Domination of Barbarians [Diplo Game] [Story Thread 7 - October 2012]

[France (DoB)]

King Louis XX's foreign advisor began the grim situation briefing

The Western Slaver Alliance against France, which allegedly does not exist, is up to their old tricks of preparing another tag team of attackers against France.

The supposedly non-allied Nether Faction has allowed the english to attack France via their land while the celts are making up obviously transparent lies to justify attacking France.

Potentially even more grim is the faint celtic accent of the new Roman leader, Aulus, that sounds suspiciously like the Christ Killers of old. It is unknown if the Nethers, the most ancient enemy of France, used their mystical abilities to influence tribal successors to arrange for another ally, or neutral in Titus's case, of France's to be replaced by a hostile leader again. Combined with the Nether's god-like ability to interpret or alter the rules of reality in favor of the Western Slaver's Alliance and against France, the Nether's control of successors is making it very difficult for France to make any lasting alliances to counter the continual Slaver Alliance dogpiles against France.

Unfortunately my King, our assessment is that none of the other civs are likely to aid us in this absurdly unbalanced situation. Like all the Slaver Alliance's dogpiles of the past, we are on our own yet again.

King Louis XX clenched his fist in rage but said nothing as he considered his options.

[Russia (DoB)]

Barbars seen close to land belonging to volg, this make us angry. They must die.

[England (DoB)]

Having broken the French navy Dandolo split his fleet. Although two French galleys had escaped destruction, they had either fled south or been run aground/scuttled by their panicked crews, they posed no threat to the overwhelming English naval superiority. He dispatched the war tested sister ships Wu and Wei as well as two galleys south to pursue any ships that may have fled to the south and also to keep trade routes free from barbarians raiders traveling north up the African Coats. His warship Dandolo’s Pride remained off the coast of Freedom Point whist The Prophet’s Fist, another warship built by the Muslims shipwrights of Nottingham, patrolled outside of Paris. Dandolo himself returned to England with the three remaining English galleys after bidding farewell to the two galleys captained by his Nether colleagues. Dandolo now in his 70^th year looked forward to a leisurely retirement having achieve more in his short lifetime than many of the immortals of the first generation had in over 2000 years. His legacy would be the strength of the English navy, and its commitment to battling all those who oppose free and open trade.

[England (DoB)]

Elizabeth received Dandolo back to London with a hero’s welcome. He had built a 22,000 man navy and won a battle that would ensure English dominance of the seas for generations.



The reports from English forces on the French mainland were equally positive. The 24,000 English troops had razed a number of French pastures and wineries unopposed as the French chariot forces hid within Paris knowing full well they would be no match for the many English spearmen that roamed their lands. While the land was much improved when compared to reports from the last invasion of French lands, it was apparent that the French had not undertaken any of the labor themselves – instead they relied on the labor of the descendants of Roman and Portuguese citizens.



The messages emanating out of Paris were typical French lies and propaganda. Another plot of traditional English fishing grounds will soon fall under French cultural control, yet they claim de-escalation. They say they have built no more wonders or cultural buildings yet they clear forests and build roads to a stone quarry undoubtedly for that very purpose. Only assurances that wonders or cultural buildings will not be built for a suitable period of time represent true de-escalation. And the accusations of attacking during some holiday? The English do not recognize racist holidays that celebrate stealing other people’s land.

[England (DoB)]

The ships Wu and Wei drop off the following message in Lisbon and will do the same in other ports of call.

English warships sail to the African continent to quell barbarian raiders that may sail up the coast and into the Mediterranean where they will disrupt your trade routes and pillage your fishing grounds. In exchange we ask that you do not provide military support to the French war effort. Trade in goods and services with France is welcome as England supports free trade, but any provision of military units or the metals and beasts of war necessity to build them is unacceptable. Should such support be given to France, England will terminate its agreements with the offending party and cease efforts to prohibit barbarians from entering your waters. Should the breach be sufficiently large, know that the power of the English navy may turn form friend to foe.

[Japan (DoB)]

Archers run through the woods without scouting ahead, a dangerous move but some must be sacrificed if all are to be saved. They hope to reach the village in time before it is overrun by the barbarians, hold on Qin, hold on..!

[Netherlands (DoB)]

Beda's Fire Mystics left the Cimmerian city after all attempt to make civilized contact with Barbarians fails. He moves his men to a hill out side the city, but to his suprise there is another sister city on the other side of the hill. Now Beda's Fire Mystic are trapped with Barbarian cities on both sides all packed with Archers who has bows at the ready to fire. Beda orders his men to make a break back for the Woods to the North. "Maybe we can swing around these superior numbers and search to meet up with Captain" he thinks.

