Nah, Iron thousands of years early. The real thing that's responsible for how crazy the Guild Industry is... would be the 2 and a half thousand years of steady reinvestment by a society that has never collapsed and whose first response to problems was "can I solve this with more iron?" Y'all have been steadily and sustainably accumulating and investing the fruits of the labor of the People since time beyond writing.
Speaking of that, what is our population with Greenshore and Thunder Plateau/Black Sheep in the Melkut Ymaryn? And what's the population of Western Wall (with and without the conquered Rus)?
I think last time we checked it was around 30 million?
The census has come in. Melek Balthazar has approximately 30 Million bodies under his command. The actual number of people living in the kingdom is probably as much as half again larger, but 30 Million is how many obey his commands and pay their taxes.
Speaking of that, what is our population with Greenshore and Thunder Plateau/Black Sheep in the Melkut Ymaryn? And what's the population of Western Wall (with and without the conquered Rus)?
Nope! If we go by the Alert we got from KMT making the Pyramid in PoC, it'd be less than a hundred years after the Bronze age collapse. Alexander the Great wouldn't even have been born yet.
The Black Sheep were barbarian invaders which is bad but cuts less deep than treachery from our own.
The Black Sheep fought us in open war before the Reclamation while the Western Wall traitors engaged in piracy and tried to assassinate our king. Txollan peasants might not care but everyone else would agree that the former is more honorable and therefore better.
The Black Sheep engaged with our ultimatum while the traitors blew us off entire.
Statecraft comes before equity and all but I think Balthazar would be very unhappy giving these guys a substantially better deal than the Black Sheep (and he's Txollan!)
Ymaryn justice may not be truly impartial but it certainly doesn't recognise ethnic dominance as an ideal.
I'm in favour of keeping the new territory and believe we can peacefully assimilate the Rus within the borders (except always ruling against them would make it impossible) but even there the demand is unworkable. We may well want to split it off into a new province, let die-hards go and/or return land to to other states in exchange for concessions. We need the flexibility to do those things.
I believe the WWers are unpopular enough that there will be no backlash against refusing the deal even from the Peahens. I also believe we'll get just as much benefit as offered here in a year or so by winning the war on our own terms.
Exactly. They want us locked in to a potential death spiral, because every time they build a new fence further into someone else's land that will be a "dispute" and we'll have to declare it Ymaryn soil.
Well, this is why I am so keen on conquering or federating our way to Suez - to secure those trade links and allow us to improve communications between the provinces of the empire and between areas of the world. Txolla and Thunder Plateau - especially that latter one - are probably under developed compared to, say, Hatay, since they have worse connections to the Saffron Sea facing core of the empire.
Building up more trade infrastructure to connect us closer to Kus would also help develop the Monsoon Sea provinces.
So besides the direct income we could gain from the trade itself, we could become more productive due to better connections stimulating more economic specialization and so on that would boost taxes.
Of course, the real power move would be to discover South America and bring the potato, maize and beans back to the empire.
I also wonder if the Ymaryn empire is like 17-18th Century China and is a gigantic specie sink for its neighbors. If the Ymaryns can't find enough imports to buy abroad to balance their exports, we may have a situation where the Ymaryn economy is stifling the neighbouring economies due to all the monetary metals (primarily silver through history) being stuck in the vaults of Ymaryn guilds and nobility. We could try giving some allies gifts and seeing if that results in more economic circulation.
And the absolutely absurd amount of high quality metal that everyone wants/needs in bulk...
China done it with a combo of luxuries and stubbornness, we done it by flooding the world with iron.
Seriously though, Ymaryn need to get seriously good at glass and metallurgy if they want to industralize without the need coal and if we want to use paraoblic mirrors for industrial processes. Not sure how feasible it is. We probably do have the forests to enable to industrialization at a huge honking scale.
I also wonder if the Ymaryn empire is like 17-18th Century China and is a gigantic specie sink for its neighbors. If the Ymaryns can't find enough imports to buy abroad to balance their exports, we may have a situation where the Ymaryn economy is stifling the neighbouring economies due to all the monetary metals (primarily silver through history) being stuck in the vaults of Ymaryn guilds and nobility. We could try giving some allies gifts and seeing if that results in more economic circulation.
I'm pretty sure we can say that it is not exactly like that. The Ymaryn have long made a policy of buying raw ores abroad due to the higher cost of mining imposed by a religious environmental mandate, see the Tin Tribes' long standing situation as our source of Tin.
The Ymaryn also buy a ton of products from Hung, which is not!China, both for their own use and as part of the routes that lead to Syffryn so a lot of our specie probably ends up there anyhow. Though the Hung have been mentioned to buy some Ymaryn products so it's not quite as uneven a trade.
