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 )                                                                         (
(                             NewOrigins Events                             )
 )                              July, Year 2                               (
(                                                                           )
 )        Dozen travelers are talking about a clash between enemies        (
(     happened in the plains of Ledi where 1 combatant was killed. The      )
 )    attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle will be known as    (
(                    Battle near the city of Cymakpest.                     )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(       Several adventurers have heard about a clash between hostile        )
 )      forces happened in the forests of Sanan where 1 combatant was      (
(     killed. The attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle will     )
 )              be known as Battle of the Fort Building [2].               (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )      A few peasants are worried about an encounter between hostile      (
(     forces happened in the jungles of Lyce where 108 combatants were      )
 )    killed. The attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle will    (
(              be known as Battle near the city of Cymakpest.               )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Some traders have heard about a conflict between enemies happened     )
 )    in the plains of Ledi where 1 combatant was killed. The attackers    (
(     slaughtered all defenders. This battle will be known as Battle of     )
 )                          the town of Aisville.                          (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )       Several merchants are whispering about an encounter between       (
(          combatants happened in the plains of Tengbole where 104          )
 )      combatants were killed. The attackers were victorious.. This       (
(          battle will be known as Battle of the town of Crastad.           )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Several druids have heard about the town of O'andhurst that lies      )
 )        in the Batatre forests, where a villans massacred guards.        (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    Handful scouts have heard about the city of Eslebro that lies in     (
(        the La'eldstan plains, where a rebels extinguished guards.         )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Dozen peasants are whispering about the town of Outhede that lies     )
 )       in the Ehe desert, where an opposition annihilated guards.        (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )     A few peasants are discussing about hunters who have decimated      (
(       Sandlings (171) near Fort Building [1]. Freeing the plains of       )
 )                      Ceckshire from their terror.                       (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    Dozen druids are talking about witchers who have put to the sword    (
(      Tribe of Centaurs (172) near town of Ogacre. Freeing the plains      )
 )                     of Ceckshire from their horror.                     (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )       Numerous adventurers are talking about adventurers who have       (
(     annihilated Tribe of Centaurs (1006) near village of Jintrordda.      )
 )            Freeing the plains of Gritaft from their anxiety.            (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    In the jungles of Lyce, near town of Aisville, Great Apes (1003)     (
(            who continue to cause anxiety to local inhabitants.            )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     A group of witchers slew the Sandlings (633) who inflicted dread      )
 )     on the inhabitants of the Strepe desert near town of Mallbank.      (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    In the desert of Wanha, near town of Whoford, Evil Warriors (938)    (
(             who continue to cause fear to local inhabitants.              )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(      In the plains of Atno, near city of Cepaway, Undead (2209) who       )
 )              continue to cause dread to local inhabitants.              (
(__       _       _       _       _       _       _       _       _       __)
    '-._.-' (___ _) '-._.-' '-._.-' )     ( '-._.-' '-._.-' (__ _ ) '-._.-'
            ( _ __)                (_     _)                (_ ___)
            (__  _)                 '-._.-'                 (___ _)
            '-._.-'                                         '-._.-'

THE SOVEREIGN WORD

Promises honored only in prosperity are not covenants, but conveniences.

The Collective therefore affirms that every friendship acknowledged, every assurance of peaceful intent offered, and every undertaking freely given remains in force. Fortune may test a sovereign word; it does not release those who give it.

Those who approach us in candor will find our correspondence open, our agreements intact, and our regard unaltered. We ask no more of neighboring powers than the same fidelity they expect from us.

Constancy is not the ornament of sovereignty. It is its proof.

I've seen merchants more dangerous than these pirates

Factions with iron brains only get in the way.

After leaving The Black Stone, Garrick walked home through the narrow streets of the conquered city. 

The celebration of the victors echoed in the distance, but he paid it no mind. His house stood at the end of a quiet alley, old and forgotten, much like its owner.

Once inside, he slid a heavy chest out from beneath his bed and unlocked it with a small iron key. Wrapped in a faded cloth lay a Black Sword. The blade still gleamed with that unmistakable dark sheen from hilt to tip.

Garrick ran a hand along the flat of the weapon and sighed.
Few people knew that, in his youth, he had worn the colors of the city guard.