But this proves to be a costly moves. As soon as he leaves the hill, Barbarian Archers attack from both citys, both flanks. As the rain of death and destruction rains down on his men they are powerless to stop it or fight back agaist these odds. They can do nothing but run back up to the safety of the hill. But as they are climbing they are exposed out in open. More and more men are hit by arrows. So many casualties, so many wounded. This is a disaster. Now they can not leave the hill or the rest of his men will die. They must wait until nightfall to sneak away and collect any still alive wounded to the top of the hill safety. Beda is not sure what to do in this mess. Over half his men are killed or wounded. He silently aske Fire Father to give him the strength to survive and save his men. Will Fire Father answer?



Captain is elsewhere in the woods of Asia and he have better luck. All his Fire Mystics are healed fully and he sets out again from Sunfire Hill, away from the Blood Mountans, south to aid the Japanese settlements. This time his path he takes around the heavily defended barbarian camp to the South. He is a skilled woodsman as are his men, and he is able to move quickly, hidden by the trees. He dont know what he may find, but always he is ready. Fire Mystics are ready to stand with their friends. They cant be too far away now

[France (DoB)]

The young military advisor bounded into the French court with his breathless news,

My Lord, the Boar's Men have slain the celtic chariot invaders and the celtic galley is fleeing to its homeland. Even better, our friends the Holy Roman Senators have defied the english embargo and have sent us copper to build axemen and spearmen furthermore they have sent large contingents of troops into our lands from the east and the south to counter the english invaders. The tide of war has finally turned in our favor!

King Louis XX's grim visage did not change at the good news instead he merely motioned for the foreign advisor to continue his briefing.

As I was saying my Lord, the Western Slaver Alliance has changed into a religious alliance based upon their fanatical adherence to their Tao faith.

The germans, nether and english have all adopted the Tao faith as their tribal religion and their tribes have organized to extensively assist each other in their respective wars such as the germans versus the Holy Romans and the english versus France. Furthermore the english have orchestrated a coup by slaying the Christian Celtic tyrant Ire and replacing him with a Tao impostor claiming to be Brennus.

The Tao impostor has apparently convinced the celtic court that because the tyrant Ire had collected an alleged French knife and some French wine that he must have been in some alliance with France. The fact that the Tyrant Ire had several trade agreements with england, including open borders, which apparently did not aid Ire as much as a lone knife and bottle of wine from France did, I suppose is indicative of how incompetent the celtic people believe the english to be or how gullible the celts are. Regardless, the celts are obviously part of the Tao alliance and will likely adopt Taoism as their tribal religion sometime in the future unless they think there is some benefit to trying to disguise themselves as Christian.

While the Tao alliance is effectively organizing themselves, they have also done a good job at dividing the Christian faithful using bribes, threats and war. Most of our Christian brothers are very reclusive and seek to avoid war except against the Children of Barbarus. This is our weakness. We need to convince Portugal, Holy Rome, Greece and Spain that a solid Christian alliance is the only effective means to counter the rising Taoism threat.

The Islamic alliance of Arabia, Persia, Byzantines and now Rome, seems non-threatening at this moment however it would be prudent to keep the Islamic alliance friendly or at least neutral since an Islamic/Tao alliance could prove problematic.

King Louis XX, the Grim, decreed:

Send word to our Christian friends Portugal, Holy Rome, Greece and Spain stating that we wish to create a formal Christian alliance and ask them to respond to us either privately or publicly if they are interested. For together we stand but divided we fall.

[Netherlands (DoB)]

Lies lies lies always from France. France seek to make anti Daoism alliance based on lies about some made up slaver alliance then some make up Daoism allaince. There is no such thing any of those. France stop your lies.

Never trust a French.

Captain Mystics have reached a new sea. We call it the Eastsea. They long time in the woods have taught them to use herbs and local leaves for healing.

[Rome (DoB)]

Aulus was quite amused when he listened to what the messengers of the French said. He had been taught the ancient histories of the conflicts between Rome and France, and how the French leaders were fond of using lies and propaganda to harass their neighbours. And now, barely starting his own reign, he had already become the victim of it himself. Apparently the French courtiers must have difficulties with their ears, believing there is anything remotely Celtic in Aulus' accent. The language of the Celts and the language of Rome are so different that it took years before our two people could even understand one another, and now there has not been any Celts in Rome for hundreds of years.

Aulus dispatched a messenger to the French court bearing this message:

My dear King Louis.

