in winter, in my name. But there are bonds of family and marriage that they forsake for the sake of song and story, and for my sake.
"I do not have a general need for warriors loyal to me over all other concerns. Or, rather, I have sufficient loyalty from the warriors of the Free People of the Ten Nations for my current purposes. But there are times when it would be useful to me to have greater loyalty for some number to some end.
"Those who now bargain with the things in the cursed woodlands are sickly, often appearing as one would who carries an unhealed wound. They have erred, clearly. And they are all paying for their errors with their lives. But at the same time, there is clearly power in their bargains. The matter requires study, and no doubt will require the loss of more lives. But now only the desperate or foolish take up such bargains. And the desperate and foolish are not studious. If I can find wise enough people -- preferably table-rulers, I suppose -- and bind them by oath to not take any bargains without my permission, but allow them to make study of the bargainers, their bargains, and the things they bargain with, perhaps fewer would fall to foolishness.
"And it may be that I will find use for sworn warriors once I have them, as well. When time allows I may just establish that the Chosen of the Chosen may bind themselves to me in this manner."
With that, I take leave, to return should I become interested in this piece of reality again.
e: On this matter. It's a trap, of course, but one which would be used as an additional defense to that which you wish protected. Consider that possibility.
"The first time a person glances at the Glass Tree of Light and Colors it is at best a distraction to them. It is only by repeated exposure -- which any might desire, having once seen it -- that a person comes to desire only to stare on its wonder.
"However, it is not magic. So perhaps with some work of magic the splendid thing may be made more captivating, more dangerous than it now is. I will think about it."
How foolish the Devicier is, I'm the most unpleased with her stupidity. Arts of the body can help at most few people, these with unusual time and will to study them, while better developed wisdom of devices and crafts can help to better feed and clothe whole nations. Strength of the body is not without use, but certainly much beneath devices, not above. If she is so inclined to foolish decision then let her be, but I advise for a song or two about proper understanding of the matter: that the devices are not beneath anyone.
How can a human meat survive cannonfire? It cannot. How can teaching dances improve food yelds? Wisdom of devices can do so much more.
Only your immortal body is truly strong. Among mortals their flesh is weak, and bronze blade is strong, bursting dust is strong, devices are strong.
Of course health and strength are useful and often allows to use devices of war better, but for that blade or a device must first exist, so that human flesh can use it.
Creation of a new and useful device may improve the lives of many future generations, as long to the future as long the new wisdom of devices may persist. Thirty years of time for testing new things is thirty years well spend when three thousands of future years may benefit from it. I advise: let your singers explain this to crafters from time to time, so that more among them would love to search for improvements to their craft, instead of... Starting to dance. Like your former foolish Devicier... Maybe I talk about this matter for too long, but I feel really displeased with her way of thinking...
"Yes, any fool with an ax is a danger, it is true. But a barehanded, Chosen warrior can kill a fool with an ax, and may do so many times before one ax-swinging fool gets lucky, or before fortune similarly turns against the Chosen.
"In a similar way Peyuvo of Eppam, now called 'The Graceful,' has shown that people do not know how to fall to the ground in such a way that they rise uninjured, not until they learn to do so. Many of the Chosen know this, it has turned out. Some among them teach their fellows. But it went unrecognized by my singers until Peyuvo made it known. She says falling is more like swimming, in that learning by happenstance endangers a person -- though it is a danger well short of drowning -- and less like fucking, where nearly all work the matter out well enough as they go, and in which there is little danger from the failures of the unlearned. And Peyuvo's followers learn to fall, a valuable thing to learn.
"She has devised the making of the reaper and the thresher such that others continue to craft them and keep them working. And every harvest there are some additional reapers and threshers working fields further out from my great house. If there is another device that benefits the people as much as those which she might devise, you may tell me of it. But for now I have no reason to be troubled by her odd and, yes, graceful ways."
Now, about the recent War of Conquest. I'm slightly displeased with the fact that the Ten Nations decided to conquer Giants that were already useful for you. But if conquest needed to happen, then I'm very pleased that conquest happened fully and is properly completed. For their skill in conquest both First Chief Kuwutz and Commander Kartz deserve praise and big stones with carved stories about their lives, stones placed in all cities. Damage can be now rebuild and southern territories can be again useful. Much worse would be a failed conquest and then long war that could only damage and damage and damage strength of your people. That would be terrible.
I worry about unity of your people in wars. Yes, this time there was unity. There was unity, and thus there was victory! But I know that tribes of the Ten Nations can also wage war separately. I know that tribes of the Ten Nations can refuse call of their First Chief to war. Imagine a lesser First Chief than Kuwutz, as Kuwutz despite his long life is still a mortal and one day shall die. Imagine a less heroic First Chief. Imagine such a worse First Chief calling for war, and only five or four tribes out of ten answering. Undying Bianca, such a disunity in war may cause a great tragedy in the future, as without full Unity great wars may be lost and lives wasted. Understand, the world changed: great wars of conquest are different than raids, more dangerous.
When the First Chief decides about war, and majority of tribes agree, then all tribes should be United in support for that war. It should be their DUTY. NO TRIBE should go to war separately, without the First Chief and Nations United in Support. These should be Rules like Rules of the Ten Ways Pact. If there is a need to change the Pact to create such Rules, you should do that. For the sake of Unity among your people. You know how important Unity is.
"I think that if Kuwuzt went out with fewer warriors, he would have taken fewer cities. Even the five tribes who came to Kuwuzt and asked him to lead them against the Cities of the Giants could have taken Liavint and held the Great Bridge of the Buraghm, surely. I think they even would have taken some cities beyond that. And once the Giants were shown weakened, any warleader from any tribe who thirsted to conquer cities would have seen the nearby Cities of the Giants as fair and ripe targets.
"If I had believed it was important that the Ten Nations face the Cities of the Giants all together, I would have decreed that it should be so myself. Instead, as you voices directed, the people were left to work it out for themselves. And they did so without noteworthy folly."
Also, maybe they should have a duty to ask for your divine permission, Undying Bianca...
Also, imagine that it's you that want to wage war. Shouldn't it be a duty of all tribes to answer your call with obedience? I understand that it would limit their precious freedom, but surely such a rule would be useful for you.
"Why would I want to restrain the warriors in general? Every time they take or raze a city it enriches the Ten Nations and me.
"There are times when restraint is necessary, such as this year in which I have called all the strong and all the wise gather together in the lands of the Ten Nations to deal with the strange multitude of Forest People spirits. But if I do not need the warriors, why hold them back? Their lives are short enough. For now they spend them as they will, so long as they respect me and their oaths. And this is working well."
As to the overbeating of children, I'm pleased that there is significant change for the better. But it was even worse than I thought. If sometimes even bones of children were broken, then that was a great danger not only to health of their minds, but also health of their body. Even when a broken bone heals properly, and that is not always obvious, it will be always more prone to future damage and ill health. A reasonable and truly wise person should agree, after thinking about the matter without anger, that to possibly damage health of their own family is a dishonourable act. Family should care about health of even meek parts of itself - and among children many have a potential to become strong with time, no beating needed.
"For the most part, parents care for their children and look after them and this is seen as just and right. The people already looked down on those who beat their children such that they broke their bones. But children come to misadventure even more often than grown fools. And at times their poor choices and poor fortune see their limbs broken. Or, as should be clear to any who know people, sometimes the poor choice of an adult is covered with a lie about a careless child.
"Your suggestion has led to improvement on your own terms, Black Cat. Why does it sound as though your displeasure has only grown?"
More than this: I would argue that even bond captives shouldn't be overbeaten. How captive with a damaged body can be expected to work well? And this create even more hate between a bond captive and their master. Increase discord. It's much better to feed a captive worse food for disobedience and better for good work, for example.... Sleeping in better or worse place, as an another example... Better or worse type of work... Many similar methods can be imagined, people only need to think more carefully, instead of thinking with anger.
"A captive taken on the battlefield is a different matter than a child. If one who has a bond captive finds they need to beat that warrior within a handspan of their life in order to be sure they will not endanger their captor or any other free person, that's their judgement. The captive chose to give their bond rather than take their chances running or dying then and there. If they lack the sense to follow through on their bond and complete their service then they are likely to get beat. Is a warrior who has decided to fall short of their bond really going to be so discouraged by less appealing food or rough sleep?"
When people are raising children, and even use work of captives, and even deal with these neighbours or adult family members that are weird or disliked - it's often better to think whether there is not a better way than force. Not always but often more cunning methods could be used instead. Much more often than your people currently think... Of course people are people and some violence is in their nature, but thinking more often can be carefully encouraged by your Singers. This increase order and reduce discord.
Peaceful order in free villages can never be perfect, but can be increased much more than you currently think. Without making all of people meek, but with encouraging them to think.
Let's encourage use of violence only where it's truly useful: when it's truly unavoidable and against not yet subjugated outsiders, in wars and raids.
"Many if not most people, Black Cat, are less ready to use force outside of the moment of conflict. So if you ask them to think and to wait you are asking them in many cases to forgo effective use of force. It takes a particularly bloody-minded sort of person to use force just as effectively after stopping to think if perhaps another solution might be better.
"And that is assuming that others do not read a person's pause to think as the hesitation of cowardice. Life becomes difficult -- or at least less independent -- for those seen as cowards."
And of course, when there was a serious crime done, then it's a separate matter. But even then, as another Voice said decades ago "any punishment has four purposes: Prevention, Deterrence, Rehabilitation, and Retribution". Do you remember these Purposes of Punishment? If it's still possible to "rehabilitate" criminal, turn the thief back into a productive member of society, then thief should be beaten, but preferably not permanently damaged. And wise should try to talk with the criminal, explain why criminals need to change for the better if they want to live and live without shame.
Unless criminals steal from you, then kill them with pleasure, of course. You are much above all mortals. But this is a very special and rare case.
"In the lands of the Ten Nations, this is the way. A wrong-doer's family beats them for their crimes and also makes them fit again afterward. But in Biancvint the wrong-doer's family may differ from those found in the Ten Nations. And many times it seems that a family with one wrong-doer has others. If they are unsuitable to make those who do crimes suitable as neighbors, then who should do it?"
In regards to unwanted children of cities, I would suggest to remove them from the streets even if you see no need to teach them serving you. Such children can be dirty and can be a danger to public health and public order, beggars, thieves, much below even other outsiders, increased disorder... There is no reason for these to exist.
Killing all would look very cruel, encouraging cities to try to feed and bathe and rehabilitate these that could still grow into honest adults would look good and merciful. Surely work of these children could be of use, to clean streets, or something like that. If you see no need of them for yourself.
"Beggars don't have a 'reason' to exist any more than any other person does. A beggar is simply a person who relies on the generosity of others for their sustenance. If the people decide that it is better that person should starve, then they may stop feeding them. It is the same with the children who are not fed by their parents' family for one reason or another.
"But, yes, all these people could be put to work of some form or another. I may make this a task of any judge or guard who does not seem to have enough work otherwise."
City Inquisition
I'm persuaded that there may be no need for Inquisition inside of the Ten Nations core, but you could think about testing Inquisition in Biancvint. Guards enforce peace between strangers on the streets, Judges judge suspects, so what should Inquisitors do?
I shall tell you what. Inquisitors should search for evidence of crimes and disorder with cunning, and then report their findings to judges of the city. This should be a duty of their lives, main work during their days.
If you see no need - remember that the main issue with cities are discord and crime. And cunning Inquisitors trying to understand where thieves keep their loot or who murdered somebody when there is not yet any suspect and only dead body - that would create even more fear in minds of thieves and murderers, thus increase Order.
In some cities it's something that Judges do, but I know that it's better to have also separate people gathering more evidence for judges. I'm sure that Judges are busy enough with judging these criminals where evidence is already obvious.
And city guards may be not always clever enough, though a nice way to estabilish a City Inquisition is to make the most clever elder guards into Inquisitors. When there is significant life experience and ability to think about mysterious crimes and murders, but no longer enough health to stand between criminals openly fighting on the streets. But only the most clever, perhaps these elder guards able to understand law almost as well as Judges, would be well suited.
Biancvint was allowed to exist as a test, in a way, so consider testing this.
"The Judges of Biancvint know which guards can be trusted to ask after some unknown problem and which cannot be relied on to do more than quote the law and do as they're told. There are not so many mysterious goings on as to require an entirely separate authority."
Servant Messengers
When size of the Empire increases, it's harder and harder to be informed what happens in distant lands. Messages travel slower and slower with increasing distance. Speed of messages can be improved by having a system of Servants dedicated to travelling with important messages in between cities and biggest villages. Then there would be no need for a singer or a table-ruler to leave a city or a big village to deliver you an important news, as the message could be offered to a trusted Servant Messenger instead.
Servant Messengers could be drawn out of these who love travel and horses, and are badly suited to be Singers or Table-Rulers. Preferably small women on small horses, as it would be a waste to use warhorses.
I can see an Empire with a whole system of this, and special Houses of Servant Messengers along main roads. In these houses there was food, safe shelter and spare horses for Servant Messengers.
Sometimes, when a message was important, it could move without any stops for rest. Because one Servant Messenger would give it to another in their House, so while they could rest, message could move without stopping. This GREATLY increased message delivery speed.
If you are not interested in this idea, then perhaps Chief Kuwutz could be, it could be useful for messages in between conquered cities of the south.
But I think that it may be better for your power to have such another type of Servants as your own.
I can see an Empire with such a system, a great Empire of people that loved horses. At first their system was widely available even to traders, but it was used too often, so after some time traders needed to give high additional tribute to their God if they wanted to enjoy right to use the system.
And build more roads. Servant Messengers or no Servant Messengers, exchange of messages can easily choke on lack of roads and bridges.
"Indeed warhorses would be a poor choice for such a task. They are not easily kept, requiring special attention and care or they will kill their would-be caretaker.
"In fact, I am unsure that horses would be a good choice for this task in any case. A skilled horse-rider on a good horse might travel as far as a person on foot in a day; however, if they do so the next, and the day after that, and so on the horse will take ill. But a person can continue to travel in such a way for a season or more, so long as they have water and some food and know where they are going and will be fed and rested when they get there.
"Still, whether on horseback or not a system of messengers across all the cities ruled by the people of the Ten Nations would be of great use."
Critique of too large families.
The ideal family size for people, when it's still possible to remember well how much honor and skill each person has, and thus where unity and wisdom can be strong, should not exceed around 150 or 200. Above 200 people the family should split, but of course remain united with other families under the ways of tribe and the Pact. Creation of new families by young people should be possible and subtly encouraged if their current one is big.
And similar but separate matter. Are there cases, especially in villages of one family, where one or two people try to rule with beatings, instead of wise people ruling over family with wisdom? One-family villages should be also subtly discouraged.
"These things tend to take care of themselves in time, Black Cat.
"Or they did, anyway. Perhaps they will not now that the people go out to rule over others? Or perhaps they will break more readily?
"Hmm. I believe larger families are breaking up more frequently, now. But it varies among the tribes. Even Tash and Burgeck -- who rule no cities save Liavint, which they share -- have expanded into the lands around them that held outsiders before the times of long winters.
"If families are to be encouraged to divide after a certain point, what reason should be given? What does it benefit them to do so?"
Usefulness of small metal things in trade, especially in cities.
If somebody wish to trade fruits for wheat with strangers in the city, they can only do this when fruits and wheat are both available at the same time and place (and, additionally, only if someone wishes to trade wheat for fruits). That may be a very brief time, or it may be never. If they could instead exchange fruit when it is ripe for a small amount of copper, then they could use that copper to buy wheat when it is harvested, or when they wish. When there are Traders ready to sell and buy everything for small metal things... Then everybody in the city benefits from ability to sell surplus of anything when needed... And from ability to buy something else in the more distant future... I know that you are unsure about greed and mentioned many decades ago "coins", but you could try to test this idea in Biancvint.
"The people who travel far to trade -- or to pretend to trade while they see what is there far away -- they use cast or clipped or hammered bits of metal, yes. And the people in cities make some use of them as well. But for the Free People of the Ten Nations among themselves, gold and silver are too rare and copper and iron too swiftly put to use. For the most part the people track their debts and credits well enough to hand around what is needed, as they always have. And in any case, is this not what table-rulers are for?"
It's also very useful for armies. Imagine, warriors could receive copper "coins" of equal weight from their commander, and then buy whatever they want from outsider traders that would try to supply everything out of greed, but in this case useful greed. Of course, you can also kill traders and take their things, but then other ones would try to escape your army, instead of constantly trying to travel to you with food... Fighting trade is greatly foolish, the benefits exist only briefly...
"No one brings trade around hosts on the march. I do not know how that would even begin to happen. When warparties are out it is not the time for trade. They will take what they need from the land and people around them, so long are they are outside the lands of the Ten Nations. And if their numbers are such that there is a leader of hosts among them then they will distribute what they take at the direction of that leader of hosts.
"When a great host is traveling, it carries some of what it needs. The more it carries the more it needs so that it can carry that. I suppose once they've taken loot it might make sense for a trader to approach. But before then I do not see the trader's wisdom in it."
I can see cities where people receive copper coins for work, then go to traders and freely decide what they want to buy, bread, or maybe beer, or maybe something else...
In these cities traders have a duty to recognize these small pieces of copper as payments for anything, though traders can freely decide prices, traders decide how much small pieces of copper for something...
The day of trade ends...Traders then pay a small tribute to the city for their right to trade, tribute also paid in copper things...
All people also pay to the city small tribute, also in copper coins, for the right to have a house in the city...
The city uses copper things, copper coins, received in tribute from traders and others to pay street cleaners, guards, judges, and other people working for the city; these people next day go to traders, some buy bread others beer others managed to stockpile enough copper coins for a piece of cloth or pretty things...
There is something like a... Circle of trade and tribute... Everything for copper things, everyone trade or pay tribute in these...
Richest people and traders use also coins made out of silver and gold, when they would need too many copper coins...
Surprisingly simple system... As long as the guard can keep public order. A great system. Simpler for a city than taking in tribute 20 or more different things, simpler to take only copper and silver and gold and then buy for these anything when needed...
"Ah. I think I understand this better. So if I wish a new wall built in Biancvint I will say to the people, 'You must each provide me so many copper coins each full moon.' And then I put these copper coins in the hands of the people who cut stone, who haul it, and who work every other step. Then the people who would feed those workers, knowing they must give me so many copper coins, will exchange tools and bread and beer for the coins the workers have. Yes?
"If a baker fails to provide food to the workers now, they would be punished for failing to feed the workers. But in your version they might get their copper coins in some other way, escaping punishment but still leaving the workers unfed. What then? I believe I understand how you mean the arrangement to work with less intervention for the Judges or myself, but I do not see how it would work better, only worse."
Warrant of Trade?
I remember that a few decades ago I suggested to you drawing out of their families a few traders that love greed more than their families and making them your special Traders, allowing them to grow more wealthy than others during their brief mortal lifetimes, but then after their deaths - taking away their hoards of baubles, as your Traders would no longer belong to any families, only to you. Anything had come out of this idea? If I remember this right, you agreed to test that on a few.
Quote from the Update 17:
"I may not understand greed properly. But I believe that those who suffer its effects want to experience their hoard in ways that they wouldn't be able to in the situation you describe. Either, I think, they will want to take their hoard with them to the house of their family, or they will want to take their hoard outside the lands of the Ten Nations, where they can live with their wealth.
"But I will seek out one or two who love to haggle and to accumulate more than they love their own family. And I will see what they can do when freed of all constraints but mine."
"Most trade journeys are made by people of the same family, not collections of unrelated individuals. And I have no intention of allowing a family to build a hoard within the lands of the Ten Nations.
"But there have been some few who wanted a hoard of their own, and a few others who already had a hoard in secret and obtained permission to keep it within the walls around my great house.
"The most notable thing about these traders is their tendency to end up dead by misfortune suspiciously more frequently than those whose wealth is the wealth of their family. They are few enough in number that if they bring more wealth to the Ten Nations than other traders it is not by any great measure. And though they certainly bring more wealth to my own hoard than other traders, the greatest increases have come from tributes from conquerors and those they conquer."
And in regards to utterly different things: other Voices like to talk about confusing uses of numbers that need angle of something, but were angles properly explained? Angle is basically a degree of rotation on a cicle. One full rotation around a circle is equal to 360 degrees. Out of this we can understand that half a rotation is 180 degrees, and quarter of a rotation is 90 degrees. Regardless of our more exotic and rare uses, knowledge about angles and measuring angles can be somewhat useful even in practical tasks like device design, design of buildings and bridges, and others.
Maybe the most wise among your table-rulers already know a similar concept? Can you ask?
Angle can be also understood as the difference in inclination (tilt) to each other of two lines that meet or cross. For practical example, a wall with a perfect 90 degree angle is a wall that stands perfectly straight in relation to the floor. I think that most home designs try to use 90 degree angles for walls, as these are pretty stable... If you have a perfect wooden circle, then a quarter of that circle should fit in between the perfect 90 degree wall and the floor... Because quarter of a rotation is 90 degrees...
Where roof of a building lies on the wall there may be for example a 35 degree angle, or 40 degree angle...
And I think that degree of an angle between the horizon and some stars differ with different location on the world sphere... Confusing matters, I know... Could you suggest that to table-rulers? It's their job to think about numbers.
"Is this another arbitrary number or is there some significance to three hundred sixty steps?
"We know that the north is the direction of the pivot stars, and that the further south you are the closer they are to the ground, more or less. Sometimes the ground is higher against the stars.
"Stoneworkers use weighted thread to set their stones upright. And if a surface should be flat, it can be known with water, which runs to the low points.
"How do you measure these finer numbers of incline? Does the measurer need a bark shingle, carved or painted with three hundred sixty perfectly spaced marks?"
As to where find rock oil... Ugh, land around underground rock oil can look pretty normal. Where oil is plentiful, sometimes local people can find oil instead of water when trying to dig deep wells. These outsiders are usually pretty irritated by this fact, I imagine. But oil can be useful if you know how. Maybe send a few people to look and ask around about oil.
Look... Do you know big and many mountains to the West-South? Oil may be around.
In the Polish village where my grandmother lives, Klęczany, up to this day there is a well with oil. Utterly uneconomical to industrially extract obviously, a local curiosity.
"Since we last spoke I have learned of some places where there is a dark paste or fluid in the ground, or so it was said. It's not any kind of good for trade and there are no cities near there, but I was brought some pots containing the stuff as proof that it was found. And it is as I recall, if perhaps runnier. It stains, it has an odor, and it burns."
About weapons of bursting dust, I once said: "In more refined smallest bursting dust weapons, sparks from flint striking steel ignited a small amount of unusually finely ground powder. This external powder was connected through a small opening at the rear of the weapon that led to the main charge within the tube."
You then answered me, quote: "Why change what nearly always works? Is this going to be more reliable than the touch hole?" End quote.
Well. Lack of need for open flame and use of "sparks from flint striking steel igniting a small amount of unusually finely ground powder" are both safer and easier to use, yes. I can see even a small device on the rear of the weapon that could cause a piece of flint to strike steel and thus ignition - after pulling a lever. That is called flintlock device. No need for torches around bursting dust.
I'm also worried, though, that your current weapons are weak and burst too often. That is separate matter from easy and safe ignition. Humph. There is something wrong, but I'm not sure what you are doing wrong...
"Most of the time, there are fewer bursting cannon every so many years. Though there have been some bad years with many more broken cannon and more deaths by the ones putting fire to them.
"I think what you are describing is that bursting dust should fill the touch hole, which may be narrower. And that some device that grinds flint against iron should sit beside the dusty hole. When the device is worked, perhaps from some distance, the hope is that a spark will strike the bursting dust, which will burst. And the bursting will pass inside the cannon to where the greater pile of dust has been smashed behind rags and that which is to be cast out. Is this what you mean?"
Starrunner sends salutations. Before looking into the new developments, let me first address your responses to what I spoke last.
Graphite is, in fact, merely a form of crystallized coal, and the most stable one at that. It is not charcoal, but rather the kind of coal that you would be prone to finding in rock and stone. Graphite occurs in what you call "metamorphic rocks", which are rocks that have been subjected to high heat and pressure through natural means. About one in eight parts of the surface of the world is made of metamorphic rock, and so if you've ever mined coal out of rock, chances are fair that what you recovered was graphite.
"Yes, the stones that burn. These are known. And it is known that charred coals may be scraped against leather or paper to leave a mark, so I suppose the stone that burns is the same, then? I don't know that it could be made as thin as the tip of a quill pen may be cut. And I do not know that it would be of greater use, though you have said so, Starrunner.
"So in the places where there are black stones in the ground that burn, a similar stone may be found that may have a shine of silver. And this stone may be used to write, but will only last some few years. Is that correct?
"I do not know that there is any need for writing that lasts, but only for a few years. Writing that need not last may be done on wax tablets or in clay that is not fired. Writing that should last may be done on clay to be fired, or painted on parchment, or carved into stone. Perhaps my table-rulers might know of those times when something in between is most useful, but I do not see it myself. Still, I will seek these stones and see what their worth might be."
The methods for making the parts for a ball-point pen, I suspect, are yet out of your reach no matter how I would go about explaining it. You do not know the art of metalworking nearly well enough. Maybe Bear's people could fashion something akin to this, but for now it must remain a curiosity, something to work towards and eventually be implemented once you better know how to make fine things out of metal. Though just as likely you could make it out of glass or plastic if it struck your fancy (where the latter material is made out of the rock oil that black cat describes), though that comes under the same issue of not having enough skill at the art to be able to pull it off, and for those materials you would definitely have to cast the parts.
"I sent one of my singers to tell Peyuvo the Graceful about a narrow tube full of ink with a tiny bead trapped at the end. And one year she tried to cultivate reeds and quills that narrowed in that way by binding them as they grew, and to make round beads that would roll in them. With a great deal of trouble with carving or picking-out by needle and more trouble with clay and glass and copper in making the round bead, she did make a few. But soon enough the ink dries to blockage in them and only the bead can be saved, at best.
"A wise person took to using them for making eye sign wards of hare's blood on leather against songbird spirit pests. And her wards are said to be more effective than others, but not so much that others will take up the making of these pens. Reeds and quills write in blood well enough."
As for mold, that is more or less the gist of it. Technically speaking it is moisture on surfaces, not moisture in the air, that is the biggest problem, because mold cannot take root in dry surfaces, but if the air is moist then so will the surfaces be so keeping the air fairly dry is a good idea nonetheless.
"How can the air in a home be kept dry? Must there be two fires, one for warming the people and another, in another house, for anything that would steam? That will be very difficult in winter. And if that is not enough, if the air is moist even without the people making steam, what then?"
Again, if you want to be technical, you do not make iron, you refine iron. The iron is already in the ore you recover, you just remove the parts that aren't iron in order to get your actual ironcrafts. Creating iron from some other material that is fundamentally not iron nor consists at least partly of iron is where I was saying that no, you can't do that, and the same goes for mercury and any other base material. As it is, on average there is about one parts in twenty thousand of mercury in soil, which is clearly not enough for your purposes. No, your best bet for acquiring any useful amount of mercury is from a mineral called cinnabar (cinnabarite), which usually contains between one and fifteen parts in a hundred of mercury. The cinnabar mineral is generally a strong red in color, sometimes with spots of white, and your best bet for finding it is to look near hot springs or volcanoes near water. The mineral is deposited through hot water currents ascending from deep volcanic sources, but sometimes if you mine ore veins you can find cinnabar as a sort of vein-filling mineral - that's just not really a good way to look for it as in that case it'll be more of an accidental find.
"Yes, yes, fine. We bloom out most of what is not iron to leave iron and slag and such behind. Then the slag is beaten out. Then the smith works the iron or casts it aside.
"I do not know of this particular red stone. And there are no volcanoes nearby. But my far-ranging scouts and false traders will ask after it."
When it comes to measuring the world, well, I think we've concluded at this point that trying to explain the practice of it without first teaching you the mathematical principles required to understand what you're doing is folly. The principle is fairly simple, if you put two sticks in different places on a ball and then shine a light on that ball, the sticks will cast different shadows, and based on those shadows you can figure out the size of the overall ball because you know exactly how the shadows are different, exactly where the light source is and exactly where the sticks are. However, before you can actually do this in practice, someone would have to explain how the mathematics work in much greater detail, starting at the fundamentals instead of trying to go right to world-measuring.
"If I understood what you voices have described about this matter well enough to do so without looking like a fool, I believe I could pose this riddle to my table-rulers. One of them would one day work it out. Or perhaps there is nothing here but madness. I cannot tell."
On the matter of genetics, it appears "that simple" because I am greatly oversimplifying the actual truth of the matter in order to convey the core principles. It is not so simple that there is only one particular instruction that decides height. No, height is decided through many instructions working together, where some may be recessive and others dominant, and so it takes a long time to create a form of wheat where many of the instructions that favor it to be shorter are gathered together in one place. By favoring the shorter crop you encourage that the ones with more shortness instructions survive, and so eventually there will be shorter crops overall. In people it is more complex, because then also the diet of the mother whilst in the womb will affect things, as some instructions for size are turned on or off there in a sort of automatic way of making sure the people do not grow big and eat much if food is scarce. How crops like wheat grow is also an interesting matter, it's not so much a case of making more pieces to build up with like you would build a house, or trees or people build themselves. Rather, grass grows like a balloon, which starts flat but expands as it is filled, though in grass' case it only expands upwards and uses water for filling itself. But that is sort of beside the point here.
"How many different instructions can there be for one trait?
"And I think you are wrong about grass growing like a hot air bag. There is only so much fabric to the bag at its start and when it is full. No more is added. But grass is surely more than the substance of its seeds with only the addition of more water. Otherwise where would the new seeds come from?"
"If I cannot write down the circumstances in which a bit of knowledge will be useful, how can I store it so that when it is useful it will be found? Some things melt, others do not. That is understood. Your specificity beyond that, in this case, seems madness."
So, turns out that being a chemistry major comes in seriously handy in a number of cases. Wasn't able to find sufficient details on a lot of things, but my own knowledge of chemistry helped greatly with filling in the gaps in a number of places.
Greetings, Bianca. It's Just Write again.
Anyway, you have asked how to defend against cannon. The answer is pretty simple: packed earth fortifications. I don't mean that the entire structure be made of packed earth, merely that the top and front parts that could plausibly be exposed to incoming cannonballs should have a very thick layer of packed earth atop them. The reason this works is that the packed earth absorbs the impact of the incoming projectile just as effectively as a large enough mass of stone, but unlike stoneworks or brick construction it will not shatter if exposed to extreme levels of force. Of course, a person out in the open who takes a cannonball hit to anywhere remotely vital is almost certainly going to die no matter how good their armor is; even if by some miracle their armor isn't breached, the extreme levels of force will transfer through the armor and bludgeon them to death.
"If we pack dirt atop and in front of a wall, we will surely have turned that wall into a steep hill -- one with a stone cliff interior, I suppose. So we must choose in each case if it should be a wall that will stand up to cannon or a wall that cannot be trivially scaled. And I suppose the gates in the wall will be ravines or tunnels in this hillside?
"Everywhere walls are, there are people living at their base. Every walled city is surrounded by low houses of wood and mud. But from on top of the wall warriors see over these places, see down into them, and may cast from cannons over them. It will be necessary, then, to forbid people from building on the hillsides that protect walls against cannon.
