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[Cathar]

Hey all !

So, I've been playing in my little world by myself, finding wonder in the legends and amusing myself with writing and drawing the history of a human country, and I was thinking – why wouldn't I share it with you ? Maybe you'll be interested ? Especially since I'm starting a fortress very soon.

So, TL;DR what I want to do is to make some story heavy fortress. There'll be a lot of writing, a lot of drawing, and I hope a focus on character development through the hardships of fortress making. I have no doubt this will be!!fun !! but I'll try my best to survive.

Modwise I'm playing with a slightly modded game, to make humans playable. Else it's vanilla. It may be a bit slow, as pictures take time to make, but that will also leave some time to focus on the characters with a bit of scruteny.

The idea is to make successive little fortresses, alternating with adventure mode at times (which I will not bother you with) in order to follow the story and the development of the country through the eyes of many people.

So, without further adue, welcome in the world of Minbazkar, and more specifically in the kingdom of

Overview of the world of Minbazkar - Age of Myths

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Minbazkar is a vast but young world. It use the invention of human written languague as the yzar zero of their calendar – this time also correspond to the start of the spreading of human tribes accross the continent.

Humanity is still in its infancy. Woodcrafting is a well mastered art, and most of structures of human tribes are made of wood.  Humanity is by in large very superstitious and reveres a large number of gods. Tools are mostly made of bronze, but some iron equipment can be found. Humanity also acquire steel through dwarven commerce but hasn't discovered how to make it themselves yet.

The landmass is roughly divided in two – in the north to the equator, a single large continent called the Land of Oak due to its widespread forests and mostly temperate climate, houses the majority of sentient species. Goblins are mostly settled in the far north, were the climate is much colder, but some settlements are said to close elven, human and dwarven civilization to the east, making their expension impossible in that direction.

For that reason, in the Land of Oak, most civilizations and tribes are located between the western sea and the eastern goblin settlements.

In the southern hemisphere, a collection of large islands have been reported by sea travellers. The Land of Confining, the Continent of Pillars, the Squeezing Lands and the Allied Lands.

The Land of Confining is the home of the Steamy Union, human nation, which battles for its survival against local goblins with their dwarven allies. Their relative isolation with the rest of the world limits the interraction with the rest of humanity to occasional coastal raids. The conflicts are chaotic and savage but are – confined. Hence the name of the landmass.

The Squeezing Lands are the home of the Spider of Principles, a goblin civilization. They are unnumerables, but left in isolation they do not pose a threat until human try to colonize their lands. But humans are not foolish enough to do that.

Or are they ?

Overview of Mong Kima, the Nation of Pearls

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Mong Kima was formed in year 2 by Par masteredblood the first human to unite disparate tribes around the interior sea. They originate from the towns of Goatsplayed and Styletalk, but spread extremely quickly in the old continent, especially on the coasts via river and coastal navigation. It forms a loose collection of hamlets, who occasionally raid nearby coastal settlements, earning the Pearlites – a common apellation for the tribesmen of Mong Kima – a reputation of pirates and raiders.

The Pearlite mindset values stoicism, self control and decorum. War is heavily disliked, but fighting in itself is seen as the pinacle of art.  Warriors and fighters are considered very brave, especially because war is seen as the worst horror that can happen.
Complaining is seen as a sign of weakness and is heavily frown upon, as is everything having to do with emotions – art, romance, familial or even national feelings are foreign to Pearlites, who rather value practicality, dignity and silence. Traditions are not kept, nor knowledge actively sought after. « Martial monks » is a common slur used against them, but not without reason, as they are ascetic and do not value much besides the art of war.

Mong Kima has good relations with other human countries, so-and-so relations with dwarves that sometimes go haywire, and atrocious relations with their elven neighbours their fought against during their whole history.

The reign of Par Masteredblood ended in 45, after she left her office without a word, never to be seen again.

She was succeeded by Peklod Balancedbitten, a young nobleman aged of only fourteen years, who'd eventually rule for 53 years. Peklod will write down the first codex of law of Mong Kima, and is seen as the funding father of the country – as a country. He organized the disparate tribes and managed to create a feeling of unity and cohesion among his people, despite the geographical distance between their various settlements. He ruled from the historical city of Goatplayed, and his reign ended brutally in 103, during the rampage of the Bronze Colossus Odlug Yellscalds, the dominant scar, who not only took the life of the king but also desroyed the home city of Mong Kima.

Even today, Odlug is still « alive », and reputation is to be earned for its destruction.

He was succeeded by his daughter, Usu Rakedowl born in 68, who still rules today from the castle of Hazelslide, alongside her courtmembers – Lady Dilol, General Tangledtrampled, and their respective subordinates.

Mastering the forces of nature

(Background information)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Map of the Crazed Conflict
Third parties not shown.

Music !
In 125, The Queen Usu ordered the construction of Brokenbronze to maintain peace and security in the western forests, who were sustaining episodic attacks the Poetic Seas – a collection of seaside elves. Brokenbronze was meant to be an autonomous self sustained wood fortress located deep inside the jungle, manned with infantry in order to stop the incursion of the elves into the neighbouring villages.

In 126, war was declared against the dwarves of the Entrancing Oils. Two major battles were waged, in 127 and 129, resulting in the slaughter of many dwarves deep in the mountains. Despite their successive defeats, the dwarves show no sign of surrender.

In 128, the eastern elves of the Climatic Nut joined the war on the dwarven side, seing the advances of Mong Kima as threatening their border and murdering hundreds of trees in the process. They launched a serie of harassing attacks against the capitale city, forcing the queen to retreat with her court to Hazelslide and destroying the city of Hairyoracle. The city or Hairyoracle found a new lady in the adventurer Luki Usupim  - a local hero – in winter 130.

But soon after, after a serie of mutual provocations between Brokenbronze and the Poetic Seas resulting in the death of a local elven lord, alongside his close guard and part of his army, the Poetic Seas joined the war aswell, isolating Mong Kima in a one versus three conflict.

The Riverguard

Page 1-61

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With Hazelslide and Hairyoracle left almost defenseless, it becomes increasingly urgent for Queen Usu to protect her seat of power – or at least what remains of it. After a great meeting with the local lords, it was decided that the only hope for the security of the kingdom was the control of eastern brooks who delimits human from elven territory.
The story of the Riverguard covers the period that goes from winter 130 to summer 142.
At the order of the pearlite royal court, a small border fort was founded to the east of the kingdom, to stop elven incursions into human territory.
However, elves were found to be nothing but a very minor threat compared to roaming wildlife and to the werebeasts that flocked to it.

A first contact with the Empire of Osme was made in year 132, when a goblin thief was scared off by the militia. The situation escaladed quickly, with a first goblin raid in 133.

The Riverguard managed to arm itself up and repelled Osme's incursions ever increasing in size, culminating into a full all-out assault in 136, repelled at great cost.

The attacks continued, but the Riverguard could rise up to every one of them, developping tactics and battle doctrines, forging weapons and armor and training their population to match their enemies, ever increasing in numbers. In total, eleven attacks were fought off.

Odlug the dominant scar, the regicide bronze colossus, was eventually sighted, captured and eventually destroyed.

During Watershield's period, the General Tis Tangledtrampled died of old age and was replaced by Ener Putiega, a female lawman from the west.

To this day, Watershield marks the border of the civilized world with the lands of the demon king Lomoth.

The Crossroad

Page 67-70

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

During summer of the year 142, after the defeat of Odlug, Luki Usupim, a retired pearlite hero, travels through the Land of Oak to reconnect with her friends of old. Just a stakeless stroll into the world of Minbazkar, far from the fire and fury of war

The universal dream

Pages 71-77

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Islas, a looter from Lemhuhqihu village in the central settlements, travels through the Land of Oak with a group of misfits, and witnesses the destruction of the fort of Tetzobsha and escalation of the blood feud between Pilalene and Mong Kima

The bridge over the sea

Pages 77-89

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now led by Uquur, the merchant guild mendates the construction of a bridgetown between the central settlements and the royal holdings, tu unite the country economically and militarily, and to cut on the travel time for peddlers. The town is built and the bridge made functionnal. During the construction of the town, the aquifer is finally pierced and humanity discovers the underground world for the first time. Although the problems accumulate - gigantic monsters start to pour from the stone quarry, cursed beast start to converge toward the town and criminality rises out of control. Eventually, Kimaeslo Ori isattacked by Osmite forces. Weakened and inspite of fierce resistance, the hamlet is burnt and its inhabitants are slain.

