Destiny of Empires [Diplo Game] [Story Thread]

[Ottoman Empire (DoE)]

The serving girl hurried from the chief's hut in Venetia, stopping only to piss before entering the shadows down by the stream.

"What news?" said the traveller, startling her.

She tried to pick out his face among the stones, nervous of the famed violence of the Turks, but she needed the food to feed her child. Quickly she recounted the conversations which had taken place in the Chief's hut.

The traveller snorted, tracing a pattern on his scared arms with his knife. He knew the talk that the Parisii were fat, soft bellied people, whose chiefs loved to pose and prene themselves, who preferred the company of boys. He spat. Not real men, not real leaders. But he was amazed at why they told such lies to their own people.

Was the Chief of Venetia himself a simpleton, or did he just rely on his men being too weak to question him? As if the Turks feared our friends the Russian tribes to our north east - why would they for we get on well?

Why does the chief lie to his men about the true cause of this conflict - that the Parisii have advanced towards other tribes at every opportunity - against Author in the north, Grunz in the North-East, Turks in the East - pushing their men hard up to the other tribes, while leaving unsettled miles upon miles of good land in Spain and Italy, cutting it off from other tribes.

Why does the chief lie even to his own men? Blaming the conflict on the gods, not the greed of the Parisii? Why does he call the Grunz and Turks madmen, when they just demand land for all, not starvation for the Grunz and Turks and dominance over the whole continent for the Parisii? Why does he not admit to them that he has rejected all suggestions of peaceful sharing?

And why this garbled talk of the Russians - one minute telling his men that it would make more sense for the Turks to push East aggressively and take land from their friends the Russians, and then the next sending messenger to the Russians pretending to be their friends. What will the message say? - "Russians, we the fat bellied Parisii have advised the Turks to attack you and take land from you so that we can keep endless land for ourselves, but leaving that aside, we actually want to be your friends".

He snorted again. The Venetian chief obviously thought the great queen of the Russians was as stupid as he was.

The traveller handed over the bag of flour to the serving girl, pitying her for being born Parisii not Turk, and began the journey back to report to Suleiman.

[Germany (DoE)]

grunt grunzen.

grunzen and neandor tribe discuss at length confusing messages from parisii and gauls. and they send other messages even while we talk around our brightly burning night fires of their alliance offer. it makes no sense to grunzen.

The Veneti emissary respectfully approaches the powerful Grunzen leader and says, "The strength and might of the Grunzen people are widely respected amongst the tribes of Gaul. The Gaul and the Grunzen people have peacefully coexisted within our respective ancestoral homelands for many generations but now the aggressive Turks seek war to claim our homelands. The tribes of Gaul are not defenceless and we shall defend our homelands but it would be better to deter the Turk attack before it even begins."

"My chief proposes an alliance between the Tribes of Gaul and the Grunzen people. Should any foreign tribes attack the Grunzen people then the Tribes of Gaul shall declare war on the foreign tribe and in return the Tribes of Gaul ask that if a foreign tribe declares war on us that the Grunzen people agree to declare war on the foreigner. If the mighty Grunzen agrees to this alliance then my chief offers 100 of the most beautiful Veneti virgins as concubines for the mighty Grunzen leader."

[Pinchak]

A beheading already? I love it!

[Germany (DoE)]

"The bargain which my father made on the borders between Grunzen and Gaul has held for a generation and the Grunzen were in agreement with the very founding of Venetia. What reason would they have to aid the Turks against us?"

lies, grunt.

grunzen had said to gallics parisiisis:

"the matter of venetii is odd to grunzen as it was known as ottoman lands but grunzen investigates more with warriors. do not alarmed.

grunzen"

[Germany (DoE)]

The High Priest responded, "It is as we feared. The poisonous tongue of the Turk god of War has turned the Grunzen against us with lies and fear. The Grunzen and the Turks fear these mighty Russians so rather than claim their own rightful lands towards the rising sun, they seek to take our land."