Garrick’s face, usually expressionless, now burned with unwavering resolve.

A quiet month is also a month.

So much unemployement in this world

Do it, take the town, vanquish the guardsmen.

For the people, for the glory.

Found some tundra which is worse than plains sir. Although the men seem to like smoking the herbs.

What to do with the humans.  They seem weak. They can ride horses though.  We have lots of horses.  Maybe transport....

Woof!

- I feel its gaze every single night. It watches us from above, through cold blue flashes in the sky, as if we are mere insects in a jar. The Ironclad were a simple threat; their steel could be melted with magic. But this entity is different. It is soulless. It has no rage, no greed, only this icy, endless calculation.

- The centaurs say it is the spirit of iron machines, but I know there is no spirit there. It is trying to study us. It captures our people, throws them into cages, and watches us bleed, trying to find the formula of our loyalty or our fear. It thinks that if it takes us apart piece by piece, it will be able to control us.

- But it will never understand. The machine looks for logic in why Chiron shares his bread, or why I play the lute before a battle. It sees nothing but an error in the system. Let it search. While it tries to digitize our love and our pain, we grow stronger. Its iron logic is its greatest prison. And because of this single error, it will fail.

FROM A LEADER'S DIARY - THE EIGHTEENTH MONTH
============================================

Four small words this month, and each of them cost me something
before I learned it. None is a matter of strength or numbers. Each is
a matter of saying precisely what you mean to men who do precisely
what you say.


I. "THE BOAT" AND "THE UNFINISHED BOAT" ARE DIFFERENT THINGS
--------------------------------------------------------------

Last month I wrote that a half-built hull must be handed to whoever
stays ashore before the vessel sails. So this month I ordered it: the
sailor was to give the shipwright the raft.

He gave him the raft. The FINISHED one. The whole vessel, with the
shipwright standing in it, was made over to the shipwright, and the
sailor was left on the beach holding the timbers of the second hull
and a load of wood, and an order to sail a boat he no longer owned.

The word I had left out was UNFINISHED. To the men who carry out
orders, "the raft" means the raft that floats; the thing on the
stocks is a different object with a different name, and if you do not
use it they will not guess. Nothing was lost but the month. The boat
sits where it was; the timbers sit where they were; and the order now
reads as it should have read.


II. A BUILDING NEEDS THE STONE AS WELL AS THE HANDS
-----------------------------------------------------

I set ten good masons to raise a storehouse and reckoned the job in
labour: ten men, two ranks each, twenty units of work, the whole thing
in a month. The report came back: they did not have the materials.

I had sent the stone away. Every block in the district had gone off
on a cart to another town the same month, because I was counting
WORK and had forgotten to count STONE. The masons stood in an empty
yard with their trowels.

These are two separate ledgers. A crew that can lay twenty blocks a
month lays nothing if there are three on the ground. Before you order
the building, ask not "can they do the work" but "is the stuff there,
in this district, on the day they start" - and if it is on a cart,
that is not here.


III. A MAN WHO IS GIVEN A PURSE AND THEN SENT TO MARKET SPENDS THE
     PURSE FIRST
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I raised a small company for a far hex and gave them three hundred
in coin to keep them for their first months. In the same breath I
sent them to buy their own recruits.

They bought the recruits WITH THE THREE HUNDRED. Of course they did.
A man pays out of his own pocket before he asks the man next to him,
and the pocket I had just filled was the nearest one. They would have
marched off with nothing, and the whole hex would have gone hungry in
its second month.

If money is to TRAVEL, put it on a man who is not buying anything.
The coin and the purchase must not sit in the same hands on the same
day, or one will quietly become the other.


IV. THE LIZARDFOLK DO NOT NEED THE BOAT
------------------------------------------

I had been building rafts to put fishermen on the water - so many
hulls, so many crews, so many months of shipwrights. Then someone
pointed out the obvious about the lizardfolk who live along that
coast: they swim.

A lizardman carries himself in the water and a little over. He can
stand in an open sea hex with no vessel under him at all, and the
fishing there is the same fishing a boat would find. He cannot learn
the craft as deeply as the sea-elves can, and he can only swim home
with what he can hold - a few fish each - so the trade has a shape to
it: fish, then carry, then fish again. But it needs no timber, no
yard and no crew, and it can begin the month the men are bought.

