mojojojo
Gone Fishin'
Well, I was thinking of how they have been used by armies in the real world some for combat but also as scouts, sentries and trackers.
Lands of Red and Gold, Act II
- Thread starter Jared
- Start date
Well, I was thinking of how they have been used by armies in the real world some for combat but also as scouts, sentries and trackers.
Dogs would accompany Tjarrlinghi armies because they tend to bring their herds with them - not in battle, but not too far away. So the Tjarrlinghi would have some dogs with them in campaigns. How much those dogs would be used - well, I'm not sure. They would probably be used occasionally, since Tjarrlinghi tend to be quite individualistic in how they fight, but I'm not sure whether it would be systematic.
This will vary considerably from place to place. For the Kiyungu, those elites who publicly convert will find some sort of place in the new hierarchy. The Hunter is not out to plunder randomly or execute every captive enemy leader or leading citizen. That is not how he plans to work at all. His idea is to rule conquered places, not destroy them.
He is also - in keeping with his religious message - trying to impose a common social structure and governance on the peoples he rules. In the name of bringing them all to harmony, which is a genuine message, not an idle boast. And the thing is that the Tjarrlinghi already have a literate upper class; in keeping with their religion, they teach their leaders to read and be aware of the religious classics (at least in general terms). The Tjarrlinghi are not that far removed from settled farmers; they have taken up herding and semi-nomadism, but they never abandoned literacy.
So in practice, for the Kiyungu the Hunter will try to move some of his priest-leaders into governance positions. But they are few, the Kiyungu are many, and he needs to move some of them on. So he will try to set up a local hierarchy of sorts - trying to convert Plirite priests, get leaders to convert, work through leading citizens and converted soldiers, etc. For the average Kiyungu, things will not change that much in their day-to-day life, since they are already Plirite.
As things go on, the Hunter will try to establish a common religious-legal code for guiding people on the road to harmony. The Code Tjuwagga, as it were.
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mojojojo
Gone Fishin'
a new quoll article
http://io9.com/australias-answer-to-the-cat-communicates-through-poop-1730575753
Seems like this would make them very easy to house break
http://io9.com/australias-answer-to-the-cat-communicates-through-poop-1730575753
Seems like this would make them very easy to house break
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I was thinking of this the other night--could the Kiyungu flee to the Galapagos? The islands were uninhabited at this point OTL, although nominally claimed by the Spanish. The Kiyungu could probably live there if they promise to keep the islands free from passing pirates using it as a base. They'd probably have to make some concessions to the Spanish, but don't enough of the Kiyungu already make concessions to the Nuttana?
This won't work if the Maori have a settlement there, which it seems like they might with their raids all over the Pacific.
This won't work if the Maori have a settlement there, which it seems like they might with their raids all over the Pacific.
The Nuttana do know about the Galápagos, so that's a possibility. The Galápagos have some pluses, and some minuses. They are a very long way away from the Hunter, which is a plus. They are still uninhabited, which is a key point; the migrating Kiyungu aren't particularly interested in fighting other people to settle.
There are some minuses, though. They are an island, so it's theoretically possible for the Māori to raid that far. (The Māori mostly haven't gone that far, but their reputation is even more fearsome than their activities). The Galápagos are not particularly appealling places to live - witness how long it took to set up permanent settlements in OTL - and some of the Kiyungu crops won't grow there, being too tropical.
So it's a question of trade-offs; no place is perfect, but the Galápagos have some advantages that others lack.
Lands of Red and Gold #108: A Matter of Diet
Lands of Red and Gold #108: A Matter of Diet
The next major instalment of Lands of Red and Gold is still in progress due to various life commitments keeping me too busy to finish it. In the meantime, here is a small glimpse of another aspect of the LoRaG-verse.
* * *
Taken from Megalitherature, a literary / historical message board which was originally created for students and staff of Marlborough University in Suffolk [Alexandria, Virginia], in the Commonwealth of Virginia in Alleghania. The board has a thriving off-topic section that includes approximately 80% of total posts.
Thread Title: What’s Up With Tjuwagga?