"Also, since the hillside could be climbed by any capable person, such a wall would require more vigilant defense. Thieves could more easily sneak over it than they could a wall of upright stones. And when the city is surrounded by an enemy host they will not need to bring towers against the walls, only charge it with sufficient numbers of climbers. The defenders of the wall would need cannon always at the ready, for surely nothing else could prevent a whole charging host of warriors from reaching the top of the hill-wall.
"There is not enough sulfur for all the cities to all be prepared in this way at all times. And if there were, surely the people would take it and the cannon with them when they go out to conquer.
"So it is true, Just Write, that this solution is simple. But this solution assumes a plentitude of bursting dust that does not now exist.
"Do you or do any other voices know of any other way the walls of a city may be made proof against cannon?"
You have also requested knowledge of how to build a finery forge, along with knowledge of why a blast furnace doesn't truly decarburize the iron but a finery forge does. The second question is much simpler to answer than the first: basically, in a blast furnace all the carbon-rich fuel and iron ore is mixed together and therefore a lot of that carbon winds up bonded to the iron. This isn't optional, since all that carbon is necessary to react with and remove other impurities in the ore. In a finery forge however, the fuel and the molten pig iron are kept separate, meaning that the process of melting the iron is not in and of itself constantly putting more and more carbon into the mix.
The crucial details of any furnace to refine pig iron are therefore that it keeps the fuel and iron separate, that it can heat the metal enough to actually melt it, that good airflow over the molten metal can be achieved, that the molten metal be agitated such that the entire volume of molten metal be exposed to air, and that it can extract the molten metal when it is done.
"Iron ore, then, is made of iron and any number of other substances. We want the iron, and if that's all we get, you call it 'pig' iron for reasons of madness.
"To get the iron from the ore, we need to apply a great deal of heat to the ore. We should do this by building two ovens. The first oven burns only charred coal and is only meant to get very, very hot. We build the chimney of that oven so that many pipes pass through it, which carry air from bellows which are always pushing to the second oven so that it is already hot when it arrives. In the second oven there is crushed iron ore and charred coal and limestone, but not crushed so finely that air does not pass upward through the stones and coals. The pipes from the first oven meet the base of the second oven, pointing downward, and are the only means by which air enters the oven.
"While the charred coals are burning in the second oven, fed hot air from the first, the iron in the ore will melt and run out of the second oven with slag on top of it. That slag is made of what is in the stones that is not iron, which has been pulled from the iron by the limestone and the charred coals which did not burn. And there is also a lot of the substance of charred coals in the iron. So when the slag is scraped off, there is only molten iron, the substance of charred coals, and some small amount of other impurities that were not yet removed.
"Whether cooled first or not, this iron must be placed in a new oven, where the fuel does not touch it. It must remain or be made molten in this new oven. It must have air that is not from a fire touch all parts of it. And it must be stirred about in the manner that anything powder or liquid is mixed. This will eventually remove all the substance of charred coals -- and perhaps other impurities -- which is not ideal for the purposes of metal but a necessary step. Is that right?"
Finding details of a finery forge you will be able to construct was surprisingly difficult for such a foundational technology, but I believe I have found plans for a workable design known as the reverberatory furnace. The firebox and the hearth for the pig iron to go in are arranged side by side in this setup, with the flue staying low as it runs over the top of the hearth and then goes up a chimney. Aside from that, the top of the flue is curved and dips down over the hearth, so that the gasses leaving the firebox are forced into contact with the iron for more effective heat transfer; this curvature also serves to reflect the radiant heat from the firebox directly onto the melt. Also the Hearth should have a spigot near the bottom allowing the molten Iron within to be drained out once it's been properly refined.
An important note: some Limestone will need to be added to the Pig Iron you wish to melt, especially if you are also planning on melting down iron scrap for re-use. In combination with the Oxygen from the air, Limestone will react with various non-carbon impurities in the Pig Iron, separating them from the material. These impurities are referred to as slag, and are less dense than molten iron, meaning they will float to the top of the melt. As such, if the melt is drained from the bottom, the slag will come out last and can be separated with relative ease.
"What sort of spike can be put in the drain hole that may be removed but will not melt when the iron melts? Should it be made of clay and broken up to be removed, hopefully without damaging the oven itself?
"But I do think I understand that you mean the new oven to be made with the fire at one end, the pool of iron in the middle with the ceiling of the oven curved down over it, and the chimney at the far end from that. To melt the iron or keep it molten this oven must surely be fed air from another, like the first is. Is that correct?"
As a brief aside, radiant heat is another term for heat carried by light; in a furnace most of this light is outside the range of colors perceptible to the human eye, but plenty of visible light is also involved. Because radiant heat is so important to a reverberatory furnace, the best fuel is the sort of coal or charcoal that burns with a very brightly visible flame.
"How can the brightness of fire be determined when making the charred coals? Is this only to know whether the charred coals prepared are of suitable quality or were poorly made? Or are there common differences in the wood used?"
A set of large bellows will be needed to get the firebox up to a sufficient temperature, and the air coming from them will need to be pre-heated. Fortunately, there's a trick that can allow this to be done without a separate furnace; simply route the air pipes through the chimney so the hot gasses leaving the furnace serve to warm the air on its way to the firebox.
For best effect the pipes in the chimney should either divide into multiple pathways before re-merging, or should bend around inside the chimney a fair bit before exiting. In either case this serves to increase the surface area of pipes exposed to the hot flue gasses, and thus improves the pre-heating efficiency. Under no circumstances should the air pipe be routed to the firebox while still inside the flue; that's a recipe for frustration when the pipe inevitably cracks due to uneven thermal expansion. Instead it should enter through one side of the chimney, then exit through another side of the chimney before coming at the firebox from below or to the side.
Coming from the side with a downwards slope at the end seems best, as that avoids the problems of the fuel messing up the pipe and being a major chore to clean.
"Ah! So there is no need for a second oven this time, because the air for the fire should enter through pipes that first wind around the chimney. Why not do that for the other? Why does one need a second oven and the other does not?"
Anyway, since it's important that fresh oxygen be added to the metal to remove the carbon impurities and much will be consumed by the flames of the firebox (along with the need to agitate the melt), there are two options for getting fresh air to the entire volume of molten iron. First is to have a second air pipe that goes up over the level of the molten Iron, then comes out the bottom of the hearth where the iron is melted through a number of small holes. This serves to blow bubbles through the molten metal if forced with a very large set of bellows, and will do the job of removing the carbon content and agitating the metal very effectively. However, air absolutely MUST continue being pumped through this pipe until all the molten iron has been drained from the furnace, or else it will solidify inside the pipe and be nearly impossible to remove without completely taking apart and rebuilding it. This works almost the same as the Bessemer Process, however it has the notable difference of being much less efficient in terms of fuel; with the Bessemer Process you start with metal that is already molted, while with a Reverberatory Furnace you are letting the Pig Iron cool to solidity before expending a great deal of time and fuel to melt it all over again.
"I do not know what it's like to blow bubbles through molten iron, but it seems a task of great effort and force to my reckoning. Will billows be strong enough and not break? How can air be pushed most forcefully?"
The other option is to just have an opening in the hearth through which workers can stir the molten iron with very long poles, along with a pipe blowing down unburned (but still heated) air from above. While this may seem like the obvious correct choice, I implore you to only consider it if all attempts at forcing air bubbles up through the molten iron fail. The gasses from the furnace will wreak havoc on the bodies of those who work it in this manner, dooming them to drastically shortened lifespans and utterly miserable suffering.
"I will warn the people that stirring a pool of molten iron is bad for their health. But many things they do are bad for their health. The people who work the bloomeries take ill in particular ways already.
"Does a wet cloth across the nose and mouth help with this as well?"
In addition, either method can be used to produce steel with careful control of the timing. This will require very careful timing of how long the molten iron is kept in the furnace for. The goal in this case is to stop the process at just the right point in time when the Iron has slightly more carbon in it than wrought iron, but less than pig iron. It will probably require a great deal of trial and error with each furnace to figure out how much time it takes to make the best steel.
"Yes, everything takes some mastery on the part of the person whose craft is practiced.
"But how can the furnacer know if they went too far or haven't gone far enough? Are the metal's traits uniformly exchanged across the range between, 'two-oven and no other steps,' and, 'left in the rebounding oven for half a day?'"
That said, I still think a Bessemer Converter would be superior if it can be constructed. It will massively save on both time and fuel when making steel, and can do so in truly massive quantities limited only by the scale at which it is built. Taking a Bessemer Converter to its absolute simplest extent, it is simply a limestone-lined vat for molten iron that is taller than it is wide, with holes in the bottom for bubbles to come out. The pipe feeding these bubble-producing holes needs to raise up over the highest possible level the molten metal will reach before coming back down in order to avoid molten iron flowing back out the pump and ruining the series of bellows used to pump the air. The opening at the top receives molten iron directly from a Blast Furnace, while the spigot of the Bessemer Converter itself outputs molten Wrought Iron or Steel depending on usage.
"So the advantage here is that no additional oven is needed? That is, the molten iron from the two-oven smelter pours into this limestone-lined pot as soon as the spike is taken from the two-oven all while bellows blow bubbles through the molten iron from the bottom, yes?
"I thought the point of the two-oven bloomery was that it should run continually, with more ore, charred coals, and limestone dumped in the top all the time. If the product of that step is only to stay in the bubbling pot for a certain time, so that it is steel and not something lesser, does the two-oven smelter need to be closed back up while it is running? Does someone need to drive a new spike in, cutting off an active outpouring of molten iron?
"I believe there are some important steps missing here. But as well I think I have a better understanding of the intention and the method than I have before."
To avoid issues with the weight of molten metal pushing air back through the bellows (especially if multiple sets of bellows will be used for larger converters) it may be wise to fit the pipes with ball valves to ensure air only flows one way with ease. A ball valve is a widened section of pipe with a ball in it that firmly plugs the normal diameter pipe when pressed against one end. Protrusions inside the widened pipe section keep the ball from pressing fully against one end of the widened pipe, and also keep it centered relative to the hole. Air flowing from the direction that the ball cannot make contact with will shove the ball against the hole and obstruct its own flow. Air flowing from the direction the ball can make contact with will push the ball off the hole and flow around it largely unimpeded. This is highly useful for connecting multiple sets of bellows to the same air pipe without them all causing problems for each other, allowing the blowing force for all these new iron-melting furnaces to be massively increased.
Anyway, back to the converter itself. Molten Pig Iron goes right in the converter from the Blast Furnace without any time to cool down, saving greatly on the fuel that would be needed to re-melt the Iron. Blowing bubbles through then serves to rapidly remove carbon from the metal, the length of time that would be needed to completely convert a volume of Pig Iron to Wrought Iron in this manner is about one fortieth of the time the world needs to rotate. During this time, the Oxygen stripping Carbon from the iron actually releases more heat to keep it from solidifying, while the limestone lining of the converter causes the phosphorus impurities to float to the top as a stony slag. However, if you manage the timing correctly the Bessemer process can produce not just Wrought Iron, but good high quality steel. This is accomplished by stopping the process while there is still some Carbon left in the iron, but much less than in Pig Iron, and far fewer other impurities as well.
Given that the limestone lining of the Bessemer Converter takes an active role in the process of turning Pig Iron into Steel, it will likely be slowly consumed over time. Given that fact, a Bessemer Converter will need to be re-lined every once in a while.
The timing for this is very tricky; it is easily doable to blow into the iron for too long and wind up with wrought iron instead of steel. Stopping partway through decarburizing the Iron will require much practice and careful paying attention to master. Fortunately for the Bessemer Process the total batch time to convert a load of molten pig iron into good steel is relatively constant.
That said, if you can master the timing needed to convert Pig Iron into steel in either the Reverberatory Furnace or the Bessemer Converter, the reward will be great. Either process if mastered will allow the Ten Nations to produce vast quantities of a metal so durable that even in our world there is no true substitute.
"Yes, yes, wealth beyond imagination. I know the way this works, voices. That is why I called you, after all.
"It is good that you say up front what part of this is difficult. When I tell another to do this thing, I like to be able to tell them which parts will take care of themselves and which parts will require them to build mastery."
As for a tool to help with the precise timing required to make steel in either a Reverberatory Furnace or a Bessemer Converter, I would suggest a water timer. This is a simple bucket with a panel of clear glass making up one of the sides so that the water level can be seen at a glance; this glass part is then marked at regular intervals. Lastly, a small hole is put in the bottom of the bucket with a stopper fitted to it. To use the water timer, just fill it with water, pull out the stopper, and the water will flow out at a regular rate. Counting the markings above the water line will allow an operator to easily and rapidly tell how much time has passed since the water timer was started, without the sloppiness inherent to human perception of time.
However, if the timing of making proper steel in a Reverberatory Furnace or Bessemer Converter still eludes you after some time, I do know of another method for producing steel on a small scale. Crucible Steel is a type of steel made from a specific ratio of Pig Iron and Wrought Iron, along with a small amount of ground up Limestone to remove any remaining silicate impurities. These ingredients are then sealed inside an airtight clay vessel referred to as the crucible. It is absolutely crucial for this process that no cracks exist in the crucible; it only works because the ingredients inside the crucible are isolated from the outside world in a way that prevents any air or carbon from getting in.
Once the crucible is sealed, it is to be placed inside a Blast Furnace, though perhaps one loaded with only fuel and lacking in Iron Ore. The temperatures inside the Blast Furnace melt the Pig Iron and Wrought Iron inside the crucible, causing them to mix into a single alloy with a carbon ratio in between what was originally put into the crucible. More Pig Iron in the mix means that the resulting steel will be harder and take more force before breaking, but also means it will be more prone to cracking when forced to bend. More Wrought Iron in the mix does the opposite, producing steel that is very resistant to being bent out of shape, but taking somewhat less force to do so.
Either way, once the Blast Furnace containing the crucible is extinguished, it's a fairly simple matter of lifting the Crucible out and breaking it open to get at the ingot of steel inside. This ingot will either need to be heated and worked into shape in a forge, or might be melted and cast into a mold with a properly designed furnace. Crucible steel is a very useful material for making weapons and tools, but the difficulty of scaling up its production process excludes it from the large-scale applications that become possible if you master the timing on the Reverberatory Furnace with the bubbles. For example, it would be rather difficult to get together enough crucible steel to make a cannon.
"Yes! Yes, Just Write! This is the process the people need right now. No perfection of timing. No great work with freely flowing molten iron. No improbable stoppers. Just a certain amount of purged iron, a certain amount of waste iron, a certain amount of scrap iron, ground limestone, a vessel of clay, and all the heat of the two ovens. The smith will see the result when they try to work the iron or when they test it later, and they will know too much of this, too little of that, or what have you.
As for a method of finding good Iron Ores, I have to ask if you've heard of Bog Iron? The basic idea is that certain waterways contain dissolved iron oxides. When these waters reach relatively stagnant wetlands, the actions of tiny life and some interesting chemical reactions serve to concentrate the dissolved iron into solid lumps of ore that can be spotted from above the surface of the water due to a silvery sheen also produced by the same tiny life that concentrates the ore. While Bog Iron is a pretty good source of small amounts of ore that even replenishes itself every few tens of years, it does have limits.
Fortunately, if you can find a bog with iron, you can use it to find where that bog gets its iron. The waterways feeding the bog will only contain dissolved iron ore if they pass underground before they reach it. Therefore, if you follow those waterways upstream until you find a place where the stream is coming from underground, that place stands a decently good chance of being a good place to mine for Iron, if perhaps a bit wet.
"This seems less useful. How do you dig a mine underwater?
"I suppose we could dig a pit in that place, wet as it is, carrying the water out by hand and device the entire time. The deeper the pit, the deeper the water starts, the more of the pit walls have a chance to dry out and settle.
"For iron, all that trouble might well be worthwhile. But it would be preferable to find a source that is not also a spring."
That said, if you want to be absolutely sure that you're digging in a good place, you can check if the local rocks tug on a lodestone. That's something only high-grade iron ores do. That said, given the relative rarity of lodestones this might not be an option in all cases.
Actually... I think I might know of a way to make an artificial lodestone. This will be difficult, but I think it should be possible. Remember that trick with the staff and the lodestone making an electric current? That will be needed. First some groundwork for how this works. Materials containing high quantities of Iron and a couple other metals that are currently irrelevant are always inherently magnetic. However, their magnetic fields vary greatly in orientation on an incredibly tiny scale so it all basically cancels out by default. To make an artificial lodestone requires straightening out all these tiny domains of magnetization so they're all pointing the same way, then intensifying them.
It goes like this. Get a lodestone and mount it on a turntable inside a coil of insulated copper wire; as it spins it will produce a linearly flowing electric current, or simply a difference in electric potential between the ends of the wires as long as the lodestone is spinning. Route this electric current through another coil of wire, and that second coil will produce a much stronger magnetic field than the lodestone itself.
To make an artificial lodestone, there are two separate steps requiring this generator of electric current. First, the chunk of iron that you intend to magnetize should be shaped as needed ahead of time; for most magnets a bar or bent shape is highly effective, but for some other specialized tasks other shapes might be desired. Then you heat the magnet to be until it glows red hot, and while it's cooling put it inside the coil of wire with an electric current running through it. For a bent magnet, it's probably wise to put it in sideways, since having one end be 'north' and the other be 'south' is more convenient than having both ends be 'north' and the middle of the bend be 'south'.
The heating of the iron loosens up the magnetic domains inside it so they're more prone to changing directions, and the fact that it's already inside a strong magnetic field ensures that the piece of metal will have them all pointing the same direction once it cools down. The piece of iron is now a weak artificial lodestone; to strengthen it, the generator needs to be hooked up differently. Instead of sending its electric current through a magnetic field coil, attach each end of the wire to one end of the artificial lodestone and crank the generator as hard as you possibly can. The harder it gets cranked, the more electric current goes through the lodestone, and the stronger its magnetic field gets.
Once this is done, you should have a reasonably powerful magnet that you can do as you like with; pure iron isn't an optimal material for this on account of a tendency to demagnetize after a while, but it should work well enough. There are various materials that can be added to iron to reduce its tendency to demagnetize, but I'm not quite sure how to explain identifying or purifying them, so this will have to do for now.
"What is the purpose of a bent loadstone? Why is it important that one end of a bent loadstone be 'north' and the other 'south?'
"In any case, I will attempt this method, as it sounds much simpler than the method we currently use to create loadstones.
"The secret of the compass requires that each who would use it must possess a loadstone, and there simply were not enough. So I and magicians among my singers and table-rulers devised a means to make more, based on what you voices have said of the nature of such things. Even the greater part of these do not know the secret of the compass, for there was no need for them to. They only know the need for lodestones for my far-rangers.
"First, a long stake of copper is cast and driven into the ground atop a hill so that its top is a handspan or two above the surface. This portion may be reused, depending on how it endures. The stake is capped and tightly wrapped with a sheet of clay as thick as the fifth part of a handspan. A bar of good iron half a handspan long and a fifth wide is set upright atop the clay cap and similarly wrapped. And around and over this we raise a tower of wooden posts and beams with another long copper stake set at its top with braids-upon-braids of drawn copper hanging down from where its high end is fixed to the stake. The cord's low end is fixed by clay against the top of the clay cap covering the iron bar.
"Then we call thunderbolts. Eventually, one or more strike the tower. And when that is done burning we recover the copper and carefully break open the vessel containing the iron, which has usually become a lodestone.
"At first we fixed the iron directly against the copper stake in the ground and fixed the braided copper hanging down against it. But we found the lodestones weakened following the violence of the separation of the copper. The thunderbolt passes as it wills, and clay barriers summing to two fifths of a handspan are rarely any obstacle.
"Lodestones are rare enough that I remain concerned for the secret of the compass. So we set the loadstones in ivory from the north, finely carved and ink-stained as a charm of fortune, with also glass beads set in it. In this way when one who bears the lodestone and the secret of the compass both is taken captive and threatened for their secrets, they may truthfully say that the lodestone is a charm of fortune, however that may misrepresent having suffered the misfortune of capture. And, if pressed on the matter, they may reveal that the lodestone allows them to judge iron and assay iron ores. Those who bear the secret of the compass also carry other charms of various sorts, so the connection between the bowl, the iron pin, and its wooden float may remain unknown.
"It occurs to me, just now, that those who bear the secret of the compass should purchase the secret for some dear price, as Fragment described. Already they are sworn to secrecy, of course. And it is a solemn oath made with blood and ceremony. But it should be something more. They will endure hardship and trials and I will make them the Wards of Fortune. I will set fortune itself as their adoptive parent and them as siblings to each other.
"Of course, a secret known by so many will not be long kept. And it seems to me that it will be especially difficult to keep the involvement of the components from others on a boat. When in some dozens or hundreds of seasons the time comes that others in the world thirst for the secret of making lodestones as the Last King of Wrul once thirsted for the secret of making glass, my singers will sell them whichever method I favor least.
"We have made scores of lodestones by this means over the years and have had sufficient numbers for the secret-bearers so far. But the magic is not without its cost. And, of course, the tower must be rebuilt every time. It may be that the recasting of the copper stakes and redrawing of the copper thread is a greater delay than the rest.
"So this means by which small lightnings first prepare a red-hot iron bar and then make a lodestone of it is much more attractive."
Anyway, hopefully the improvements to iron production from blast furnaces and reverberatory furnaces will make Iron cannon more feasible to construct. If you can melt down Pig Iron and decarburize it properly, it can probably be simply cast into cannon in a similar manner to what is done for bronze guns. A bit of a tip for longer-lasting iron cannon is to have the front end be a bit wider than the part immediately behind it, as well as smoothly rounded; this prevents the formation of cracks from the stresses of firing. and ensures that the cannon will last longer.
"Bronze or iron, anything that makes a cannon less likely to burst is welcome information.
"In this case do you mean that the iron fully purged of the substance of charred coals by means of the stirred or bubbled hearth may be cast directly into cannon as though it were bronze? That is welcome news, should purged iron be as plentiful as promised."
I will now be explaining the proper use of cannon aboard ships, with no regard for what material those cannon are made from. First, for as long as sails are the predominant way of propelling a ship through the water, one of the best places to put cannon is in a special structure known as the broadside gun port. This is a hatch in the side of a ship through which a cannon can be aimed, and which can be closed while the cannon is being reloaded. Further, to either side of the cannon is a set of strong ropes with pulleys, affixed to both the structure of the gun port and the gun carriage for the cannon.
These ropes have two main functions: first, they restrict the cannon's ability to launch itself backwards when firing, reducing the likelihood of it injuring the crew. Second, by varying the length of the rope bundles on either side by using the pulley system, the cannon can be aimed from side to side. As for the carriage that the cannon is attached to, it should have four relatively small wheels to keep it level relative to the deck. Further, the protrusions of metal on either side of the cannon by which it is mounted to the gun carriage should be in line with the path traveled by the projectile, so as to reduce bucking.
"Putting a gate in the side of a boat seems unwise. Boats seem to work best when their sides are intact with their boards straight and tightly against each other, packed and tarred. How can a gate be put in the side of a boat but that it will let in the waves and sink the boat? Is it not better to raise the cannon over the sidewall of the boat?
"And what are these devices you mean to secure the cannon to the boat with by rope? And how does the one who aims the cannon change the lengths of the rope? Are these knots of some sort?
"Are the protrusions to fix the cannon to its cart that you describe meant to be rounded, also?"
With regards to ignition, cannon on ships absolutely need the use of a flintlock ignition mechanism for accurate fire. The ship is constantly moving and rolling, meaning that it requires rather precise timing to fire the cannon with enough accuracy to hit reliably at any significant distance. Flintlocks allow much more rapid ignition than touching a burning length of cord to a hole, and present much less of a fire hazard as well, which is very important on a ship where all the wood has been coated in highly combustible pitch to waterproof it.
The basic elements of a flintlock have already been largely explained, but I do believe there was one part left out: a small amount of fine-grained bursting dust needs to be added to the touch-hole and a small pan into which the flint and steel will cast their sparks. This is needed to ensure proper ignition, or else the relatively small amount of sparks produced by a flintlock will be insufficient to reliably set off the main charge of bursting dust inside a cannon.
"Yes, the people who go about on boats have no trust for the people who set fire to cannon loads. There is the fire, the violence, and the weight counted against the cannon. And the essential wetness of boats is counted against boats on account of the bursting dust.
"Boats cannot carry a host as might travel across the land in any case. Warriors traveling by boat do not conquer cities very often. They raid, they strike down, and they collect tribute for their forbearance. Their boats are so much better than those of the people they meet that there is usually no contesting between them on the water.
"You may note, of course, that we know very little of the boats which never return. Perhaps those would have benefitted from cannon. But the matter of the gate and the rope devices and the flint-grinding device by the hole with finely ground bursting dust in it all must be resolved first. And there are many other dangers on sea and shore that might be why warriors and boats are lost and for which the cannon is no answer."
With regards to that charge, it often isn't needed to put as much bursting dust in a shipboard cannon as it is one on land. Beyond a few hundred paces of range naval gunnery becomes incredibly unreliable barring complicated equipment you won't be able to produce for some time, and wooden ships require much less force to damage than the heavy-duty fortifications a land-based cannon may be called to demolish.
Reducing the charge also lets a shipboard cannon be built a bit lighter than a land-bound one, which can be important. Furthermore, most injuries to a ship's crew from cannonfire are actually from the splinters produced when a cannonball smashes through a ship's structure, rather than the cannonball itself. Since a cannonball that impacts too fast can often produce less splinters than one that impacts slower, reducing the bursting dust charge can counter-intuitively increase the carnage caused by firing cannons at a ship.
"Well that is good to know. If ever boats need cannon against boats then they might only need smaller cannon with less dust. But, again, there are no boats which contest the boats of the Free People of the Ten Nations now. So this is perhaps a matter for later."
Anyway, here are some specialized projectiles that are particularly useful when shooting at ships. First is chain shot: this is simply two cannonballs connected together by a length of chain. When fired, the whole assembly spins through the air at its target with great rapidity. The nature of the projectile means it is extremely effective at damaging a ship's rigging, cutting massive gashed in sails, severing ropes, and sawing down masts.
"That's a lot of smith's craft for something that may only be used once. It will be a wonder when metal chain is so plentiful that it may be cast at a boat to fall to the bottom of the sea.
Next is heated shot, which is exactly what it sounds like: a cannonball heated red hot before being rammed into a cannon and fired at a ship. This requires some extra wadding between the ball and the bursting dust to avoid it setting off the charge prematurely, but a successful hit that lodges in an enemy ship can be devastating as it can easily cause the vessel to ignite. For reasons of the massive fire hazard inherent to having a furnace for making heated shot aboard a ship, this is better employed by land-based cannon that happen to be shooting at ships to defend a harbor or similar.
"How could a boat carry a whole furnace? This is the madness of you voices, I think.
"But, yes, red-hot metal may be carried to any cannon atop a stone wall to fire into a surrounding host or -- less usefully I think -- cast into the waves while trying to strike a boat. But I do not think it will matter much whether the boat catches fire or not. One strike from such a cannon is sure to break it up, is it not? Is this to extend the effect of a shot which only strikes the mast or some other protrusion?"
Canister shot is a thin container full of small metal balls that gets shoved down a cannon's muzzle in place of a cannonball. When fired this unleashes a roughly conical blast of high-velocity projectiles that are devastating against unprotected people, making it very effective at clearing all the crew off a ship's deck. For this reason canister shot is also useful on land when attacking armies that aren't in a fortified position.
"As you said of splinters on boats, cannon used in battle kill more warriors from the stone and dirt they throw than from striking directly against the warriors themselves. Cannon have been loaded with broken pottery, tools, spears and knives, axeheads, and any number of other things from time to time. The opportunity for this manner of discharge has been recognized from just shortly after the first time a cannon was lit against warriors and not walls, you may be sure. But I do not think it has been prepared for in the fashion you describe.
"It will have to be a stout basket that holds the metal balls, on account of their weight. But however stout the basket, it will come apart and loose its contents when cast out from the cannon, for certain.
"The lower edge of that cone, though, will strike the ground earlier than a single, large ball would. Still, even smaller balls will throw up forceful stone and dirt that kills and injuries, or may skip like stones on water. And some of that which is loosed will pass overhead, coming down well behind the front ranks. Though that's probably not a loss, precisely. It has a fair chance of killing or injuring warriors further back, depending on any number of things. I suppose the ideal would be to center the cone on a great host of warriors packed shoulder-to-shoulder and coming down a hillside, so that all parts cast meet flesh.
"There is some question of what size, and I suppose we will work that out as we work out the ideal weave of the basket as well."
I also have some tips with regards to the use of ships themselves. For example, did you know it's actually possible to use sails to drive a ship upwind? I don't mean sailing directly into the wind, that's obviously not how it works. The correct method is known as tacking upwind, and it works like this:
First, point the ship at an angle somewhere between pointing straight into the wind and pointing sideways to it. Then angle the sails to be roughly in line with the hull. The basic idea of doing this is that the wind will push the ship sideways relative to the direction it's blowing, and then the hull of the ship will convert that sideways motion into motion upwind by pushing against the water. Of course, if your goal is to sail directly into the wind this isn't quite sufficient, so a ship tacking upwind will need to repeatedly turn to either side of the wind in in order to sail in a zig-zag pattern that approximates a course directly into the wind. Of course, this requires a mast and rigging design which allow the sails to be rotated with relative ease.
"Of course I did not know it is possible to be driven by the wind into the wind, Just Write! How would I know that when we only just put great swathes of cloth over boats in living memory?
"Even still, I do not think the arrangement of wind-drapes on poles and beams does much more than gather the wind behind the ship when it blows there. I'm not even sure how the sails would be set in line with the ship. I suppose the beam that holds the sail could be turned and tied to the front and back?
"Once the beam is turned such, though, why would it need to be turned 'with relative ease?' If the sail is in line with the ship it is similarly in line from one side or the other. Does it matter that the pole is in the way from one side?
"I will have to speak with boat travelers from the Zouchaud and the Naumo tribe, as these do the most with boats. They build the largest and travel the farthest. I believe the Zouchaud benefit more greatly as it has happened that each tribe put the greatest part of their efforts into travel in one direction along the shore and there is more to be found to the east. The shore leads north in the other direction. And while there are people there and trading opportunities and most especially the clear stones, it seems any place is richer than the places further north and poorer than the places further south."
Anyway, at the moment we have some valid reason to believe that the sea bordering the Ten Nations is mostly enclosed by land, though we could easily be wrong. However, if your ships should ever reach the open ocean here's an interesting trick that can make cross-oceanic travel much faster and more predictable. Basically, when a sufficiently large body of water is left to sit, the rotation of the planet tends to produce massive currents that move in a predictable fashion; sailing with these currents makes a ship go faster, trying to sail against them does the opposite. Near the eastern coast of a continent, these gyre currents are typically pointed roughly towards the poles. Near the western coast, the opposite is true. In the open ocean, the gyre currents tend to go west near the equator, and east closer to the poles.
"Perhaps this is one reason why far-ranging boats return less often. If they reach these flows they would be taken south and thus even further away. To return, they would fight the flow or, if I understand you correctly, enter the open ocean where the flow is not to the south, but back to the shore where the flow will once again run to the south.
"However, what those who return from the furthest west have said is that the return trip is faster than the trip out, at least until they turn south again."