The chief thought for a moment before responding, "If the Turks and the Grunzen spend the lives of their sons futilely assaulting our lands then surely the Russians or some other tribe will claim the lands towards the rising the sun. The Turks and the Grunzen will be left with almost no land. Surely they must realize that this greedy plan of theirs is irrational as it will leave them with less then if they faced their fears and claimed their rightful lands towards the rising sun."

"Yes their plan is pure madness but such is the way of the Turkish god. Even now the Turks are harassing our borders and attacking our farmers with minor raids and skirmishes. War appears inevitable."

"We must make contact with these mighty Russians but our best runner would never make it through Grunzen or Turkish lands. Perhaps the winter winds tribe near the Morini tribe have contact with these Russians. Send our fastest emissary to contact the winter winds tribe we should see if they are willing to ally with us against these aggressive madmen or at least pass on a message to these mighty Russians."

grunzen shake head.

these gallics are mad as cut frog legs.

one minute wanting to ally with grunzen, then wanting grunzen and turks to attack russian lands; but then gallics seek alliance with russians. dogs breakfast politics.

ah it reminds me, dogs are hungry.

[Inca (DoE)]

Am I going to be the very last person to make contact here? Still waiting for someone to show up...

--------------------------------------------------------------

A significant schism began to develop at this point between the two great peoples of the empire, with an increasingly wealthy and aristocratic Mancha trying to exert themselves politically over the much larger population base of the Capaca, whose numbers rapidly escalated due to their location on extremely fertile river valleys and coasts. Mancha representatives became increasingly important in Capaco’s affairs, even as the Capaca elite created new rules to subdue them. The advent of slavery in the empire was quick to turn ugly, although specifics of what happened are still vague. In the 28^th century, it appears that either the Capaca or Mancha initiated a wide-scale purge of the other group, which after 29 years led to a large exodus of Mancha peoples to the south in the First Great Migration of 2709-2633, resulting in the establishment of the first new regionate of the empire: Mancho. This migration involved the movement of almost half of the empire at the time: around 1000 people.

Although evidence of massive atrocities from the period has been found, scholars are still unsure of the reasons for the migration. Many Mancha and Capaca remained in place in relative peace after the massacres. Some believe it was likely to reduce the growing population of increasingly ethnically distinct Mancha who were beginning to exert political and gold-fueled economic pressure on Capacan lands. Some scholars believe the opposite, however, that the migration was led by the Mancha, flush with money from gold sales, and eager to expand their mining operations into new territories and even more highly valued minerals. The area was extremely arid, yet still had bountiful food harvests due to abundant seafood populations. The original city itself was set in the excellent natural harbor of Chulhitl Bay. There were extremely valuable copper deposits in the area as well, which scholars believe were the primary reason for the migration. The Inca did not begin making written records until much later, so there is little other than guesswork to explain the reasons for this migration. In any case, it is clearly in response to the great calamities of the 28^th century.

The empire up until that point was running on gold and stone tools, the latter being the only effective ones. Copper would bring increased efficiencies to mining operations in the Canncoculcha area, but more importantly it would fuel the growing armed forces of the Inca and bring in a new era in weaponry.

The early Incan warriors used advanced weaponry for their age. The first warriors were unparalleled in fighting ability for centuries, although their weapons were little more than skillfully-applied clubs. The Inca had very large numbers of armed men given the complete dearth of opponents. What began as spiritual wanderers morphed into eccentric and heavily armed religious cults, which roamed the western slopes of the Chupat, keeping down the independence of newly-arriving nomads from the north. The Inca were slowly becoming less isolated, as the grander and slower American migrations began populating their continent in full. Still, no Inca had yet made contact with the other great civilizations of the day, and as far as they knew they were still alone, at the top of the world.

