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 )                                                                         (
(                             NewOrigins Events                             )
 )                            September, Year 1                            (
(                                                                           )
 )    Handful pilgrims are rumoring about the battle between two armies    (
(     happened in the plains of Ceckshire where 1 combatant was killed.     )
 )     The defenders were furious and put all attackers to the sword.      (
(        This battle will be known as Battle of the town of Ogacre.         )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(       A few peasants are rumoring about a fight between combatants        )
 )    happened in the desert of Vaha where battle ended in a slaughter     (
(     of one of the sides. This battle will be known as Battle near the     )
 )                             town of Lowick.                             (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )     A few peasants are whispering about the battle between hostile      (
(      forces happened in the plains of Ciytucpynd where many soldiers      )
 )    will never fight again. This battle will be known as Battle near     (
(                          the city of Lonherford.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Some wanderers are talking about an encounter between two armies      )
 )     happened in the forests of Sanan where 1 combatant was killed.      (
(       The attackers slaughtered all defenders. This battle will be        )
 )             known as Battle near the forests of Baswatshaw.             (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    Some scouts are worried about a fight between enemies happened in    (
(      the jungles of Rheshho where battle ended in a slaughter of one      )
 )     of the sides. This battle will be known as Battle near the town     (
(                                 of Pu'i.                                  )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Numerous merchants are worried about the town of Tiham that lies      )
 )    in the Selfle mountains, where an opposition annihilated guards.     (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )     Multiple bards are worried about the village of Mosko that lies     (
(         in the Gessiburn plains, where a partisans killed guards.         )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Handful refugees are discussing about the town of De'inpest that      )
 )     lies in the Gessiburn plains, where a villans put to the sword      (
(                                  guards.                                  )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(       A few wanderers are rumoring about rangers who have expelled        )
 )        Family of Ogres (259) near city of Trelldon. Freeing the         (
(                  mountains of Wopiepa from their horror.                  )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     In the plains of Padi, near forests of Esmmin, Tribe of Centaurs      )
 )        (575) who continue to cause anxiety to local inhabitants.        (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )     In the desert of Mebros, near town of Jiburn, Undead (600) who      (
(               continue to cause fear to local inhabitants.                )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     In the plains of Gritaft, near village of Jintrordda, Evil Mages      )
 )         (919) who continue to cause fear to local inhabitants.          (
(                                                                           )
 )                         .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                         (
(                                                                           )
 )    In the forests of Hagreeniwl, near town of Betport, Living Trees     (
(          (918) who continue to cause fear to local inhabitants.           )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(     Frightening news were coming from the forests of Bo'ed. Citizens      )
 )     were horrified by the assassination near the ocean of Atlantis      (
(                  Ocean. The assassin escaped unnoticed.                   )
 )                                                                         (
(                          .:*~*:._.:*~*:._.:*~*:.                          )
 )                                                                         (
(      Horrifying news were coming from the swamps of Geeba. Commoners      )
 )     were afraid by the assassination near the town of Pruecsenhar.      (
(                      The assassin escaped unnoticed.                      )
 )                                                                         (
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    '-._.-' (___ _) '-._.-' '-._.-' )     ( '-._.-' '-._.-' (__ _ ) '-._.-'
            ( _ __)                (_     _)                (_ ___)
            (__  _)                 '-._.-'                 (___ _)
            '-._.-'                                         '-._.-'

THE STEWARDSHIP OF UNFINISHED THINGS

FROM THE IMPERIAL ARCHIVES

Excerpt from The Discipline Before Necessity: Studies of the Early Collective
Volume I — Institutions of the Founding Era, Chapter VII
Authorized Scholarly Edition

The Founding Era is remembered chiefly through beginnings.

The first roads, the first outposts, the first institutions, and the first deliberate extensions of responsibility beyond the immediate reach of those who conceived them have each received sustained attention in the later scholarship. Less often examined is the condition in which many of these beginnings were inherited.

They were unfinished.

This should occasion neither surprise nor disappointment. Works of lasting consequence seldom conform themselves to the tenure of a single hand. Roads outlive those who first walk them. Institutions mature beyond the sight of those who establish them. Even the clearest design eventually encounters circumstances its author could not have anticipated.

Unfinished work was therefore not an exceptional condition within the early Collective.

It was the ordinary form of inheritance.

Surviving records reveal assignments begun but not completed, responsibilities transferred before their full dimensions had become apparent, and designs resumed by those who had not taken part in their conception. Some plans proceeded substantially as intended. Others were altered by geography, scarcity, discovery, or necessity. A few were set aside until conditions made their purpose newly attainable.

Later commentators sometimes interpreted these alterations as evidence that the Founders lacked constancy.

They mistook fidelity for repetition.

To inherit a purpose is not merely to repeat the final instruction left by another. Instructions answer circumstances, and circumstances change. Purpose is more durable. It explains why the instruction was given, what danger it sought to prevent, what opportunity it sought to preserve, and what future it was intended to make possible.

Where that purpose remained understood, alteration did not constitute abandonment.

It constituted stewardship.

This distinction became increasingly important as the Collective's responsibilities multiplied. No single steward could preserve every deliberation, reconstruct every calculation, or personally carry every undertaking from conception to completion. Knowledge had to survive transfer. Decisions had to preserve not merely their conclusions, but enough of their reasoning that successors might recognize when those conclusions remained binding and when altered conditions required revision.

Memory without judgment becomes ritual.
Judgment without memory becomes improvisation.

The early Collective required both.

The Collective's developing administrative habits consequently reveal a persistent concern with making purpose legible. Inventories recorded what existed. Orders recorded what was to be done. More consequentially, the surviving memoranda increasingly recorded why a task mattered, what conditions governed it, and which future obligations must not disappear merely because immediate necessity had postponed them.

Such records did not eliminate error. No archive can substitute entirely for experience, and no procedure can guarantee wisdom in those who apply it. Their value lay instead in narrowing the distance between one steward's understanding and the next.

The work could change hands without becoming a different work.

This is perhaps the least dramatic achievement of the Founding Era, and among the most essential. A civilization does not endure by requiring every generation to begin anew with equal brilliance. It endures because useful knowledge need not be rediscovered at the full price of its first acquisition. Each generation receives roads already measured, dangers already named, questions already refined, and purposes already judged worthy of continuance.

Yet inheritance imposes an obligation of its own.

Those who receive unfinished work must resist two opposing temptations. The first is to discard what they did not personally devise. The second is to preserve every inherited detail so rigidly that the purpose is sacrificed to the form in which it first appeared.

The Founders gradually learned that continuity demanded something more difficult than either rejection or imitation.

It demanded understanding.

An institution survives not when nothing changes, but when change does not erase why it exists.

Thus the roads lengthened under different surveyors. Skills passed from one instructor to students who would later teach others. Outposts remained under the watch of those who had not selected their ground. Foundations lay unfinished through seasons in which more urgent burdens intervened, then passed to new hands when time and means allowed the work to continue.

What united these acts was not sameness of method.

It was continuity of purpose.

The greatness later attributed to the early Collective therefore belongs not only to those who conceived its enduring works. It belongs also to those who recovered neglected intentions, corrected imperfect procedures, preserved worthy ambitions through lean seasons, and accepted responsibility for futures they had not personally imagined.

They understood that unfinished did not mean failed.

It meant entrusted.

Later generations would express the principle in the maxim placed above the entrance to the old Imperial Archive:

Honor what was begun.
Understand why it mattered.
Carry it farther.

Currently watching those automatons. Fascinating creatures. One day they might take our land and our jobs.

Meanwhile...

After a loss due to exhaustion, more losses now follow.
According to the report, a group of tax collectors was attacked by monsters.
It is difficult not to appreciate the irony.