Diplomacy

Pages 90-94

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Shocked by the destruction of Kimaeslo Ori, the queen and her court send a man to the northern kingdom of Bomrek-Laltur to strenghen their relations and allow for the commerce of the legendary dwarven steel, said to cut through every other metal. The young clerk will witness the destruction of Bomreki's royalty and, sneaking onto the very heart of Osmite territory, help to forge new alliances.

That's where we're at, right now.

[zazq]

that map graphic is freaking beautiful!  how did you make it?

[Cathar]

Oh, that's just simple DFhack legend export plus some five minutes on photoshop; it's hard for me to take praise in it as DFHack did 85% of the job ^^'

[Salmeuk]

nice map, it makes me want to make my own. I'll be watching this story for sure :]

[zazq]

my legend viewer maps look like pixel vomit.  Is the world just really freaking big?  TEACH ME YOUR MAGIC!

[Cathar]

Launch Dwarf Fortress, go to legend, switch to DFHack windows, and type exportlegends all
Easy peasy lemon squeezy
Then you'll have to wait because it's very very long. But in the end you have a lovely map, especially if you don't do what I do and put ugly colors on it

[Glass]

Seems interesting. I'll keep my eye on this.
I like Valken.

[Cathar]

My Dear Queen Usu Rakedowl

I hope this letter – the first and hopefully not the last – will find you in good health. It is a trimestrial report of our activities, and if you find it short, it is mostly because our installation has been mostly uneventful.

I should start with the bad news. Thakom, our party leader, has been missing for a whole season. She disapeared one day, never to come back. I hope she is still alive but I wouldn't count on it. Since her disapearance, the expedition is on its guard ; no doubt dangerous animals are roaming in the area.

For now, no sign of elves nor goblins. We've been unoticed so far and I hope this will continue until we're able to completely wall off.


As soon as we reached our destination, Valken installed a temporary workshop on the very ground and started to work his wood magic on the logs we bringed to him. The boy is definitely very skilled and thanks to him, the construction could start fast. We had a place to sleep dry and clean before the end of the winter, however there was still a lot of work to do, and I suspect the team to start to grow tired.



Temporary farm plots were also settled, so we wouldn't starve. For now our food supply is rather low, but we're producing more than we're consuming. Let's hope it stays that way.

During spring, we did our best to expend the compound as much as we could. Our current objective is to be, like our comrades of Brokenbronze, to be able to wall off completely by the winter. Our food and water supply has to be permanent and available from between our walls, so we can repel small invasions even with reduced manpower.

To this effect, we build more stories to the compound, and settled what Xetan called « experimental farming. What he asked us to do was to put water on an elevated platform, promizing that the crops would soon be growing on it.



While I was suspiscious at first, it looks like the experiment is yielding success. Two farm plots has been installed – over the ground, on a wooder bridge. This is certainly a first in the history of Mong Kima, and possibly in the world. We'd like to call this design « Usu's hanging garden » in the honour of Our Queen. We are currently evaluating the possibility of starting a wood production on this kind of garden. They would be totally off the ground, and would allow us to expend the compound without even have to leave it.

I believe it is all I can say for now about our progress.

For this summer our objectives are as follow :

-Install every needed workshop inside the main compound. Possibly start a production of glass.
-Wall off completely, additional protections will be left for later.
-Start to build accomodation for easier living, as a common room, individual rooms and a real granary.

When those objectives are complete, we will start to work on our trades to import metal and start a weapon production.

We will hold this place against the elves.

For the crown !
-Pathril Omaaloc

[hun]

I like the art! Nice job, I will continue to follow the story.

Feel pity for Thakom.

[TheImmortalRyukan]

You have total support. Will you accept dorfings? If so, dorf me in please.

Also, can I add to the narrative? I'm a story teller at heart and I love to add my own mayhem- er, "perspective" on in game events

[Cathar]

You have total support. Will you accept dorfings? If so, dorf me in please.

Also, can I add to the narrative? I'm a story teller at heart and I love to add my own mayhem- er, "perspective" on in game events

Not only I accept, but I also fully endorse and encourage it ! The more the merrier !
I'll just ask two things ; if you can name your character with a name fitting to the universe (else it's not a big deal but Im somewhat an "authenticity nazi" if that make sense?) and you'll have to choose a character. Among the characters readily available, Lomam (poet minded young man, thinks very highly of himself), Xetan (farmer woman, man faced and built like hulk) are the best candidates. Pathril is kinda my protagonist, Thakom is dead, and Idla the herbalist is...on his way to be developped, tho he might be a good candidate if you don't mind a relationship with another dude. Another solution would be to wait until the next update (on the works  !) which will bring a new migrant wave

[Glass]

If you get a scribe, I'd like him to get dorfed humaned (?) as Saren Settren, a devoted archivist with too many ideas and not enough common sense - and occasionally, far too much extra time on his hands.
Think "ethical mad scientist".