On to a completely different topic, I will now be speaking about matters of medicine. In particular, I will start with a somewhat bizarre occurrence known as the placebo effect. As I'm quite sure you are aware, people are very capable of tricking themselves into believing all sorts of things. In particular, just them taking something they believe to be a medicine which will cure their ailments can convince them that they are healed and their body will listen, at least to a degree. This even works if the person knows about the placebo effect, and deliberately performs a known to be useless act to feel better knowing it will work anyway. Minor aches and pains can be treated this way and even serious conditions can be staved off for a short time, but it obviously has limits. The effect works in reverse too; simply convincing someone they have been poisoned can cause all sorts of amusing symptoms to appear for a while.
The reason I'm telling you this isn't because the placebo effect is particularly useful, but instead because it can get in the way of healers improving their craft. When testing a new medicine to see if it works, the patient could show signs of improvement on the short term due to the placebo effect, only to suddenly take a turn for the worse when the problem goes beyond the point where the body tricking itself can keep the problem under control. Even worse, a 'medicine' could turn out to be doing permanent damage to the patient, with symptoms not showing up until it is too late because the placebo effect has been covering them up!
"Of course I have known since before my captivity that hope sustains people and fear destroys them. And any wise person knows that time tells more than a person knows of themselves. And there are many low tricks, completely absent of magic, by which having a person's confidence allows deception so deep they are fooled of their very health. And this aside from giving unneeding but bothersome people false medicine to silence them, which you might think would not be a problem I would have -- and you would be right -- but my singers write many things and I read some of them.
"But to hear it so plainly and broadly makes clear the trouble it will cause.
"Although… Administering a slow poison disguised as -- or better yet alongside a false or at least non-antidote medicine might provide a needed delay in some cases. But the wise do still know that medicine takes time, so it's not clear that would ever be helpful.
"No, no. This is plainly bad news. The question is, 'Who should know of it?' Surely my singers and any table-rulers working in medicine should know. But the rest of the people? No.
"I do not think this secret will require a ceremony and a price to be paid.
"But why not? The Circle of Uncovered Disappointments."
It's this reason why I present a methodology for developing and testing the effectiveness of new medicines. The general idea is that when testing a new medicine, a number of patients are randomly assigned either the medicine being evaluated or a fake designed to do nothing when applied but very closely resemble the real medicine. Neither the patients being evaluated or the people directly administering the medicine are supposed to know whether the medicine being administered is the real stuff or the fake. Only the person running the study is aware of who is getting which medicine, and is kept regularly informed about how all the patients are faring. This is known as a double-blind clinical trial, and this methodology is critical for keeping wishful thinking and the placebo effect from making a mess of new medicines being developed.
"Few are as honest as those who by extraordinary ignorance are given no other choice.
"But why should the people applying the medicine also not know? And if they are wise, how will they not know? Does the medicine need to be done by people who don't know medicine from theater? How can they apply it correctly if they do not know medicine?"
Generally, a double-blind clinical trial proceeds in a few crucial stages, with each one getting more people involved and taking longer to complete. Stage one is generally a few dozen patients at once, and is simply concerned with making sure the medicine is safe to use at all. Figuring this out is generally pretty quick, and if the medicine is safe the clinical trial moves on to stage 2.
Stage 2 is where it starts becoming relevant that the medicine actually works. Stage 2 usually involves a few hundred patients being evaluated to see if they show signs of improvement from the new medicine being tested; it's also a good time to figure out what sort of dose is best in terms of effectiveness. A medicine that proves it can actually work to at least some degree in stage 2 then moves on to stage 3.
Stage three is the final stage of a clinical trial before adoption; this is an evaluation to see if the medicine can actually treat the ailments it's supposed to help with in real-world conditions. A stage 3 trial generally involves up to a few thousand people being looked at, and can last several months to a year depending on if it's for a medicine intended as either a preventative or to treat a chronic condition. If a medicine is shown to be reasonably effective over long periods with minimal side effects, it can be considered to have passed phase 3.
A medicine that has passed phase 3 of a clinical trial can be added to the standard medical practice used by healers. However, those using it should still be observed for a few years after initial adoption to see if the medicine has any unexpected long term effects.
"We can keep so many people ignorant of whether or not medicine is being done to them, and for so long. But we would not be able to keep a secret of the fact that some medicine is false, and done falsely just for the sake of determining the worth of other medicines.
"The wise in every village work medicine on people they care about, people that trust them. The trials you describe will require two betrayals. Firstly, that the wise should not be allowed to care for those close to them. And secondly that they should deal falsely with them.
"I do not see how this can be done once without creating great discord. And to do it for each new medicine would be disastrous."
In particular, there is one medicine I think would probably pass these clinical trials, and would greatly improve the lot of the sick in the Ten Nations. It is known to me as Bald's Salve, and it is used to treat bacterial infections; to the best of my knowledge it is extremely effective at killing harmful bacteria and causes minimal harm to people. The following ingredients and tools are needed:
-Equal amounts of garlic root and onion leaves
-Bovine bile salts of equal quantity to the garlic
-Wine, again of equal quantity to the garlic
-A quantity of redewed water
-A bronze pot
-Mortar & Pestle
-A fine cloth for straining liquid through
Anyway, the garlic and onion leaves are finely chopped, then ground with the mortar and pestle. Then the wine and ground garlic and onion mix are all added to the bronze pot. The bile salts and redewed water are added to the pot at this time. Then everything is covered up and left to sit for nine days, chilled but not to the point of freezing. When the nine day waiting period is up, the salve is strained through the fine cloth to remove any particulates, and is then ready for topical application to infected wounds and sores.
Anyway, the only ingredient I'm not sure you know about is the wine. It's an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting the juice of a fruit known as grape. It seems somewhat likely that you would have access to it through trade at the very least, but I've never heard it mentioned. You could maybe substitute for the wine using some quantity of redewed alcohol and vinegar, but there are biological molecules in the fruit that I'm not sure if they're needed for the salve to work at full effectiveness. If possible I'd recommend trading for grapes and trying to cultivate them using fruit walls, but I hope that you can get a working salve out of this regardless.
"Indeed, Just Write, I do not know of wine or grapes but will ask after them. I also do not know of garlic or bile salts of cattle, though of course we know of bile and cattle and the bile of cattle. What other uses are there of these salts and how are they prepared?"
Anyway, I've now got some advice regarding the proper production of paper. From wood, not rags. The first thing needed is wood, obviously; this should be made into long thin strips either by being peeled apart along the grain, or through use of a planing tool. These long thin strips of wood then need to be softened; there are a couple different ways to achieve this but the easiest is to just leave them soaking in a pot of water for seven to ten days, followed by several hours of boiling.
This softened wood then needs to be pulverized into a pulp by repeated mashing; a monjolo seems an appropriate tool here, though a grinding millstone may also prove suitable. Once the wood has been pulped, add some lime as a bleaching agent and mix it in thoroughly; this will whiten the paper and ensure that writing on it shows up with more contrast. Then use rollers to flatten this bleached wood pulp as thin as possible onto baking trays, and bake at low temperatures until dry. This is one process by which writing paper may be produced, though there are others.
"What sort of flattening tool do you mean? An axe cannot peel especially thin strips from lumber. But perhaps the soaking and pounding will take care of that. If this is anything like the flax, the important part is that the strips should be long so that the fibers of them are also long.
"But if you mean that wood should be split as finely as it may be, that it should be soaked for ten days, then boiled for some portion of a day, the beaten until it is a pasty lump, then bleached with lime, then rolled flat and thin, then baked in underfed ovens, that may be done. I will see what paper comes of it.
Anyway, once you've got significant paper manufacture going I must once again implore that a printing press be developed and put into service. A printing press allows the mass production of identical books, which has several beneficial effects. First and foremost, printed books allow those skilled in a specialist field to more readily spread any improvements of knowledge they make to others in their field, and more rapidly receive knowledge of such updates as well. This drastically increases the pace of invention in a society, especially if there are rewards in place for coming up with useful things and then sharing that knowledge. It works like this:
Let's say an ironworker figures out an improvement to case hardening that drastically increases the durability of tools. This ironworker goes to a table-ruler to file for a patent on the technique; a patent being a legally enforced agreement that for a number of years (no longer than ten, or else it stifles innovation) anyone simply using the technique verbatim without themselves making improvements to it has to pay some small amount of tribute to the original inventor. The catch with a patent is that it cannot remain a secret; the inventor has to provide a detailed account of their new invention, how it works, and how to make it to the table-ruler.
This table-ruler who had a patent filed then takes it to the printers. The printers make many, many copies of the instructions, which are sent to all corners of the Ten Nations. This allows anyone skilled ironworking and able to read with the ability to use the new technique, though unless they are able to come up with a significant improvement on the technique (which they would themselves then be able to patent), those other ironworkers will be paying minor tribute in order to use the improved methods. In some contexts the idea of paying minor tribute to use an invention doesn't make sense (such as in an army or something similar), but the general principle of rewarding people for coming up with useful inventions and then sharing them still holds true regardless.
A robust patent system thus massively encourages people to not only come up with new and exciting innovations, but to then strengthen society by sharing their innovations. And for a patent system to work properly, it needs the ability to make loads of copies of the same text that a printing press allows.
"The Free People of the Ten Nations are forbidden by the Ten Ways Pact to pay tribute to any but me. Further, within the lands of the Ten Nations, at least, demanding payment before sharing that which sets you apart from others who practice your craft will lead to discord. That is not the way the people live.
"When new means or tools are found, I do reward individuals or their families as I see fit. In this way, Burgeck was rewarded many times, for all that the one reward they sought above all others was denied to them. You might also recall the reward given to Peyuvo the Blind Devicer, though that was somewhat more of a special case.
"The means of everything that is done is preserved in song and by my singers. Since we took up writing, my singers also preserve their songs in that way, in clay and parchment and on their own skin. But tablets are too heavy to easily move about, parchment is too rare, and paper unknown. All the people know the songs of their craft, though, be they fletcher or smith or bow-maker.
"Yes, if paper were as plentiful as soil -- even if it were as rare as good soil -- then we might also write the songs down in enough numbers for each crafter to have their own book of the songs of their craft. And if we were ever to do this then, yes, setting the words into planks to be inked and pressed against page after page would certainly be wiser than writing each letter with quill."
The other major impacts of printing presses also largely have to do with accelerating the spread of knowledge, and by doing so increasing the number of inventions produced to strengthen society. A properly written instructional text may not be enough on its own to confer mastery of a difficult subject like healing, but it can vastly improve the effectiveness of teaching when the student has a book of knowledge to study in addition to learning from one who has already mastered the skill.
The last major impact of printing presses is to make individual books less insanely valuable; unlike manually scribed books which may only have a few copies period, printed books can be produced in truly vast numbers. This means that if a library happens to catch fire it's less of a catastrophic loss of knowledge, since copies of almost all the books inside were probably printed out and sent to all the other libraries. And yes, there really should be more libraries throughout the Ten Nations than just the one near your great house. Redundancy is important for making sure a single setback doesn't turn into a major disaster.
"I well understand how wonderful it would be to have such a wealth of books. But there's little to do until and unless I have a wealth of the materials from which books are made.
"But I suppose among those little things to do could be a duplication of all written knowledge, yes. I will see my store of writing duplicated in Biancvint. Each time a new work is written, it will be cast once in the place for such things around my great house and again in Biancvint."
First and foremost, I'm about to explain methods of sending messages in such a way as to make it extremely difficult for anyone but the intended recipient to read them. This is the field of study known as cryptography. All of the ciphers I am about to share are moderately complex to implement, but are highly effective at concealing the contents of a message. But first, I must speak of a tool that is required for all of them, known as the cipher wheel.
A cipher wheel is two circles of thick writing material, each of which is different in size and with the two connected by a pivot in the center. Each circle has the entire alphabet and some common punctuation arranged around it in the same order, so that at any given shift each symbol on the inner circle lines up with a given symbol on the outer wheel, with the possibility of lining the wheels up so that all the symbols correspond to themselves. The cipher wheel is critical for all three codes I am about to discuss.
First is the Viginere cipher. How it works is as follows: both sender and receiver agree on a keyword or key phrase ahead of time. When the sender is writing the message, at each symbol they rotate their cipher wheel so that the first letter of the alphabet on the inner circle corresponds to the symbol at the matching place in the key phrase on the outer circle. Then they find the symbol on the outer wheel that currently corresponds to the symbol they would normally write, and write that symbol from the outer wheel. When the sender reaches the end of the key, they repeat the key and continue writing the message.
When someone receives the message, they do the same process in reverse to decode it. They use the agreed upon key phrase to rotate their cipher wheel to the correct orientation at each symbol in the message, find the symbol on the outer wheel matching the current symbol of the ciphertext, and the corresponding symbol on the inner wheel is what was originally written. The viginere cipher is reasonably secure, but can still be broken by a sufficiently determined and clever individual.
"Determined and clever indeed. Offhand I do not know how it could be undone without the pass phrase.
"There are secrets within secrets, here. Anything written may itself be hidden. When found, it will contain letters that do not make words. The two wheels may be hidden separately, or even recreated as needed from whatever may be had. Even then, the phrase by which the letters are turned into the message is a separate secret, one which the letter-carrier need not have.
"A single letter may be used, I can see, as the revealing phrase. In this way a clever sender or reader could work quickly, if swiftness is called for but at least some secrecy is as well."
The next cipher is one I will refer to as pattern shifts. Similarly to the Viginere cipher, the pattern shift cipher relies on the sender and recipient both having agreed on a key ahead of time. The difference for the pattern shift cipher is that instead of a word or phrase, the key is an initial orientation for the cipher wheel, followed by a repeating pattern of left or right shifts on the wheel for each symbol written. For example, shifting the wheel three spaces left after the first symbol, then two spaces right after the second, then a quarter turn right, then completely inverting the orientation of the cipher wheel, then repeating the pattern. Aside from that, encoding and decoding works much the same as the Viginere cipher. I would rate the pattern shift cipher as somewhat more secure than the Viginere cipher, though perhaps more error-prone. However, like the Viginere cipher, the pattern shift cipher is theoretically breakable by someone sufficiently clever and stubborn.
"How do these two differ, except in what happens on repeat? Once letters are on a wheel, any row of letters is the same as the turns back and forth of the wheel that would bring the letters to the top position one after another. With the passphrase the wheel is reset while with the second means it continues with its turnings. But is that enough to make it harder to solve? In either case the meddler will know they have the phrase or series of turns when they reach the repeating point. Or is it because a series of turns is not like a phrase and need not follow the rules for what letter follows what in a word?"
There is exactly one method of encoding a secret message that is impervious to all attempts at codebreaking, and that is the one-time pad. A one-time pad is an entire page of cipher wheel alignments longer than an entire message, with each alignment at each space in the message being selected by random means such as specially made dice. Since the series of cipher wheel alignments is entirely random with no rhyme or reason to it, it is impossible for the original message to be retrieved by reasoning without a copy of the one-time pad used to encode the message.
Only two copies of any given one-time pad are produced: one for the sender, and one for the intended recipient, with which pair a one-time pad is part of being written somewhere as an identification number. This identification number is added to the message as the only non-encoded part of the message, allowing the receiver to know which one-time pad they need to use to decode the message, which works the same as for the Viginere and Pattern Shift ciphers. Once used the one-time pad is to be thoroughly destroyed, so as to prevent its re-use from compromising the absolute security it offers; burning it is an effective method.
Yes, I am aware of the cumbersome nature of one-time pads for sending secret messages, and in most cases they are unnecessary when simpler codes will suffice. However, when you absolutely must be sure that no-one but the intended recipient reads a given message the one-time pad is the most secure possible option. Perhaps the best use for the one-time pad would be sending lists of message keys for the Viginere and Pattern Shift ciphers, so as to make sure which keys are being used cannot be deciphered from the message containing those keys.
"Such strange words you use, Just Write. But I take your meaning. This long passphrase of a single use exists only in the possession of the sender and the possession of the receiver. So if a far-ranging scout needs to send a message that without that message being known to any other person, they may expend one long passphrase, copy the result multiple times, and send each separately. No one who does not have the long passphrase themselves will be able to work it out.
"Similarly, if I wish to pass messages to my singer in a distant city, I may send them one message using the single-use long passphrase which, when worked-out, will be a list of the short passphrases they should use to send me regular messages.
"This is somewhat beyond clever, Just Write. This is the greatest improvement to writing since its inception."
That said, there is a way to get most of the security of one-time pads without quite as much cumbersome bookkeeping, though some will still be required. The method I am about to share is referred to as message-derived key generation, and is a form of pseudorandom algorithm, meaning it produces outputs that look random while in fact acting in a completely predetermined manner based on initial conditions. It works like this: the unencoded message (referred to as the plaintext) for the first message is encoded via one-time pad. Once the recipient has the message and decodes it, they then produce a version encoded using the Viginere cipher based on a list of key phrases possessed by both sender and recipient. The sender of the original message can of course simply encode the plaintext to get the viginere-encoded version without needing to decode it from the one-time pad.
Either way, after the first message (which was entirely secure due to being a one-time pad message), both parties should have identical viginere-encoded versions of it. These viginere-encoded versions of the first message are then used as the key to encode and decode the second message, with each letter in the viginere-encoded key being read as a cipher wheel alignment. Once both parties again have the plaintext, the next viginere or pattern shift key on their list is again used to encode the plaintext and generate the next key. To the best of my knowledge, this system is highly secure; while not perfect, it should be an extremely onerous task to retrieve the plaintext without the full key. Even if an adversary does somehow acquire the plaintext version of a message it doesn't fully compromise the security of subsequent messages thanks to the Viginere part of the code, but it does make breaking the code of subsequent messages vastly easier.
Given that fact and how the odds of it occurring get higher and higher the longer the string of messages goes on for, it would be wise to reset the string of messages every once in a while with a fresh One-Time Pad. Which you'd need to do anyway to refill the list of viginere keys when it ran out, assuming you couldn't have people meeting up to do that in person.
"I spoke too soon. Your language has only gotten stranger.
"Still, I think I have your meaning. In this case the first message is hidden with a single-use long passphrase. When it is worked out, the message is retained -- which seems hazardous, but whatever -- and then is modified by each successive short passphrase to make the single-use long passphrase that will be used to work out the next message. Is that right?
Next is the subject of spies themselves, and how you can effectively use them to undermine your enemies, ferret out secrets that others do not want you knowing, and prevent others from doing the same to you. I must preface that spycraft is by no means my specialty so I will only be able to describe this next section in generalities. Still, I hope the ideas I am about to share will prove useful to you.
The first topic I will be covering is infiltration, the practice of deceiving your opponent to believing that someone working for you is actually working for them. There are several ways of going about this, however in all cases they require what is known as a cover identity.
A cover identity is the pretense under which an agent is living and working in their assumed role. It can be thought of as an act that the agent performs while under scrutiny, except that they need to be able to improvise it as needed since real life doesn't follow a script. As such, agents need to be knowledgeable and competent with any wisdom and skills their cover identity is supposed to have. If an agent is claiming to be a cartwright for example, they need to be at least somewhat competent at making carts. Failing to maintain a believable cover identity is a near-guaranteed way to ensure that an agent is found out, and almost certainly dealt with by whoever they're supposed to be spying on. In some cases this simply leads to an agent being killed, but if your adversary is smart they may not let your agent know they have been found out, and will instead feed them misinformation that they will dutifully pass on to you.
"My far-ranging scouts have these, then. Some appear as traders, with trader's wares and trader's manner. They are traders, too. I have not sent clever people from Tash Tribe to to be my false traders, for example, as Tash does not trade.
"Others appear as hunters who have gone past their home range for one reason or another. And they do hunt, and live as hunters, and make deals with the people they meet as hunters do, for all that they make no tributes.
"Some have played at seeking refuge and have claimed to have been driven out of their old home by the Ten Nations. But this is more difficult to use, as strangers seeking refuge are not as well treated as strangers who have their own livelihood.
"What other shield-selves could apply to one who comes from far away? From what you have said, it will only be a matter of time until all traders, wandering hunters, and displaced people are treated with suspicion and told only lies."
The three main types of agent that I will be discussing differ mainly in how they build their cover identity, and how long it needs to last for.
An operative is a type of agent who is inserted a relatively short time before they are supposed to undertake whatever action they are supposed to perform, then is supposed to escape before they can be captured. While they need to be able to act their cover identity convincingly, it is usually not necessary that they be able to keep it up for years. It is a pretense that allows them to get in, do what they need to do, and get out.
"I see. The brevity is the most important aspect of this one. They might claim to be from a nearby village, or the servant of the ruler of the nearest city, or even a priest of some divinity.
"What sort of brief task would they do? I suppose they might learn one or two important things. Or they might kill one or some few people in secret. Or they might poison a well or burn gardens or open a gate or any number of other important tasks. Yes, I believe I understand."
By contrast, a sleeper agent is trained without any specific mission in mind. They are inserted into a target region with the intent being that they will live there as if they were not connected with you for several years if necessary. However, they are equipped and trained to perform whatever underhanded task is required of them when contacted again. Given the long time that a sleeper agent needs to maintain their cover identity it is crucial both that they be capable of acting every facet without arousing suspicion, but also that they are emotionally capable of betraying those they have spent years living among when ordered to. It is often useful to recruit those native to the target region to act as sleeper agents, as they will be more able to assume the customs and manner of speech of a local, thereby arousing less suspicion.
"What do you think people are offered, that makes them into these sleepers? If a person can turn on those they live with in this way, what is to keep them from turning on me? A person like this is not a tool, they are a fire. There's little good to come from leaving a fire around unattended."
Lastly, agents-in-place are unique in that they come with cover identities already made. An agent-in-place is a person who already works for your target when recruited; the idea is that since they are already working for the target, their betrayal won't be anticipated. There are generally four methods of turning an agent-in-place, referred to as Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego.
Turning someone with money is pretty straightforward; if the target for recruitment has greed overwhelming good sense, just pay them with something that appeals to their greed in exchange for them doing something underhanded that benefits you. Ideology is a bit more complicated; effectively you need to convince the target that your ideas and customs are better than those they currently follow, to the degree of justifying betrayal.
Turning someone with Compromise is situational, and relies on the target's cowardice. It requires proof (or a very convincing fabricated account) of a misdeed on the target's part. Possibly even a misdeed you bait them into committing, if you cannot find evidence of an already existing one. Threaten the would-be agent with revealing evidence of their misdeeds and thus subjecting them to punishment if they do not work for you, and you stand a good chance of getting their compliance. Especially since the more they do for you, the more compromising material you have to potentially ruin them with.
Lastly, turning someone with Ego is a bit bizarre; it's basically exploiting someone's stupidity while convincing them that they're getting a chance to be smarter than their current employer. In our world there's a widespread misconception that being a spy is inherently glamorous to play off of, but I don't think that holds true in your world. Maybe best not to attempt this method unless such a common misconception takes hold.
"Bizarre indeed, Just Write. I do not know how many might turn for the promise of excitement and the fulfillment of their vanity. Some, I suppose. Enough that it merits writing down for the future.
"But greed or shame are already done in some senses. A far-ranging trader might give up some of their wealth to someone in exchange for valuable information, or for passage without trouble, or some such. And my people do not have all the prohibitions of acts that people in the distant south have, nor in the distant north, either. So if some useful fool acts in ways their neighbors would shame them for, but only my scout knows, then my scout might convince that person to also act in my service.
"Setting a trap for the foolish is all the better. My scouts need only learn their laws, learn which person is both foolish and useful, and contrive for them to endebt themselves."
Regardless of types, all agents who will be operating in a target region for a prolonged period need a Handler. A Handler is a person who acts as a message relay between agents and your spymasters. Handlers pass orders to your agents, and also ensure that the information your agents retrieve makes it back to you. Since Handlers will need to be in the target region to perform this role, they will need to have a cover identity; since they don't need to infiltrate any specific power structure aside from the general location, it is important that the cover identity for a Handler be as innocuous as possible. Farmers, common city-dweller professions, and others of that are rarely spared a second thought therefore make excellent cover identities for Handlers.
"How could any of my far-ranging traders and scouts ever blend in like that? They will always have the manner and look of an outsider. And how could I trust one who is among their own people to serve me and not another?"
One very useful technique for Handlers and agents to pass information and items between each other is the "dead drop". This is a technique in which both the sender and receiver agree on a location and a set of times. The sender visits the location first and deposits an innocuous container holding whatever item or message they need to deliver. Some time later (or possibly simultaneously) the recipient comes to the location and retrieves the container. The sender and recipient do not directly converse, nor do they interact any more than absolutely necessary to ensure the dead drop takes place successfully.
This is useful because it keeps agents and handlers from knowing too much about each other, a practice known as information security. If every agent knows about every other agent, then just one agent being captured and successfully interrogated could cause your entire spy network in an area to be erased in extremely short order. By contrast, if each agent only knows the bare minimum needed to perform their roles effectively, it can be possible for an agent network to continue operating despite individual agents being detected and neutralized by the target.
It is due to the nature of information security that it is critical for Handlers to have such non-suspicious and well maintained cover identities. By definition, Handlers need to know more in order to perform their roles effectively; they know of a significant number of agents each, and if they are identified and interrogated every last one of those agents is placed at risk. It is also due to the importance of Handlers that it is wise for agents to be trained to resist interrogation; since those agents stand a good chance of being able to identify their Handler, every moment that an agent can resist interrogation for buys their Handler time to escape and make arrangements for the agents they are in contact with to avoid being detected while a replacement Handler is arranged.
"If I understand you properly, then first one of my far-ranging scouts would catch some farmer in an embarrassment of some sort or another, likely involving fucking I'm sure. Then my far-ranging scout teaches the farmer to read and write, and to make and use the letter wheel. Then my scout teaches the farmer to turn others, making more people living false lives, who the farmer handles. And by my will through messages delivered in some way or another, the farmer directs these liars to kill or to steal or whatever.
"This is all very improbable and seems to overly depend on fools to be wise enough to be useful.
"But, yes, the passing of messages or small objects by secreting them in agreed-upon places is wise. This is like a tiny, secret hoard shared between two people."
I will also be telling you of some basic methods with which to detect spies sent by your own adversaries and foil their efforts.
Most obviously, if your opponents' agents aren't any good at keeping a cover identity it can be pretty easy to identify them as not quite fitting their assumed role. However, even if they have very good cover identities there are still some techniques that can catch them out, often by exploiting the times at which they have to break cover in order to perform whatever underhanded task they have been assigned.
One example of a tell I can think of is to keep an eye out for people who meet suspiciously often without seeming to have a good reason for it; that can be a sign of a Handler and Agent getting in contact.
"It sounds like this would require a table-ruler to keep track of all the times that each person in a village met with each other person, so that they would know them all and know who behaved strangely. I'm sure a great many secrets could be found in this way, but I expect that very, very few of them would be of any use.
"Should I train a singler as a scout-finder and send them out to spend a year here, a year there, looking for people who meet strangely? I feel like there is some bit of understanding assumed here that I am missing."
Another method to trap spies is to keep watch of good locations for dead drops or secret meetings. If such is observed happening, it can provide a very obvious method of finding agents in action.
A much more active spy trap is to deliberately try and bait an agent with the seeming promise of uncovering a very big secret for the benefit of their masters. Then if someone happens to come and try to spy on it, it is fairly easy to identify them.
"I already have many secrets. Thieves and fools and others come to steal them or to steal from my hoard nearly every year.
"Some ten years past a magician of stonework from the People of the Family, the Noarites, made her way to Burgeck lands to see their great halls. I think her task would have been simpler if the Burgeck joined outsiders to their marriages, but they do not. And so as she attempted to steal what she thought to be the magic of their great halls she stood out like a goat among sheep. In the end, a great hall fell down on her and others. In the rubble, Burgeck magicians found trace signs of magic and believe she attempted to work some on the stones of the great hall without understanding how they fit together, exactly.
"Further, every trader must be prepared to tell the secret of redewings. There is no ruler of any city that does not covet redewed beer for this and that purpose.
"How can I set a trap such that the secrets contained within will be more attractive than all the secrets already surrounding me at all times?"
Of course, the absolute best way to find out how many spies an opponent has sent your way is to try and get an agent into the institution they use for keeping track of their spies. Still, this is easier said than done if your opponent is at all competent.
One last note on spycraft: It is a good idea to have an active spy agency all the time, not just during times of war. A permanent organization of spies can build up expertise and extensive networks over time, and provides an apparatus for discovering crucial information that can be used the moment it is needed. Constantly dismantling and creating spy agencies will just lead to confusion and reduced effectiveness.
"I don't know which, if any, of my 'opponents' have scouts and other far-rangers such as I do. How would I even determine it? I suppose that is the first step. And who are my 'opponents' in any case? Rulers who do not pay me tribute? The priesthoods of other divinities?
"And, yes, this merits immediate and ongoing attention, as it has for some time now. I do not know what all will change, other than usage of the letter-wheel and some formalization of authority and obligation."
Some time ago we discussed pressure canners, and you opted not to put them into use because I failed to explain the proper construction of the safety valve needed to keep them from building pressure to the point of bursting. However, I think I've figured out how to do that now: just make a small hole in the lid and ram a plug of soft wood in there until it stays lodged in place. If the pressure builds too high, the plug will be shot out the top and safely vent steam straight up.
"I believe you mean where pots of food are sealed and then placed in another pot where they are heated, yes? As I recall, that one was for tiny-life eggs that can live through boiling water. So the pots to be boiled should be placed in another pot, without so much water in them that they will themselves burst. Then that pot is sealed by some means which remains unclear. Perhaps weight? No, the steam would overcome that regularly.
"In any case, if the heavy bronze pot were to get close to bursting, then the wooden spike would be cast forth from steam-release hole before the pot burst. But killing those eggs with heat might be more like cooking and less like searing. So the real goal is to keep the greater pot as hot as it can be without releasing its steam for a certain time.
"But how can we know it is hot enough? And how can we fix the lid to the pot so that it will hold against the pressure that would burst the pot were it not for the wooden plug?"
Also, seed drills. You expressed some skepticism regarding the burying of the seeds, which is fair. They don't need to go all that deep; perhaps only the length of a person's thumb at the deepest. Probably best to experiment on a small plot to see which seeds respond best to which depths, though.
"Very well, I will have the sowers in certain fields around my great house bury seed at different depths and we will see what comes of it.
"That was not my only question about the drill, you know. I do not understand how the seeds do not spill down the pipes at all times, filling the furrow and spilling over it. I do not understand what the carving of panels was about. I understand the coulter knife in front, the wheels, and the bin of seeds with sloped sides.
"And now, I suppose, I understand that all seeds may be placed in the ground some half a handspan or so."
And now for a topic best referred to as a curiosity, at least for the time being. You asked what use it was knowing that sound is a series of ripples in the air? The answer is that it can allow the blind to navigate the world almost as good as if they could see, or allow anyone to navigate in total darkness. The trick to this is that sound travels at a known speed, meaning that if someone makes a sharp 'click' sound with their tongue and listen for how long it takes the click to bounce back in different directions, they can get a sense of how far away various obstacles in their surroundings are with decently good accuracy.
A sighted person will probably need to spend significant time blindfolded while they practice this skill of navigating with sound, but if someone is blind they really don't have anything better to do. Either way, echolocation does have the potential to be a useful skill for some people.
"Well this is an interesting madness. You seem to be saying that if a blind person clicks for long enough they will come to understand what is around them? Hah! I will set some handful of blind folk to it and see what comes of it"
"Cannon are carried on carts, Bird of Prey. Some Giants have picked them up to use them in battle, but they do carry them into battle. Carts are readily at hand.
"Cannon are aimed by sighting down their length as with a bow and arrow. And like a bow and arrow they are raised as reckoned by their wielder."
"The making of boats has not been my concern. I know that they first bend one great long beam to form the spine of the boat. Sometimes the spine is more than one beam fixed together. Ribs are fixed to the spine and likewise bent. Then boards are fixed to those ribs, bending also, and that is the body of the boat. A tall pole is set into the spine. Then a beam may be hung from the top of that and a great draping of cloth hangs from that beam for the wind to catch.
"All the wood is coated in pitch and may be left to dry and coated again over the course of seasons.
"And all of this is done on a section of shore where the water will not reach and that has been pounded flat. When the boat is done, they drag it down into the water.
"There is one place where Naumo has a wide pit with stone walls some short way from the shore and lower than the sea. They build larger boats there, and then dig out a channel to the sea, which flows in so that they can take the boat out. So far, these boats have not done especially well, being more likely to break up. It is thought that this is simply a matter of size."
Oh, and there is yet another matter. I heard something interesting recently.
A very wise, elder mortal said "We should always be asking ourselves: Is this something that is, or is not, in my control? Things we cannot control are nothing to me.
It's something like going on a sea voyage. What can I do? Pick the commander of the boat, the boat, the date, and the best time to sail. Try to travel safely. But if a storm hits anyway… What are my options? I do the only thing I am in a position to do, drown — but fearlessly, without bawling or crying out to God, because I know that what is born must also die.
Imagine a player of music: he's relaxed when he performs alone, but put him in front of an audience, and it's a different story, no matter how beautiful his voice or how well he plays the instrument. Why? Because he not only wants to perform well, he wants to be well received — but the latter lies outside his control. Things we cannot control should be nothing to the truly wise.
Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have, the more mistakes we make. To be calm is the highest achievement of the self."
Basically a mix of Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius and a few my own small changes. The last sentence is a Zen proverb, if I remember right.
A wise way of thinking that can be advised to some mortals.
"It is well that a mortal aspire to calmness, Black Cat. But that is also outside their control.
"If a mortal wishes to be calm and another person wishes that they were not, that other may smack the mortal across their face. If the mortal has somehow learned to be calm when being smacked across their face, that other may pull their hair, punch their stomach, or twist their nose.
"Always there will be something more than the mortal has not learned to be calm through. After all, they only have so many years. Perhaps Peyuvo might learn to be calm through all things, if that is her goal when she tires of twisting her body against itself. But to what end? Why learn to endure?
"Or is that another layer? That the person smacked does have control in that they might attack or at least leave? So it's fine for them to be other than calm, then? No, I could just as easily suggest that they are struck by one who they cannot escape or dissuade. Will they remain calm? Doubtful. The best they can hope for is to maintain a false calmness.
"Or is that what you're recommending? Do you mean to suggest that people should aspire to a smug self-assuredness, even when they burn inside with fear or anger? This sounds like your advice that people should hesitate before acting. How could that go well for them?"
It is also possible to pump water to a higher location specifically to create this effect. The pipes could then deliver water directly into a building provided proper precautions have been taken to protect against water damage. Controlling the pressure may become an issue, but being able to pump water to a location for storage and cleansing can help in a variety of situations.
"I see. So like the screws that carry water to a higher field, screws may carry water to a place made dug out for water, and likely lined with fired tiles and such. And then from there the water would flow down into a city or even a village. It's a lot to build and perhaps turning the screws will be a lot of work as well. But water could very well be worth the work."
One method of sealing something to prevent air from escaping would be Grease. Covering the gap to be sealed in a healthy amount of grease can serve to both prevent air from escaping and prevent friction between two independently moving pieces from occurring.
Grease can be made from olive oil and lime. Olives are small green or black fruit which can be pressed to produce the oil. Lime is made by heating limestone into quick lime. Limestone is a white rock that is often found near water. For the most part, limestone is made of the compacted corpses of long-dead sea creatures.
"I do not know of olives, voice. But I do know of grease which I believe is made in much the same way, but with oils from animal fats. It is necessary for chariots, after all, and also for carts. I understand that some people use slugs for grease.
"Other voices have told me that olives grow in more southerly places and that their trees cannot survive frost. They keep coming up, though. So I suppose that they have a lot of value. Is there some substitute that would work in the lands of the Ten Nations?"
I wonder what form of spirit will develop from those who die of wasting away admiring the beauty of the tree. I wonder if such obsessive spirits might act as treasure guards if they are driven to action when the source of their obsession is disturbed. That does presume a number of things including a method of extracting the treasure when you have need of it.
Cartography, that is the study and practice of making maps. Almost inevitably leads to a desire that those maps be as accurate as possible. A map being a generally smaller representation of the terrain. Maps can be made with sand or other easily sculpted material or painted as though looking down from above. To make a map more accurate is necessary to understand the utility of angles. The first place you place on the map can always be assumed to be correctly located. It only every other point in relation to that first point that needs to be carefully worked out. If you can determine what angle something is in relation to another point then you can recreate that angle and so accurately represent the direction you would need to take to get from the first point to the second. Once you have aligned the directions you need to get an idea of the distance along that angle. Using multiple angle measurements from different locations will produce multiple angles. These angles cross at the target position. This is where knowledge of numbers and mathematics can allow someone to calculate the distance. Otherwise, the distance might need to be measured more labouriously.
"Our best maps are made by a certain spirit who guides the hand of the witch who compels the spirit. And by that guidance the hand draws a view of the territory ahead as though viewed from high in the air.
"There remains an untruth to the map, though. Distances measured by the map are longer near its center and shorter near the edge. And the area the map covers varies as well, with the apparent height from which the image is viewed.
"As I understand you, though, you mean that I may set down a point on a blank sheet, and that point represents me standing in a certain place. Then if I measure the angle out of three hundred sixty steps from the pivot stars to, say, a signpost, I may measure the same angle out of three hundred sixty steps from a straight line on the map to show the direction the signpost lies in from that first point.
"Your explanation makes clear the need for a second point, but does not say how to find it. I think, though, that if I stand at any other point along that line I first sighted to the pivot stars… No.
"If another person stands on the line from my own position to the pivot stars, and steps to the right or left as I direct them until they are on that line, they may then measure the angle out of three hundred sixty steps from the pivot stars to the same signpost for themselves. Then I may place another point anywhere along that first line on my map and another line from that point, whatever measure of three hundred sixty steps off the line which represents the line to the pivot stars.
"Then, for a reckoning of distances where the space between our points on the map stands in for the space between where I and the other stood, we can on the map know that the signpost is so far from where I stood and so far from where the other stood. If the line on the map from my point to the signpost is four times as long as the line from my point to the other persons, then the distance from where I stood to the signpost will be four times that of the distance from where I stood to where the other did. Is that the whole of mapmaking?
"Tell me more and again about the numbers you would use for this, voices, and what may be done with them.
"I can see that some reckoning will also need to be done for the rise or fall of land between. I know already that if I were placing bricks for a road from my position to the signpost then the more the signpost sat above or below where I stood, the more bricks will be needed.
"Already, this should improve the planning for roads."
To measure an angle accurately it is possible to build a device for that purpose. An (often three-legged) stand can be used to create a steady platform. Because it might end up placed on uneven ground some adjustment may need to be made to account for this. Water naturally remains flat even on an incline and this can be used to identify the problem and make adjustments. A horizontal wheel with angle markings on can capture consistently which angle is being measured. Something to look through can be mounted atop it to ensure proper targetting within a tolerable level of error. If the sight is mounted on a vertical wheel (likewise marked with angles) then elevation can also be measured for accurate estimations of the height of hills and mountains.
For the purposes of the map itself, a smaller wheel with markings on can likewise be used to guide the application of ink or paint.
"If you mean to say that a three-legged table will be more stable than a table of four or more legs then you should say why that is so, for I do not see it. But a three legged table will be lighter and easier to carry about, which will eventually matter for those operating it.
"So I understand you to say that a bowl should be fixed to the top of this table. And a line should be drawn inside the bowl such that water sits at that level when the table is likewise level. Above that should be a wheel, likewise leveled, marked three hundred sixty times around its edge. And atop that should be a pair of spurs for sighting which pivots at the center of the wheel, but also on its own wheel, similarly marked three hundred sixty times, which is fully upright to the flat wheel. Is this correct?
"In use, the ground must be packed or dug out such that the water in the leveling bowl sits at the leveling line. Then the table's user sights the spurs on the second table user, some known distance away. When both are adjusted and level and sighted on each other, they set their wheels so that their zero marks are directed toward each other. Then they turn together to sight on a third place and both make record of the mark they are sighting over on their flat wheel. And when a triangle matching those marks is drawn in wax the length of the known side may be compared to the unknown sides and in so doing distance may be known. Is that also correct?
"It seems to me as though all distances may be thus known so long as only one sighting platform moves at a time and only moves to the location that both sighted on previously. There is power here, voice. I would hear more of this manner of reckoning."
Speaking of three-legged stands: Triangles are the sturdiest sort of shape. This is not, precisely, relevant to anything, in the present moment, but it's notable.
...I don't think that having the booned bargainers anywhere near the tempest is going to turn out well for us.
They're bargaining with the same sources of the bad shit that wants to murder us.
Well, uh, I say "us", I mean the tribes. But...you know. Anyway also hi I'm new here. I would give a name I answer to, but it is, sadly, already taken.
"If triangles are the sturdiest shape, why do arches that follow the path of a hanging thread work better? Is this a disagreement between voices or are there particular circumstances under which the triangle is stronger than the arch?"
Just Write. Your idea about the patent system... You should already know Bianca enough to understand that she is unlikely to allow one person to take tribute from another in the core lands of the Ten Nations. Big stones with writing honouring inventors of improvements to crafts are more feasible.
As to stages of trials in testing medicines, Just Write, you are right but... only in truly giant Empires that could afford to test medicines in such a complicated and long way. Surely in the truly existing world somewhat simplified testing must suffice.
You have a valid point about the non-viability of tribute Black Cat. In retrospect it's not the smartest implementation. Still, it remains true that rewarding people for coming up with useful inventions and then sharing those inventions is a very effective way to speed up a society's development. And for full effect, a printing press is required to spread the knowledge of these new inventions to all parts of the Ten Nations.
But is it the best way? No.
We have an entire organization dedicated to altering the nations cultural zeitgeist. When the singers are singing songs of war, don't focus on strength, bravery, or talent. Sing instead of battle brothers, clever tactics, and dedicated training. When they sing the songs of craft, glorify those who created something new. Honor those who traveled the lands teaching others to understand a new innovation. Point to the great wealth of the nations and the paucity of foreigners who are unwilling to embrace change.
The Artificer may have burnt out from decades of focus on a single project, but still the ember of knowledge and talent yet remains. And more importantly her story may be altered to suit our purposes. Perhaps explain immortality; yours, hers, and the kings long life as stemming from inherent virtue and selfless care for the people of the nations.
I think it is best that the people who know you should fear you, and that the people who know OF you should love you.
Immortality of Bianca is the best when understood by her people as coming out of divinity, not virtue. But other than this one matter, in regards to the rest of your words, I agree with you about useful songs and explanations, fellow Voice. Praise change for the better, cunning and crafts, yes...
"Yes, yes. As I said, I will not have one person in the Ten Nations pay tribute to anyone other than me. But great deeds may be preserved in song and story and, yes, even in stone. The primary difficulty has always been to make the people do the difficult part of anything that needs doing. Far too many who enjoy some prosperity tell themselves and their fellows and even me that some difficult step is not important or can be done more easily in another way. But they are often wrong, sometimes deluded, and also often not alone in suffering for their sloth.
"Already some build variations of the reaper or thresher that are more easily assembled for one reason or another but break down more often. And deviations from the instructed steps in building a bloomery or in casting a cannon may lead to disaster, to say nothing of the raising of great halls.
"The problem is that the greater part of all 'improvements' are lazy shirkings of work. Tell me how to make room for improvements without increasing accidents.
"But, yes, also the people need to aspire to be better than they might. And for this purpose there are songs of aspiration which tell of the deeds of others. And why shouldn't these focus on bravery and strength and skill? Warriors should strive to meet the great deeds of all of these, should they not? You are right that it will be good for songs to also celebrate discipline and the fellowship of warriors and the cleverness of warparty leaders.
"But the works of craftspeople are the greater part of their own praise. Any craftsperson can look on the works of another and have a greater measure of how they might improve than any song could teach them.
"Then there is the matter of the perversion of prestige. I have allowed the Burgeck to put the names of their stone crafters in the stones of their great halls. But always there are some who thirst for prestige that is not theirs by right. So at first there were some names of people who made no real contributions to the crafting of stones. And then when they made requirements of contributions of labor or guidance, those who wished to put their names in stone devised that they should guide the raising of halls when others knew the raising better and at times the thirsting did not know the raising of halls at all. As you should by now imagine, this led to disaster.
"Similarly, in some villages there are stones recording the names of people whose most notable accomplishment was getting their name on that stone. It is foolish of them. But it is also foolishness to set out a prize and assume none would cheat to win it. It is necessary that we confine the prize-winners to those whose work is tested by time. So, unfortunately, some crafters will never hear the songs of their own deeds. But, I suppose, the same is true for warriors, even when the worth of their deeds is known immediately."
As another Voice said about instructions of life, "the diet of the mother whilst in the womb will affect things, as some instructions for size are turned on or off there in a sort of automatic way of making sure the people do not grow big and eat much if food is scarce". I like to add to these true words a few more: amount and diversity of food during childhood is also very important for height.
The best instructions of life cannot act properly without food to build the body.
Thus children in rich families, in cities, may more often grow into bigger and more clever adults. Not always, simply more often.
And perhaps people of the Ten Nations may be slightly bigger than one hundred years ago. Is this the case?
"How would I -- Do you assume, Black Cat, that I have a record of the heights of all people who currently live? Why would we collect those measures? Why would we keep them? And how would I have them from times prior to establishing my table-rulers?
"It is already known that those who are pregnant should have their fill of food in order that the children they carry have the best health. Similarly, it is known that they should not eat stuff that is not food, such as soil or woodchar, in spite of their desire to do so. So when you say that pregnant people should have a diversity of food, you will need to say more about what strange things they should eat."
I am the Serpent. I am using that for now since I will attempt to help with matters of control at the moment.
I am a new voice though, so my explanations will improve with time.
This is your world, so I will try to not be presumptuous.
--- On the use of organized religion and the possible dangers.
I personally find religion to be a convoluted headache sometimes, and I am glad you shoot down certain suggestions, but it is something worth knowing so as to not be caught yourself.
A printing press can do more than preserve knowledge like others are saying. It can help codify, and standardize, the holy text of your religion, avoiding the mistakes of countless hand-written copies. It is a good first step in what to print.
You can spread the word of Bianca further this way, along with literacy, and prepare future areas of your domain for alliances or integration; bringing them closer into agreement with that of the nine nations in language and culture. This can be spread by singers, traders, or a specialist called a missionary, who can convert others. This can be dangerous for obvious reasons though.
Imagine a city with too many upset slaves and starving farmers in the surrounding villages, and people set lower than others; and how you can spread the word of Bianca in secret, leading them to revolt against their king. This is mostly to capitalize on foolish rulers with a week grip.
The same works from the top down, as a ruler may use one faith or even a few to solidify their control and legitimacy. Nations not strong or rich enough to resist might have to fall in line or risk being invaded by their neighbors who have shared beliefs.
I might be missing a few steps on this path since I am new here.
And I should be honest about the dangers of overly zealous believers and violent resistance. And of Kings and Queens twisting belief to benefit themselves. It is only one path, and it is fine if this is not your type of religion.
I should not fix what isn't broken, yes, but it is something to consider since this is a powerful, dangerous tool.
---
"It is simple enough to say to the meek and pushed down that they should enjoy greater freedoms, Serpent. This is the way that warriors on boats have taken cities. I do not know what would be written down to aid with this, or how the meek folk who have been pushed down will benefit from having it written when they will not be able to read it on their own.
"Rulers like the Giants of Liavint found the possibility of paying tribute to no other but me attractive, for certain. But any such ruler might now know what end came to the Giants of Liavint.
"Or do you mean that the Ten Ways Pact should be open to all who desire a place in it? I think there is trouble enough in bringing the Galugr into the Pact. Certain people of the Tash and Burgeck Tribes -- powerful for all that they remain entirely mortal and thus only a passing nuisance -- are fixed on finding one reason or another that all the lesser giants should be cast out and that the people should return to being Nine Nations. There are some among the other tribes who speak similarly, but they are more often directed by their chiefs or other leaders into conquest of outsiders. Since the Tash and Burgeck only raid, they spend more time sowing discord in their own lands.
"I think it unwise to bring others in so quickly.
"But the particulars of devotion might not be what concerns you, Serpent. In that case, when I send out singers or far-ranging trouble-makers, what should they teach the farmers pushed down by the rulers of cities? And when I send out table-rulers and far-ranging scouts, what should they teach the rulers of cities?"
On the dangers and benefits of patents.
I worry that the patent system could let someone withhold medicine unless they are payed. The health of nations, and very ideas, can be held in ransom or captured for profit.
Sometimes by someone who is not even the inventor.
But yes, it came about as a way to make sure creators benefited from their work. It ensures they get something for their trouble.
I just remembered how much I have wanted to play the familiar of someone in a tabletop game for a change. And an evil, immortal sorceress is such a fitting being for a giant snake to serve.
My source for the printed holy text is the existence of the Gutenberg Bible itself.
"The wise folk who work strong medicine do, at times, demand a debt of those who they heal. And if a family is known to fail to pay their debts then it may be that such would not work strong medicine on them. People who do not make good their debts are likely to be subject to mistrust in the future.
"But this is not often the case. Most people who do medicine work do so because they care for the people around them. And most medicine work does not require so much from the wise who work it that a debt is called for.
"There are, it happens, times when people do suffer the consequences of their actions, rather than being saved from them by their family or neighbors."
Nice to hear somebody new. Printing a Holy text, you say... Written divine wisdom of Bianca in all villages thanks to printing... Fascinating idea! Use of printing to copy written story of Bianca's greatness, or some piece of Bianca's wisdom...
But it would need to be something that is unlikely to need changes. Something where you can create a printing press and just print during the next fifty years hundreds of copies per year. So only very basic wisdom, that is unlikely to need changing, would be reasonable to include. And I think that we need very plentiful paper for that...
Do you have any ideas about our votes on basic matters, how should Bianca defend against that storm-spirit thing for example?
"You, Black Cat, and other voices seem to take for granted that there are some crucial words that I want thousands of copies of, to be carried throughout the land. What does it matter if people beyond the Asule know that I defeated the crazed follower of Erweh who tried to trap me in the Underworld, or perhaps an illusion of it? And, again, how would they read such an account? How are singers insufficient to let the people know my greatness?
"For all that there is at least one person in each village of the Ten Nations who can read, the table-ruler of that village, they haven't often any need to read anything they did not write themselves. Until materials all all books to be duplicated in book hoards throughout the land, the people will make do and have done well enough.
"What book is most important, do you think? What would be in a book so important that every village in and out of the Ten Nations should have a version?"
hello I have some information to give. Penicillin is a mold that grows grayish blue or blue green in color it grows on fabrics wood grains and plant based things. By making a poultice out of moldy bread and putting it on a infected wound you can help kill an infection because the mold makes a poison that kills bacteria which are the type of germs that cause infections a lot of the time but does not hurt people any where near as much while there are ways to go much further and get better medicine this is out of your reach right now so I will not waste your time.
"Another voice once told us that a certain mold of bread would kill tiny life but not people, or perhaps several voices provided different details in a contentious exchange. Many among the wise now know that a mold of certain coloring that grows on bread may be applied to wounds of certain sorts. When fortune allows, the wounds will heal faster. But then at other times it may be that the application of bread mold worsens matters. It is difficult to be certain, as is the case with many types of medicine work. You voices should tell how to separate out the proper mold, how to grow it or keep it, or how to better apply it."
I have have other medicines to tell you about this one will help with the trouble of people not getting enough sunlight. You see sunlight is used to help make a thing the body needs by making this tea you give the body this thing with out it having to make it. Take the needles of a pine tree put them in water and boil it for a short period. Let it it cool down enough to drink and then do so from this is now a tea if I don't tell to do otherwise then make the following plants in to a tea.
I will think you will find this next part interesting as now I will tell you medical plants for the mind first hops which are pale green condoms fruits of a twining vine which helps make beer last longer also helps people calm down and sleep far more easy and better. Lemon Balm a plant with a wonderful smell to humans and to bees who love it. The taste is strong and great. The plant is a small bushy leafy herb with small white flowers it is good for helping to calm down stress easing bloating and gas in tea form and when ground up in to a paste and put on blisters good for those too. St John's wort is a plant with yellow flowers that when damaged have a blood red oil leek out of them.used for minor depression whice is sadness that will not go away. When ground up in to a paste it is good for fever blisters and muscle aches
Valerie root it has Straight, hollow stems are topped by leaves that curl downwards. Its dark green leaves are pointed at the tip and hairy underneath. Small, sweet-smelling white, light purple or pink flowers bloom is good for nervousness anxiety which is almost constant fear and trouble sleeping in a small number of people the exact opposite happens so be careful.All these herbs don't any issues mixing with eachother so feel free to do so as well as take them because you want too.
"Thank you for these suggestions, voice. I will see what comes of boiled pine needles.
"We know of hops but it is not clear how you mean them to be used. What part of the plant should be added to beer and at what step in the beer-making? And how can it be grown more pentifully than the manner it is found?
"I do not know of a specific plant such as you described next. There are several small bushy leafy herbs with small white flowers that smell good. One is the catmint, for example, which I assume you do not mean.
"I do know the next plant you described, whose flower buds produce a dark red liquid when crushed. I do not know that it is used for despair, but it is in medicinal use. Is some specific preparation needed for administration to the despairing?
"And, yes, we know of this valerian plant and use oils of its root for convulsions and other troubles. Is that the preparation you mean, or do you know of a different way to turn the plant into medicine?"
One last thing cooked food is always better as your body spends less energy breaking the food down and many poisons get destroyed. If you want more herbs that can be used for medicine tell me as I could talk about this subject for weeks. If you want to you can call me rainbow hope this helps.
...cooked food is only conditionally better because sometimes cooking destroys the good stuff in the food. But a lot of the time, yes, that does seem accurate, I guess.
No I mean you actually get more energy from food by cooking because your body needs to do less to break it down in to a form it can use even just cutting it up helps a small bit. Also soup is the best way to prepare when using heat to cook as the least is loss
There is a lot of subjective stuff. That mostly helped our ancestors become a step closer to human unintentionally.
The steps we give should build on each other, and this is a subjective subject for latter in time.
The important thing for now is people being able to have access to whatever is edible and will not kill them.
And it is more important to cook things like pork and certain foods due to parasites, or because it is inedible unless cooked like plantains. This is stuff people of this world would already know.
what I am saying about cooking also works with veggies and by making soup nutrition that could have been lost to the air is instead lost to the broth. The effects of these are small but it will add up over time
"Thank you, Rainbow. And I would hear more of the herbs you know to be medicine. I would have you tell me how they should be found, how their medicine should be prepared, and how their medicine may be done to people. And, I suppose, which people it should be done to.
"Even the unwise know that cooked food is preferable to raw, whenever possible. Any person who is not mad appreciates a hot meal. And, yes, porridge, soup, and stew are a large part of what families eat in their homes.
"If the fire does work that the body would have to do instead, as some of your voices say, then what loss is there when the people cook their food into soup?"
"I am Bianca the Undying. Though there are divinities whose power far, far outshines my own, the Free People of the Ten Nations treat me as a goddess. My singers move among them, instructing them to live as I wish them to by song and story. My table-rulers live among them, making counts of many things so that they and I can better plan for the future. Warriors of the Ten Nations raid their neighbors for goods and sometimes offer those who they have defeated a promise of safety for a term of service. More recently, the warriors of the Ten Nations have traveled much further and have subjugated many other villages and even cities. The Ten Nations have copper of their own, but tin must be acquired from elsewhere. They make iron, but not as much as would be needed to replace the copper and bronze used more widely. Sometimes they make steel, but its making is not so well understood. I bless the crops and herds of the Ten Nations, and they prosper both for that reason and because they grow those crops and keep those herds with wisdom, some of which has come from you voices.
"In two turns of the moon or less, a great mass of ancestor spirits to some unknown clustering of Forest People from the distant west will reach the expanded lands of the Ten Nations. Some years ago, the Free People of the then Nine Nations killed many Forest People in woodlands to the east by fire and spear and axe. In that place there is a great curse, such as no one can contain. Even now it creeps further in all directions, slow and year-by-year. It is said that the great mass of spirits to the east is coming to punish the great wrong which resulted in the creation of the cursed woodlands to the west. I will not have my people or myself so punished. If it was wrong or not I do not care. I will protect that which is mine.
"It is especially odd that the spirits from the west appear with no living Forest People. The spirits of Forest People uniquely of all spirits guide and some say govern their living kin. They are never seen without living Forest People somewhere around. It is even more odd that the great mass moves and responds as though it is a single spirit in spite of its great size."
Entirely different situation, there service would be voluntary and these that refuse to serve would be only robbed not enslaved. That is constantly done to weak not protected by the Pact.
But I would advise the Ten Nations to marry with these that may be mighty or useful or young and pretty.
Maybe taking everything from weak outsiders is slightly obsolete. When a nation is truly mighty, regular tribute from strangers and trade with strangers are safer than violent raiding and taking everything. Less deaths, everyone slightly more happy, both weak outsiders and their mighty masters. Humph.
And the best outsiders can to be married and added to the Ten Nations, to cause less discord from these best.
"There is strength in having. To have more food, better tools, better and more weapons, and all that goes into making those makes a people stronger.
"And so, there is strength in taking. And if the Ten Nations do not grow stronger then they are sure to meet or be met by a people who are stronger than them and who will take what they have.
"I have heard there is a saying among the Lan Tribe, 'Sheep have but one hide.' They know that there is taking in trade. The goal of trade is not the enrichment of all, but the enrichment of the traders' families, their neighbors, their tribe, and all of the Ten Nations. And, they say, they are more enriched by trading than raiding not because those they trade with also benefit, but because they recover from their loss faster. They say they are more enriched by trading than by tribute because they do not need to spend their own lives proving that tribute must be paid and, again, because those they trade with recover faster than a people will recover from being pushed down before paying tribute.
"It remains to be seen if they are right. And I am unconvinced that their ways would prosper were it not for their membership in the Ten Nations."
No. Honestly, almost nothing beyond Arabic Numerals - that her people now use, thankfully - was explained about details of number use. I think that this started to create problems, for example with inability to measure angles, that can be important in our future advice. Ugh.
I voted to support the "Expand the witches who face the tempest with booned bargainers" as majority advice of all Voices, but at the same time... I feel uncertain. Many of these spirits in the cursed forest also hate Bianca and her people. Are there ways to know for sure that booned bargainers would serve you, Bianca, not betray you for the enemy? I'm not sure how these spirits and magic work, we may accidentally offer bad advice out of lack of understanding magic and spirits...
"I suppose there is no way to know for certain. But the folly of the bargainers is known in their ill health, not in any tendency to betray their neighbors. Near as can be told they, like most people, love their families, care for their neighbors, have friends and rivals, and fear death. And like most people, the quality of their character will be made known in adversity."
There were 9 bronze age tribes ruled by immortal magical Bianca. Tribals think that she is their Goddess.
Well, she "ruled" as much as tribal bronze age villages without any true administration and without any governing class can be "ruled". Religious authority mainly.
During the last 92 years we taught them how to conquer outsiders and cities, fight in formation, read and write, clean wounds, ride horses, use some iron, create gunpowder (!), build roads, add lesser giants as the 10 tribe, stuff like that. Also, some spirits hate us for burning important forest. Do you need longer summary?
"I would suspect that the deaths of so many Forest People figure more greatly in the wrath of the alloyed spirit. Spirits of Forest People do appear to look after their living kin with dedication and care. But spirits are not people, are not even animals. They are different and it may be that the wrongdoing was the burning of the forest or some other thing."
It sounds to me that it's much better to eat fish. But the most disgusting remains of fish? Sure, you can. Bones, scales and skins crushed into a slurry.
Still, black soil with charcoal is superior. More things that plant need to take out of earth to grow well, to build itself. Because that is the basic rule, supply plants with things that plants need, and frankly I know nothing better than the black soil for that.
I mean, other than complicated chemical fertilizers that you may imagine, but that are too complicated to create in Bianca's world.
"Are you suggesting that the people take what is left of fishes to the millstone or monjolo and smash the mess into paste? That sounds a lot like shitting where you eat, which is supremely unwise.
"I suppose they could have a separate place just for grinding fish waste. But eventually someone in a hurry is going to use the fish waste monjolo for their grain when the grain monjolo is in use. Well, that will be the consequence of their own foolishness."
Just Write, I tried to explain basics of the flintlock, but details of that device were never explained I think.
Could you explain details? You are better at details of devices than me.
Flintlock ignition is also important for the smallest weapons, these that one person would be able to use. No need for open flame: simply pull a lever and the rear of your small boomstick, and boom. Your hand cannon, here called boomstick for fun, fires at the enemy.
These things when well developed can be durable emough to have a knife firmly strapped below the shooting tube and could be used like a spear after firing at the enemy.
But to develop these smallest weapons she would need cannons that no longer burst. That is a separate issue... Cannons are not supposed to burst, cannons are supposed to destroy enemy, not the cannon itself... What is wrong. Something is. Accidents should be much more rare.
A pity, because a line of warriors firing small bursting dust weapons that while small can still penetrate all armour, oh that would be terryfing. Even if they could fire only rarely.
"Should these boomstick be cast as cannon are? Is there some trick to the thinness of the bronze? I can reckon already that they will use much, much less bursting powder, and that they will cast out a smaller ball.
"Cannon work against warriors and walls both. But a weapon so small that a warrior of the Fisher People could use it could not break a stone wall, I don't think."
I'd argue that the Black Earth is actually superior to those chemical fertilizers you mention, at least when taken in isolation. On their own those chemical fertilizers can indeed induce plant growth, but they do so at the expense of long-term soil health. Continued use of said chemicals without any other measures is therefore unsustainable, and can completely destroy the arability of good fertile soil in less than two hundred years.
By contrast, the Black Earth has no such issues; it directly builds up the fertile topsoil that plants grow in in a way that is sustainable on the long term and greatly benefits the crops planted. Indeed, with regular maintenance layers of the Black Earth just get deeper and deeper with each harvest and composting cycle, allowing the fields to be farmed regularly for very long timescales indeed.
Perhaps a combination of both the Black Earth and chemical fertilizers could perhaps prove to be the best of both approaches with the downsides of neither, but that is a matter for the far future, if ever.
"The black soil is working, for now. Nearly everywhere that uses it has seen some improvement, by the reckoning of my table-rulers. If fish waste improves matters even further, so much the better.
"Some of the conquerors have demanded that the villages they rule over take up the practice of the black soil and the progression of crops. My singers are there, of course, to see that these are done right, or at least that there is some chance they will be. I believe I have heard of improvements there, as well. But the change in the way those people live is greater than it was in the Ten Nations, as they only farmed the same field for a few years before burning down some young woodland and moving into that space. My table-rulers have noted that those who start the procession and the black soil in fields new to them fare better than those who start them after farming a few years. But there are other complications and over all the life of a subjugated farmer is not an easy one."
Good point. I will now be making an exhaustively detailed description of a flintlock ignition mechanism for firearms.
So, a Flintlock ignition mechanism has nine main components aside from the gun they are affixed to. These components are three springs, the trigger, the sear, the tumbler, the hammer, the frizzen, and the ignition pan. With the exception of the hammer, each of these components is a single piece of material with no internal moving parts themselves aside from pivots and mountings. I will be describing these components in the order they act on each other when the weapon is fired, with the note that the springs don't fit neatly into this categorization.
The springs are each a thin piece of Wrought Iron or Steel that has been annealed so that when bent it will snap back to its original shape. One should be a relatively long straight piece with a hook shape on the end, while the other two are bent into a very tight corner somewhere in the middle. This shaping is important. I will describe the precise details of each spring as I describe the piece those springs act upon.
"Three springs per warrior will not go far, Just Write. Flexing strips of iron that return to their original shape have not proven easy to make consistently."
The trigger meanwhile is a short lever connected at a pivot towards the top, with a protrusion behind. The lower part of the lever protrudes from the casing of the mechanism, and is the part the user actually pulls back on to fire the weapon, so it would be wise to shape it such that pulling back is not painful. The protrusion behind the pivot lifts up when the trigger is pulled back, engaging with the lever of the Sear by pushing it upwards.
The Sear is a round piece of metal on a pivot with two protrusions, one on the front and one on the back. The protrusion to the back is a rod that bends at the end so as to be caught and lifted by the protrusion of the trigger. Meanwhile the protrusion to the front is a relatively short spur curved downwards into a hook that is shaped to be caught in the notches of the tumbler. The sear is acted upon by the smallest spring, which is one of the two with a sharp bend in the middle. This spring is mounted directly above the sear, and pushes down on the rear protrusion right where it connects to the central round part. This serves to push the rear protrusion downwards, which then pushes downwards on the trigger. This ensures that both the Sear and trigger return to their un-pulled state when not in use.
The tumbler is another round bit of metal covered in protrusions. The frontal protrusion is a sturdily built shallow hook with the point pushing up. The rear is curved and contains three notches designed to catch the frontal protrusion of the Sear. The notch closest to the frontal hook is shaped so that no matter how far someone pulls back the trigger and changes the orientation of the Sear, the Tumbler will rotate no further.; this is necessary to keep the Sear from escaping the Tumbler during operation. The second notch is deeply cut in the tumbler, and catches the Sear's protrusion in such a way that the only way to extract the Sear is by rotating the Tumbler further back. This allows the flintlock to be 'half-cocked' to prevent accidental activation during loading or carrying. The final notch is shaped so that the Sear can smoothly be rotated out of it, and also protrudes far enough that in doing so the Sear will not be caught in the second notch when the Tumbler rotates. The Tumbler is connected to the Hammer by its pivot so that when the Tumbler rotates the Hammer rotates also.
The Tumbler is acted upon by the long, straight spring. The other end of this spring is fixed significantly further forwards in the lock, and the spring's hook engages with the shallow hook protrusion to push down upon it with significant force. The idea in this case is that when the Sear is not preventing the Tumbler from rotating, the spring pushes down hard on the front of the Tumbler, causing it to rotate forwards and bring the hammer forwards in a striking motion also.
The hammer is mounted externally to the mechanism casing. It is a relatively long, sturdy rod with a clamp at the end for holding a wedge-shaped piece of knapped flint. This clamp is most effectively implemented using a screw that can be turned to increase the pressure of the top plate for the flint. When the trigger is pulled, the action of all the components inside the mechanism casing culminates in bringing the hammer forwards to scrape its flint across the frizzen at great speed, simultaneously uncovering the ignition pan and casting sparks onto the priming charge inside said pan.
"How will a screw increase pressure within a brace? You voices have spoken of screws as fasteners here and when describing the cooking pot that is sealed so tightly that it would burst if not for the wooden stopper that is cast off to release steam. But you have only told me of screws that move water at an angle.
"But beyond that, I understand that the user pulls one piece which raises another. The second piece frees a small wheel which is cut so that the second piece may hold it in three places. That wheel is driven by a spring so that it turns forcefully. And as it turns it swings a third piece like a hammer, which is tipped with flint. The flint grinds against iron, causing sparks, which set the bursting dust in the tiny basin aflame, which in turns sets the powder rammed into the boomstick aflame by way of the touch hole.
"It is not clear how the tiny basin is uncovered by this action."
The frizzen is a piece of iron with two purposes, and a shape derived from those purposes. The first purpose of the frizzen is to act as a striking surface for the hammer's flint to scrape against. The second purpose of the frizzen is to act as a lid for the ignition pan to keep the small amount of bursting dust inside from falling out or getting wet. As such, the frizzen is effectively two flat surfaces of iron joined at a corner and mounted to a pivot. The lower surface is the lid for the ignition pan, and should sit flush against it when closed. The upper surface is the striking surface, and is angled back towards the hammer slightly; this increases the amount of time that the flint is scraping across the frizzen as it opens, thus increasing the amount of sparks produced and raising the likelihood of successful ignition. The pivot of the frizzen is mounted just beside the part of it acting as a lid, on the far side from the striking surface. In addition, there is a small rounded protrusion coming from the bottom of the frizzen, which engages with the third and final spring.
This spring pushes up on the frizzen, and serves to ensure that the frizzen is either open or closed with no long-lasting in-between states. It does this because of the precise shape of the protrusion; though the spring is always pushing up, when the frizzen is closed the protrusion prevents it from opening the frizzen on its own, since the spring would need to rotate the protrusion past itself and therefore compress itself further to do so. Meanwhile the protrusion serves as a surface for the spring to act against when the frizzen is open, thus allowing it to push up and ensure the frizzen remains open unless deliberately closed.
"This fourth piece, then is both the iron the hammer grinds against and the lid to the tiny basin, shaped such that it opens as it is struck. And when the fourth piece opens the tiny basin, another spring under the fourth piece holds it open. By the placement of bumps on the fourth piece and by the force of the spring the fourth piece will move toward being open, then stop at one position. And if pushed back to closed, it will resist by the force of the spring until fully closed, when the other bump crosses the spring, so that at that point the spring is holding the fourth piece so that the tiny basin is closed.
"I understand, I think, the intention for all that the making of such a thing will be difficult."
Anyway, the frizzen is the cover for the ignition pan. The ignition pan is a small shallow cup connected to the inside of the gun by a touch hole. The ignition pan is filled with fine-grained bursting dust as part of the loading process. When the hammer comes forwards, it opens the frizzen while simultaneously casting great quantities of sparks upon the bursting dust. This bursting dust therefore ignites in a flash of fire, sending flame through the touch hole and igniting the main load of bursting dust inside the gun to propel the projectile.
To load, pull the hammer back into its half-cocked state, prime the ignition pan with bursting dust, and close the frizzen. Then load the gun itself with bursting dust, wadding, and projectile. To fire, pull the hammer back to the full-cocked position, aim, and pull the trigger. There are occasional malfunctions that can occur, but overall a flintlock mechanism is highly effective as a means for ignition of a firearm on short notice. In addition, for large cannon it may be wise to tie a long piece of twine to the trigger and pull back on that to fire the weapon, instead of pulling on the trigger directly.
"Oh, this same mechanism can be used for cannon?! And if I recall correctly, the advantage is no open flame that needs to be inserted in the touch hole. That may be well worth the trouble. But there is still the matter of making springs and how you mean the flint to be wedged into the hammer."
And by the way, Bianca, yes, the pot for the Balds Salve needs to be bronze. I'm not sure how that works myself, but it's not magic. Bronze and copper are somehow mildly bad for many germs, while neutral for humans.
Bald's eyesalve is only effective when the recipe is followed carefully.
Quote from a paper also linked above:
None of the individual ingredients alone had a significant effect on viable cell counts. There was also a significant effect of batch (χ21 4.2e+9, P < 0.001) and a significant interaction between batch and treatment (χ27 2.0e+9, P < 0.001); this was because the full recipes of batch B were slightly more bactericidal than those of batch A, and the effects of the individual ingredient preparations differed between batches. The full recipes retained bactericidal activity after 30 days of storage at 4°C (see Fig. S1 in the supplemental material).
Bald's eyesalve is only effective when the recipe is followed carefully. We then made a third batch (batch C) of ES-O and ES-L, along with variants in which individual ingredients were systematically omitted.
"Well since I am missing the garlic and wine, and don't know the making of cattle bile salts from, I presume, the cattle bile that may currently be going to waste it may not much matter immediately. I will, no less, be sure to use a bronze pot in the process.
"Or would copper be good enough? If copper kills the tiny life that raids the bodies of people and their livestock it seems to me that copper should have other uses. Will copper shavings clean a wound? Is copper the best material for a false eye?"
And I hope that you know garlic? I think that you should, but if not, it could be traded from the south and should survive winters decently.
Garlic is a plant with long, flat grasslike leaves and a papery hood around the flowers. The greenish white or pink flowers are found grouped together at the end of a long stalk. The stalk rises directly from the flower bulb, which is the part of the plant used as food and medicine. The bulb is made up of many smaller bulbs covered with a papery skin known as cloves.
Garlic Description Garlic (Allium sativa ), is a plant with long, flat grasslike leaves and a papery hood around the flowers. The greenish white or pink flowers are found grouped together at the end of a long stalk.
www.encyclopedia.com
Garlic is usually grown as an annual crop and is propagated by planting cloves or top bulbils, though seeds can be also be used.
Garlic plants grow about 2 feet tall. Depending on the variety, the long leaves typically arise from a short hard stem above the bulb or emerge from a softer pseudostem made up of overlapping leaf sheaths. The bulb is covered with membranous skin and encloses up to 20 edible bulblets.
Thank you for the detailed explanation of the flintlock, Just Write. That is... Pretty complex. I'm not sure that Bianca's craftsmen are good enough for that. I mean, even if not possible yet, it should be certainly written for the future, Bianca! But...
Just Write, what do you think about simpler matchlock ignition?
In the matchlock there is very slowly burning piece of rope, called slow match, that was soaked in saltpeter to burn very very slowly. You lower slow match into the ignition pan when you want to fire weapon. You can also have a device to lower the match after pulling a lever. Worse than flintlock, but simpler.
Please, Bianca, if that's not useful yet, write it at least for the future.
"I do not understand how this is any better than how the cannon are currently lit. In either case there must be open flame around the cannon and the bursting dust. In one case, it is set to the touch hole. In the other, it lights a rope which then is set to the touch hole."
"Indeed, metal is power. Plentiful metal is prosperity for all of my people: better and more tools, better and more weapons, wealth and power with which to extract the riches of everyone the Free People of the Ten Nations run into."
Double blind clinical trials are completely impractical when the Pact doesn't have the understanding of mathematics and statistics required. They don't have the grounding in mathematics or knowledge of the statistical techniques required to account for the influence of placebo effects, not to mention the sheer manpower and time required for accurate data collection and analysis, not to mention for proper trials you'd need random sampling techniques and accurate census records of the population so that you pick a representative sample.
There is so much shit missing here that your suggestion would be nothing more than a colossal waste of time and resources, and is approximately as practical as suggesting an intercontintental railroad when yhey're having trouble working out how to make non-shitty iron.
That's true but also somewhat irrelevant? "You can trick the body with sufficient words" is actually good to know, and not dependent upon necessarily being able to prove it rigorously. For that matter, there are absolutely tricks I could work in even this medium to analgesic (painkilling) effect, so...Yeah.
I just write suggested implementing double blind clinical trials after bringing up the placebo effect.
Simple trials with control groups should be feasible.
Double blind clinical trials you run for years to check for long term efficiacy and side effects of medicines... yeah, no. Would the people doing the trials even know how to look for non-obvious side effects? Anything close to the rigour of modern clinical trials is impossible without a lot of foundational knowledge and bureaucratic capacity that just isn't there.
Seriously, everyone, we still don't have reliable steel. We need to get up a few tiers on the tech tree before anything but folk medicine is really effective.
"I have made known my own complaints regarding the trials with ignorance all around. I do not see how the number of people or what the people represent to whom medicine will be done matter.
"But I would like to know more about pain relief. And if you know people's medicine -- rather than what I did not know -- then do tell me of it."
Honestly, not really? It's coming from overland so storm surge preparations don't really make sense and I don't know enough about the conditions around the tempest to say much else. Most of the things I could say amount to "build sturdier" but there isn't enough time for much of that to happen.
A bunch of spirits got glued together into a composite and are attacking the Ten Nations. They're apparently kicking up a pretty ferocious storm around them, but what type wasn't specified. Further there's every possibility that the gestalt can actively control the storm, meaning that any advice we might offer (such as hiding in a ditch like for a tornado) would simply be turned against the defenders.
Certainly avoid loose tree branches, tools, or other small to medium sized things that can fly when exposed to strong winds.
Well, there are also winds so strong that even cows can fly, but I imagine that then people around are pretty dead already. Hiding in ditches or underground sounds probably better than standing on the field.
Given that there was war to the south, I don't imagine that much food and basic supplies needed for life can be redirected north in tribute? Probably many fields were burned, what a waste, even if these were fields of outsiders. Wars between people who both pay tribute to you are idiotic. Instruct southerners to fertilize their fields, if not with the black soil then with dung at least. Tribute of preserved foods well-suited for storage can be considered, but try to not cause famine even among outsiders, rebellion of farming outsiders is not a thing needed.
Also. Freeze fish in icehouses. Raid wild not conquered coastal tribes of outsiders around the Northern Sea, to steal their food and their fish - though buying food is often safer if these outsiders can spare enough to sell.
Hm. The problem with underground is mostly flooding - for that you want high ground. But if you're in high ground, then the winds will be an issue. Maybe underground shelters on top of hills or mountains or something? I admit, spirit storms are a /bit/ out of my expertise.
"If traders buy fish from outsiders, how will they get those fish to the ice halls before the fish go bad? Perhaps if everyone moved their own fish one step south? But I don't know why the intermediate steps would cooperate. If the northern folk were sufficiently rich in salt to sell it to outsiders, perhaps. But they are not, and they grow poorer as the Ten Nations and especially the Naumo prosper.
"The strange Forest People spirits do drive rivers to run deeper here, to break their banks there, to flow into new beds. But those rivers have not run backwards as they may when the sea is driven into them, or not much in any case. So if we can know where the land is higher and where it is lower, as with the tools of two wheels on three legs, then we may determine where to dig into the ground and where to leave to the river, if it's driven there. Two or so moons is more than enough time to dig out small halls in the ground to shelter from the storm while we wrestle with the spirits.
"And it is enough time, too, to clear the land in some places of anything that could be tossed about by the storm. Surely the storm will carry wrecked trees and such with it, but it doesn't scour the land clear, so it's setting down something like as much as it picks up. We may not be able to disarm the wind, but we might steal from its quiver.
"So here we meet another limit to just how astute you are, eh, voices? 'Take shelter, try not to get hit by anything flying through the air, and steal food afterward,' is the limit? It will have to do."
I also heard that moldy bread on a bad wound can sometimes harm germs more than a human, true. Still, something like the Balds Salve would be better, and I think that not all types of mold work? Humph.
Oh, pine tea sounds interesting. I was unaware that pine trees are in any way useful for food or medicine, but when I check this now I see that you speak truth, fellow Voice.
Oh. I can even see that... In a pine tree... The soft, moist, white inner bark beneath the woody outer bark is edible. It has similar healthy things needed for the body as green plants. So it's even healthy. It can be eaten raw in slices as a snack or dried and ground up into a powder...
"Well, clearly some forms of mold are bad. People who eat moldy bread often take ill, after all.
"It happens that I know something of what parts of trees can be eaten in desperation from the time before my confinement. But I don't know that anyone in the Ten Nations does. And it has been a very long time since last I ate or thought about the matter. I'll have my singers look into it.
"Do you know how many measures of wheat can be replaced with pine, and how many measures of pine must replace each measure of wheat?"
Right so as it happens one of the most common mold types makes penicillin so by applying the moldy bread to a wound with moist heat you get a pretty large likelihood that the mold is the right one and you get some antibiotics in to your system. Though you get some mold with it while bad is not any where near as bad as an infection.
"This is more desarpation, I think. But if a wound is clearly invaded by the tiny life, then the wounded person's life is likely lost already. Some reckless measures might bear fruit, and cost little. So it may be tried."
Birch trees can be also useful, for something healthy that people can drink.
Birch sap is collected at the break of winter and spring when the sap moves intensively. Birch sap collection is done by drilling a hole into the tree trunk and leading the sap into a container via some conduit (a tube or simply a thin twig); the sap will flow along it because of the surface tension. The wound is then plugged to minimise infection.
Birch sap has to be collected in early spring before any green leaves have appeared, as in late spring, it becomes bitter.
When fresh, it is a clear and uncoloured liquid, often slightly sweet with a slightly silky texture. After two to three days, the sap starts fermenting and the taste becomes more acidic. It can be still consumed, but sadly it's good only for around seven days.
Ah but you have icehouses. Birch sap can be frozen for a year or sometimes two.
Do not take too much or the trees can die.
Doubly nice to know this, I think, because during early spring, before any green leaves have appeared, healthy things to eat or drink are probably rare.
"Yes, Black Cat, this practice is known among outsiders to the north. The Free People of the Ten Nations draw from the birch less often than they do, but it is practiced here. I don't know that anyone has been trying to store it in the ice halls, though.
"If this is good for the health of the people then the practice should be expanded."
"Indeed. And if you know the best way to collect it or other substances that do as well or better, please tell me about them, Rainbow, please do tell me of them."
I have memories of eating pine sap but no matter when it always tasted bitter. Kind of surprised that I did so more than once as the first time tasted really bad. Though now that I think of it one time I ate almost an entire young pine and that was not to bad not sure what I got out of it though.
"I don't know if that suggests pine sap is poison or not. But if there is some call for bitter flavors there are already many herbs and such that are better known to be safe. Ish."
I still think that making sure to test new medicines before widespread use is a good idea, and for effective testing a group receiving a placebo is necessary to make sure the medicine's seeming effectiveness isn't just the result of tricking the body into feeling better.
"If we can trick a body into healing itself, is that not good enough? Yes, a person's health may later turn. But that may be known by watching for a time. False medicine is not required to know that after two moons an ailment remains and consumes a person. And I still do not understand how you mean false medicine to be done."
the pine was very young and I said almost all of it there was very little wood to be burden by and you can pass wood though your digestive system you just can't get anything from it
Edit my memories point to me being a stupid child
"Ah. So that is the heart of it, then. Wood will pass, if it's form and rigidity do not prevent it. But wood will not nourish. While it will not, though, it may keep the company of that which does. It may even confine it, from the sound of things. So as with grain, if a pinecone is ground to powder it will nourish more meaningfully? Good to know."
I don't have anything particularly interesting to throw at you initially, so instead I'll go for something minor and open myself up for you to request further knowledge on a few topics you feel are most interesting to you at this time.
"At the moment I would like to know more about weathering great storms.
"But past that I would like to know more about what binds people together in great numbers. I would like to know more about simple tools that improve land's yield, like the black soil or the plow that casts up the ground. Devices are… fine, but such trouble. Yes, more metal is good. But I would like to know more about how to find it. Tell me how to find gold and silver, as well. And tin."
Rough CPR Guidelines: In some cases if a person has recently ceased breathing, and their heart is no longer beating, it may be possible to save them. Have the person flat on their back. Tilt the head back, pinch the nose closed, and provide two full breaths to them. If the chest does not rise with breath, they may have an object blocking their airway that needs to be removed.
Following the two breaths, perform 30 chest compressions by placing your hands crossed on the center of their sternum (between their lungs) and using your body weight to compress roughly two inches (roughly two segments of a finger) deep. Do this at a speed of 100 compressions per minute. After 30 compressions, provide additional breaths.
Modification for infants: Two fingers and 1.5 inches deep instead of the above.
Health addendums: It's safer to provide air without person to person contact if this is possible (generally where medical supplies are readily available). For this you would need a face covering that fairly well seals around the face and the nose for the person providing breaths to breath through. I'm not sure if you have the resources to make something like that, but I'm sure other voices would know. You can also attach this to a sack that can hold the air (and refill itself on release) though, again, I'm unsure if you have the resources.
"Is this the ideal way to breathe for and beat the heart for a person who does not breathe and whose heart does not beat on their own? Will they start to breathe on their own again? Will their heart resume beating? Is some other step needed?"
Note for your records for later use when tech develops sufficiently: Electricity can be used to stabilize a heart that's beating in weird ways that are killing the person. Generally this is accomplished by placing conductive contacts hooked to an electrical source (placement: generally upper right pectoral and lower left ribs on an adult, center chest and center back on a child or infant) so that the burst of electricity provided passes through the heart. This works because the heart is controlled via electrical signals from the brain, so this sorta tries to reset that signal by turning it off and back on. Generally this is done once the heart has been forced to resume beating via CPR, or in other cases where the heart has a weird and harmful beat pattern. (It's more complicated, but these are the basics.)
"Ah. So the tiny lightnings will restart a heart. Will the person so struck resume breathing as well? And how can I stop someone's heart in such a way that it can be restarted in this manner, so that I can know the right way of the pummelings with certainty?"
Generally speaking, five minutes without blood flow to the brain is largely irrecoverable by non-magical means. CPR can, perhaps, extend this out by another 10 minutes or so, but even with our knowledge the exact specifics are still a bit uncertain. You can further increase the recovery window a few minutes via chilling the body by roughly 1%.
Yes, yes. People may think that lack of breathing and heartbeat is death, but that is not fully true.
Mind persist in the brain for a short while without these. For a very short while.
But I think that I mentioned before, ability to restore breathing and heartbeat is rare. Perhaps after very recent choking or drowning the chance, while still small, is the biggest.
I wonder when spirit starts to be in the underworld? When heartbeat stops, or when there is no longer mind in the brain?
What happens to magic or spirit in one of these rare cases when heartbeat is restored, and there is still mind of the brain, even if damaged...
When spirits and magic understand that death happened? Lack of heartbeat? Or lack of mind in the brain? Or start of decay?
Spirit is like highly imperfect reflection of the mind in the dying brain? When exactly this imperfect reflection is created from the mind in the dying brain?
"These are all questions I too would like answered better.
"By trial I have determined that smashing any person's or beast's head to paste in a single blow most reliably and immediately begins the coming-into-being of its spirit in the underworld.
"And at times by delving I can find and begin to draw that spirit out of the underworld before an onlooker finishes their next breath. The stronger the spirit, the sooner I can find them. Of course, the stronger the spirit the more difficult it is to draw them forth on my terms.
"At other times, I cannot connect with the spirit in the underworld for days, if ever. And that goes for strong spirits as well. Those number the most among those found swiftly, but they also evade me and turn up on their own later.
"It cannot be good for a person to drown and return, can it? How many times do you suppose I can drown a person and then put breath back in them by pummeling and lightning before they are unable to return from their next drowning?"
That actually is an interesting question. Is there an acculated weight that builds over time that results in the nature of the spirit, or is it simply what's present at the time of death? Is there interaction between the electrical, neural activity and the formation of spirits?
"The state of a person or beast when they die has greater influence than that of any other single moment, to be sure. Most beasts and any lazy person who does little with their life are more likely to leave behind a spirit shaped by any but the most peaceful deaths. It is said that most animals die to violence, outside winter. This is believed to be the reason most spirits are troublesome, but fewer show up in winter and early spring.
"If an animal dies to the cold or to a poison that does not cause them distress but only lulls them to a sleep they will never awake from, then their spirit will almost surely be defined by their nature and the manner of their life. That does not mean they will not be troublesome. Songbirds, for example, leave pestering spirits even when they die with the greatest possible peace.
"A person who does not expect to die in their sleep or who otherwise dies peacefully is more likely to leave a spirit that is defined by their character or the manner of their life, if their spirit is known at all. But if a person knows they are freezing to death, they may leave a troublesome frost spirit of the sort more recently often persuaded to keep ice halls. And if they know they were poisoned, again, their spirit is more likely to be shaped by that, grasping at the wakefulness of others as they did at their own as it slipped away."
Could the increased neuroplasty (that is, Bianca, the malibility and ease a mind changes patterns) that can be achieved via mushrooms and LSD be utilized to shape the resulting spirit?
I would assume some form of counciling leading up to predictable death is already utilized to mellow the person and have them embrace their coming end to ease the transition, but I wonder how utilizing such techniques might be used in this way.
"I don't know of the second herb, but there isn't any note of any spirits standing out for being left by people who made excessive or particular use of the sort of mushrooms you refer to.
"Most people who are known to be dying rather than, for example, found dead are already cared for by their family. And that care continues on to the point of death, after which the body is increasingly burned to ash and that ash added to the nearest batch of black soil steeping at that time. Some are still buried, but I have made that less common, at least.
"If one who is not with family, or who has none, or who is unloved but not fully despised is known to be dying the people near them will look after them with varying degrees of care.
"The Free People of the Ten Nations have long been led to believe that my singers know a magic by which they can wickedly curse anyone who does not look after them from the underworld itself. Some among the wise disbelieve, but it is commonly taken as true. So my singers tend to be looked after with care as they die.
"It is expected that any village will look after a ranging hunter or other traveler who is of the Ten Nations who is ill or dying for a time, at least. But if winter is hard, they may be cast out. And if their spirit returns to trouble that family or village then it will fall to some wise person to deal with them.
"Outsiders among the people or even some of the people who are well and truly unloved may be given medicine of confusion and placed in a false house and surrounded by false caretakers of hide and straw if they take long in dying. The idea is to trick the dying into thinking they are looked after without bothering much to look after them. Afterward the false house and false caretakers and the corpse are all burned together and also added to the nearest pile of refuse being turned into black soil. Sometimes they don't wait, but this is known to be needlessly foolish. Who cannot wait for death?"
Further, if there is interaction between the brain and created spirit directly, I wonder if one might utilize damage to specific regions of the brain that control various things might shape the spirit that results.
For instance, if you damaged the region of the brain responsible for memory and erased a person's memory of where they live as a consequence.
Might be interesting to get Bianca a detailed list of what the various regions of the brain do so she can experiment.
Kind words, medicines that can ease pain, and maybe even yes psychodelic mushrooms are interesting as ways to create more decent spirits out of slowly and inevitably dying people. Now, I know no ways of spirits, but it sounds reasonable.
"I would like to know more about what parts of the brain perform what function, certainly. But I already know the answer to the question I believe you are considering asking.
"Be mindful that I lived many, many more seasons -- countlessly many -- before my confinement. I knew many, many people. And many of those people suffered injuries of various sorts.
"So I knew even then that the brains of beasts and people have a great deal to do with the manner of them, with their ability to take action, and what sort of actions they might take. I knew, though I might not recall the specifics anymore, of a way by cutting and then grinding and then cutting further to leave a person insensate but alive for days. Some simply died, to my error or to my misfortune. But others did not, simply staring blankly or sleeping as they could not be awoken.
"No matter by what means death came to a person so incapacitated, any spirit of theirs that came from the underworld woud reflect only events up to some point in the process of cutting at their brain. So they might be the spirit of one who died tormented. Or if first struck senseless such that they wouldn't know of the cutting and grinding and further cutting, their spirit might be one that reflected the way they lived their life even if their actual death came joint by bleeding joint, starting at their edges."
Edit 1: Along these lines, Bianca is immortal, but is she immutable? Would a Spike in the brain cause personality or memory alterations? Could these be rendered lasting by leaving the Spike in place so the brain can't use whatever templete it does to just repair the damage from backup?
I also wonder about uses of water power. Monjolo is used. Saw operated by waterwheel power was beyond quality of crafts possible for the tribes when it was attempted. If I remember this right, it was eighty years ago. Fine enough, this happens, we are limited and even when we try to be sane, we can imagine unrealistically perfect crafters.
What about spinning wheel powered by a small waterwheel, possibly with water coming with some force out of pipe, freeing both hands of workers? It's a concept much smaller and less complex, I think, than a saw. Possibly even one axle could power a few spinning wheels.
Both waterwheel and spinning wheel are wheels, so only axle needed, not a complicated device for making one type of movement into another. Need to make one type of movement into another was the main thing that killed the first waterwheel saw, I think.
It may still need a few years of testing, but I always like to say and I shall say again: a few years of costs are nothing when nations can benefit from improvements as long as new wisdom persist.
If the concept proves doable, then perhaps in biggest villages spinning could be done in one building, owned equally by the whole village, with water-powered devices.
"The spinning wheels that spread through the then Nine Nations faster than the reaper and thresher devices spread now do not spin endlessly or continually. The more proficient the spinner, the less often they need to stop spinning, yes. But twenty or a dozen or even four spinning wheels would not all start and stop together, would they?"
Random aside. I don't know much about steel and weapon making, but could the Japanese method of folding steel work given their incosistant quality of iron or did the Japanese have a different problem that solved?
Ah. Bianca, before the spell cuts off, I have some questions for you.
First, how far has the knowledge of cannon production spread beyond the Ten Nations, as a rough guess? You have already told us it is not far, but by contrast we know that the Giants who were recently conquered were making cannon at the very least.
"I do not know that anyone outside the conquered cities knows how to make cannon at this time. But it seems that word has always traveled just a little further than I know, so long as that word is not a close-kept secret. And even then, who knows?
"They are little more than tall, thick-walled pots with the hole for fire-setting, though. Anyone who sees one, especially if they see or hear of the manner of its use, has an opportunity to reckon its making. They will have the same problems we have and perhaps more. But surely anyone can tell that cannon are worth the trouble."
Second is how productive farming is within the Ten Nations. We are aware that the people are generally well-fed, but what proportion of the population is entirely concerned with food production in order to maintain that state of affairs? I would also like to know what the biggest and most labor-intensive parts of food production currently are. I ask mostly because if we know what the biggest inconvenience of food production currently is, it will help us with providing more targeted advice on how to make that process require less work to achieve superior results, thus freeing up labor who would otherwise be required for food production to undertake other tasks.
"Except for those watching herds, everyone who is able to do so participates in plowing, sowing, and reaping. The more land that can be worked in that fashion, the greater the benefit to the people. An abundance of food is prosperity. That is in the lands of the Ten Nations. But even in the cities many leave to harvest.
"So in those times that is where the greatest labor is done. In other times many people are needed to tend the crops as they grow, but perhaps not every able person."
Third, I would like to know what the most common illnesses are that befall the people of the Ten Nations. I might be able to identify them and provide specific measures to reduce the number of people they take each year with that knowledge, thus strengthening the Ten Nations in the process.
"Years ago, you told me of several diseases caused by tiny life, and by deprivation of nourishment, and by poisons which act like tiny life in that they multiply themselves but only do so only within and by the devices of life and are not life, for reasons not made clear.
"The shitting sickness is still known. But it afflicts fewer people and the people believe it's caused by tiny life that travels from the shit of one who suffers it to the water drank by others through the soil. So there are rules for digging wells and piling shit. And there is less shitting sickness in the land of the Ten Nations than in the Conquered Cities. And there is less in the Conquered Cities than in the lands ruled by outsiders.
"The people continue to suffer the pox, as well. But when one has it, those who have survived it before are instructed to gather their castoff scabs for medicine as you directed. The scabs are dried out, ground to dust, and that dust is blown by reed into the nose of my table-rulers who are present first, then my present singers, then those closest to the poxed, and then outward from there as supply permits. Those who have inhaled the scabbed powders are marked once when they receive them. And a second time when my table-rulers determine the medicine was proof against pox.