In practice just being an ancient empire means we have a lot of expensive crap laying around that nobody really wants to sell off, and our productive capabilities guarantee a positive trade balance, but it's not the sort of uneven trade patterns that would fuck not!Europe's entire economy on their own.
I'm pretty sure we can say that it is not exactly like that. The Ymaryn have long made a policy of buying raw ores abroad due to the higher cost of mining imposed by a religious environmental mandate, see the Tin Tribes' long standing situation as our source of Tin.
The Ymaryn also buy a ton of products from Hung, which is not!China, both for their own use and as part of the routes that lead to Syffryn so a lot of our specie probably ends up there anyhow. Though the Hung have been mentioned to buy some Ymaryn products so it's not quite as uneven a trade.
In practice just being an ancient empire means we have a lot of expensive crap laying around that nobody really wants to sell off, and our productive capabilities guarantee a positive trade balance, but it's not the sort of uneven trade patterns that would fuck not!Europe's entire economy on their own.
Since we resumed trade with the nomads north of the Salt Sea the northern route has been open for a while and was safe enough for us to send a sacred herd along it. The tension between us and the Black Sheep means the southern route hadn't been moving at all. A greater proportion of the southern one is under our control which makes that portion safer, it also means that more of the chain of middlemen are our citizens which is nice. I don't know which is longer overall between the Central Empire and Redshore but the southern route should be more convenient for goods from not!Afganistan (Lapis Lazuli) and northern Magyar. Lots of profit all round once it gets going again.
Since we resumed trade with the nomads north of the Salt Sea the northern route has been open for a while and was safe enough for us to send a sacred herd along it. The tension between us and the Black Sheep means the southern route hadn't been moving at all. A greater proportion of the southern one is under our control which makes that portion safer, it also means that more of the chain of middlemen are our citizens which is nice. I don't know which is longer overall between the Central Empire and Redshore but the southern route should be more convenient for goods from not!Afganistan (Lapis Lazuli) and northern Magyar. Lots of profit all round once it gets going again.
We still have the Magyars in the way, but it's posi le that we can stabalize the Kus abd squeeze them out. The Magyars as barbarian nomads who had a relationship with the BS.
It may be good to extend contact to them using loyal Black Sheep. A trade agreement would open up the silk road significantly even if they had a tariff.
The traitors want their families to dodge punishment for complicity in their action? To have their conquests legitimized?
Absolutely not.
Total Dice: 4 Influence, 1 Authority
Committed: 1 Influence, 1 Authority
Available Dice: 3 Influence, 0 Authority
Martial:
War Mission: Send the army to fight enemies. Can only be taken once per turn for any given enemy. (95%. 1 Year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on the result.)
-Write in Targets, one per influence
[] City Levy: Gather up some of the excess population in the cities and throw them at an enemy. Can only be taken once per turn for any given enemy. (90%. 1 Year. Expensive. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on the result.)
-Write in Targets, one per influence
[] Activate The Mass Levy!: Arm and mobilize up to a million soldiers. The earth quakes at your approach. None can stand against the might of The People. (85%. 1 year. Success and length of campaign rolled separately. Possible influence gains or losses depending on result. Unsustainably expensive)
-Write in Targets, may choose as many as you like
Unavailable while the Mass Levy is active
[] Shift Deployment: The Mass Levy is large and unwieldy. Changing circumstances require a shift in deployment patterns. (80%, 1 year, Deployment shifted, malus to war rolls if failed)
[] Construct Warships, Redshore: With unified control of the Yllython shattered, there are going to be pirates and rebels in the sea closest to the core. The people need to build warships to suppress pirates and fight enemies. (70%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)
[] Construct Warships, New Blackmouth: The shipyards of New Blackmouth are once more ready and operational. (70%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)
[] Construct Warships, Trelli: You once more have Trelli. Its dockyards and shipyards are robust and capable. With those facilities you can build even more warships. (70%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)
[] Construct Warships, Salt Sea: You now share a sea with the Black Sheep. They will surely send foes by sea as well as land if they wish to achieve their ambition of displacing you. (70%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)
[] Construct Warships, Harmurri Gulf: Do you really need warships on the Monsoon Sea? The trade there is quite civilized with much less piracy than on the Saffron Sea. (70%. 2 years. +Warships. Expensive)
[] Found Banner Company: The storied mercenary companies of the Melkut Ymaryn were ancient institutions, that played important roles in both martial and diplomatic matters. Having a banner company at your beck and call, able to be loaned out to allies or against enemies, it is a powerful tool. An expensive one though. (100%. 3 Years. Expensive, -.5 Income, potentially profitable, may be taken more than once)
Diplomacy:
[] Seek Loan: You are strapped for cash. Other states have money that you could use. Ask them if they would be willing to float a loan. (85%, +1 Treasury Status, -.1 Income, -1 Prestige)
-Write in who to seek loan from, requires at least 5/10 opinion, may be taken more than once
Repay Loan: You now have the money you need to repay a loan, do so. (100%, 1 Year, -1 Treasury, +.1 Income, unlikely +Prestige, loans expire on their own after 100 years)
[] Diplomatic Contact, Highlanders: What have the Highlanders gotten up to in these last thousand years? Do you even care so long as they stay in their hills? (???% 1 Year. Possible -Influence)
[] Diplomatic Contact, Pulska: Who are the Pules and what do they want? (???%. 1 Year.)
[] Sell Weapons: It turns out an easy way to make a lot of money quickly is to sell weapons to countries who are at, or planing to go to, war. (Variable Success, 1 year, Profitable, may be taken multiple times with different targets who must be either a major power or the minors of a region)
-write in target
[] Negotiate Trade Deal: In the cutthroat world of commerce it is said that for one to benefit another must lose. Even so, it might be worthwhile to formalize trade deals with various powers. (85%. 1 Year. +.1 Income and -1 Opinion if Prestige > Target or -.1 Income and +1 Opinion if Prestige < Target, may pay 1 prestige to give a favorable deal to a less prestigious state, may be taken multiple times with different targets, possible opinion effects on third parties)
-Write in target
[] Build Ties: Common Ground can be found anywhere, since people are always people. Simply by dealing forthrightly with people, and addressing their concerns in an honest manner or telling them why you can't, you can improve their opinion of you. (10%, 4 years, +1 Opinion)
[] Deepen Alliance: Having built the foundations of a strong relationship with another polity, see about deepening the ties that bind you. (80%. 2 Years. +1 Alliance Level, -Opinion = new Alliance Level, cannot be used if this would take their opinion below 5)
-Write in Target
Offer Loan: The Melkut Ymaryn is rich beyond measure, but other polities need money too. You could offer to lend them cash when they need it. (Narrative%, 1 year, -1 Treasury, unlikely +Opinion)
[] Forgive Loan: Other people owe you money, but it's not like you need the cash. Their gratitude at being let off the hook may be more valuable than mere silver. (100%, 1 Year, -.1 Income, +Opinion, Possible ± Prestige, Narrative effects)
Unavailable while Mass Levy is Active
Admin:
[] Demobilize: The Mass Levy has been active long enough. Demobilize them and give the veterans the training they need to reintegrate into civilian society. (60%, 2 years, .5 per year)
[] Math Reform: The Kus have made advances in the notation of mathematics beyond the wildest dreams of the people. Not to mention the substance of math. "Zero"… it will change everything once people get a handle on it. If you were to institute reforms that changed the Melkut Ymaryn to the superior Kus system of math, then there would be immense savings simply from more precise ability to keep track of things. Of course, until the bureaucracy got a hang of the new numbers, it would be pure chaos. (45%. 5 Years. Extremely Expensive, -1 Authority immediately, +1 Income)
[] Survey Hathytta Province: Hathytta has long been the center of your mining industries. Many enterprising citizens will even try to survey and find valuable resources on their own initiative. Still, the land is rich and another survey can do no harm. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
-On cool-down until turn 31
[] Survey Txolla Province: Txolla has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use on the floodplains. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Survey Tinshore Province: Tinshore has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use there. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Survey Core: The Core has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use there. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Survey Stallion Province: Stallion Province has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use there. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Survey Memory of Spirits Province: Memory of Spirits has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use there. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Survey Greenshore Province: Greenshore Province has been surveyed many times, but technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. It might be possible to find something of use there. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Survey Thunder Plateau Province: The Thunder Mountains have been surveyed many times, but a lot of information about their resource deposits would have been lost in the chaos of the Black Sheep takeover during the Collapse. Additionally, technology and the skill of surveyors is always improving. (???%. 1 Year. Resources?)
[] Develop Wagon Ways, Stonepen: Stonepen was always the smallest of your great cities, as it did not have an easily navigable waterway to help feed it. With wagonways, such as you have in mines and in the great cities of Redshore and Trelli, it would be possible to roughly quadruple the ammount of goods shipped to and from Stonepen. (55%. 4 years. Very Expensive, +.1 Income, +15% on Wagonways Megaprojects)
[] Support Province: Give one of the provinces considerable sums of money to assist in their current infrastructural projects. (85%, 1 Year, Expensive, +Province Loyalty)
-Write in which province
Train Thunder Plateau Administrators, Elective: Long ago, in the oldest laws, nobles were elected and gentry appointed by the nobles. Even now, the legitimization ceremonies of the nobility involve leaders of the places they administer giving consent to their authority. The families with the greatest aptitude naturally rose to the top and their ability recognized to the point where the elections eventually became a formality that was done away with by the Dragon King. With the former nobility of Thunder Plateau… erased it may be wise to implement the system of the Ancients, at least until the best families have revealed themselves. (70%, Length of Thunder Plateau Campaign+2 years, possible -1 Influence, ability to reestablish administrative control of Thunder Plateau. Mutually exclusive with Appointive) In Progress
Intrigue:
[] Establish Spy Network: Establish a spy network in one of the places you have diplomatic contact with. (33%. 3 Years. Fails entirely if it fails once. Unlocks options. May be taken multiple times, but only with different targets.)