[mate888]

PTW

[TheImmortalRyukan]

Give me Loman, dorf me as Ryukan if you can

[Cathar]

Ser Pathril Omaalok

I received your last letter – good news at last. Hazelslide is still peaceful, but such cannot be said of the Nation. Lately, I received the new that eastern elves from the Climatic  Nut bypassed Watershield and went straight on Hairyoracle. Lady Luki Usupim stopped their forces in the Ecru Steppes, but they might be back soon.

Allow me to insist on the importance of your mission. While Hairyoracle holds a number of seasonned mercenaries, it remains a city unfit to defend itself against a full on siege. Your orders are more important than ever – become fight capable and stop the entry of the eastern elves into our territory as soon as possible !

Queen Usu Rakedowl, from Hazelslide


Ser Pathril

I write to you in great anger – but fear not for my anger is not directed toward you. Our town of Brokenbronze has been attacked by the western elves of the Poetic Sea. The bastards send one of their marksmen, and had him shoot people at random ! The man – for it was a human  - retreated in the Jungle of Leaders, but my men tracked him down and put him to rest.

Elves are familiar with this kind of harassing tactics, and I believe you should do whatever is in your power to prepare against them.

The secens of war are beating as we prepare to fight, but at no cost I want to forget our eastern brothers. Knowing we are not fighting alone brings hope to us all. Hence, as we have more troops than we need, I am sending one of my best student toward you. She is very young, but already an axe-master. She will train your own men into a professional fighting force.

The people of Brokenbronze are with you in heart.
Commander Stipoth Buttervalley, from Brokenbronze



Looks like I catched the fancy of Idla. I am not sure how I feel about that – I saw him as a friend so far... But it's not like I don't have many other things to ponder about. I'll leave that to rest for now.

Spring 131 came to an end. Apparently the eastern elves haven't noticed our presence yet. This will happen eventually, but we're almost ready to give them a warm welcome. The keep is almost closed. And when it is, it will be time to drill the population into taking refuge in it in case of siege. The keep is totally self suffiscient and can withold enemies for years – slits has been made so archers can take their defensive positions. All we need is a last story, and some walls in east side which are still in the open. The hanging gardens too need to be enclosed, but this is a matter of finishing touches.



We have been working on the keep of Watershield so hard we took some serious delay on our other crafts. Fishing and hunting has been totally abandonned, as well as crafting export goods – so when merchants from the homeland came, we had to send them on their way. Next year, however, we will be ready.

Talking about the hanging gardens, we are now reaping the fruit of our labor. Rope reed of excellent quality, aswell as some other various plants, we can mill and cook.  Water can be extracted thanks to a mechanism directly from the river, and we're hoping to brew our own mead very soon. Setting a cloth and a brewing industry may be our goals to be reached before next year.



It has to be noted the forest we had to cut down almost completely to have wood for our construction is already growing back. Sapplings – the ground is littered with them. I have no doubt we settled on some sort of sacred ground. The faura is amazing – as soon  as we cut it down, it regrows. It remains to be determined if it is some kind of elvish curse, or if this magic comes from the land itself.

During mid-summer, we received the prodigy Commender Stipoth wrote to us about. She is indeed very young, but never of my whole life have I seen more professional soldier. She came not alone, as we have now a lot of new people with us. Among them ;


Usquur, the axe-lady in question, alongside her husband, Thrathnu Blazzedscarred and their three children ;  Birod, Ilpi and Lum.

Omli Garnishedjested, Mason.
Cikul Guardedswamp, lumberjack, his wife  Hustra and their children, Donu and Duslud.



They gathered around the old chariot for a while, before we gave them some work to do. For now, we still live in spartan conditions, sleeping without individual homes and eating on-the-go. But as population expend, we will need to work on houses for those families.

As it was advised by the Commander Stipoth, I asked Usquur to start training people from Watershield – for now we only have tools as weapons, but it's better than nothing.

I hope the situation will improve soon, but I have my hopes very high.

Give me Loman, dorf me as Ryukan if you can

It shall be done !
Also, feel free to write and draw whatever you want, again the more the merrier :3