I can assure you that I most certainly do not have any Celtic blood in my veins, nor do I speak with any form of Celtic accent. I can also assure you that I am most certainly not a puppet installed by some imagined omnipotent Nether conspiratory mastermind. Your advisor must obviously know very little about the Roman court to even suggest these wildly paranoid and ridiculous claims. They are quite entertaining though, and I have been given something to laugh about for weeks to come!

I care about the continued peace between our nations. Perhaps you would be so good as to advise yourself, your own advisors, and your inheritants that the past is past and living in the past may be good for fools but not for upright men? My father honoured the peace between our nations, even though he suffered insults from your predecessors. Now, I have barely even taken over the throne of Rome, and yet I immediately find myself treated the same way, with suspicion and distrustful speculation?

No other nation has ever treated Rome the way the French line of rulers have, even after my father publically stated that the workers of Torino were rightfully French. One particularly paranoid French King even insulted my father for "housing English troops within our borders that intended to attack France", and tried to make some ridiculous demands that Rome should cease their treaties with anyone he didn't like. Can you imagine the outrage of this demand? My father naturally did not bow to your predecessor, but for the sake of your predecessors sanity he did tell all nations that Rome did not accept their lands being used as staging grounds for any wars. Did the French King even bother to say thank you to my father for this reassurance? Of course he didn't.

Now, compare the way of the French rulers to the way of the Holy Roman rulers on the other hand. The Holy Romans peacefully took over the governance of Antium and could have honourably kept the city under their control. Still, they gave the city back to my people as a gesture of pure goodwill. My father was truly confused by this and did not know how to show them the proper gratitude, but I have not done the same mistake my father did, and I am indeed truly grateful to the Holy Romans for their act of pure generousity, as all nations know. Do you have this same quality that I possess, Louis? And would you make up for the mistakes of your predecessor and issue a thank you to my father, perhaps honouring his memory?

Unless your ulterior motives are to declare war on Rome again, my advice to your royal line is to stop wasting time on paranoid suspicion about me and my people. We have absolutely no interest of war with your people whatsoever, and yet your royal line keep insulting my nation, as your predecessors have been doing for thousands of years now even predating the ridiculous war over that small group of workers instigated by Marcus. I understand that your people suffered in those wars, and I really do sympathize, but so did my people. Rome has in fact suffered far more than France ever did, and has very nearly turned into a backwards nation because of the insane rage of Marcus. Where the French people thrive and have a huge capital with magnificent wonders in rich and prosperous lands, Rome is still a small city compared to Paris. If it weren't for the Great Wall, Rome would be succumbing totally to French and Holy Roman cultural pressure.

Also, this Islamic Alliance you mention? Rome is most definitely not a part of it. My people follow a different path of Islam than the three nations of the east, and we have not even received any messengers from any of these nations. I know that in the past these three nations declared that Islam is at war with France, and has not retracted this hostile statement. Rome has no intention of following a warmongering path of Islam, and I claim that the three nations of the east have not understood the true teachings of Islam if they believe the Prophets sanction war and murder as a tool of spreading the good word! I declare here and now that there will be no religious war on neither France, Christianity nor Taoism from Rome.

So, wouldn't you say that it is time to stop living in the past, Louis? To stop suspecting Rome of having ulterior motives against your people? To stop making up stories about how Rome is a part of this or that imagined alliance of horrors and tyrants who hate France? If you or your descendants wish to know my intentions, they are the same as they have been after the death of Marcus. Honourable peace. Why don't you just send a messenger to my court to ask politely if you are wondering about what the Roman people are up to the next time? It's so much easier, and so very much friendlier. And friends is what France wants, even needs, isn't it?

Now, with this little misunderstanding out of the way, I hope both your own and your advisor's feelings of paranoia has been properly reduced, and that some semblance of sanity has been restored to the foreign advisor of the French court. I wish you all the best, and I look quite forward to your response that I really do hope brings a lot less paranoia with it. Perhaps even an attempt at finally being friendly to my people?

[Celtia (DoB)]

The past days had been fruitless, as the wineranks of the French were found to have been utterly demolished by what appeared to be English men. Celtic chariots had patrolled the area and found no evidence of the foul winemaking and thus prepared to return to their ship.

On board the Celtus, they were witness to the sudden onslaught as their dismantled chariots were attacked before they could be loaded on the ship. They came from two sides with jet black horses, no sooner were they in sight before a strange cry of "TUONS" was heard and they surged forward to the certain death of their companions. By some strange twist, the winds came to life and blew heavily in from the sea, building a duststorm on dry land. Confusion followed as the two french companies came together from opposite sides and were unable to see friend from foe, killing indiscriminantly.

The wind however, passed sooner than the celts could have hoped, and they were slain to the last man. In the confusion, only a third of the french chariots survived. Limping slowly back to their own.

With this, the Celtus sailed north to report on the loss of their men and the loss of the french to the English fleet commander.

[France (DoB)]

King Louis XX dispatched a messenger to Rome, in response to Aulus's message,

Greetings Chief Aulus,

I trust all goes well with your expansion into the African lands of the Children of Barbarus. Your message shows that the extensive Roman contacts built up over the centuries into the French Royal Court continue to operate at some of highest levels of my advisors. You are correct that French advisors know much less about the workings of the Roman court but as per our agreement with your father Chief Titus we are working on achieving a parity of understanding however that is unlikely to occur for several more generations.

Please note that despite your extensive Roman agents ability to intercept confidential information in the French Royal Court that none of that information is formal French policy until such time as it is so decreed by the King of France and dispatched via messenger to the parties to be so informed. It is the role of French advisors to assess events and advise their King as to their interpretation of said events. Such analysis is the opinion of those advisors and may not be the opinion of the King of France and thus of France itself.

In regards, to Chief Titus, France truly regrets his passing since he was undoubtedly the wisest of the Roman rulers thus far. Chief Titus was wise enough to know that allowing third parties to attack neighbors via Roman lands would necessitate Rome's neighbors to build up their military defenses along Rome's borders thus escalating tensions. France hopes that the wisdom of the honorable Chief Titus is hereditary.

Regards,
King Louis XX

[England (DoB)]

A message to Holy Rome:

If your provision of copper to France is not ended England will be forced to terminate our open borders agreement and your people will undoubtedly suffer the loss of several rich overseas trade routes with English lands. This will sadden us greatly and I implore you not to trust whatever lies the French have sold you. They seek only to have your slaves rise up against you and to use their evil culture to slowly infiltrate and eventually snatch away Prague.

France speaks of some sinister Taoist slaver alliance, yet all the tribes of Europe own slaves except the French. As to Taoism, yes it is the most common faith in England—which is not surprising as our lands were the birthplace of the great Lao Tzu—but the English also practice Christianity and Islam. The great merchant and commander of our powerful fleet Dandolo is a Christian born in the predominantly Christian city of York; his flagship Dandolo’s Pride was likewise built and is crewed by Christians from York.

While the French call for some fool’s religious war the English warships Wu and Wie—crewed and built by devote Taoists in Hastings—sail through Portuguese waters where they will defend the birthplace of Christianity from barbarian raiders. It should be clear that we seek no religious war and have no quarrel with your people save support that is given to the French.

[France (DoB)]

The French military advisor addressed King Louis XX's court,

The Holy Roman Senate has withdrawn several of their chariots after seeing the english spearmen. They continue with a lone chariot expedition to explore French lands and monitor the english army's movements. The english have finished raping and killing our livestock and have now turned to destroying our roads.

The French foreign advisor added to the grim situation report,

The english have threatened the Holy Roman Senate and all others who would trade with France and assist France in defending our Kingdom from their incessant invasions. It is not clear at this time if the Holy Roman Senate will end their copper trade with France out of fear of the english threats. The constant Tao alliance invasions are deeply unpopular in Portugal where the tribesfolk are unhappy due to the loss of French wine because of the Tao alliance destruction of French wineries.

A positive development is that Greece has shown its support for the French cause by ending its open border agreements with the Tao alliance members.

After listening to the reports, King Louis XX the Grim, decreed,

Send messengers to those tribes that are not members of the Tao alliance. The Tao alliance's constant attacks on France are attacks on all tribes for they rob all tribes of the wines and resources that keep their tribes happy, healthy and allow them to grow. This constant warmongering Tao force is no different then the Children of Barbarus, and like the barbarians are a threat to world peace and must be stopped accordingly.

France will provide lucrative wine trades to those tribes which help France defeat the Tao alliance by providing required strategic resources and sending troops to France, especially axemen and triremes. Any troops loaned to France to help in its defense will be returned or replaced after the Tao threat has been dealt with.

[England (DoB)]

King Louis the XX's decree brought much amusement to the English troops ravaging his lands. They use foreigners to build their roads, pastures, and wineries; foreigners to crew their ships; and now they seek foreigners to fight their wars....the French must surely be the most lazy people in this world. They would be wiser to offer tribute and seek what terms we might accept for a lasting peace, but no - the French are stubborn and seem most self satisfied wailing in indignation for someone else to save their undefended lands from the torch.

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