*
Original Post:
From: Jaded Alexander
Good tidings to you all at the end of this current solar sojourn.
Much contemplation have I spent in recent days about the most notorious of Third World folk-heroes, seek to uncover from myriad manifestations in multiple media the measure of the man. Myth has accreted to rumour, misguided exaggeration has compounded misunderstanding, and beneath the detritus of centuries, what nugget of golden truth can be discerned?
Setting aside the vagaries of the endlessly-debated fifth pillar, like the Gospel of the Christian Scriptures, four volumes form the four pillars of Tjuwagga. Four pillars at the base of a vast superstructure, upon which depiction has followed depiction, apocryphal anecdotes have attached themselves audaciously until accepted by the popular consciousness as accurate accounts, and the modern edifice resembles an inverted variant of the metaphorical iceberg, where nine-tenths of the body corpus about Tjuwagga projects into the air and only one-tenth floats within the sea of truth.
My question then is, setting aside the many vanities and myths perpetuated in later times, using only the reliable tenth, what can be concluded about the man whose name is his title?
*
From: The Lone Scotʃman
The Hunter is my inʃpiration. Even when ʃurrounded by others, he ʃtood ʃo far above them he may as well have been alone.
*
From: Reformed Harpagon
The problem is that your four pillars are four entirely different perspectives on the Hunter. The gospel allusion you made is a reasonable metaphor, but in actuality the four key primary sources on the Hunter’s life are far more disparate than the four gospels.
Matthew wrote about Jesus the fulfiller of Jewish prophecy. Mark depicted Jesus as a hero, a man of grand deeds. Luke presented Jesus as a stoic man of prayer, concerned for those less fortunate. John showed Jesus as an avatar of the Logos.
All of those depictions have their differences. But compare them to the Orange Bible, the True History, the Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever, and the Lord of the Ride, and it makes the four gospels look like they were written by the same author.
*
From: Kogung Ursid
Four pillars? Only four? There’s numerous other contemporary references to Tjuwagga and his life. More contemporary than some of those four pillars. Surviving Aururian records, and even a handful of European ones.
*
From: Eroteme
Four pillars? Four? FOUR? How dare you dismiss the fifth pillar? Don’t you know that, whatever else may be said about that tale, the academic consensus is that the account contains a great deal of unique information alongside other details which confirm what was provided through other sources? Undeniably, some errors and questionable material are included in the fifth pillar; how could it be otherwise with any historical account, ever? Why do you wish to discard that invaluable effectively-primary source?
*
From: Julie the Truthful
Much as the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, the Orange Bible is neither orange, nor a bible, nor a primary source. Its author never met the Hunter, nor did he witness any of the great crusades firsthand.
*
From: Indignation Atwell
@ Eroteme
No matter what else the fifth pillar might be called, I struggle to see the sense in labelling it an effectively-primary source!
*
From: Reformed Harpagon
@ Julie the Truthful
The Orange Bible is neither orange nor a bible, but it is a primary source. You’re confusing primary source with eyewitness account. The Orange Bible is a primary-source compilation of contemporary oral tradition, including, probably, some eyewitness accounts. Its most probable date of composition (AD 1750) is within a reasonable timeframe for the compiler to have spoken to surviving eyewitnesses, particularly of the later crusades.
*
From: Landlocked Juntee
Setting aside the recent by-play, your question is best answered by recognising that each of the four pillars was composed for a distinctive purpose, and its bias both in writing and in selection of material to include or exclude must be considered when determining what weight to give to their depiction of each varying characteristic of the Hunter.
Bareena Uranj, vulgarly and widely but incorrectly known as the Orange Bible, is a religious account, depicting the Hunter as a great moralist and visionary whose battlefield successes were conducting with the aim of spreading his faith, and which records his statements largely because they are seen as providing some form of guidance to the later faithful about how to conduct their lives.
The True History of the Yalatji is a glorification document, recording what was known of the history of the Hunter and his family, all for the purpose of greater glory accruing to the Warego rulers who claimed to inherit his mantle. Doubtless much of what is contained is accurate, but equally the True History will exclude anything which is seen as unflattering or inadequately glorious for the Hunter.