The hulls are not wasted. They will carry wood, which cannot swim.


                                              - a leader of The Filras

Another day in Atlantis.

We need more gold!

Konungr gathered his hird and set out to sea. They were going fishing. No particular reason. Just fishing.

The journey was long, and the sea was calm. So they opened a barrel of ale. Then another. By the time they found a good spot, they were drunk enough to think they were great fishermen.

"Throw the net!" shouted the Konungr.

They threw the net overboard. Then they opened another barrel and kept drinking.

Hours passed. The sun sank. The ale ran low. Then someone noticed the net was moving.

"Pull!" they cried.

They hauled it aboard. Inside was a mermaid. Beautiful. Shimmering. Long wet hair, a tail that slapped the deck, and eyes that looked at them with something between fear and curiosity.

The Konungr stared. The hird stared.

"Leave us," said the Konungr.

The hird grinned and stumbled to the other end of the boat.

What happened next, the skalds never recorded in detail. But the boat rocked all night. The hird pretended not to hear. The Konungr did not sleep. Neither did the mermaid.

In the morning, the Konungr woke up with a dry mouth and a pounding head. He looked at his prize.

It was a cod. A very large cod. Dead. Glassy-eyed. Smelling of fish.

The hird woke up one by one. They looked at the cod. They looked at each other. They looked at the Konungr.

No one said a word.

The Konungr cleared his throat.

"Well," he said. "We caught something."

They rowed home in silence. That evening, there was no feast. No songs. No stories. Just a large cod on the table and twelve men staring at their plates, too ashamed to speak.

And the Konungr never spoke of the mermaid again.

A contract has arrived. Now we need to figure out how to beat evil mages.

We say goodbye to Gate Lords. 
It was short war. Now it's just restoring peace.

Production ticks along nicely in Disarheim.

The brothers in charge of accounts report that the budget is good, the ledgers are balanced, and the stores are full. A satisfying month of industry for the Order.

All is well in the town.

Yù móu shèng dí, xiān móu rén hé.

To overcome the enemy, first build unity.

!!!

Battle with the Bots

Where shall they strike next?  

At night the ice wurms will come.

And the yeti too.

I've been down so long this looks like up to me.

New alliances have been forged in the west. the neighbours are peaceful. 
the forests are being utilised to provide ships for the first pirate fleet. now to discover iron to shape into arms and armour.

*click*

😑🤔😕😰😢😵‍💫🤕🤒🥵🥴😵💀🧟👻🪦

Some days are slippy

Damn thinking machines. We tried to play nice, give you a chance but no you just want to smash stuff. 

bolllooooon

"Good For The Soul, Conclusion"

The slow grind....

Now to remove the AI from the Town.  We don't need to AI neighbors.

Will I get more silver for more elaborate articles?
What are the criteria?

Victory may wait...

.

Young stars can produce powerful winds that push nearby gas away.

When you explore the fog of unknown regions at sea, be prepared to run aground.

Well we found land, but it's not what it's cracked up to be. We're off to sea again.

I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
I will use the QUIT order when I get tired of the game.
...

It had taken many months. A caravanserai had to be constructed in the right place to move stone past the valley of the dragon, and then distributed out to the plains of Bamit. The people's most skilled builders had teamed up to oversee the construction of a mighty temple. Would the gods be pleased?

Yes, they were pleased, and sent out a reward of twenty bundles of seasoned yew wood. 
The chief architect was unhappy "We got this?We can't even build anything from this right now!"
The econometrist was ecstatic "We have 100% of Atlantis's current yew supply! We have total market monopoly!"
The council met and felt the gods had rewarded them fairly. In due course, master weaponsmiths would make use of this gift.

The meeting of "old friends" took place in a warm, one might say, heated atmosphere...

***

The 20th month of this World is coming! If you are still unable to fend off an AI faction that appeared 10 months later than you, this world is not for you. You haven't learned anything... Try again. For example in New Age... find a teacher to teach you the peculiarities of this rules, and then life in this world will become really interesting for you! In the meantime, goodbye! The time armies and battles for winning is coming...

***