The only other major milestone of this period is the construction of the First Path, connecting the food-rich coastal areas around Capaco to the gold-rich mines and valleys of Canncoculcha. Early on the Inca developed the principles of road-building and wheeled transport, which would blossom into a massive public works project of roads that would span an entire continent.

Oral history from this period tells of some Incan mystic claiming to have channeled images of a far away land and people they called the Chulsut. They claimed these people lived in lush jungles and on great rivers and traversed endless deserts in their spiritual journeys, and these fictional stories were transformed into the beginnings of Incan story-telling, setting the stage for some of the great epics of later times. Some modern scholars have noted striking similarities between the Chulsut and Mali Empire, but given that the Inca did not even know of the Aztecs, the idea they knew anything of an empire half a world away is absurd. Still, the mystics’ stories were captivating and clearly convincing in their portrayal and detail.

[France (DoE)]

Grunzen communication at the meeting of the Grunzen and the Veneti, on the founding of Venetia.

grunt, grunzen.

we are well met and need a talk.

do you think our border is good. we do. france will grow strong culture and no city should be placed between us near your wine. agree?

there is strong russian expansion in our east and soon grunzen will have no land to go. are you sympathy on helping if there be trouble in the east?

grunzen.

[France (DoE)]

Veneti reply to Grunzen communication on the founding of Venetia

The Veneti tribal chief eyes the neanderthal emissaries with a mixture of suspicion and curiousity. Upon hearing the grunzen proposal, he confers with a religious advisor.

The tribal chief says incredulously to his advisor, "These creatures can talk?!"

"It appears so, my chief. They also know how to use clubs and appear to be quite strongly built creatures so they may pose a serious threat if angered. I advise caution, my chief."

"What is a Russian?"

"I do not know my chief but there are many gods and they may have created more people beyond our lands. It would not be wise to anger an unknown god of a warlike people as his vengeance would likely be swift and cruel."

Turning to the Grunzen emissaries, the Veneti Tribal chief declares, "You may return to your chiefs and tell them that the Veneti have no quarrel with the Grunzen nor do we seek to invade their lands. We have not met these Russian creatures that you speak of and as such have no quarrel with them either. If war happens between the Grunzen and the Russians then you have my word that our tribe will not aid the Russians in their attack. Your borders towards the setting sun are secure."

[America (DoE)]

Recently, intriguing cave paintings were discovered near present-day Washington, believed to be made by early inhabitants of North-America. The paintings have been dated to around 2400 BC, and are said to represent a meeting between the Aztec and Native American civilization and cave men clans living in the area. Interesting to note is that contrary to belief, these cave men could actually communicate in other ways than mere grunting; they appear to have mastered a form of handsign communication. Experts from all over the world are currently hard at work trying to decipher what the depicted gestures represent.

[France (DoE)]

OOC: This is a descriptive interpretation of the Venetia cultural expansion bouncing a Turkish warrior from its fortified forested hilltop plus a previous movement of Parisii workers when a Turk warrior moved into the tile beside them.

The Veneti warrior looked over the remains of the battlefield. There were a few score dead or dying Turks and only a handful of injured Veneti. The battle had gone exceedingly well but unfortunately most of the Turk raiders had fled their encampment to the plains beyond without even a fight. That was the way of the cowardly Turks to prey upon old women when no one else was around but to flee when confronted by a real warrior.

Ever since Venetia was founded over 8 generations ago, the Turkish hill raiders had harrassed it's borders stealing piglets and raping women. The Turks were puny little men, poorly fed and cowardly however that had made them good at hiding and difficult to expel from Veneti's border of forested hills.

The effort to truly expunge the Turks from Venetia borders had begun a few generations ago after Turk raiders had raided the swineholds forcing most of the Parisii migrant workers to flee to Venetia. Some of the elderly Parisii women were not quick enough to flee and were ravaged by the Turks. The story is told that even some of the sows were violated as the Turks found them more attractive then their own women.