The Lord of the Ride purports to be an account by a common Yalatji cavalryman, describing most of the battles in the great crusades, and if you are a student of warfare, it is the most valuable primary source about the Hunter’s actions during the great crusades. The downside is that if you read it, focused as it is on the Yalatji warfare and particularly the cavalry, you would think that the Hunter never got down from his horse to guide or govern others. While the Lord of the Ride claims to be written by a single author, the consensus of textual critics is that it is an amalgamation of at least two authors, probably three and perhaps four.
The Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever is an account of Tjuwagga’s deeds by a captive scribe, Gorang of Kabeebilla [Caboolture, QLD]. Gorang was a mentor to a Kiyungu prince, and together with that prince was one of the hostages brought to the Hunter’s capital. Gorang viewed the Hunter as a heretic, or more accurately as an unbeliever, and so did not hesitate to record anything he viewed as derogatory. Personally I find the Chronicle a useful counterpoint to the other three primary sources, given its willingness to criticise the Hunter, although it is intriguing to note that even in the Chronicle, the descriptions of the Hunter usually have a tone of grudging admiration.
* * *
From: “Harmony Through Nutrition: Principles of a Balanced Diet”
In ancient Aururia, the wisdom of a proper diet was ancient. Learned Plirite scholars taught the value of proper diet in maintaining a balance in mind and body, hundreds of years before European savants even learned what a vitamin or fibre was.
The basics of a balanced diet were first taught in the twelfth century by Yerila, one of the leading disciples of the Good Man. Yerila recognised that a good diet should include a variety of foods from different kinds of sources, in order to best maintain a balance between mind and body. Yerila taught that a harmonious diet needed to include a combination of reasonable amounts of food from beneath the earth, growing from the earth, and from above the earth.
In Yerila’s prescriptions, below the earth meant any tuber or root vegetable, or an animal that habitually lives underground. From the earth meant any plant which grew from the soil or above it, and so included leaf vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Above the earth meant any animal that did not live underground, and in the traditional diet featured poultry, wild game, and eggs...
The schools of Plirism followed Yerila’s general wisdom, but differed in their interpretation of what was involved in a harmonious diet, in the proportions to be consumed, and their degree to which they viewed a balanced diet as useful or as essential [1]. A prominent point of dispute was later scholars who added food from the water as another essential component, comprising fish, other fresh and saltwater animals, and plants that grew in swamps or other watery environments.
Later scholars built on that knowledge provided by pioneering Plirites...
* * *
From: The Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever (Merringford translation).
Tjuwagga returned to Cankoona [Toowoomba] without fanfare, as was his manner. He had completed some trade pact with a Raw Man trading group, or so those around him claimed. As was his habit, Tjuwagga said little of what he had accomplished. Once before I had heard him state: “A man who must speak of his own deeds has no deeds worth speaking about.”
On this day, Tjuwagga was speaking to a true priest [i.e. Plirite], one of my fellow Kiyungu, who had observed him eating and wished to discuss the effects of diet on Tjuwagga’s life and that of his people.
The priest observed that Tjuwagga ate nothing of the flesh of animals, and only consumed incomplete eggs [2]. He said, “How do you balance your diet, with so little from above the earth?”
Tjuwagga gestured to his empty plate and said, “That was a large portion of incomplete egg.”
“For you, that may be so,” the priest said. “A leader can obtain food which is not so commonly available to their people. But what of your people as a whole? How can they balance their diet?”
“My people eat as they wish,” said Tjuwagga. “I eat as does a Wirrulee [priest / warrior], not an ordinary man.”
“What your people eat is grossly imbalanced, it brings discord between mind and body. They eat almost entirely meat, yoghurt and cheese, and little else. Too much from above the earth, and little from the earth or beneath it, or from the water.”
“Hard to obtain food from the water when living in the hills inland,” Tjuwagga said.
“You have swamps, you have rivers, you have waterholes. These things can be managed.”