"We have since found the cattle pox. It is known to spread to people who handle the udders or especially the sores of the afflicted cattle. So when it is found and for as long as it catches, young people and bond captives are made to handle the udders in milking the cattle and to rub at the sores also. And then the scabs of their own sores are gathered for medicine as well. By these means there are fewer who die to the pox.
"As you said it would, teaching the people to expose themselves to the sun has lessened the number who suffer rickets. In places there are no young people who know of it. And though scurvy is still found, nearly all are made to recover by medicine of nourishment.
"Worms such as you described are rarely found in people, but do turn up in beasts.
"And speaking of the illnesses of beasts there is the lathering madness of them which passes to people as well. It is known that if any person is bit or their skin otherwise broken by a dog or weasel or cat or any animal whose mouth is lathered and who is filled with rage, that person may take to madness themselves and die. A wise person may do medicine to the one so bitten, but when the madness sets in there is no real hope. They must be restrained until they die. Is there medicine you can tell me of for this?
"Fevers afflict the people by various causes; diseases of the tiny life that spread from one person to another, or poisons in food or water, or for no reason known. Some who live through their fever are weaker of will or wit. Some are struck lame.
"Any number of rashes or growing stains on the skin are known. Many heal with salve but some foretell of greater illness.
"Tumors also afflict the people from time to time. When the sufferer has the will to undergo it and my table-ruler who is near them feels there is need, they may be cut out. More people survive these and it is surely due to harsh washings of both the table-ruler's hands and the tumored person, boiling of instruments of cutting and the threads of binding, and care of wounds afterward. But some still take ill from the cutting, or are consumed by other tumors which they continue to grow, or die for reasons unclear.
"And there are other wasting sickenesses, too, where no great tumors are known. Often there is coughing, but sometimes there is none. And when the person has wasted away if their body is explored the wise person or table-ruler who does so may also take to wasting away. But they may find lesions within the organs of the dead, too.
"Some also die to digestion. At times a whole family will take ill from a shared meal. At other times only some few within the family. And they might live by the same medicine as other shitting sicknesses, or they might not.
"Some are taken by convulsions. And some of these recover after a time of illness following their convulsion and perhaps preceding it. Others die. And there are some who convulse from time to time throughout their lives but do not die except perhaps to injuries by falling in convulsion.
"Among the most common illnesses, though, are those of wounds. Wise people know that wounds should be kept clean and tell the people they care for this as well. But sometimes the wound takes to festering anyway. And also there is a difference between what the wise know and what is done by those they tell what they know."
Fourth, an accounting of the most common types of rocks in the lands accessible to you would be greatly appreciated. How hard they are, what color streak they make if scraped across a pottery tile, coloration, any particular shape they tend to take when found, all of it. If provided this information I can perhaps identify all of those rocks, any useful materials that can be extracted from them, and instructions for how to do so.
Sorry, @I just write, this is too big an ask. Answering this question would require a whole lot of research and yield only a few lines of content. I might have taken the time in a different update, but this one is already about twenty thousand words and isn't all that close to done. And it might be different if the geology of the area were more of a passion of mine. But it happens I'm not a rockhound and my interest in the region does not predate the start of this game to that kind of depth.
As it stands I'm just going to skip this question. We can say Bianca missed it.
Geology is certainly important. It is the Science of Time! But it's going to have to be explored in a way that doesn't demand quite the amount of work from me that cataloging the geology of the region would. Maybe make suggestions of what to look for, instead.
For example, in the previous game there was a player who wanted to tell that younger Bianca how to make porcelain. And since that game took place in an alternate Zaragoza there were actually deposits of the necessary minerals located nearby. If that player had looked into what those minerals look like when they're found in the earth, they could have told Bianca what to look for and she'd likely have gotten her hands on a very valuable trade good.
"Hm. That would be a good thing to know. But I do not. Perhaps one or two in five at the worst times and as little as one in ten at the best times?
"We know that they burst most often when they are new or when they have had much use. Some cannoneers will drive a copper spike into the touch hole of a cannon they determine is no longer to be trusted, to ensure that they cannot be asked to set fire to it.
"The highest risk is easily when fire is set to them, of course. Beyond that, when fire is set to them again and again in a single battle they are more likely to burst."
Last is the question of how becoming Undying works. It is useless to us due to being in a place where magic is largely inaccessible if present at all, and you can rest assured that we will not share it with anyone else in your world (you being our sole point of access after all). Despite these factors I will admit to being quite curious. It would tell us much more about the way magic works in your world, and may help us refine our advice in future.
"As ever, I will not answer questions about my nature. I know the substance of my being very well and do not require advice in that regard. And if I could choose that there should never be another whose power is similar to or greater than mine then of course I would direct it to be so."
General idea: get a rough stone in a wheel shape. Mount it on a construction such that it can be spun up to speed by using foot peddles.
When it is dark, apply various iron samples to it and observe the pattern of sparks emitted. Make recordings, and then try to proceed with using the metals to make things. Make a note of which spark patterns correlated with iron that produced good quality products.
In this way you can know before which chunks of iron will produce good quality items.
Honestly this is the first I've heard of spark testing, but the idea makes sense. Perhaps put a slightly damp piece of paper under the sparks so that the pattern of sparks can be recorded for later comparisons? The sparks should char points on the paper when they touch it, but the slight dampening will ensure the entire page doesn't ignite.
"As I understand your description, some stone -- flint perhaps? -- should be carved into a wheel shape and mounted so that it can be spun at a good speed. Then the iron should be held against it and the manner of sparks it throws observed. These can then be compared to other manners of sparks thrown by other irons. And in this way we might know if iron has been purged or if it still has some or a great deal of the substance of charred coals or if there is some other stuff in it. Is that so?
"This is very good knowledge to have, Katsu. Can you also tell me of means by which iron ores may be judged? We know to check with lodestones and to look for certain rednesses.
"Hide does not catch so easily, Black Cat. It may not char so easily, either. But I do not know that paper, when it can be had, should be used for this purpose. And how would it char if it is wet? Charing is burning, is it not?"
You can also apparently see carbon and impurities under lens magnification, but I'm not sure what level of magnification is needed compared to what Bionca has.
I mean, they've made good enough lenses to occasionally be able to observe microbes in action. Still, from all accounts those lenses are quite rare and difficult to produce.
"Indeed, a single device which might show the tiny life is the work of years and also good fortune. I cannot send such things out with scouts to look at rocks."
About cannons and outsiders, I can see three concerns.
One, it's better to conquer outsiders before they learn too much about cannon. Obviously. With cannons they would be stronger and harder to push down. Free people managed to conquer Giants, but surely because of enemy cannons it was harder than needed.
Two, after a piece of land is conquered, it's wise to wait for a while. Build roads and perhaps a bridge or two, make sure that messages about important things travel well and that tribute flows well, that there is enough horses, things like that.
Third, sometimes there is a giant spirit storm that want to destroy you in the core of your land, and that is much more important than any far-away city of outsiders, with cannons or without.
These concerns need to be wisely balanced, as far as I can suggest.
Because of course, the first one suggest that you should conquer very fast. The second and third, that you should conquer slowly.
"Are you telling me rules or are you telling me about risks, Black Cat?
"In the first, it is clear that the risk is that outsiders will become stronger if they are not conquered. But in that same time that the outsiders become stronger, the Free People of the Ten Nations will also become stronger still, will they not? Is this not especially the case while I have you voices telling me more and more means by which they can be strengthened?
"In the second, what is the consequence of imprudence? Is it that the host will travel more slowly, that the host will starve, that the leader of the host will be unaware of important events elsewhere, or all of these? The answer to this is for the leaders of hosts to listen to my table-rulers who accompany them, I think. The table-rulers keep counts and know what is required to travel and to fight and know how old the messages are that they receive. Conquerors should already be limited in this way. And unless they learn to count as table-rulers do my table-rulers will always be at their sides to tell them when they err.
"In the third, yes, strange and terrible things do happen from time to time. And if the great hosts of the warriors of the Free People of the Ten Nations were out conquering the Cities of the Giants now as the multitude of spirits approaches the lands of the Ten Nations it might be that I would be unable to call them back in time. I do not know what would come of that confluence of misfortunes. I hope that I should not find out.
"There is little way to learn what the right balance is, Black Cat, without watching the scales tilt this way or that. So some must starve for overreaching and some outsiders must be strengthened by accident, I think, in order for the people to learn what they ought."
Sometimes it's possible to create temporary bridges to move host of warriors or supplies. You need basically a series of boats connected together to cross a river, with track built on top of them. Such floating bridges are vulnerable to changes in weather and well-advised mainly during a war or emergency. But I know about armies that were able to cross rivers even with cannons and horses in this fashion.
"Ah, now this is a reason for the people who march to learn from the people who travel on the sea. If the people who march know the making of boats, perhaps even boats which are only good briefly as they are not aged or well sealed, then no river will bar their progress."
Yes, Serpent, you speak truth. I know this concept. It should be sometimes possible to persuade poor outsiders that they should kill their kings and place themselves under the Ten Nations and servants of Bianca, that the Ten Nations or servants of Bianca care about their lessers much more and offer more freedom than current kings. Especially if the best among these outsiders could have hope of marriage into families of the Ten Nations.
A missionary is a special Singer that travels to persuade various outsiders about this and explain how Bianca is greatest among Gods and that killing previous kings and paying tribute to Bianca's People and Bianca is better even for outsiders.
Under wisdom of Bianca, even outsiders that are ruled by the Ten Nations are happier and well feed. Or so can be said, at least. Though I think that in some ways it's truly the case.
Spreading belief that Bianca is better for everyone, better than any other God, could be an useful tool indeed. I only worry slightly that other Gods could be... Offended by this idea.
"'Greatest among gods,' you say. I do not want that fight right now, Black Cat. Let them come at me one at a time.
"But yes, this is the way that people on boats take cities rather than tearing them down. And anything you voices can tell me of what such people will want to hear about their new rulers will help. Unfortunately, they do often want very much to retain the worship of the gods they've worshiped already."
Just Write, your spycraft ideas? Humph. Maybe slightly overcomplicated and may assume very populated and developed nations and cities and trade routes. As there can be more deception only when there are more strangers. But interesting enough.
I don't think that any people of the Bianca's world currently make full use of these concepts... But some simpler may be known, for example scout pretending to be a trader is basically a simple form of a spy with cover identity of a trader. That was already used. And of course these ways of deception can be developed more, yes. And your ways to develop them are interesting.
"These are some of the questions I have, yes. How can an outsider hide that they are an outsider? They will have the look and manner of a stranger, will they not? And how can people be made to turn on their neighbors but not made into the sort of people that will also turn on my far-ranging scouts?
"But it is good to have the plan of a building marked out in the dirt, even if the curves of its arches are not yet known. Those plans can be adjusted as needed while the arches are reckoned. And they are necessary before the reckoning may begin."
I can! Just a bit, for I am no professional smith, but I have watched some work - Low carbon steels produce very few sparks, and those mostly in the direction of the wheel - higher carbon steels produce more sparks, in a wider spread - I do not know what a steel with too much carbon in it does, alas. Let alone any influence of other trace elements.
Quenching and tempering a steel, once you have it.
It is possible to quench steel in warm oils, but you have water and not much oil, so I will leave that be for now. One notable issue, though, with water quenching, is that it can cause cracks and fractures in the steel with a much greater rate of incidence than in oil quenches, which will cause failures in the steel if enough are present and you hit it the wrong way. I don't know the composition of the oils I've seen used, unfortunately, nor do I think that would really help, because they're likely in terms of things you cannot determine yet - you may have to experiment, once there are oils to be had.
Quenching steel repeatedly - for instance, if it warps while you are quenching it, and you heat it up to hammer out the warp again (incidentally, if you know steel is going to warp one way, you can take advantage of that tendency to hammer it the other way and have it warp into the right position) - is not exactly good for the steel. You can do it, but it will weaken the product a bit, as far as I know. I do recall something about it reducing carbon content, so that might be a path to explore if your steel has too much carbon in it. Hopefully, though, we'll figure out how to communicate to you how to make the industrial-quantity tools to make steel with, which allow much finer control of steel production by nature of allowing you to adjust the mixture of stuff in smaller relative amounts.
The appropriate temperature to quench steel at is just after a lodestone no longer tries to stick to the steel. ...You don't have those in any great supply, either, but you can actually sort of make more by, I believe, drawing a piece of lodestone along iron many times in the same direction, which aligns the really tiny bits of iron. It's not the same as the naturally-occurring kind, but it will work. It will also, generally, be the same color even if you have no magnet.
"Is that the right temperature at heating up or at cooling down? As I described to another voice earlier, we have some number of loadstones. Perhaps not enough for every smith. But perhaps we will after the winds of copper make lodestones easier to come by."
Tempering is another key part of making a durable steel - you leave it in an area with nowhere near forging-heat temperatures, but still elevated temperatures, somewhere around those of a cooking fire, I think - I don't know. it's probably a tiny bit cooler than that - for about...Oh, we still don't have time hammered out yet, do we. Timekeeping is somewhat important, but...well, if a day is divided into twenty-four equal portions from midday to midday, or midnight to midnight, four of those pieces is a number I've often heard for how long you temper a piece of steel.
Oh! Timekeeping! Wait, do you have gears at all?
Uh, anyway, while I'm on the subject, the pendulum clock.
A pendulum is a long stick with something heavy (and usually round) attached to one end, suspended on something else. In this case, you'll want to attach it to a ratchet, which is...Do you have springs - not the water feature, but a coiled piece of metal that returns to its original length when pulled or pushed? Anyway, a ratchet is something that makes a gear turn only one way by fitting into the gear's teeth such that it will slide up in one direction, but stick on the other. It may not need springs, just the right shape of gear. I've never actually made one.
So once you have the pendulum, you attach it to some gears, which are attached to hands on the clock face. The smallest gear that has a hand turns 60 times a minute (one second), which is one sixtieth of an hour, which is one twenty-fourth of a day, and each gear that is attached to a hand should turn at those speeds. You can also divide the day in half and have a twelve-hour cycle on the largest gear. ...There are equations for this, I know there are...
"If the heat of the oven cannot be reckoned except roughly, what need is there for reckoning a sixtieth part of a sixtieth part of a twenty-fourth part of a day? This is certainly not a device which can be provided to every smith. As I said some years ago, if I built one, it would be one-of-a-kind. And if another were built they would be two different one-of-a-kind devices.
"And what is the need for troubling with this, in any case? One sixth part of the day can already be reckoned by shadows most days, as other voices have instructed."
Right, okay. So. The key to a pendulum is, a) have it swing in a very small arc, no more than, say, one-two-hundredth of a circle, and b) if you have it swing in a very small arc, the only noticeable thing (for there are definitely other things involved, just not on a scale you can track yet) that determines how long it takes to swing back and forth is the length of the stick it's mounted on. And gravity. But that one doesn't count, yet. We're not at the point where it matters how fast things fall, just that they do.
"But, yes, I understand that the swinging stick with a weight on one end drives one wheel, which can only turn one way by entrapment and which drives others. And you mean that lastly there should be three wheels on which there are other sticks. And one of those wheels should turn once each day, or perhaps twice. And another should turn twenty-four times each day. And the final should turn sixty times for each time the second wheel fully turns.
"Perhaps I will build one of these devices at some point just so I can tell you voices I have one and exactly why every smith does not. But I have other tasks calling for my time and other ways I will spend my time when there are fewer tasks calling for it."
Also another useful factoid - if you make a gear with one tooth or a peg that sticks out of the surface, you can use it to turn another gear one time in X where X is the number of teeth on the gear. I'm sure you could have thought of this but I would be remiss not to explain it anyway.
This is the lowest-technology-requirement timekeeping device I have any idea how to make.
"Thank you, yes. If a wheel with one post at its edge meets the wheel with twenty, and if it must meet and push each of those twenty posts on the second wheel, rather than every other, then the second wheel will turn one time for every twenty times the first wheel turns. This is also how a spinning wheel works, though without 'teeth.'
"Are the highs and lows of technique known by some particular reckoning or are these arbitrary measures? Is the way of measuring a shadow a higher technique than this swinging stick and wheels-meeting-wheels?"
More stuff on gears - hooking up a smaller gear that moves fast to a bigger gear that moves more slowly increases the force with which whatever you're driving with the bigger gear will do, and vice versa.
"Yes, thank you. This has been noted also in the manner of spinning wheels. If one holds the spindle to keep it from turning while another of similar strength turns the greater wheel, the spindle will only hold still by the slipping of the strand that connects the two."
Bianca once mentioned that time reckoner devices made out of steel and gears and moving parts look rather overcomplicated for her. It's good to know that such things could work, certainly. But may be not yet worth the cost.
I myself see no great need yet, when a water container with a hole could be used to roughly measure time, if you know how fast water escape from a small hole.
Ah. One question I do want to ask Bianca is the top 5 causes of deaths / symptoms for non-elder adults and children.
Would help us narrow down medical advice. Advising carefully putting small holes in someone's skull to alleviate lethal swelling doesn't do much if not many people are dying of that.
"If it is written down it is written down in the houses of the table-ruler of each village. I suspect, though, that the top five causes of death for adults who are not elders would be coughing illness, illness of digestion, battle whether slain in the field or mortally wounded and carried away, fever, and misadventure. And it is likely much the same for children but more fevers, few to battle, and with the addition of the shitting sickness.
"Hunger and the illnesses of deprivation were much more frequent causes of death in the past. These still occur, but much more rarely and often take the shape of misadventure in any case."
Apparently charcoal can be used as a moderately effective old timey dehumidifier. Take a closed container, fill it with charcoal, poke a few holes in it, and it will absorb some humidity out of the air. Replace periodically. Apparently you can still burn the old charcoal as well.
"A small pot of charred coals will draw the wetness from the air? Will the weighted horsehair measure of air wetness reflect this change reliably? So far it is not meaningfully aligned with much else, not failings of powder or dew at dawn."
General health: Wonder if we can get people to start wearing cloth face masks as a cultural thing.
Reason for this, Bianca, is because many illnesses are spread from exhaled air and/or bodily fluids. Mask wearing, then, obviously cuts down on transmission rates. It's a pretty low tech solution that has good results.
That is true, but for that to work they would need to boil and then dry face-covering cloth daily! Otherwise germs would reproduce on cloth and... More harm than good done...
That is good advice, but only for surgeons, I feel. Or for all healers when situation is grave, when a disease spreads rapidly.
Boiling masks daily shouldn't, on paper, be a particularly hard thing to do.
In practice I suppose I could see it slipping through the cracks. One mask shouldn't require much cloth, so maybe everyone has a mask for each day of the week and there's a communal boiling once a week?
Keep in mind that with their production methods cloth is still scarce, not plentiful like grass. This is the common mistake of Voices: we imagine more riches than exist.
Also, you know that cloth on your face can be uncomfortable, right? Nothing pleasant.
"Even a single face covering of cloth for each person would be an excess of cloth. And the people need to see each other's faces. It is important that each know where the other is looking. And they get along so much better the more clearly they smile.
"Cloth boiled will break down with time. So this is not a suggestion of so many masks per person. This is so many masks per person per so many years. We do not have that wealth of cloth.
"For those who cut the flesh of people they mean to live, though, that could be done."
How are the state of the roads beyond "surprisingly not terrible" for the time period? Looks like ye-olden roads could maybe be constructed of some mixture of tar, sand, and gravel. Bonus points that it's fairly easy to repair.
"The roads are made of fired bricks, Katsu. And these do break and require replacing. I don't know how many years of the passage of people they can weather, but it is more than the years that have passed and by a large number. But carts and cattle break them more readily. The people are not allowed to drive their herds along roads, as a result.
"It is time consuming enough to fire so many bricks that they stretch across the land of the Ten Nations. I do not know how so much pitch could be gathered. In time, I'm sure, sufficient trees could be harvested. But for now we will stick with brick."
Also. Some surgeons may think that damage to human guts is hopeless, but while germs are nasty in here, it's still better to attempt surgery than do nothing. Hope is sadly not great, but can exist. Afterward wounded person would need to start drinking very slowly and carefully, perhaps a day later. Then attempt eating light foods three days later.
"For a person to have their guts cut open while still alive is torturous, Black Cat. Few who do the work do so eagerly. And if the cutter decides that the matter is not worth their time and trouble, so be it.
"But I will make it known that when they do, the one who is cut should drink their salted and honeyed water slowly after a day or so, and that they should not eat for several days more."
The same concerns removal of infected appendix of the guts, I believe that it was already mentioned, but I don't know if any patient managed to survive.
"There has been at least one, Black Cat. I'm sure there will be more as cutting people open becomes a safer practice and as people come to understand that. But it is very painful to die by the knife of a wise person who cares for you and wishes you well. Some prefer their chances with a pain they do not understand over one they do."
I can remember marvelous small devices for pushing purified medical fluids directly into veins of people, without eating or drinking medicines, but I remember that you cannot yet make something with the size and complexity comparable to ballpoint pen... So I shall return to this wisdom if your crafts improve, or when Bear's People are enslaved.
Also. Battlefield medicine. When there is an army marching against enemy during war, it's good to have skilled surgeons and lesser helpers of surgeons well-organized and disciplined. Why, surgeons are not warriors, you may ask? I tell you why... Well organised healers can move to the remains of the battlefield after fighting ends and start to help wounded, instead of waiting in the camp until comrades of wounded manage to bring them. Maybe even slightly helping or at least killing fast wounded enemies could be of value, of course after your people receive help. I imagine wounded slowly dying during two days in the field, I imagine that this create bad spirits. Help all of your wounded fast, help or kill all wounded captives fast.
"Why would those who cut the living open with the intent that they should not only survive but survive better than otherwise not be warriors, Black Cat? Some are table-rulers. Some are singers. But others are warriors or table-rulers and warriors and so on.
"The leaders of hosts prefer that everyone who marches with them will keep their wits about themselves on the field of battle. And that does extend to the wise people who work medicine.
"Are there some special means of organization you voices know of for medicine during or after battle?"
Also, youth during their labor tribute could hear a few words about basic aid to wounded. Really basic things like "this is how you stop bleeding". It's NOT trying to teach all youths surgery, that is impossible, the point is to teach them how to stop bleeding until skilled surgeon can look at them.
"Oh, yes. That is an excellent idea. The wise people of their villages should teach them these things before their summer of tribute, if they find them suitable. But so long as they are being taught to march and to obey and to lay roads, they can be taught as well the importance of clean bindings and the greater importance of binding by any available means."
"Strange words, new voice. But if you are not speaking madness then I take your meaning to be that I should trap the spirits that come to wrack my lands in some vessel? With most spirits it is much more feasible to simply lull them to peace so that they return to the Underworld than to compel them to any pact not readily to their liking. But the spirits of Forest People are strange in various ways. So it may be that binding some number of them or some portion of the stuck-togetherness of them is possible. I do not know what sort of vessel would be best suited. But there are still Forest People around and there is time to send a singer to ask and little harm beyond the singer's own life if they take special displeasure to the question."
Quick note regarding cloth facemasks for reducing rates of disease transmission: for best effectiveness they need to be multiple layers thick. The outermost and innermost layers should both be tight-woven fabrics, but the in-between layer actually does best if it isn't woven, rather just being a tangled up mess of plant fibers that have been stretched out into a thin layer. This is because the weaving process necessarily introduces gaps through which droplets containing disease-causing microbes can pass, which is undesirable. A non-woven layer of stretched fibers does not have this particular problem; all the individual fibers are tangled up together into a mass where the holes are very small indeed, making it very difficult for droplets to pass through. Masks are also more effective if they tightly conform to the shape of the face; a short bit of wire at the nose area can help greatly with this.
Also, as for what these statistics are that people are talking about, it's a particular form of record keeping that is used to figure out the cause and effect of actions and their results.
Just Write, a few more words. I tried to do some research about wood pulp. Purely mechanical pulping of wood looks indeed possible - but effects would be pretty low quality, something that to us would be known as newspaper. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Looks like the original paper (Chinese) was made with pulped Bark of the mulberry tree (though I'd imagine other barks can be subbed in) and was eventually improved by including hemp, rags, and busted fishing nets into the pulping process.
"I don't know this tree. How can my far-ranging traders know it if they see it? And will it grow in these lands or is it like olives? Or, more meaningfully, is there another tree which can be used similarly? What is it about this tree's bark that makes it most suitable?"
Korean paper, later, also used rattan, bamboo, rice straw, and seaweed.
Seems like it's basically pulping it, draining it, pressing the pulp into sheets, and letting it dry. Doesn't seem like it would be too hard to rig up a water powered or animal powered grinder to handle the pulping part.
"I don't know any of those plants beyond the seaweed. But it sounds as though many different solutions are available so long as some sort of fibrous plant material is beaten to a pulp, flattened, and dried out."
As usual, as long as they understand the general idea they should be able to experiment with what they have locally and figure out what's the best cross section between "Good paper" and "Resources we have that aren't better used for other things."
"Ah. This is like the copper tax for wall building, then? Is the idea that if I demand a certain amount of paper of the people then they will find a way to make paper that is otherwise minimally inconvenient to them? It's a strange world that you voices want me to strive for, surely full of liars, cheats, and thieves. And paper and steel, you suggest. I am unconvinced."
Wonder if it's an option for Bianca to pick an advancement, pick a city / tribe / whatever that pays her tribute and is a good placement for a given project, and assign them to experiment with it.
Newspaper is surprisingly durable actually. It'll be a perfectly decent variety of paper, especially since I certainly don't stand a chance of successfully explaining something like the Kraft process right now.
Details of papermaking certainly need much testing!
Tribes of the Ten Nations, sadly, are "free" people, and thanks to their "freedom" they not always do as told. Only Burgeck decades ago wanted to do everything, and only because they wanted to become priests.
Slightly too much freedom, in my opinion, but... Fine, let's work under this constraint.
There is also your own city, Bianca. If the city of Biancvint is ordered to spend it's resources on testing how exactly make paper, then it would be obligated to do so, right?
Though perhaps free people can be persuaded to experiment. Say to free people something like "I know in my divine wisdom about possible ways to make a new writing material and I shall be very pleased if somebody manage to make it. I'm too busy with more important tasks". And maybe at least a few families would start to dabble in the idea. A few giant stones with written words and great honor for inventors of paper, invention inspired by divine thoughts of Bianca, but details developed by her people. That's also a way if people can be persuaded.
Burgeck never managed to become your priests, but as you said, they benefited from the pursuit, they are the most skilled builders and metalworkers now. Isn't that valuable in itself? Surely some people could start to understand that testing new crafts is useful for a tribe.
That's what Burgeck Tribe was there for earlier in the game. But they, like any other folk, wanted something in return. Bianca wasn't interested in giving them what they wanted and wasn't too invested in what they were doing for her. And I guess I didn't make it sufficiently clear to the players that the game's research feature wouldn't keep working if it was neglected. So now there isn't one. If the players get a sufficiently motivated and resource-rich group set up again then, "Figure this out," type research can commence again.
"People do what they do for their own reasons. The most powerful families of the Burgeck got it in their heads that they could live off the work of others as they thought outsider priesthoods did. The Zouchaud and Naumo wanted better boats. Everyone wants better iron and glass and such. Give me solutions to the problems that the people want solutions to and they will do what they can to work them out."
Wonder if a smaller scale steam engine could be built. If my understanding is correct, you have a sealed metal chamber with plate connected to a rod with water under the plate. You heat up the water turning it to steam, forcing the plate to rise. A valve opens at the top, letting the steam escape into an attached cooling chamber (actively cooled with external water). The plate falls back down without the steam, and the steam that's turned back into water enters back in under the plate through a lower pipe/valve where it's turned back into steam and repeating the cycle.
The up and down rod is attached to a beam up above and tilts the other side down as it's pushed up. The other side is also attached to a rod, which is attached to a wheel. This motion forces the wheel to turn.
The earliest uses for this kind of this was pumping water out of mines, and then eventually transportation and what not.
I dunno if you could get much power out of it until they have good steel, but a working model could be built out of brass so they know what they're doing when they have good steel. Have the idea / tech ready to go now for when materials catch up.
And who knows, maybe there's some smaller scale uses for a brass steam engine.
I think that it's good to know that a device to produce movement out of steam is imaginable, but I also think that without truly GREAT quality of crafts it would probably explode instead.
A full scale one? Probably. A model sized one? Pretty sure we have working model brass ones you can pick up these days, which means it can be safe.
I mean sure, some are probably going to explode and horribly scald and puncture wound some people, but that's going to happen when they inevitably get around to trying it later anyhow.
A working model means that once iron / steel is worked out they can scale it up with minimal fuss instead of having to do the whole inventing process later. Saves a few decades of research and development to work on the things side by side.
Does make me interested to keep in mind other things that could be built at a scale level and then easily expanded once the other tech needed to do so exists to shave off further decades of development.
...Though I do have a picture in my head of tiny brass steam engines turning normally hand or foot cranked things, I'm not sure how practical that would be.
"Why would the plate fall again in this device? While the steam has lifted the plate and escapes to the cooling side, there is already steam in the cooling side turning back into water to reenter the sealed pot and… No. Wait. Why doesn't the steam simply go out through the cooling side and leave the plate down?"
Oh, in regards to foot cranked things, do you know how to turn a spinning wheel by foot? One type of movement would need to be changed into another type and transferred to the wheel, right?
The fact that a massive population increase is possible much earlier on this world now could spare it the possibility of overpopulation in the far future, once the growth stabilizes.
That means more resources per person, and a higher quality servant in general.
Then again, sheer numbers mean new, useful ideas are brought into being in a much faster way.
But this world is not ours, and a solution fitting this particular world will be found without us pushing it one way or another.
"To hear it, the lands in the south are already greatly peopled, more greatly than the lands of the Ten Nations. If it is true that more people mean more useful ideas being made real, then those more prosperous lands would have the greater number of products of useful ideas. And perhaps they do. All the more reason the Free People of the Ten Nations need to get down there and take them from them."
Bianca is probably confused by your words. Why population growth would stabilize after initial "massive population increase"?
Currently, family is the most important for the free people. You cannot have more power for a family from wealth, because wealth must be shared with your tribe. The best way for your family to be influential? Have as many children as you can.
A family of 100 is mighty, and their elders enjoy much power. A family of 10 is puny.
There is not enough greed that could cause people to value money more than children. Among the free people, power comes out of children, not money.
I can see cities where people decided to own more devices instead of having children, but under the Ways of the Pact that is unlikely.
"How could a family prosper from greater wealth and fewer children? The rulers of the cities conquered by the Giants had greater wealth than the Free People of the Ten Nations had ever known. But they did not get to keep it. How would a small family prevent others from simply taking their wealth? The customs of the Ten Nations prevent discord, so that even small or unfortunate families share in the prosperity of others. In outsiders who are without those customs the prosperous and their allies can take what they want from smaller families."
I would argue that too big families should be subtly discouraged, a smaller family works better, better knows who is well suited for what task. Above around 150 people some youths should be allowed or even encouraged by singers to create a new family. But when we still can offer new methods for production of food, then there is no yet need to discourage having children.
When all of the wisdom imaginable and possible shall be known, and even with our advice that should be in the far future, then limiting people to numbers well below any risks of famine may be of value. Not now.
"It happens that larger families only persist under strong leadership. Mortals die, though, and while two worthy leaders in a row is possible, three is unlikely and four nearly unknown. So discord forms between factions within the family who are bound by relation or inclination or what have you and soon enough the overlarge family is a collection of families of various sizes. And some of them may go elsewhere, to other villages to to start anew."
If Bianca ever needs to discourage having children among someone, then I can advise that there are many forms of sexual pleasure without any possibility of children. Some men like other men and some women other women, for example. Not everyone is well suited for that, but... But even in between a man and woman not all pleasure must come out of form of fucking that create children.
"Do you think the people do not already fuck faces and hands and asses? Or that women do not fuck women already? The people fuck stones and pottery and leather shapes stretched and stuffed with straw and slicked with grease. I do not know how you mean to encourage such acts over the sort of fucking that leads children. But if you mean that the people should be taught something new you will need to tell me something new to teach them, if such even exists."
The most useful use of the Glass Tree, I imagine, are the aforementioned trap (Leave it in your hoard for people to look and be ensnared) as well as coercion. I'm sure you'll want secrets from others again in the future, and you can expose them to the tree, then after they are ensnared, allow them to only see the tree should they divulge some secret or another. Repeat as required until all secrets are extracted.
"I also like to look on my hoard. And I do not wish to learn if I may be consumed by the Glass Tree of Light and Colors.
"And it happens that I have means by which to coerce answers, though more surely answers the questioned person believes I want to hear than answers which are true. But it is the same sort of withholding.
"As I told you voices at that time, there was a secret group among the Lan who had taken to calling up spirits of Lan traders who were fixated on certain precious objects. They would allow these spirits to act through them, and in that way knew joy and pleasure otherwise beyond their experience when holding or rolling around in precious things. I killed most, marked the rest, and took the precious things. Now I can call those same greedy spirits to act through a prisoner and once they know the ecstasy of greed fulfilled that prisoner will do anything to feel it again so long as the spirit is in them.
"An advantage of this method over using the Tree similarly is that in this way, no one has to interact with the Tree. I'm sure there could be some device that would reveal the Tree and hide it again, but what happens when the device breaks? Better to leave the Tree in a hole in the ground."
Pretty sure if it comes down to it, introducing reliable female birth control by itself does a decent part of the heavy lifting for population growth rate reduction.
Though, something to keep in mind if this continues on long enough. Probably don't want to see what happens if these people start "killing" the planet with climate change.
"You may be sure that not every pregnancy is one that the pregnant person would have chosen, had they the chance. So, yes, if you know a means of prevention as you might be saying then it would only be reasonable to expect some drop in the number of children produced."
Can someone please explain statistics to Bianca? I've been trying to think of a good way to do it, but I'm honestly stumped as to how and this period of messaging is almost over.
Statistics is the practice of collecting numbers to better understand situation and changes to the situation. Like for example a number of children per 100 children that die as small children, before the age of 5. If you collect such a number, and after fifty years you measure it again and it's smaller, then probably something changed for the better in medicines or foods or ways of living. If it's much higher, then probably something is worse and needs significant thinking about. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Good numbers can be shown to everyone and used to praise wisdom of Bianca and servants of Bianca. Imagine a giant stone that says with carved words: "Much more children live in the year 100 than lived in the year 50. Because now people understand more wisdom of the Undying Bianca. Praise wisdom of the Undying Bianca."
Bad numbers, ugh, do not mention them, but think about them. Or rather, try to understand issues that are shown by numbers.
"Is that all? Is this not what table-rulers do? Or do you mean that the number should be gathered together from everywhere as they were with the beatings of children and their injuries? But you mean that for everything that can be counted and all the time? I would need far more table-rulers.
"How is this different from counting? Is this not what numbers are for?"
"Oops! We ran into some problems."
"Please enter a message w/ no more than 300k characters."
I wasn't much over, but I also wasn't going to trim.
So this update is posted in two parts.
I'm not 100% on chiming in here, but if I'm overstepping then I'm certain other voices will stop me.
Hail Bianca, just a friendly neighborhood voice here, but if you're capable of any of the following, it might prove fruitful in your fight against the spirit beast:
1. Form your own, loyal, counterpart of a spirit beast to command in combat.
-A trail of death and misery has been left behind which undoubtedly produced more than a few spirits. Maybe gathering a few guardian/protector spirits and finding a suitable power source to super charge them could be an angle of approach? Maybe Giant spirits are mighty and useful enough to release in close proximity?
+This may or may not take lives from existing 10N folk, depending on the zealousness of those who wish to defend their people, but it's not required at all- from what little of magic we're allowed to know. Aside from cost to generate, this approach could save more personal investment/risk and 10N lives/resources. However if it beggars most of the 10N with the price, then it's unlikely to be worth it except as a last resort.
Exactly this would be great if the test A Levy Against the Dead had gone better. As matters currently stand, it would undermine the weight of the tests if their results could be undone or circumvented by just saying it should be so.
In the Burning Wheel system that I've mangled for use in the tests there's rule called Let It Ride: "A player shall test once against an obstacle and shall not roll again until conditions legitimately and drastically change… A GM cannot call for multiple rolls of the same ability to accomplish a player's stated intent. Nor can a player retest a failed roll simply because they failed." So when it comes to researching composite spirits for the purposes of dealing with the Tempest, Bianca won't get better or worse than the +1 die bonus to the fight she already has without a radical alteration of circumstances.
As a reminder, players can improve the odds that suggested courses of action will work out by providing suggestions that give bonuses to the tests those choices lead to. In this case, for example, while players might not have enough information to suggest avenues of magical research specific to the system they might have made suggestions that improve any sort of research or spitballed about magical stuff and hoped for the best.
On the one hand, the results of a test like A Levy Against the Dead can be worse than player advice, as readers may note from the '1 or fewer successes' entry. On the other hand, tests can introduce new and lasting bonuses like heroic characters or, in this case, a +1 die bonus for Bianca against composite spirit entities.
"It is possible to send one spirit against another if they are opposed in their natures in some way. For example, every songbird spirit pest tends to oppose every other songbird spirit pest, even if they arose from the deaths of different kinds of songbirds that would not drive each other from their territory when alive. If a witch determines that the local pest is the spirit of a chaffinch, they might snare and keep a blackcap and prepare it by some means so that that witch specifically will more easily compel its spirit. Then the witch would kill the blackcap by a sleeping poison and, if they are not too unfortunate, its spirit would return from the Underworld and drive away the spirit of the chaffinch. And when sufficient time has passed that the witch is sure the spirit of the chaffinish will not return and having prepared the spirit of the blackcap so that it is weak to their personal will, the witch may lull the spirit of the blackcap to return to the peace of of the Underworld.
"This is a solution for a very particular sort of witch and pest in particular circumstances: a witch whose strength of compulsion is great enough to lull some spirits but not sufficient to force the original pest off and in a place where they cannot simply hang warding eye signs around. And in the same way, the particular witches who will stand with me against the storm of spirits and the circumstances of that stand do not suit such a solution.
"Firstly, the alloy of spirits is known to have such a will of its own that it might break the minds of some who attempt to compel it. Secondly, no spirit is known to be naturally opposed to the spirits of Forest People. Even the spirits of other Forest People with a different tongue from different lands might cooperate or even subordinate themselves as often or more than they will take some oppositional action. What is known of Forest People spirits is that they look after the Forest People and act in a more varied and seemingly reasoned manner than any other sort of spirit. So if some outsider witch has a dispute with a Forest People spirit they might deliberate with the spirit or with the Forest People that spirit looks after to resolve the dispute.
"But there are no Forest People this storm is looking after. And it has only responded to attempts at deliberation to implacably assert its intention to punish a great evil. What great evil it does not say. But it's path sends it into the lands of the Ten Nations. So it is reckoned that they mean to punish me or my people for what we did which led to the cursed woodlands.
"It happens, as well, that Giants are great by the gift of Rorqual, conditional on their not faltering in their greatness. The spirits of Giants have neither that gift nor the duty to greatness it comes with."
2. Form a seal of some sort to trap the spirits within to be purified.
-Uncertain exactly what resources would be required but possibly metal sealed in a portable, round size with a magical absorption and Purification enchantment on it? The design would be for the purpose of having yourself or others of your choosing to toss them at the creature and either A. Trap the entire spirit inside of a single capture device, or B. Wittle away at the spirits over time as a collective.
+Resources should only be wasted in the testing, which could be done on specifically hunted haunted spirits- which also hits two birds with one stone, as it allows an "excuse" to finally start on a solution to the Forest as well. If it's even remotely effective against the enhanced creatures within the haunting, it's worth including as a back up to any existing plans that allow it, let alone the possibility of being simultaneously useful against the incoming beast.
While the vote in the update before last resulted in Bianca researching composite spirits specifically as a result of, "prepare whatever magical or mundane methods Bianca sees as likely to work," she didn't research sealing spirits away, so this can still change the game.
That is, this is what I'm talking about.
"Those who are wise enough in spirits to know how and whose will is strong enough for the task may make pacts with spirits. In this way, spirits may be bound after a fashion. Those pacts may concern an object and its keeping, and in that way those objects may serve as a seal on the pact in the way a pot may be sealed with wet clay.
"But doing so requires some cooperation of the spirit. Something the spirit wants must be offered, even if all that is offered is, 'I will not compel you to return to the Underworld.' And spirits can only be bound to take actions that are in some way in their nature. So if the storm of spirits can be bargained with -- perhaps after it is first weakened -- and if quiessence or some other alternative to rampage is somewhere in its nature, then something like this sort of binding might work.
"Off hand, I do not know of magic that could be placed on a stone such that a spirit struck by the stone would be bound to it in some way. There are rituals which influence the nature of the spirit that will come into being in the Underworld following the death that is in that ritual. And those who have the will and ability may compel spirits to act after some aspect of their nature they might not otherwise act after, to leave, to stay, and to return to the Underworld in peace. Beyond that, working with spirits is a matter of bargaining or arranging circumstances so that their natures lead to them taking a desired action. Wards are included in this last, which is why they must be made specific to the sort of spirit to be warded off."
Not to pry too much into your magic, I know you refuse to reveal things, but you have said to give suggestions so you could attempt them on your own if plausible:
Could you contest opponents in a conceptual manner, to increase your power somehow?
Example: You are Bianca the Undying and have been, no matter how long you were unable to walk the earth. That might not only have political/immediate weight, but mystical/magical as well. If it could be tapped into, then it might allow your weight of existence to contest death gods without the concerns of any lesser.
"Anyone may contest with a god in the same way they would contest with another person. They may take actions the god has forbidden or refuse to act as the god has demanded and in either case challenge the god to punish them. They may also direct others similarly, further challenging the god's authority. They may say that the god is wrong about this or that. They may claim to be superior to the god in knowledge or in some skill. They may work tools or weapons or magic against the works of the god. And if they meet the god in the flesh they may contest them, tool and weapon and flesh to tool and weapon and flesh.
"I do not understand the conceptual means by which you mean me to contest a god. How would that work?"
That being said, can you gain power from deicide without ascending upon that particular entity?
Examples: Drinking their blood, consuming the brain, keeping them alive as only a head (being knowledgable in both surgery and magic might be necessary here), forging their soul into a cloak, so on and so forth.
"Similar things have been done, yes. Quar, the first of the new gods, ate half of Crocodile's heart and Togr the Giant god ate the other half and made armor and a shield from Her hide. The Fisher People also made Etrunal out of Crocodile's bones and went to hunt Fish with the god they'd made. But Rorqual found them first and cast Etrunal out of the sea. Yula similarly became a god by eating the whole heart of Deer. And it is not known how Ponam erred with what was left of Deer's body, but he died of some sickness. Erweh came out from the Underworld some time afterward and said he is Ponam, or was, or is his spirit. The truth is murky.
"None have consumed part of a god while another part to live on. I cannot say it could not be done. There is less known than there is to learn of godflesh and such."
Have you tried having an animal associate itself generationally with you on a magical level?
Example: You have the most powerful herd under your control. What if your pick of the litter gained magical strength but you gained the ability to see through it's descendants eyes as they grew.
If not them, then trained warhawks or cats or hounds or any number of creatures that could benefit from your occasional possession.
"I suppose this is happening already with Kahl's Warhorses, though not on any individual horse. I continue to favor the herd at my great house with works of magic and less sorcerous labor both. Though there are now herds of them elsewhere, none grow so large or foal so many as mine.
"Over time, the flesh and nature of these horses is being altered by my magic. But it does not, as far as I know, create a particular connection with me. Perhaps that will change with time or some new fashion of work.
"I do not think so, though. Once they are large enough in number they will need no more from me and I already have no need of them for myself. I can travel faster than any horse, jump higher, and hit harder.
"What do you intend a hawk to do in battle, voice? There's difficulty enough getting a bird to return to their handler. Directing any hawk or falcon that they should attack these people but not those would be a work of wonder. Do you mean them to catch the messenger birds?
"Hounds would make the most sense as companions, as they can be made to follow orders. But keeping them trained takes constant work by the person who gives the orders. It is work for someone who loves such work. And I do not."
No anything to this one, just thinking that if you train it to be loyal and fierce, along with a possible magical enhancement or undying potion, then you'll have a reliable backup when violence is necessary, have an increased intimidation factor without needing to change anything about yourself or how you function, and have a steed of your own to ride that's worth your primal majesty.
Bear cavalry probably should be banned until you develop the tech first hand.
"Oh, certainly. Long, long before my confinement I took it upon myself to hand-rear each and every kind of beast I could find. Bears, I found, are unreliable. They may be affectionate, but on their own terms and not in the manner of a hound's endless love. They may learn to beg for scraps, but are lazy and disinterested in work. They may learn to fear punishment, but will also learn to simply avoid its source. And their back moves in ways that are not especially comfortable for riding. I preferred then as I do now to walk or run on my own.
"They can be very amusing. And I remember having a great many laughs at the way people feared me and my bear, though she was usually too fat and lazy to go through the trouble of properly terrorizing those same people. But when she took it upon herself to make trouble, oh the trouble she made!
"Then there's the fattening and their winter sleep. That keeps them busy for much of the year. No, bears are not worth the trouble."
Anyway, one last thing I can mention before the end of the messaging period is the production of an efficient steam boiler, ball bearings, a rotary turbine, various types of valve, a rudimentary pressure gauge, and how to put them all together into a single machine that converts heat into rotational motion.
So, a steam turbine engine requires a boiler, which is fairly obviously a means of using a fire to heat a volume of water to boiling. That said, to do so efficiently for the purpose of generating mechanical power is less straightforward than it might sound at first. Essentially, the hot gasses from the fire are sent through pipes immersed in the water to be boiled; by using multiple pipes (preferably metal ones for effective heat transfer), the surface area of the hot gasses and water are vastly increased, speeding up the boiling of the water massively. The hot gasses are then vented through a chimney after the pipes are done moving through the volume of water.
Given that these boilers are likely to be under significant internal pressure if applied for any serious task, full scale versions really need to be made of Wrought Iron or Steel, otherwise they are liable to explode. Anyway, the output pipe of the boiler carries steam to the turbine. The turbine is a rotating shaft down the center of the steam pipe with rows of angled fins all around the edge. When the pressurized steam from the boiler pushes against these fins, the angling deflects the steam around in a circle, which causes the turbine shaft to spin around in the opposite direction due to the reaction law. (the reaction law is what we call the fact that shoving anything in one direction results in an equal shove in the opposite direction being applied to the thing doing the shoving).
This spinning shaft exits the pipe on the opposite end from where the steam approaches the turbine; the pipe turns a corner, the shaft goes straight and pokes out through a hole that doesn't leave too much room for steam to escape.
"I understand that you mean to harness the force of steam that would cause a sealed pot to burst. And I understand that the water will turn to steam faster if the fire touches more of the vessel the water is in, which you cause by running the fire's air through pipes through the vessel. This is similar to what you have said of the two-oven iron-melter and the iron-purging pool and such.
"Then, to capture the power of the steam that would burst a more lightly-made vessel, that steam should run past or over a rod with fish fins? This is where the madness starts, I think. How are fins on the rod going to make it move? Sideways I might understand, in the manner of the wheel in the water. But upright, how?"
Where it is necessary to prevent the turbine from rattling around, the shaft is held suspended on a series of Ball Bearings.
A Ball Bearing is two rings of metal, one inside the other. Between them, they hold trapped a number of durable metal balls that cannot escape due to the outer surface of the inner ring and the inner surface of the outer ring being shaped with grooves to hold them in place. As such, when the rings rotate relative to each other, they do not slide and grind against each other. Instead they roll on the steel balls inside the groove, greatly reducing friction, noise, and mechanical wear. Steel is the best material to make Ball Bearings out of, though Wrought Iron or Bronze may do adequately.
"This, though, this is as fine a thing as I could hope for, Just Write.
"I don't know what use the finned rod in the steam pipe will be, but two rings with rolling -- why balls? Why not little wheels of the same depth as the rings? No matter, it will be tested. If this can be made more simply than metal balls then it will be a great improvement to chariots and carts of every sort.
"Would an axle joint like that even need grease? It is amazing what lies hidden in the madness of the cacophony."
The steam pipe will have lost most of its pressure and force after having left the turbine, but there is one last bit of use that can be gotten from it. Route the steam pipe into the chimney and point it up before it vents the steam. This will increase the average velocity of gasses leaving the system, which will serve to pull more gasses from the firebox, which pulls more air into the firebox and allows it to burn hotter, thus producing more steam.
Anyway, the rotational motion from this engine can be very easily used to drive the air pumps for a blast furnace or any of the other iron melters in need of one. Simply use the shaft to spin another turbine, with its fins angled so that when it is spun it sucks air into a pipe and shoves it through the pipeworks of the melting appliance. A grate over the air intake is highly recommended to avoid people getting mauled by the turbine, but all in all this is a simple and effective means of producing a highly forceful air current that is continuous in nature, instead of having the pulsing inherent to a set of bellows.
Other uses for the rotational motion of a turbine can include (but are by no means limited to) spinning circular saws in lumber mills, rotating millstones when the rotation is slowed down and increased in force by gears, and even driving self-propelled vehicles. The use of a crankshaft can convert the turbine's rotating motion into reciprocating motion for applications like water pumps.
"I do see that if your finned rod is moved by air then I should expect a similarly finned shaft to move air if it is spun. Or water...
"Oh! You mean the fins to sit on the rod in the way the wall of a water screw sits in the pipe? Or something similar, anyway. Yes, I think I see what you mean! Instead of the screw pushing at the water as it turns, the steam will push the screw fin to turn it. And since we've no concern about the steam slipping back the way it came the screw fin can turn loosely inside the pipe.
That said, controlling the steam engine will require means for both opening and closing steam pipes, as well as means to tell the current pressure inside the boiler so as to avert disaster. The devices for performing the former function are called valves, while the latter function is performed by what is known as a pressure gauge.
The simplest pressure gauge is just a set of unhinged bellows with a weight on top and no way for air to enter or exit aside from the nozzle, with the nozzle being firmly attached to the inside of whatever system needs its internal pressure measured. The pressure will lift the weight up as it increases, allowing the operator to get a good idea of the system's internal pressure level just by looking at it.
"So the bellows fills like the hot gas bag for flying, but the steam pressure within it is held back by the weight on top of the bellows. The more pressure, the higher the weight can be lifted. Lovely."
Valves for controlling the flow of steam inside a pipe are at their simplest a flat piece of metal made to completely obstruct the pipe when oriented correctly that have been mounted on a pivot inside a section of pipe; a groove in the edge of the metal piece accommodates a gasket that further closes any leaks when the valve is shut. One end of the pivot rod protrudes through a hole in the pipe (made as tight as possible to minimize leakage), and is connected to a lever that the operator can push or pull on to open or close the valve.
I figure that for a steam turbine engine intended to be kept in one place during use, a bare minimum of two valves will be needed. One valve goes to the turbine and controls whether or not it is active. The second vents all the steam in the boiler directly to outside whatever building the engine is in if opened, and serves as an emergency pressure release to prevent the boiler from exploding if the pressure builds too high.
"So the turning screw fin rod can be stopped by two means, then: one stoppers up the steam pressure, the other releases it elsewhere. And these stoppers are plates within pipes that turn to allow steam -- or anything, really -- pass around them or close to block passage. That makes enough sense."
Uh-huh. I suggest writing about these steam devices for possible far future use, as the pure principle is imaginable, but... But I doubt that such complex devices can be created with current quality of crafts and methods...
Certainly the principle that heat could be used to produce movement of devices thanks to steam, the principle is valuable and true. But I had seen this used only by people with crafts much better than even these of the Bear's People, this also Bianca needs to understand to not be displeased with us if attempts fail.
If good steel is available. Hopefully your previous advice would allow them to improve their current ironmaking skills, that are of course highly useful for them, but also truly ATROCIOUS in comparision with things imaginable and possible.
"If the making of the bearing rings is difficult, Just Write, then I would like to hear more about that part. I don't know how you mean the metal balls to be made either, as it happens."
Fortunately the Spark test I pointed out isn't very complicated and should, at the least, make the process more reliable / predictable.
Random silly suggestion: Screw tops for container lids. Basically have the lid of whatever have an inch lip on it or so pointing down with a grooved spiral pattern running down it. Do the same thing with the thing the lid is supposed to attached to. Voila~, you can easily screw the lid on and off. It's not generally going to be air tight, or probably revolutionize anything, but it is convenient!
"I think it would be the work of notable craft to make a pot and lid that met like this and worked smoothly against each other. I will have a metalworker create one and see what comes of it."
Code:
B R E A K
"I am considering calling everyone together and going south. Not to bring them all back close to me, I have no great concern about the dispersal of the Free People of the Ten Nations. But I am displeased with what they've been about these last two years. And I wonder if they'd be more reasonable in warmer lands.
"We'll burn our way through whatever stands between us and those warm lands I hear about where the people don't know what snow is and they have olive and mulberry trees. Anyone who doesn't come with me is welcome to whatever we leave behind. They can still kill each other about it if they want.
"But no. I have too much invested in these idiots to just walk away from the majority of them that I'm sure would stick around.
"When last we spoke, voices, it was the autumn of the year 92 and now it is the summer sunstead of the year 107. Kartz of Lan has been named the new First Chief of the Ten Nations and the Heir of Kuwuzt has been declared the Ruler of the Ten Nations and there is going to be a war about it.
"Oh, I could just tell the Free People of the Ten Nations that yes, in fact King Gazark is their ruler. I have spoken with my singers and my table-rulers and we do believe that would prevent the war. But I won't be doing that. Threatening war is not the way I want the office of First Chief, or whatever Gazark son of Yash daughter of Haput daughter of Kuwuzt the Great thinks he is, to be decided.
"Similarly, it may be that I could find the misbegotten snot and kill him. But I have word from a spy in his company -- received by pigeon one paper and in one-use cipher, thank you very much -- that there are priests of Erweh in his oversized and fortified house in Enonl. And, more particularly, that they want me to come for him personally.
"There is a problem with going out into the world that I don't think you voices ever told me about. And that is that the world comes to you as well.
"Feh!
"Oh, but I should tell you what happened when I faced down the great mass of spirits shortly after the last time we talked. It did not go well. I was unable to stop the spirits, not with all the witches in the land and those fools who bargained away their lives at my back. When the others had fled to the shelter holes or had been swept away by churning stormfingers, I stood alone, anchored to the ground by my magic and contesting with the spirit or spirits for how many days, I could not tell. There came a point when I doubted I was in the world of the living any longer, that I was again wrestling with spirits in the Underworld again.
"But as I fought with and chased after my enemy I came to recognize that we had crossed nearly all the way through the lands of Ten Nations, into the lands of Galugr Tribe on the eastern border. And I saw the stones that marked the distance to the cursed woodlands, and through the storm and confusion and swarming spirits I saw the forest itself.
"Something reached out from it, something pale, grained like wood, wreathed with green flame, and shot through with veins like that of copper in stone. And when the two or innumerable spirits took to fighting I made my way to the edges of their brawl and worked at the edges of both of them. By my will I tore at their members or at what spirit flesh made them up, I could not tell.
"In time there was a sound like shattered glass, like a bronze bowl dropped on solid stone, and like a child run through. And the shadows in the forest reached out and drew in both and all the spirits and I suddenly stood in daylight.
"The lands of the Ten Nations were torn up. It was dark in the storm, aside from the lightning. But as far as I could see there were fingers of the storm that reached down and tore into the ground. In many places there were more trees knocked down than standing. Few houses stood. Any herds that had not been driven out of the way were gored and smashed and smeared about. No channel of irrigation was intact, but filled with dirt swept from elsewhere. Every waterway was choked with corpses somewhere in its course. Even the roads were washed away in places where rivers had been diverted over them.
"Most of the people and their bond captives and harvest and what animals they could fit were in the shelter holes that they'd dug throughout the land. And most lived. But it is not good to find yourself without clean water or a home in late autumn. And the winter was not mild.
"They did not lack firewood for the winter, you may be sure. But where the storm had passed, there were few who wintered in decent houses and more died than you might expect, for all that they had enough food and had some idea of the causes of the sickness that struck them.
"Even the wall around my great house was knocked down. My great house itself was broken up, my hoard scattered. What is perhaps the greater part of my hoard has been returned, though some of the more delicate objects were broken. I cannot honestly estimate how much of what is missing has been stolen and how much was simply lost in the churn.
"Oh, hah! I nearly forgot. Some poor fool magicians from Biancvint who thought to rob my hoard while I was away were interrupted when my great house came apart. They sheltered in that hole in the ground conveniently located within my great house. One was already dead when we found them, and the other two were fully in rapt awe of the Glass Tree of Light and Colors. I had them left to die there. Fools.
"So, yes, it was a difficult winter despite the plentitude of food and firewood. And the people rebuilt in the next few years. Or the ones that stayed did. Many people who might never have otherwise left the Homelands of the Ten Nations now farm or keep their herds in the lands around the Conquered Cities. Or they might live like little rulers of some number of farms people by outsiders.
"You can see -- well, you can't. But it can be seen where the spirit storm plowed the land and where the land was spared. There are fewer great trees and the land has a swept look to it, with gouges torn here and there, dirt piled up in drifts, and rock laid bare. But with a surplus of workers in the form of the bond captives driven ahead of and ultimately saved from the storm, these were all problems that could largely be solved. At least for those who stayed.
"No river boats in the storm's path remained on the river, and few survived intact. The sea boats of Zouchaud and Naumo and the coasts they sat on were all well north of any of the stormfingers. I think all of five cats in the storm path were saved, trapped in baskets with catmint in the shelter holes. And two of those were never seen again when they were let out. Cat keepers from outside the storm path were needed to restore their numbers because, unsurprisingly, the rats recovered swiftly. Burgeck still does not have as many great halls as they did before the storm, unless they are counted in fractions.
"Speaking of the Burgeck, the city once called Liavint was allotted to Tash and Burgeck. They brought all the people of the city out and told them they could either serve as bond captives and be sent away afterward or be sent away that very day. They have renamed the city Unmarked and declared that only people of the Ten Nations will live there free.
"In Unmarked, people do not live like they do in other cities, instead living as though they are in a very large village with fields they must travel to and from. I think they will take up city habits eventually, but they have not, yet.
"My far-ranging traders did find pigeons far to the south. And they learned of their keeping and contrived in time to bring them to the Conquered Cities and the lands of the Ten Nations in as many numbers as manageable. Now travel-cotes move on carts between the cities so that my table-rulers can send messages back and forth and mostly to my great house and back again.
"But pigeons would be of limited use without paper. They can carry little wax and less clay, after all, and bits of painted cloth were the best we had for a time. Paper remains fairly precious, not so plentiful as to be wasted, but plentiful enough that the scraps can be used for messaging by pigeon.
"I have found that pummelling and lightning-by-copper-windings-and-lodestone does not often bring back a person who I have drowned. It was the breathing for them that did the trick, when anything did. Perhaps the tiny lightnings were too tiny, because they didn't make lodestones of note, either.
"The steaming screw turns, but only ever weakly. And it seems as though it is only a matter of time before any one such device of any notable size explodes when someone has both valves closed.
"Rolling bearings are a fine improvement for any axle they can be made for. It's a good bit of trouble to craft them right, and ball bearings are even worse. So most carts, by far, continue to rely on packed grease. But chariots with rolling bearings pulled by horses with bronze shoes move more swiftly and break less frequently, excepting for those that break down early due to poor craft. We still keep them greased.
"Nearly all my singers, table-rulers, and far-rangers now know the making and use of the cipher wheel. And messengers travel between cities and to and from my great house with tablets of clay or wax that no one can read but those for whom they are intended. It is a fine thing when my spies can write so openly to me, without fear of another spy learning what they have written, because the cipher covers all.
"Unfortunately, while individual messages may be impossible to read, or near enough for my enemies, the secret of using the cipher wheel on its own was not so difficult to puzzle out. So now they are in use by people who want to keep secrets from me. So I would like to know more about how to read other people's ciphers, voices.
"Baskets of shot have been very effective with cannon. And a small few cannon of unpurged iron have been cast. And two of those did not explode unexpectedly.
"I would still like to know how the two-oven iron-melter can be tapped and plugged with any effectiveness, but we have more iron now than ever before. There is a mine with pumps powered by donkeys. Ore is crushed by a grist mill, also powered by donkeys. The grist is sorted by wash from the pit the water is pumped into. And when the two ovens are built and run we do get molten unpurged iron of a sort from them. Still working on the purging oven, but at least there is iron enough to toy with in that regard.
"Some purged iron and been cooled into bars which can then be made at times into steel in crucibles with unpurged iron and other stuff. Paper's not so common that smiths or iron melters have it, so they judge the sparks from the flint wheel by eye against fired clay tablets, mark their findings in wax, and pass on what they learn to my table-rulers. And they in turn circulate what is learned around to others.
"I have obtained wine in some quantity, and garlic as well. But I will still want to know how cattle bile is made into salt.
"Wine is very well regarded and the people trade for any that comes from the south. None is traded as far north as the Homelands of the Ten Nations, so I get mine by tribute. One of the Conquered Cities has a vine wall that has grown some few grapes just this year. When their success is better understood, I will see it duplicated here within the rebuilt walls around my great house.
"Garlic is simple to grow and in a few years there will be enough in the gardens around my great house to spread it around further. I have already sent it to Biancvint, as I have made a habit of sending a second set of nearly everything to be kept or grown or known there. If I'd had time to do so before the spirit storm I would not have lost so much written work with the ruin of my great house.
"There has been a great change to the cursed woodlands. For one, there is always ever a storm overhead, there. And from sufficient distance or height by hot bag, a single stormfinger can be seen driven down into its center. And the spirits have changed as well.
"We didn't find any of the bargainers who came with me to draw on their boons and stand against the storm of spirits afterward, neither live nor dead. And none of those who remained in the Galugr lands and sheltered in holes knew of the bargain for that particular boon, which is unfortunate. But it may be that it can be relearned by my Forsworn by study of bargainers and what they bargain with. Or it might be that bargain can no longer be made, as some others are no longer on offer.
"The spirits within what are now called the Stormwoods are much changed. They are just as fierce, dangerous, and wroth. Most of them remain as other spirits are, constrained to few actions and uniform in their replies to certain acts directed at them. But now they also answer to other spirits, and those spirits to other spirits as a bond captive may answer to the one who holds their bond who may answer to another in their family who may answer to their chief who may answer to their chieftain who may answer to the First Chief who may answer to me. And the more removed from that lowest step the spirit is, the less constrained and the more in manner they are like a person. My Forsworn have not found the top of these steps yet, always a spirit says there is another over them. But there is some talk of 'The Five' in a way that suggests final authority.