The Battle of Pigs, as it has become called, was short and quick much like a Turk penis. Before the menfolk could even cross the fields to avenge their grandmothers, the Turks had finished their violations and fled back into the hills. Since that day, the swineholds have been abandoned with many boars now roaming the valley freely. The valley has become known as the Valley of Death for the frequent skirmishes between the Veneti warriors and the Turk raiders.

This decisive victory however had pushed the Turk raiders out of the hills however and it was doubtful that they would return to these hills unless they were truly prepared for war.

[France (DoE)]

Excerpt from the Oral Druidic Traditions of the Gaul Tribes

The tale of Venetia is the tale of godly intrigues and mortal fallibility. When Venetia was first founded the Grunzen sent emissaries to Venetia to tell the Venetians that they found the borders between their two tribes good and proposed a border pact. The good Venetian chief wisely accepted the border pact. The Grunzen also feared that they would be attacked by a powerful tribe of Russians and asked if the Venetians would join the Grunzen in attacking the Russians if the two tribes went to war. The good Venetian chief had never heard of Russians but knew that they were nowhere near the borders of any Gaul tribe so he declined to attack the Russians however not wishing to offend the Grunzen, the good Venetian chief gave his vow that his tribe would not attack the Grunzen even if the Russians requested it. The Gaul God of Wisdom smiled, as the good Venetian chief had acted wisely.

All went fine for several generations, until the evil Turks arrived and demanded that the Venetians abandon their homes and give it to the Turks. The Turks promised to give the Venetians sticks with which to build another home at some time in the future. The good Venetian chief asked by what right do the Turks claim Venetian land? While the Venetians were walking this land for many generations where were the Turks? When the Venetians defended this land from ravenous wolf packs, where were the Turks? The Turks have not even seen our land, let alone placed a single footstep on it so by what right do they claim it?

The evil Turks said you are fat so if you do not give us your land then we shall take it, for the evil Turks worshipped a god of War. The good Venetian chief said we are strong and your warriors are puny so if you attack us then you will die. The warriors of Gaul outnumbered the Turk warriors and the good Venetian chief was confident that the other Gaul tribes would send their warriors to his aid if needed once they heard the virtue of his cause.

The evil Turks realized that they were weak and could not take Venetia from the Gauls however the Turkish god of War was not easily deterred of his vile sport. Whispering seductively into the ear of the Grunzen earth mother goddess, the Turkish god of war convinced her to give her own bones to her Grunzen children and had them bathe those bones in the blood of their fire father god. Out of this unholy union, powerful magic axes of shiny flint were made for her Grunzen children. These magic axes were capable of splitting an oak club with but a single swing. The Grunzen earth mother goddess smiled for now her children would be safe but the evil Turkish war god hid a smile of his own for he had other plans for those axes.

The evil Turks whispered lies into the Grunzen leader's ear, claiming that there was vast land beyond Gaul borders and that some of it rightfully belonged to the Turks. Neither the Grunzen or the Turks knew what truly lay beyond the gaul borders for neither tribe had ventured that far nevertheless the Grunzen were swayed by the Turks words.

The good Venetian chief sent an emissary to the Grunzen anticipating that the Turks were trying to sway the powerful Grunzen to fight a war for the Turks who were too weak to fight the Gauls on their own. But the Venetian emissary was met with the Grunzen disavowing the ancient border pact and claiming that Venetia should now belong to the Turks and threatening to send its axemen against Venetia.

The good Venetian chief wisely predicted that there was plenty of land towards the rising sun, while the lands of Gaul were small, and that both the Turks and the Grunzen had a right to some of this land. The good Venetian chief also advised that the Turks and the Grunzen should not allow the Russians to claim all that land for themselves. The Turks twisted the good Venetian chief's counsel to suggest that he was advocating war against the Russians, which he obviously was not, however war was the only negotiation technique that the Turks knew.

The tensions between the Venetians, the Turks and the Grunzen remained for several generations. The Venetian chiefs that followed ruled wisely and sought out other allies to defend against the Grunzen/Turk attack which they feared might happen in their lifetime.

So it was that in the season of Venetia's great success in finally expelling the Turkish raiders from their borders; that 2 tribes of Grunzen axemen moved in to threaten Venetia's other border. The good Venetian chief prayed fervently that the Grunzen would honor their ancient border pact...

[Russia (DoE)]

We cant believe this tragedy... Our youngest most promising and most beloved ones.... We had to work less and watch them more....

[Germany (DoE)]

We cant believe this tragedy... Our youngest most promising and most beloved ones.... We had to work less and watch them more....

grunt. grunzen.

catherine, our warrior see the mighty wolf and the tragedy that befall you. take it as message from gods to settle away from thor's copper.

grunzen seek friendly border but russia is mighty with expansion stopping neandor and viking from any lands. russia has much in the north and east and it is not understood why you seek our forests.

do not take notice of the deluded gauls. they make up stories and dream of battle that did not even happen!

but neandor does fear russian expansion and what seem to be 'culture' but grunzen does not understand this as he burp and fart in a westerly direction i might say.

our warrior will aid the wounded and return them to your town east of berlin - what is this town call?

grunzen, burp. grunt.

[Germany (DoE)]

grunt.

grunzen grow tired of gallic nonsense. you make no sense at all to me. and my dogs are very hungry now.

grunzen and harg are entering turk lands to see Veneti for themself.

we sick of false histories and your lies and prove it by meeting nice gallic women and see if interbreed do work!

who know? we may end up related to high priest or you, whoever you is.

and respond quick to suleimans messages or slaves be taken too.

grunzen GRUNT!

[Israel (DoE)]

Bronze!

"We have found Bronze! The Arabians have Bronze!" the scout told the Council of Leaders of Egypt. This council was leading daily affairs in Egypt until someone had the courage to claim the Pharaoh title.

The idea that the Arabians had bronze scared the Egyptians.
Usi: "They could use it against us!"
Hakizimana (in fear): "Are they working it already?"
Scout: "I am sorry for speaking up, but no, the Arabians don't have the knowledge of bronze working yet."

Usi responded a bit relieved: "So we are not in troubles yet!"
Scout: "No my lord, but please don't kill me for speaking again, but the Arabians have no bronzen axes yet."
Usa (suddenly aware of a new danger): "Did you use the bronze to build some axes yourself and did you come to kill us and become the next pharaoh?"
Scout: "No sir, I would never do such a thing! Don't be angry at me! Have mercy!"

Hakizimana: "We must please the Arabians before they go after us!"
Usa: "But how? How can we do that without angering them? Maybe we should leave them alone."
Hakizimana: "We will give them the gift of knowledge and tell them where the bronze is located. Maybe they will then spare us."

Time passed. Days, weeks, months.....



Then a caravan with an Arabian messenger appeared.
He stepped down from his camel.

Usi was nailed to the ground. Hollow eyes, his veins were cooking in fear.
Hakizimana stepped forward, doubt in his steps, he stumbled but recovered himself. Then he bowed for the Arabian and mumbled: "Great Arabic Lord, have mercy on us!"

The Arabian then spoke up: "People of Egypt, don't settle any lands east of Thebes, and we will not hurt you! If you do settle in the east, then we will destroy you with our countless armies. While you were building world wonders, we raised an army."



Usi also placed his face on the floor.
Usi: "We will never do anything that angers you, Great Lord!".
"We are your servants! Did you receive our message about the Bronze? It is a gift, please accept our gifts." Usi started to cry.

The arabian man ignored the floored Egyptian men and departed on his camel again.

Hakizimana was the first to get on his feet again.
Usi followed him. He had to spit out some sand. "Can't place face on the floor and talk!" he reminded himself.

Hakizimana: "We survived!"
Usi: "That worked very well. He was quite friendly!"