Tjuwagga said, “If we wished, we could eat some small amount of watery food, but there is no need [3].”
“There is great need. Your diet has too much meat, which leads to too much anger, too much pride, and too much desire for vengeance.”
Tjuwagga laughed. “That is determination, not pride. It has made us successful and veterans of war.”
The priest said, “Not entirely successful. Your people farmed once, and so ate a more balanced diet, yes? Then you took up riding horses, raising cattle, and stopped growing food from or beneath the earth. Ever since then, your people raided and fought each other in endless discord.”
“My people still eat food as they wish, but I have brought them balance.”
“Indeed you have, for now. You are a man of great vision.” The priest said that last in tones of simple fact, not meaningless flattery. “But even your vision may struggle to hold everyone together while your people eat a diet so disharmonious. And when you pass on, as all men do in time, then your people will be composed of too many keen to fight, and no-one with enough vision to keep them in harmony.”
* * *
“Sovereignty is analogue, not digital.”
- Apocryphally attributed to Solidarity Jenkins [4]; not attested before 1986.
* * *
[1] In fact, only a minority of early Plirites followed Yerila’s dietary philosophy. The competing schools of Plirism and Tjarrlinghi have many differences, and one of them is how much they follow this dietary advice. The only school to follow it completely was the Nangu school of Plirism. Some of the Five Rivers schools of Plirism followed parts of it, but not in its entirety. Other schools of Plirism, such as the Yadili school (followed by peoples in the western lands ruled by the Yadji), and the main Tjarrlinghi branches, disregarded this advice. However, the dietary advice became prominent because Nangu trade influence spread their interpretation of Plirism across much of Aururia and, in time, overseas.
[2] Some Tjarrlinghi follow a dietary rule that they should not eat anything which cuts short the life of an animal, so they exclude meat, dairy products, and what they call complete eggs (those produced by a female duck that had been in contact with male ducks and so potentially has laid fertilised eggs). The only animal product permitted is incomplete eggs, i.e. from a female duck, or more recently chicken, that has not been in contact with a male duck or chicken. The Hunter followed that diet, although the primary sources disagree about how rigidly he adhered to it.
[3] The Tjarrlinghi of this era, of course, do not follow the Nangu-Plirite dietary principles.
[4] Solidarity Jenkins, originally called Mymutsi Makan, was a major nineteenth century labour agitator and co-author of The Nationalist Manifesto.
* * *
Thoughts?
The next major instalment of Lands of Red and Gold is still in progress due to various life commitments keeping me too busy to finish it. In the meantime, here is a small glimpse of another aspect of the LoRaG-verse.
* * *
Taken from Megalitherature, a literary / historical message board which was originally created for students and staff of Marlborough University in Suffolk [Alexandria, Virginia], in the Commonwealth of Virginia in Alleghania. The board has a thriving off-topic section that includes approximately 80% of total posts.
Thread Title: What’s Up With Tjuwagga?
*
Original Post:
From: Jaded Alexander
Good tidings to you all at the end of this current solar sojourn.
Much contemplation have I spent in recent days about the most notorious of Third World folk-heroes, seek to uncover from myriad manifestations in multiple media the measure of the man. Myth has accreted to rumour, misguided exaggeration has compounded misunderstanding, and beneath the detritus of centuries, what nugget of golden truth can be discerned?
Setting aside the vagaries of the endlessly-debated fifth pillar, like the Gospel of the Christian Scriptures, four volumes form the four pillars of Tjuwagga. Four pillars at the base of a vast superstructure, upon which depiction has followed depiction, apocryphal anecdotes have attached themselves audaciously until accepted by the popular consciousness as accurate accounts, and the modern edifice resembles an inverted variant of the metaphorical iceberg, where nine-tenths of the body corpus about Tjuwagga projects into the air and only one-tenth floats within the sea of truth.
My question then is, setting aside the many vanities and myths perpetuated in later times, using only the reliable tenth, what can be concluded about the man whose name is his title?
*
From: The Lone Scotʃman
The Hunter is my inʃpiration. Even when ʃurrounded by others, he ