Domination of Barbarians [Diplo Game] [Story Thread 9 - December 2012]

[Netherlands (DoB)]

We ask all nations who were unable to contact us to please re-send your messengers as they will not be refused this time. The Kingdom of Nether's communications were backlogged for some time, which was partially rectified by my father by beheading the old leaders, but obviously, some further action was needed.

Thank you Spain for notifying us. It took some time to review all the historical records for useful information and then to seperate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. We have stacked many of the old useless messages and scrolls onto wheelcarts and thrown them into Mountain Father's fire. There was a celebration with smoked fish. Please re send any letters you have for us now.


-Queen Kirsten

[England (DoB)]

King Louis XXVIII,

An opportunity to avert a war between our nations. I have ships that will soon need to transit your waters, should you wish to avoid war and the blockading of your coasts I propose a short term open borders agreement followed by an agreement to keep peace for a period of time five times as long as that mandated by the ancient DMW rituals. Such an agreement must also include stipulations that no third party nation attack into the other’s territory from one’s land. This would cover Byzantium and your ally Rome as well as members of the so called Taoist alliance of which France has often spoken. Should such a breach occur it would negate the terms of the agreement. Discussion to further extend such an agreement can be made in the future. Without such an extension a return to war in the future should not be ruled out.

We offer this agreement as our continued wars seem to be at a stalemate. I can raid your coasts and your Byzantine allies can retaliate in kind against mine. Neither of us is in a position however to escalate much beyond these minor military actions. In the past I have demanded far more harsh terms for a longer term peace, but with the continued cultural growth of London, my requested stipulations to curtail French cultural growth are less needed. Likewise French demands for war reparations are a moot point now that your allies have pillaged my coasts to an extent near equal to the amount yours have been raided.

-Queen Elizabeth I

[England (DoB)]

A land improved. Elizabeth was impressed by the reports; all corners of English lands had been improved to the extent technologically possible. Roads, mines, farms, cottages, camps, and workshops covered the lands. Few other tribes could boast such an accomplishment.

[Netherlands (DoB)]

England, your scribes are backlogged

[Japan (DoB)]

After long decades of slow communication, a semblance of order has been restored to Japan and all of its cities and far-flung villages. The road system devised by Katsumi has reached far into the wild, and so far the barbarians have left it alone thanks to the axemen protecting it.

To signify the rise of a new leadership, Her Eminence Aiko, proclaimed Empress of Japan, has ordered the building of monuments in every city and village of Japan, attesting the great leadership of Ainu and her reluctant rise to power after the Death of Spirits that has given rise to a new numeral system named AD, after Ainu's Death.



-Recorded in the Library of Nishikyo, 60 AD, the year of running squirrels.

[Celtia (DoB)]

Standing atop the highest tower, Brennus gazes down on the mighty work of his people.



The Hanging Gardens of Bibracte.

[China (DoB)]

Life in China has settled into a routine now that the Barbarians have been controlled. They seem however to be forever outside his boundaries looking for weakness.

Qin relished in the thought of his last victory. He had taken the battle to them and attacked a barb city called Estrucian. He led his combined archer and axe men army of 10,000 into the city that looked abandoned. If you call it a city. “My Gods”, Qin thought, “these men live like dogs.” Filth and garbage piled in the streets, human excrement mingled with animal. The stench was terrible. Did these animals not know how to build dung trenches? As he thought this he heard a cry ahead and then a roar.

The barbarians had come out of hiding. But he was ready. He ordered his Emperors’ Guard to kneel with their bows, with his expert veteran archers behind in waves. His reconnaissance axe men ran back along the road from behind some hovels. The barbarians were coming enmass. Ba… Rooom, BAROOM as they hit their shields with their clubs and axe. Barb arrows were launched in successive waves, he heard with a decisive wooosh …Qin gave the order to shield and cover. With strong bamboo shields the first onslaught of arrows were deflected with little loss.

He ordered the return fire from behind in waves too, and then from his kneeling men when the approaching axe were in sight. This time 5000 arrows were sent back in 2 minutes. The advancing axe men never saw what hit them. Screams of anger were replaced with shock and awe at the power of China’s army. Still though, the Barbs managed to get another round off … arrows fell this time with brutal effect. Men one minute alive with blood lust, were impaled with arrow though socket, shoulder and head. Life blood mixed with excrement and the barb village became a killing ground.

More and more arrows were shot from both sides and the slaughter continued. The Guard protected Qin as he advanced forward with his axe men. A clump of flaming peat was shot into the air as a signal, so that his archers stopped firing and that he and his 2000 axe men were not killed by friendly fire. That was how close the armies faced each other. He attacked with a battle cry that woke the dead of so many barb losses. A weakened Barb barricade fell over … the barbs began to break. “NO QUARTER!” Yelled Qin. No prisoners! Kill THEM ALL!

Qin’s men unleashed were without fear, stronger than all armies ever assembled they became mad with the smell of blood. The barbarians fell and where hacked to pieces. One man punched in the chest cavity with his club and pulled out a still beating heart and ate it. The heartless man’s last thought was “how can that be”, and then his world went dark.

Qin wielded his copper axe in circles – felling a dozen attacking barbs who saw the opportunity for every lasting martyrdom … but none were successful. He grabbed a newly fallen man still alive and bleeding out. He raised the fallen man’s neck to his mouth, and cut and sucked his carotid, pulsing into his mouth, the blood straight from the heart. Oh my Qin thought … this is life that I was missing. He grabbed his axe and sliced down cutting off the man’s face and watched his brains fall to the ground. Energy and power filled his 4000 year old body more so now than any eternal waters. Qin went on a feeding frenzy, of blood, brains and hearts.

His men ransacked the city. They raped and murdered all that found. As women escaped into the forest his archers fell them with shots to leg and buttocks. The archers then took them from behind, while slitting their throats as they came. The Chinese had seen themselves vindicated. Revenge was never so sweet nor bloody.

[China (DoB)]

Qin managed to stop the complete ruin of the city. He ordered his troops to stand down and rewarded them well. They were free to keep the plunder they uncovered. He granted dominion of the city to the encompanying Japanese contingent. He took the gold from the city to help finance his nearly bankrupt county. Now the barbs have been thrown back, money was his primary concern. All he had was used to support his massive army. He had put everything else into gaining knowledge of iron for swords, fearing the barbarians would obtain first. But now with the Barbarian army on the run … it seemed pointless. He needed to concentrate on things to make his people happier. His wise men were redirected to find clay and learn pottery.

Qin returns to Beijing. Aiko runs to Qin, screaming and crying out in anguish. The guards do not stop her as she leaps on top of Qin and holds him tight, sobbing into his chest and talking incoherently. Only after a long while does she make any sense to him. With red-rimmed eyes wet with the salt of her tears, she looks upon her husband with a sadness that nearly crushes his heart. "They killed my brother. They killed my family. They killed everyone of us that lived long!" She again hugs him close, displaying that great strength he loved about her before she was struck down by the barbarian warrior.

As the night unfolds, Qin comes to understand what has taken place. A French attack on the Spirit Realm of Japan has cut all contact to the spirit world for them, and with it the blessings of the spirits and their gift of long life is no more. Aiko alone survived, thanks to the water of life given to her by Qin in his attempt to restore her body and mind. The nightmare was such a shock that she regained all memories and became whole once more, but at a terrible price.

At dawn he has a guard go check on the camp where Ainu dwelled, only to receive confirmation that everybody over the age of twenty were found dead. With Aiko's blessing, preparations were made for a mass grave to be built for the quick removal of the bodies to prevent sickness among the Chinese. The following days were filled with letter upon letter being written and sending runners to the furthest villages of Japan, ordering mass burials of the dead.

She returned to the Emperor's bedchamber, and in her grief she let herself go completely together with Qin, their passionate lovemaking reverberating throughout the palace. Never before had she so completely given herself over, and never before had he been thrust so far towards the edge of his own endurance. Their love was sacrament, complete, and without barriers of any kind.

[China (DoB)]

The following day Qin received more distressing news.

His troops full of victory had continued onto another barb encampment under the leadership of his general Wei Yu Tu. They had seen a large force of a foreign army called “Wilems” when shouted out who was in charge. They continued marching past while his men asked them to join them in battle, to “split the spoils of war”, but like a large wagon not able to stop … they marched on past without their head in sight. “Too bad”, Wei Yu Tu thought, “but more for us.”

Qin read the dispatch. The few survivors had taken refuge in Stone Hill with his Japanese brothers. 6000 of his advancing army were dead, with 3000 killed taking Estrucian and now this. A third of his army dead. It was hard to believe. He ordered the flinging of mourning pots. Large black pots were thrown into the air filled with ash and soot from the fire to make a black cloud that hovered over Chinese cities for 2 days.

Chinese cities had now spread to the north and to the far east. Chinese were a proficient lot at fooking it seemed. He had also colonized the Philippines to the south and gifting those islands to his wife now in Japan as the Empress. With the death of Ainu, Qin was the last remaining ancient leader.

Fortunately the ill winds caused by the French had not effected China. With discovering the threat he had ordered all citizens a draft of his eternal waters. The streets were cleared of garbage and a new system for removing bowel muck was devised.

There were daily envoys now it seemed from other lands. So many people on this earth all wanting to see China. Why has he become so popular? With that he decided to bathe in his eternal waters and drink the blood of the barbarian slave that was being held in the dungeons. The blood feast was making him healthy again. Plus he had stopped sucking on the metal balls that his wise men had given him. The wise guy that recommended it now had two eye sockets replaced with his balls. So much for wisdom.

[Russia (DoB)]

A quiet library, the slow shuffle of library keepers going about their work. For months Leonid enjoyed the remarkable collection of religious stories and the more dry rendition of the French succession. Many other works were also perused during his stay in the Nether Kingdom. Queen Kirsten sometimes invited him to dinner where they had long discussions of religious and tribal matters.

Now he was on the way to England and the Academy of Heisenberg. Rumours of war had his guards on edge, even after he recieved letters from King Louis XXVIII ensuring that Russian ships were safe as far as France was concerned, he also recieved a similar letter from Byzantium by a rather worn out messenger who had followed Leonid for a long time.

[England (DoB)]

With the failure to recieve any response to Elizabeth's request for transit through French waters, war was again decalred. A war England would rue, for the French were quick to capitalize on a weakly patrolled English coast and landed a vaste horde near Hastings.

Byzantine, we request DMW on turn 358 to take effect on turn 368.

France, do you offer any terms for peace or will we be forced to kill your army as it pillages through our lands?

[Arabia (DoB)]

Mohammed V turned to address the great crowd of millions who have come to revel and rejoice at the formal announcement of the terms of peace in Arabia.


"Peoples of Allah... the Ummah brotherhood, and to visiting dignitaries from around the known world, welcome to the holy land!" (great cheers rise up from the crowd!)







"In the last months of the siege of Medina I took leave to fast and contemplate in the Arabian desert. For days I marched on with only my camel and a scarce supply of water. Starving and thirsty I wandered for weeks and began to see holy visions... Divine visions. A great oasis appeared before me with palm trees, fig trees, and beautiful singing birds that called out to me to rest and gather my strength. I laid in a grove of bushes nestled among the palm and fig trees to gather my strength, eat the offerings of mother nature, and listen to the beautiful songs. As night began to fall a bush ten paces in front of me began to burn. Deep from within the burning bush the voice of almighty Allah boomed to me:

"Mohammed, son of God, why do you forsake your own people?"
I scrambled to my knees to bow before God, and replied:

"Holy Allah, I do not forsake my people, I have done what I thought was the will of Allah... what is best for the people of Arabia."
The burning bush boomed again:

"Listen carefully, Mohammed son of God, for this is the will of Allah and what is best for the Arabic peoples: For the sins of wrath and pride that you have shown - your tribe, the Qurayshi, are to be cast from Arabic lands. The holy land does not belong to any one nation it belongs to the Ummah. You will divide the holy land and give it to your neighbours in remembrance of this. To Persia, Islam offers Medina. To Greece, Islam offers Damascus. And to Byzantium, Islam offers Mecca. For the virtues of grace and mercy that you have shown I give to the tribe of Qurayshi a Promised Land. A land far south and east of Persia where there exists another great desert which you will found and name Qurayshi [Q-ray-she] Arabia. Here you will find a great productive land to spread the word of Islam. Here also, you will found the "great 5 cities" to be named after the 5 pillars of Islam:
1. the (shahada) - Islamic creed
2. daily prayers (salah)
3. alms giving (zakāt)
4. fasting during the month of Ramadan (sawm)
5. the pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in a lifetime."


Mohammed addressed the crowd again after the multitude of cheers had died down: "Grand Ayatollah Kulayni will rule the Islamic clergy from Mecca in the 'Nacitav' (an independant holy city state within Mecca) in order to preserve the will of Allah that no single nation shall lay claim or fiefdom over the religion of Islam"


Mohammed declared: "This is the will of God!" "Allahu Akbar!... Allahu Akbar! ... Allahu Akbar! ..."


The millions of people, including the foreign dignitaries who had become enthralled with the power of Islam and who were gathered at the Kaaba, began to circle around it counter clockwise and chanted "Allahu Akbar!" for 44 hours in honour of the great vision that Allah had bestowed upon them.

[Ottomans (DoB)]

End of the Age of Silence

Historians still argue to this day as to the reasons for the end of the Ottoman Dark Ages - or the Age of Silence as it was known at the time. Some suggest it was the Byzantine war, but that seems unlikely given the time lapse from the end of the war to the accepted date of the end of the Age of Silence - 90AD. Others believe it was the various contacts the Ottoman Empire had made over the years had reached a critical point, and necessitated a less insular diplomatic approach. Some point out that the travels of Atakan Atabey to the major nations of western Europe showed the Ottoman leadership that they could no longer remain 'silent'. Whatever the reason, the difference between the before and after was significant.

The light shone through the second floor windows of the Palace of the Brave in Istanbul. Head Chieftain Durukan Hamdi walked slowly with his hands behind his back. Beside him, the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mustafa Nuri also walked, and waited patiently for the Great Chieftain speak.

After they had traversed the main floor of the palace in silence, they turned about and started walking back. Finally Durukan spoke.

"You know Mustafa, this is not going to be easy. No one knows us. Oh for sure, we have had numerous foreign visitors here, and we have befriended all we have met but one. And yes we have established trade, and had minor communications with this nation and that. But we have never really engaged anyone. They know little of our history, or our struggle to survive in this barbaric world. They may have met our veteran soldiers, but few have experienced the barbaric savagery as we have."

Mustafa was wise enough to remain silent.

Durukan continued: "There are different religions out there. Different languages. And different customs. Yes, it may be difficult to establish solid relationships. To be honest my friend, I just don't know. My predecessors have never tried. They were too busy fighting the barbarians, no." And with that he slapped Mustafa on the back.

He took that as his cue to respond. "I realize the difficulties I face, Chieftain. But I have assembled some of the best minds in the Empire, and we are confident that we can reach out to other nations. The Russians are a most reasonable people. As are the others from further West, although I admit I can't fathom their constant warring. The warriors we have met from this nation called Japan are most friendly and honorable, even if we have yet found an effective way to communicate with them."

Durukan interrupted him. "And the Mebe's? What of them?"

"Our plan is to ignore them for now."

"Good. Good." said Durukan. "Now, tell me more of your plan."

The two continued to walk and talk as the afternoon sun stretched into early evening. It was another beautiful day in Istanbul, on the Plains of the Urals.

[France (DoB)]

King Louis XXVIII the Traveller is dead. Long live King Louis XXIX.

King Louis XXVIII's reign was remarkable in that throughout nearly his entire reign the King was rarely at home in Paris. Instead King Louis XXVIII preferred to travel to far lands on a vacation leaving the French affairs of state to his trusted advisors. The King's faith in his advisors proved to be well placed and they ruled the Kingdom well in the King's absence.

The military generals in particular, proved most effective at taking advantage of the warmongering english's arrogant declaration of war and had landed a sizable army in england to launch Price Tag attacks and forcing the english to resort to invoking the DMW ritual to stop the devastation of their infrastructure.

King Louis XXIX inherits a prosperous land with a strong military. King Louis XXIX's first act as King was to respond to the english plea for mercy.

The French terms for peace have been clearly stated for centuries, in that the english must pay reparations for their six wars of aggression against France. For the loss of 6 work boats, 2 galley flotillas, destroyed infrastructure and approximately 5 centuries of blockades of French waters, my advisors calculate the current english war reparation debt to be the equivalent of 8 trireme flotillas.

Therefore the French terms for peace are as follows:
1) a 10-turn peace treaty with open borders
2) on the first turn of the peace treaty england is to gift the 4 trireme flotillas currently in French waters to France
3) before the 10-turn peace treaty expires england will gift the remaining 4 trireme flotillas to France to repay the english war reparation debt

[England (DoB)]

The French finally state the reparations they believe they are entitled to but they refuse to state what they offer in return. Ten turns of peace is mandated by the ancient DMW rituals, is all France offers in exchange open borders during this period? Does France not seek a longer peace after these many years of war? What is offered in these terms appears to be a fools bargain - terms that would greatly empower the French military yet give no assurance such a military will not immediately be used against England.