The peasants dutifully hand over their taxes in exchange for protection, a noble arrangement in theory. Protection from monsters, no less.
Yet when the tax collectors themselves become monster fodder, one begins to wonder what exactly those taxes are paying for.

Apparently, the monsters were never informed that they were supposed to serve as a justification for the tax burden, and have stubbornly refused to play their assigned role.
Indeed, they seem quite happy to collect their own taxes, paid in flesh rather than coin.

Zuck it

We keep counting our trees and keep getting a different number.

Beautiful, beautiful, ocean.

The Invisibility skill allows a mage to render other units nearly invisible to other factions, giving them a +3 bonus to Stealth. This invisibility will last until the next Magic round. To cast this spell, use the order CAST Invisibility UNITS <unit> ..., where <unit> is a list of the units that the mage wishes to render invisible. A mage may render invisible a number of men or creatures equal to his skill level squared. This skill requires illusion [ILLU] 3 to begin to study. This skill costs 100 silver per month of study.

Hello fellow travellers.
Please respond or reach out as we seek only peaceful coexistence.

BY THE CHAMBER OF THE HEPHAESTUS SYNDICATE

In the name of the Forge and of the Ledger.

To all whom these presents may concern, greeting.

Be it known that our men have met automata upon the roads. Not by
rumour nor by report carried second-hand: our own factors stood in the
same ground as they and looked at them. A garrison of one such house
upon watch, and a company of another passing by. Neither party offered
the other injury. Where this befell is not set down here.

Be it known that this Chamber keeps in its service a small number of
automata of the elder sort, cast long before this year by hands that
are dust.

Be it known further that the making of new ones is forbidden by the
Articles of this Syndicate, and has been so from the founding. It is
not a want of craft that might be remedied, nor a convenience of the
present year: it is a standing prohibition upon this house, which no
resolution of this Chamber may set aside.

Be it known further that between our old servants and those houses
there is no bond of kin, of command, of purse or of counsel. That a
thing is made of metal argues kinship no more than that two men are
made of flesh.

Errors and omissions excepted.

By order of the Chamber,
Coenraet de Koperen, Secretary and Bookkeeper,
for and on behalf of the Hephaestus Syndicate.

Sealed by the hand of
Andries Baselier, Director of the Chamber.

Given in the month of September, in the first year.

Goed ijzer, eerlijk gewicht.

A third mage is born!  Under the stars!  This is a sign.  A sign of growth!  A sign of mysticism...

All trees rejoice..

Woof!

As the Chosen One crossed the provincial border, a dry steppe wind immediately struck his face, bringing the scent of wormwood and horse sweat. Dust swirled on the horizon. Within minutes, he was surrounded.

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

A colleague asked in these pages last month, of a settlement whose guards
had been cleared: bright future ahead, right? Two others wrote in the same
issue that watchful guards were spoiling their trade. I owe all three an
answer, because I believed what the first of them believes and the country
corrected me.

The guards come back.

Not all at once, and not as the same men. Some fraction of a garrison
returns each month while any of it still stands, and where none stands at
all, a new watch forms in time out of nothing anyone can see. I do not
know the rule. I know only that a district I had accounted settled produced
a fresh company of armed men in the space of one month, and that they stood
between me and its revenue.

The important part is not that they returned. It is WHEN they returned.
They were not there while my clerks were counting. They appeared after the
counting was done, at the far end of the month, in the quiet after
everything else had finished. So the loss was not that month's revenue - it
was the next month's, and I discovered it only by reading a report I had
already decided was good news.

That is the shape of the thing. A settlement is not a door you open once.
It is a door that closes behind you at a steady rate, and the only question
is whether you are standing in it. To the two who find guards bad for
business: they are, and they will be again in a month, so plan for the
month after.


ON THE DIVISION OF A PURSE
--------------------------

A smaller lesson, and cheaper, which I offer to anyone keeping accounts
after a fight.