-Write in Target
[] Determine Internal Factions: Receive a dossier on the relevant internal factions of a polity you have diplomatic relations with. This will allow you to support or oppose their internal factions to be more favorable to your interests.
-[] Write in a polity you have diplomatic relations with, may be taken more then once with different targets for each time the action is taken.
[] Create Sleeper Cells, Western Wall: The right man in the right place can make all the difference in the world. Ensure that the men in the right place are your men. (??%, ? Years, ???)
[] Assassinate Faction Leaders: Assassinate the leaders of political factions that have been identified in foreign polities.
[] Fund Faction: Fund a faction in a foreign polity that has been identified.
Mysticism:
Touch The Cow, Do It Now, Thunder Plateau: The Sacred Warding in the Thunder Plateau collapsed when the Black Sheep took the Sacred Herds to add to their own. Although it would be made much more difficult by the nearly nonexistant bureaucracy, you could start rebuilding the Warding in that province. (30%, 5 years, ++Thunder Plateau Loyalty)
[] Spreading the Warding, Abyss: The land of Abyss seems to be a robust and centralized state. It can be trusted with the knowledge of the Sacred Warding. Fighting the starpox is always desirable. (50%. 5 Years. +1 Abyss Opinion, possible +1 Abyss Opinion. Starpox fought.)
[] Spreading the Warding, Pamplona: Pamplona has established a robust enough bureaucracy that they can be trusted with the Sacred Warding. Give it to them to continue Bynwyn's work. (50%. 4 years. +Pamplona Opinion. Starpox fought.)
[] Calendar Reform: The calendar adopted from the Khemetri in the wake of the Godfist has the disadvantage that the year shifts, losing a day every four years. It had been planned that once a full rotation had been completed, there would be a reform that adds an extra day every four years. However, the Collapse serves as an important enough event that a new calendar that begins at the end of the collapse would be warranted and allow the reform to occur thousands of years ahead of schedule. (60%, 3 years, +1 Influence, better calendar)
FREE ACTIONS:
[] Rent out Banner Companies: Uncommitted Banner Companies may be rented out for a five year term. (Profitable).
[] Deploy Banner Companies: Uncommitted Banner Companies may be deployed to a war zone of your choice.
[] Shift Banner Companies between fronts: Banner Companies may be shifted between active fronts and reserves as a free action while the Mass Levy is active.
MEGAPROJECTS:
Greenhouses: The Kings of old built a number of grand greenhouses to tend exotic plants from far away, so that they could be studied and for their own enjoyment. Most of these greenhouses were smashed by the Great Khan. Restore them. (Authority + 90%, 20 Years, -1 Treasury Status every four years)
Signal Towers: One of the issues that always plagued the governance of the Thunder Plateau was how far away and difficult to reach it was. It would be possible to set up signal relay towers along the way, which would greatly speed up messaging between the Plateau and the Core. It would take a lot of precision glasswork for the spyglasses, however. (Authority + 75%, 20 Years, -1 Treasury Status every four years)
Wagonways, Thunder Plateau: One of the issues that has always plagued the governance of the Thunder Plateau was how far away and difficult to reach it was. The transportation of goods especially suffered from this. However, it is possible to remedy this. There are rails used in the mines to ease transportation, and such things are also used in the Great Docks of Redshore. It would be possible to make rails of iron to vastly improve the carrying capacity of the horse wagons. However, this would require truly vast amounts of iron. (Authority + 50%, 25 years, -1 Treasury Status every four years, Expensive)
Reform THE LAW: It has been a very long time since the last time the Law was compiled and streamlined. There has been much accumulation of loopholes, drifts, and patching as the times changed. The current law is confusing and difficult and in many ways outdated. It should be simplified, updated for the current age, and recodified. (Authority + 90%, 20 Years, -1 Treasury Status every four years, +1 Authority on completion)
Personal Action (Choose One):
[] Work Overtime (+1 temp Influence, +Stress)
[] Relax with Family (-Stress)
[] Catch up on the latest plays and theological debates (-Stress)
[] Attend to a particular action personally. (Provides bonus to action)
-[] Write in Action