"My Forsworn are those among my table-rulers who have endured trials of temptation and pain, who have proven their integrity and discipline, who have sworn they will make no deals with spirits without my explicit permission, so that they are allowed to study the bargainers of the Stormwoods. I have not given that permission to any of them, yet. We do not know enough about the Stormwoods Host to know what pacts might be pursued that are both safe and likely to be accepted by the spirits in the cursed woodlands. And no bargainers have found pacts that do not cost them more than I think is worthy or wise.
"So far I have not lost any to the allure of Stormwoods bargains. But I will be surprised if I do not lose one soon. I cannot believe that people could be so true to their word in such numbers, not when there's so visibly much power to be gained, not when they must surely think they could keep it secret. And maybe they have. Maybe some have already broken their oaths to me. We shall see.
"Bear's People now send songs to mock the crafts of the Ten Nations. And it seems that songmaking is not crafts made superior by the Second Gift of Bear, for their songs are not often so great as my own or even the middling best of my singers. They have sent a second work of wonder, as well. It is a brass box, somewhat larger than a large man's head and too heavy to be readily carried by one person. On every face there are devices that slide or twist or may be pulled out or pushed in. And many slidings or pullings reveal more devices.
"And it is another trap, I am sure. Peyuvo asks after it, finally struck in her pride as the finest devicer in the Ten Nations but knowing that this device is greater than any of hers. But I will not let her touch it.
"And related to that, I now have a quantity of quicksilver. It's not much and I don't know what I might do with it other than keep it in a glass container for others to wonder at. But I'm not putting it back in the Mystery Cube, though I did close that compartment back up and reverse the steps taken to reach it. And, of course, I repeated those steps but the quicksilver compartment remained empty. The Mystery Cube does not seem to be cursed or magic, as the Glass Tree of Light and Colors did not.
I renamed one of the in game polities. They follow Yula now and their leader is a High Priestess. In defense of my error this retcon corrects, angels are also called messengers.
"The High Priestess of Yula, who rules over ten cities in the south and quarrels with a family of some fashion who rule over eight cities and are led by certain spirits, has begun picking out my far-rangers secreted in the lands of her cities and telling them to speak to me for her. She says that her enemies, the People of the Family who are called Noarites after their greatest city or perhaps the river it is on, seek to do me harm and cause division in my followers. Kuwuzt died in the winter of the year 105 but the first such message from the High Priestess of Yula arrived in 103, though without details that would have warned me of Kuwuzt's intentions and those who would go along with them.
"I do not think her spies are so great as mine. And yet she has picked out some of my own, though only ones who had been in her cities for some years already. The High Priestess of Yula suggests that I should not send traders to our shared enemies, that I should provide her and other followers of Yula with assistance so that they may better attack our shared enemies, and that I should send a host to sack the cities of the Noarites, no matter the great distance. I am suspicious, and would have your advice in the matter."
[ ] [Accusation] "Message incomplete. Resend with details or not at all."
[ ] [Accusation] Go with it. It's not like their dispute is relevant. Halt trading with Noar and its satellites, give the Yulaites a bit of tech, and tell the rulers of whichever Conquered Cities are closest that Bianca wants them to flatten one or more Noarite cities
[ ] [Accusation] "Everything has a price. How much do you want this?"
[ ] [Accusation] Poison the High Priestess' wells, burn her graineries, have her killed. Send a message that Bianca is not to be trifled with.
[ ] [Accusation] Write in
"An outsider magician who first came to Biancvint to learn from the others there has learned of my Forsworn while making her own investigation of the Stormwoods and wishes to join them. She is clever and numerate and of course has the Talent. She might not know all the disciplines of table-rulers, but she argues that she does not need them to serve me as Forsworn. Should I allow her to undergo the trials, swear her obedience, and study the Stormwoods Bargainers?"
[ ] [Licentiate] Yeah, alright. But make it harder just to be sure.
[ ] [Licentiate] No shortcuts. Let her learn to be a table-ruler first.
[ ] [Licentiate] No shortcuts. Kill her for her insolence.
[ ] [Licentiate] See how much free labor Bianca can get by stringing her along, then feed her to the Stormwoods. There's got to be some kind of deal for a sacrificed mage, right?
[ ] [Licentiate] Write in
"Erweh's priests meddle with my people. Or perhaps they do not. I only have one message and have received nothing further from that singer. If I send others to investigate, it could give away what I know. But if I act decisively I may be acting on falsehoods. What say you, voices?"
[ ] [Influence] Send spies. Send more spies. Then send priest killers.
[ ] [Influence] Just send killers for the priests and for Gazark.
[ ] [Influence] Bianca should go herself. The best way to spring a trap is to spring a trap, so long as it wasn't made by Bear's People.
[ ] [Influence] Do nothing about the message. It might be a trick.
[ ] [Influence] Enough. Call out Erweh as a coward for not facing Bianca himself.
[ ] [Influence] Write in
"Of course, the most pressing question is what to do about King Gazark calling himself Ruler of the Ten Nations and calling for war against any who say otherwise. The people are divided within most tribes and many villages and even with families. Lan and Gawdtha support Kartz of Lan, which makes some sense because despite their greater acceptance of outsiders like those Gazark rules over, Kartz is the Chieftain of Lan and Gawdtha Tribe has grown close to Lan. Zouchaud calls Gazark their Chieftain and First Chief of the Ten Nations, as you should expect. But even though Naumo competes with Zouchaud on the seas, and is lesser for all Zouchaud's successes, more of their chiefs speak for Gazark than for Kartz. Over all, more chiefs speak for Kartz, but many still ask for time to decide or to hear more about the dispute. And more rulers of the Conquered Cities say that the matter is for the homelands and not their say than speak for either together. What should be done about this?"
[ ] [Insurrection] Recognize Kartz of Lan as First Chief and direct him to make war
[ ] [Insurrection] Garzak was tricked; promise him safe passage to and from a meeting place and BIanca will meet him there and talk sense into him herself
[ ] [Insurrection] Stay out of it until and unless Kartz asks for help or Gazark breaks the Ten Ways Pact with violence; then start cracking heads
[ ] [Insurrection] Contrive to kill both of them. Tell the people to pick better leaders.
[ ] [Insurrection] Write in
Can you throw some sort of celebration and very clearly and pointedly remind everyone that you can get directly (i.e. painfully) involved in the elections if it will remind everyone who is the true leader?
What are they even having thoughts of a civil war for as if you didn't just fight the embodiment of 10,000 years of evil to a draw to save them not even double checks 15 years ago. Children are adults now who must remember the scary big storm and the goddess riding off to fight it- the older folk have no excuse.
It occurs to me that if the Ten Nations now have the capacity to make lodestones of sufficient strength and quantity we can begin to teach one of the most useful secrets: How to harness lightning.
The basic principle of a lightning generator is fairly simple, though the form and construction can vary greatly.
To put it simply as possible, lodestones project an invisible field or aura around them originating from their two poles, and this magnetic field is responsible for their behaviour. This field may be imagined as a series of "magnetic field lines" emananting out from the north pole and curving around the lodestone until they meet the south pole of the lodestone. Imagine a series of half circles surrounding the magnet.
When two lodestones are placed near each other they attract or repel because of the direction of the field lines. Two like poles will produce field lines that force each other away while between two unlike poles you will get straight field lines flowing from one pole to the other.
(This, by the way, is why some of my compatriots have suggested making of bent lodestones).
You should already know that lodestones attract other metals to them, through their magnetic field. What you might not know is, if a piece of copper moves through the magnetic field (and more specifically across the field lines) a lightning current will be created within the copper and flow through it.
Conversely if you force an electrical current through copper suspended in a magnetic field it will cause the copper to move on it's own. This is basically the reverse of the previous process.
For now, I will try to describe a simple lightning generator. You want a copper disk, and a horseshoe lodestone or two lodestones with opposite ends both faced perpendicular to the rim of the copper disk, such that a straight line magnetic field cuts across the plane of the disk. The lodestones should be held in place so that the magnetic field is stationary, though in other types of lightning generators the lodestones instead move and the copper is stationary.
Then the copper disk should be connected via shaft to a water wheel or handcrank or some other means of generating rotation so it can be spun at high speed, which will generate a lightning current at the rim of the disk that will flow to the center.
Lightning can move through many different types of matter, but it most prefers to move through metal as that provides the easiest path to it and some materials pose great resistance to lightning. Lightning can still flow through less ideal materials, but this produces heat and light, which you may have observed with lightning starting forest fires.
Back to the generator; to harness the lightning usefully you should take a length of copper wire, touching one end to the center of the disk and the other end to a point on the rim. Once provided with a path the lightning will flow along the copper wire.
I will note that this type of lightning generator is rather inefficient but it should serve as a starting point.
You may wonder what the point of all this sorcery is, but it is very useful. Remember the mention of heat and light produced as lightning forces it's way through less than ideal materials? This can be done in a controlled fashion to produce light even after the sun sets, and to create heat and fire when such is desired. And lightning may be converted back into motion through the reverse of a generator, which we call a motor.
And with suitably long cables of copper wire, lightning can be moved across vast distances, such that you might construct a bellows many miles away from a river and still exploit the power of moving water. The copper cables can be made extremely thin so as to minimize the amount of copper used. However, this is something for once you have sufficient capacity to create lightning.
And by winding a length of copper cable repeatedly around a bar or rod of iron so that it covers the iron, you can create what we call a electromagnet. For as long as lightning passes through the copper wire the iron will behave as a lodestone does, with the strength of the magnetic field depending on how much lightning you pass through it.
Ah, one more thing; some precautions should be taken when handling harnessed lightning since it poses all the risks of lightning strikes, though much lesser in scale. It would be advised to wear thick gloves and boots as a precaution when working with lightning so that it does not decide a person is a good conduit for it to pass through to the ground.
Bianca asked good questions, and I must now think how to respond so as to not cause !fun!.
this is a very interesting feeling.
I am going ooc as I don't know if the part were she hears us is open or not at the moment.
{As far as we're concerned, this counts as a story post. As such, it cannot be assumed that Just is the sole author, purely because of the lack of brackets.}
Greetings, Bianca! We have some other projects at the moment so we will not be able to provide the sheer quantity of advice that we did last time, but we will do our best to answer your unsolved questions about the methods and devices we have already shared, as well as the pressing issues you have asked for advice on. We also have some ideas for making the production of large quantities of clear-ish glass somewhat easier.
First, with regards to the High Priest of Yula, she is being quite frustratingly vague. It would be advised to acquire more information on the situation before committing to action, so as to ensure you will not be strengthening a more dangerous foe by mistake.
[X] [Accusation] "Message incomplete. Resend with details or not at all." In addition, spy on the Noarites a lot to determine if they are indeed a threat. If the high priest's accusations do in fact ring true, accept her deal.
If the magician wishes to become a Forsworn, let her complete the same training as all the other Forsworn. The skills of a table-ruler are needed for a Forsworn to do their job with full effectiveness, and the outsider shouldn't get a pass just for having magic.
[X] [Licentiate] No shortcuts. Let her learn to be a table-ruler first.
As for Gazark and the priests of Erweh, send killers in your stead. Their trap was ruined the moment you learned of it, and you can simply have the would-be perpetrators dealt with. That said, best not to go in person; they might have some way of trapping you in the underworld.
[X] [Influence] Just send killers for the priests and for Gazark.
Lastly, declare Kartz of Lan the First Chief already. He already has more support among the population, and undertaking such action against Gazark will firmly align you with Kartz anyway.
[X] [Insurrection] Recognize Kartz of Lan as First Chief and direct him to make war
As to packed earth fortifications, the common solution in our world to the problem of such walls being climbed is a ditch known as a moat. The idea is that by digging a deep ditch in front of the wall, a vertical section can be produced that is below the sight lines allowing it to be blasted with cannon, thus meaning it can be conventional stone architecture. For extra mean-ness, the moat could have added upwards-facing spikes so as to skewer anyone who fell in, especially if both the inner and outer edges were sheer vertical drops. To avoid the entry gate being quite as much of a vulnerability, it can be fitted with a draw bridge; this is a thick gate that opens downwards, becoming a bridge over the moat in the process. This raising and lowering of the drawbridge can be achieved using a pair of chains attached to winches inside the defensive wall, and attached to the top corners of the bridge on the outside.
Anyway with regards to the steam engines there are some finer points of turbine design that we forgot to mention, but by the time we remembered the messaging period was already over. First and foremost, a single stage of turbine blades cannot reliably extract anywhere near the full amount of energy the steam pressure can provide. This means that turbine designs with multiple rows of turbine blades are required, but this presents a second issue: If the steam is already spinning when it reaches the next row of turbine blades, it cannot provide anywhere near as much force to the turbine. This necessitates straightening out the steam flow between turbine layers; one of the simplest methods to achieve this is by including blades on the inside of the pipe the turbine is placed within; these blades don't spin, and are angled so that the rotating steam passing through the turbine is forced back into a mostly straight flow. Another fine point we forgot was that it isn't strictly speaking the initial pressure of the steam driving it through the turbine, but the difference in pressure between the input pipe and the output pipe. To maximize this difference, the width of the turbine and pipe should both increase along the length of the turbine; this allows the steam to expand and reduce in pressure as it passes through the turbine, maximizing the difference in pressure and therefore the force the steam can exert upon the turbine.
The same principles of turbine design apply for cases where it is desired to use a turbine as a pump for high-pressure air, except with which end of the pipe should be wider being reversed. The goal of a pump is to ensure the pressure at the output end is higher than the pressure at the input end, and that means squeezing whatever is being pumped into a narrower space than it previously occupied.
As for boiler explosions, this seems a problem of idiots not knowing or caring how to safely operate a steam boiler. While the idea of idiot-proofing is a dangerous one due to the world's tendency to provide better idiots without advance warning, we can think of a couple ways to make steam boilers at the very least idiot resistant. One option is to make the same lever control both valves so that they both physically cannot be closed simultaneously. The simplest way to do that is simply to have both steam output pipes next to each other and have the panels for closing each valve attached to the same shaft at a square corner angle from each other. Another option is an automatic pressure regulator, which can be implemented as a vertical ball valve with a very heavy ball. If the pressure in the boiler is below a certain threshold the ball will plug the emergency pipe, while above that level it will push the ball higher and higher as the pressure increases, opening the pressure release valve even wider.
As for the tapping and plugging of a Blast Furnace or other iron-melter all the sources we have been able to find indicate that the best practice is that when the tap hole is to be closed, simply to ram a large blob of clay into the hole, which the heat of the furnace will cause to solidify and cure. It is generally agreed that this plug should be made in three stages; the first stage is rammed in quickly to prevent additional mass from flowing through the tap hole. The second stage is the same mass as the first, and is pushed in slower; this causes the extra clay on the inside of the blast furnace to take on the shape of a mushroom around the tap hole channel, which produces a protective cap on the hole to protect it from wear and tear. A third lump of clay is sometimes also added, both to compact the clay in the channel, and to further build the mushroom-shaped formation inside the furnace.
When it is time to open these tap holes again, the clay plug simply has a suitably wide hole drilled or broken in it. Rotational motion only is preferred as it minimizes damage to the rest of the tap hole, but if the clay has turned out particularly hard it may be necessary to apply a hammer action to the drilling rod so as to break through. In either case, the clay plug will need significant time to cure before it will be safe to tap again. As such, it is sensible for large blast furnaces to be constructed with multiple tap holes.
And yes, a Blast Furnace can indeed be constructed to use its flue gasses to heat the air feeding its fire; this is the normal way of doing things in our world, but we were rather confused as to how it was implemented in this particular case. It seems now that the best option would be to have a door near the top of the blast furnace for the insertion of fuel and iron ore, with pipes to bring the flue gas to where it will share its heat immediately above said door. Apologies for promoting a less-efficient method.
Now for the remaining issues with flintlocks, you asked how a screw could be used to clamp the piece of flint in the hammer? The simplest option here is to have a rectangular gap in the hammer for the flint to go in, with flat surfaces on the top and bottom. The flat surface in the top has a hole in it with grooves for the screw to engage with. When the screw is turned to push deeper into the hole, it starts pressing against both the flint and the grooves in the hole even as it pushes the flint into the bottom surface of the clamp, producing a high degree of friction that acts to hold the screw and the flint in place.
As for the springs, it turns out that our previous instructions for the production of spring steel were missing a step. First, start with some steel with relatively low carbon content (Crucible steel is fine, as would be Bessemer steel if you get it working correctly), and shape it into the desired form of the final spring. Second, it needs to be heated red hot, to the point at which a lodestone will no longer attract it. Once it has reached this temperature, it is to be immediately quenched in a suitable liquid. Similarly to unpurged iron, this is now an intermediate product; not the final spring steel. Indeed, it is very hard and brittle at this point in time.
To finish turning the piece of steel into a spring, it will need to be carefully annealed. There's a trick that can be used here to make it easier to tell when the spring is ready; if the hardened piece of metal is polished until it is shining white, then the polished parts will change color as the annealing process proceeds. The spring steel will be ready when it turns blue. It is crucial that the annealing process raise the temperature gently and evenly, or else stress patterns could develop in the spring steel that result in the whole spring needing to be scrapped.
As a side note, spring steel is actually an amazing material to made edged weapons out of; it's got all the strength and edge retention of steel, and if it gets bent it'll usually just spring back into shape.
Onwards to the issues with seed drills. You asked both how the seed is prevented from spilling out the tube constantly, as well as what the carving of panels is for. Ultimately, the panels were intended as part of a mechanism to regulate the rate at which seed was allowed to leave the storage bin. To explain the mechanism better, think of it as a series of buckets, each of which can hold a few seeds. These buckets are arranged into a wheel, so that they can each collect some seed from the storage bin before traveling to the bottom of the mechanism and dropping their seed into the furrow. The rotation of the wheel then brings the empty buckets back up to the seed box to receive more seed. This seed regulator wheel is connected to the axle for the wheels that allow the seed drill to roll, meaning that the seed regulator wheel will only dispense seed while the seed drill is in motion, and the rate of seed being dispensed is entirely based on the distance the seed drill travels, rather than how fast it is moving.
Now pressure canners. You are correct that sealing the lid on tight and measuring how hot it is inside the canner are both notable issues. We will cover holding the lid on first.
Broadly, the lid will need to be held down by a fastener. The simplest method we can think of works as follows. The bottom part of the pressure canner should have a number of vertical plates protruding from the rim, raised slightly above the level of the rim, and with a hole in the middle. The lid meanwhile has pairs of similar vertical plates, placed so that they fit snugly around each plate on the canner's base, and with a hole through them that lines up with the hole in the plates on the base. When the canner is ready to be sealed, snug-fitting metal pins are to be inserted into the lined up holes. The lid then can't spin or move side to side since the plates prevent that, and the pins through the holes keep it from lifting off the base.
As for measuring the heat inside the canner, this will require a decently good thermometer, the most attainable variant of which is made from a component known as a bimetallic strip. A bimetallic strip is a tightly bound layer of two metals with different rates of thermal expansion; when the strip heats up, this causes it to bend one way, and it bends the other way when it cools down, maintaining a consistent geometry for any given temperature. Copper and steel are perfectly suitable metals to make a bimetallic strip out of; simply dip an appropriately shaped thin layer of steel into molten copper, and when it cools down you scrape the copper off of one of the sides, as well as grinding down the surface irregularities on the side where the copper is intended to stay. You can then cut, bend and shape it into whatever shapes are desired; for a thermometer it's most effective to coil it up into a spiral shape, with one end affixed to whatever rod of metal is acting as a temperature probe, and the other affixed to a small axle in the center. This small axle then rotates significantly as the temperature the thermometer measures changes, allowing a light weight indicator lever to be read as a distinct temperature. One of these thermometers should be fixed to the lid of any given pressure canner, with the readable dial on the outside and the temperature probe on the inside.
Other uses for thermometers can include verifying that meat has been properly cooked all the way through so as to reduce cases of food poisoning. If the temperature probe rod is in the form of a large spike, that spike can be jammed inside a piece of meat to directly check its internal temperature and establish that it isn't undercooked.
The final components of Bald's Salve that are missing from the lands of the Ten Nations seem to be the bovine bile salts. From what we can tell, they comprise about four fifths of the complicated molecules in bile, and therefore isolating them as a solid would be a simple matter of drying out the bile until all that remains is the solid. It would not be recommended to boil off the water; the bile salts themselves are organic molecules and are rather sensitive to heat, so lower-temperature evaporation would be recommended, such as what can be achieved by blowing air over a pan of water.
As for the biting madness disease, that is known to us as Rabies, and we know of a way to protect a person from it that could just barely be within the Ten Nations' capabilities to produce. When an animal dies of Rabies, the virus responsible lingers in that animal's corpse for a prolonged period, with especially high concentrations in the animal's brain and spinal cord. This neural tissue can be extracted and processed to damage the virus sufficiently to not cause an infection in and of itself, while also providing enough of a warning to the body's army to fight off an actual Rabies infection.
Before going further, some expectations need to be set: Once Rabies reaches the brain, there is nothing that can be done. The Rabies vaccine we are about to tell you how to make only does anything of use prior to the appearance of symptoms, and is best administered starting immediately after possible infection. In addition, some people who receive this vaccine will suffer from auto-immune issues as a result, as the specific nature of the vaccine has a chance of convincing the body's army that the cells making up the nerves are in fact dangerous invaders. Even for those not suffering that particular fate, rather unpleasant side-effects are to be expected. Still, it turns a disease that would otherwise be a death sentence into something survivable.
Anyway, the first step is to capture an animal infected with Rabies, or to infect a captive animal with the same disease. Infant mice are optimal, as their brains and spinal cords contain far less of a protein called myelin, and therefore aren't quite as prone to causing auto-immune issues when used in a vaccine. Once it dies, the animal's brain and spinal cord are to be extracted and ground into paste, taking great care not to get any on or in the person doing the extracting and grinding. This paste is then to be dried over caustic potash for several days. Direct exposure to sunlight will be beneficial, but not strictly required. The prolonged drying and exposure to caustic potash, as well as ultraviolet light from the sun will inactivate the Rabies virus in the neural paste. This also prevents harmful tiny life from colonizing the neural tissue. DO NOT try inactivating the virus by cooking it; that won't leave enough of it intact for the body's army to properly learn from.
To actually treat a patient with this sort of neural tissue vaccine requires injecting it under their skin using a carefully designed needle. The needle in question resembles a tiny two-pronged fork. After the needle is boiled clean of any enterprising tiny life, a small quantity of the vaccine is loaded into the gap between the tines of the needle. This needle is then used to puncture the skin on the belly and then retracted, leaving the tiny blob of inactivated neural paste inside the body when the needle is removed; normal woundcare subsequently applies to the injection site. For the progression of Rabies to truly be halted in its tracks before it has a chance to become symptomatic, the patient will need several injections over multiple days. An injection every day for twenty days is almost certainly more than is needed, but we are unsure how much the number of injections could be reduced while still remaining effective.
{Yes, we're mixing and mashing all sorts of things here to make a horrible frankensteined process, but the process should in fact work.}
Lastly, glass manufacture. The technique we have in mind is known as table glass, and allows the relatively easy production of large flat panes of glass. Broadly, it's a casting process, with the mold made from iron. This iron takes the form of a flat table top with raised lips at the edge, forming a wide, shallow tray. Blobs of molten glass are poured into this tray, and then squashed flat with a roller to ensure even thickness. The tray is then slid into an annealing oven, used to ensure that the glass pane doesn't crack as it cools. Once cool, the glass panes can be polished smooth. The principle advantages of the table glass method are both that it makes the production of large enough glass panes for windows practical, and that it increases the batch size for glass manufacture. The latter quality will increase the amount of clear glass available, even if the percentage of glass that can reliably be made clear doesn't ultimately increase. After all, there's nothing stopping one of these larger panes from being cut into smaller pieces and ground into large numbers of smaller items, such as lenses.
For most of current health problems and death causes of younger people my advice would be "do the same as we already said a long time ago, but more". For example, people could drink herbal tea or tea from trees not only as a medicine, but even daily. Of course only these herbs that are plentiful and without side-effects. Both to provide even more beneficial things to the body and, at the same time, to be even more sure that water lack harmful life. Because for any tasty herbal tea boiling water was surely needed.
Produce even more soap, wash and especially wash hands even more often and carefully... Maybe washing could be done ritually and with a short song, because simply throwing some water at hands is not properly careful washing. Careful handwashing should take comparable time to thirty average heartbeats, or even sixty sometimes. A very short song that take about this long to sing could be used, that would be far more fun for people than counting.
Garlic can be also eaten, not only used as a medicine. Preferably added to something in small amounts, not eaten alone, as I think that too much garlic, especially raw, can cause diarrhea and various mild nuisances. But in smaller amounts it's a very healthy addition to food.
As to surgery: making surgery less like terrible torture is important for health of bodies and minds. I once said to you about diethyl ether, substance produced out of redewing sulphuric acid with pure alcohol. First question, do you tried and managed to make sulphuric acid? Unpleasant thing melting almost everything that is no glass, also meat. But curiously, when redewed with alcohol it can create diethyl ether.
Sulphuric acid can be made, it was said years ago but let's say again, out of burning sulfur together with saltpeter in the presence of steam.
Sulphuric acid, also called oil of vitriol, is terrible and dangerous and deadly, but diethyl ether is much safer.
Diethyl ether, also called sweet oil of vitriol, is a potent painkiller and can even force sleep before surgery when breathed out of a piece of cloth. There are dangers, but it can be safer than herb that you once tried to use, that I think caused more deaths.
It would be good for a patient to have empty stomach, even if the surgery is not on guts. Much lesser chance of choking on their own vomit if put to forced sleep by means of medicine, sweet oil of vitriol or another.
Less terrible and painful surgery can also allow to slowly develop more precision during surgery and thus better survival rates. As with most crafts, it can slowly improve in subtle ways that can be hard to explain in words.
To more cheaply produce sulphuric acid, also called oil of vitriol: instead of glass containers, you can use lead-lined wooden rectangular chambers. The internal lead sheathing serve to contain the corrosive sulfuric acid and to render the wooden chambers waterproof.
Like glass, lead does not react with sulphuric acid, lead is not melted or changed when in contact with sulphuric acid.
By the way, such things provided by us are not magic or sorcery, interactions between these atoms simply work that way and combine into different things with different properties. It's no more magical than fire, it simply happens less often. Sulphuric acid melting human skin can look like terrible sorcery to unlearned and unwise, but it's not sorcery. Lighting is also no sorcery, I don't know why one of our voices once called lighting sorcery, perhaps for fun.
Rock oil, now you have some rock oil. Do you tried to separate rock oil into diffetent substances? More flammable and less flammable and denser parts? Raw rock oil can be separated into various things with heat, some much more useful as highly flammable weapons or light sources. Raw rock oil is much worse for practical uses.
About the war inside of the Ten Nations, that's a mess. This is almost like a war between brothers, it's a terrible idea. Let me think for a short while...
Bianca asked good questions, and I must now think how to respond so as to not cause !fun!.
this is a very interesting feeling.
I am going ooc as I don't know if the part were she hears us is open or not at the moment.
{As far as we're concerned, this counts as a story post. As such, it cannot be assumed that Just is the sole author, purely because of the lack of brackets.}
Those were definitely story posts and this is definitely the part where Bianca can hear players posts (except for spoilered and code blocks, of course).
If you think of a way I can make that more clear, let me know and I'll add it to the boilerplate.
{We were talking about our own post. With how many people are living together in our brain these days, we've taken to using brackets to show who's talking right now. We make an exception for story posts, and that exposition bomb we just dropped.}
{We were talking about our own post. With how many people are living together in our brain these days, we've taken to using brackets to show who's talking right now. We make an exception for story posts, and that exposition bomb we just dropped.}
Ah. I saw your subtitle and knew you do tulpa work, but didn't know how your work or tulpas present and hadn't thought further since I first noticed. I thought you were responding to the previous poster's ooc.
"However, it is not magic. So perhaps with some work of magic the splendid thing may be made more captivating, more dangerous than it now is. I will think about it."
It's interesting, because ordinarily even the most splendid of things cannot warp the mind to the extent of degeneracy - The mind makes itself less able to comprehend splendor if it is confronted by an excess, and at any rate the most practicable uses for it that I can think of for it right now are rather silly; Block one side from view and let an enemy army look at the other end; Let an enemy 'capture' as spoils of war; all dependent on the 'supremely splendid' 'glass tree' (is it even shaped like a tree or made of glass, really?) being a lot more effective and immediate than it really is.
Yes, Bianca claims Glass Tree to not be magic, but I see many non-magical wonders, and yet none could influence human minds like the glass tree. Weird.
A small piece of general advice: positive reinforcement. Encouraging a certain behavior through a system of praise and rewards. It works both on humans and some docile animals, like dogs. For a dog it could be a small piece of meat after a task is done well. For a human children it could be smile, kind words, praise. It still somewhat works for human adults, but of course adults are smarter, more set in their ways and harder to train. People of the Ten Nations probably use mostly punishments in teaching children. Sometimes punishments are needed, but very often positive reinforcement works better. It's a way that should be encouraged and known.
As to the messenger service, use of horses may be well-advised on a few major routes, like from your Great House to Biancvint. To avoid killing valuable horses, there would need to be special safe houses for messengers along the road, with more horses, where messengers could change horses. It would obviously add great costs to the idea, but may be considered where messages travel often and speed is important. Know this way but use it where you determine that speed is worth the cost.
Also, it's possible to build a simple and thin two-wheeled wooden vehicle, with one wheel and handle at the front and another wheel on the back, with a wooden board in between. On a flat ground and nice road, a person could stand with one leg on the board and kick the ground with their second leg, moving the vehicle. With some practice at balancing it should allow faster movement than on foot. A brake, maybe a piece of leather above the back wheel could allow to slow natural descent from a hill when pressed with a foot.
Besides brake that is nice to have, this type of vehicle would be more practical with a steering device at the front. Perhaps people could manage without and try to steer by leaning into desired side, but device is much more practical. In this case handle should connect to a shaft forking into two, with the front wheel in between the fork. Moving handle to the left would then slightly move front wheel left. Hands on the handles, one foot on the board, kick the ground with a second foot.
Balancing on a thin vehicle of this type needs practice to master, it's common for people to fall like fools at first.
Anyway with regards to the steam engines there are some finer points of turbine design that we forgot to mention, but by the time we remembered the messaging period was already over. First and foremost, a single stage of turbine blades cannot reliably extract anywhere near the full amount of energy the steam pressure can provide.
Fellow Voice, I'm not the best at design of devices, so I have a question. Would I be right to say that a similar turbine to these that extract work from steam devices could as well extract work from water pipe under high pressure?
Fellow Voice, I'm not the best at design of devices, so I have a question. Would I be right to say that a similar turbine to these that extract work from steam devices could as well extract work from water pipe under high pressure?
Hydraulic turbines need to be a bit different, due to the fact that water is not readily compressible; it doesn't really contract and expand in response to pressure. There is therefore no sense in varying the width of the turbine along its length. Generally hydraulic turbines actually do work best with only a single row of fins. Unlike the many small blades of a steam turbine, hydraulic turbine blades should be big and wide. The idea is to maximize the amount of water pushing on any given blade of the turbine. Generally four to six turbine blades is effective.