I had given orders that certain companies were to take no plunder. I wanted
them light, and I did not want a quartermaster's argument about carts. The
orders were obeyed exactly: not one of them came back carrying so much as a
captured knife.

Every one of them came back with silver.

Coin, it turns out, is not plunder in the sense my order meant. It weighs
nothing, and a company forbidden to carry anything can carry as much of
nothing as you like. Nor is a purse awarded to the company that did the
work. It is divided by heads - every man who was there takes an equal
share, the ones who swung and the ones who merely stood and were counted.

I had budgeted the whole purse to one company and planned its next month
around the sum. That company received one share in many, and the remainder
went out in handfuls to men who had no particular need of it. Nothing was
lost. But a plan that expected a lump sum received a shower instead, and a
plan is worth exactly what its arithmetic is worth.

I record both of these for the same reason. Neither was hidden from me.
Both were written plainly in reports I had already read. The difference
between knowing a thing and having read it is a month of revenue, and I
have now paid that tuition twice.

- a leader of The Filras

These swamps are disgusting... I shouldn't have eaten those mushrooms. Now I'm ashamed of myself and the centaurs. I don't remember what happened, but the orc messenger hiccupped and muttered that he wasn't "beer."

NIGHT.

The darkness shatters. A deafening crash of steel against steel. Blades scream. Fire erupts in blinding flashes — shadows twist and howl on the walls...

— WHAT IN THE NAME OF HEAVEN IS HAPPENING? Who dares strike in the dead of night?!
— YOUR MAJESTY! We are betrayed! We are overrun!

Savage cries. The sickening thud of bodies hitting stone. Metal screeches. A chandelier crashes down in a shower of sparks...

— My battle grimoire — GIVE IT TO ME NOW!
— Here, Majesty, but... it's BLANK! Every page — empty!
— NO! We walked into this blind! So be it — if magic fails us, we fight with flesh and bone! We bleed like men!

Spears rattle in trembling hands. Boots stomp the floor in frantic chaos...

— TO ARMS! TO ARMS, ALL OF YOU! For your kingdom! For your LIVES!

THE NEXT MORNING.

Pale dawn creeps over a hall scarred with ash and blood. The king stands amidst the ruins, voice low and smoldering...

— Tell me... what in all the hells was that?
— Your Majesty, barbarians from the western wastes fell upon us like wolves — but the guard held the line. We pushed them back, inch by bleeding inch.
— Casualties?
— ...Too many, sire. We were caught sleeping — unarmed in spirit, unready in heart.
— (a long, terrible silence) Then we shall not let their souls be wasted. This night has been a brand on our pride — and I swear by every fallen name, we will learn from this fire. We will forge steel from these ashes. We will be ready — for the next strike, and the next, until our enemies choke on their own greed. PREPARE THE KINGDOM.

If you see a patch of darkness, know that BlackLight's intellect flashed...

... he’s glad he killed the lone Viking, but he’s sitting in a swamp surrounded between ocean and monsters, doesn’t know who’s behind the Viking, and hasn’t seen what’s around that mountain... But he could have made a deal and gotten the same thing, but without the negative consequences. Now we’ll have to castrate him, gut him, and throw him away like a rotten herring...

The first constructed often reveals the true nature of the faction. For some it is safe magical tower that they hope to learn a lot of magic, for some it is fort to win combat as soon as possible, or it can be a ship for those who cannot wait to raid and pillage. For us it is usually caravanserai.

The sounds of swords clanging is filling the air. Still practicing, but soon it will not be a game.

We've met very nice people but why they are silent ?

Well I cocked that up, That was a quick game, guess I'll wait another few years for the next one

Jū ān sī wēi

In times of peace, think of danger

Hmm... the moon. Bright...

We have found a forest island in the ocean, and we will definitely establish trade with

It's getting crowded around here!

There did seem to be a few more of the lads around these days, which was no bad thing, thought Badvoc.

Might be time to see about getting them to do something useful, besides putting a significant dent in the tribe's beer stocks.

Todus speaking, for what it's worth to anyone listening.

My scouts are running thin living on withdrawn meals and whatever the wilds offer, which isn't much so far from home. Some of them won't be filing any more reports, cut down before they could so much as raise a blade. Roving bands like that don't announce themselves, and they don't negotiate.

And now the norsemen of Gledikonungr have decided our corridor past the many enemies isn't for us to use. Strange, given how many stretches of this land sit unguarded. Plenty of room to walk for all.

If anyone else is finding the roads this unfriendly, I'd hear about it. Misery loves company, and shared roads are safer roads.

More visitors to our remote island. welcome. we hope you may stay?

The old Greyjoin really wondered how he was going to feed all those hungry mouths. Had he perhaps hired too many people?

(Taverne principale de Shrobank)
L'elfe entre accompagné d'un troisième loup doré, il sourit à son tour. Il referme vite la porte et laisse la chaleur se réinstaller dans la grande salle de la taverne. Les gnomes repartent à leurs occupations. Il se rapproche en trois grand pas de la table où se trouve Galadriel.
- Mère, je l'ai trouvé!  lui souffle t il à l'oreille.
- Bonjour mon fils, attable toi et commande quelque chose pour te réchauffer tu 'en dras plus à ce moment là.
Elrohir s'attable et commande un plat chaud accompagné de la liqueur gnome. Un calme affectueux s'installe. Le plat arrive rapidement accompagné d'un pichet fumant.
- Cadeau du patron, armagnac gnome chaud hors d'age avec ses compliments!
Les deux elfes remercient chaleureusement la charmante serveuse. Les doigts de Galadriel se meuvent d'une étrange manière et elle sussure une incantation.
- Mon fils tu peux maintenant parler, nul ne nous entendra.
- Parfait mère, j'ai enfin trouvé ce que vous m'avez demandé!
- Comment ça donne moi plus de détail.
- A 3 mois d'ici, j'ai trouvé  au milieu d'épaisses forêts, entourée de montagnes enneigées, et traversées d'opulentes prairie, une vallée secrète où nous pourrons construire un refuge sûr pour notre peuple!
- Nous allons enfin pouvoir mettre nos enfants à l'abri de nos ennemis!
- Il faudra cependant supprimer quelques ogres, dragons et autres sbires de l'ennemi.
- Qu'à cela ne tienne, je rassemble de suite nos troupes d'élites, ils vont sécuriser la zone et les réfugiés vont enfin pouvoir s'installer!
La conversation se poursuit tard dans la soirée...

Hold on for a second

😑🤔😕😰😢

Some days just drop in on us

Gradually, the units are moving towards self-financing. Which is relevant to us, because half of the initial financial resource has already been spent.

We drink, we drink and we drink once again.

more battles inc

Only shadow remained of Cone legacy, many worlds ago. In the shadow, new faction were pontificating. 

How quickly time flies

"Politically Incorrect..."

LAND HO!
An undead incursion commences.

A village is better than no village?  A town would be really nice.

The majority of population of a coastal village at 13,31 was diagnosed with acute phosphorus deficiency.
They'll buy 200 fish for 50 silver each.

deeper and deeper in the dark ...

It appears The Pack are not fond of peaceful visitors. 

-Insert Nebulae fact here-

Just one

Meeting new factions, hopefully new friends.

Going to take a look around the down below.

L'indifférence est un poison lent,
Qui coule dans mes veines en silence.
Mon cœur se vide, impuissant,
Et ton absence est sa seule sentence.

Let it be know to all the world that the Children of the Four Winds are world number one in livestock ownership!! Mostly because we can't move the cattle to market, and haven't had the time to train chefs up yet. For now, we take pride in our vast herds.

Rumors can be true!

I heard that you can roleplay even in wargames.

There are snakes in the woods.  Evil snakes.  They must be killed...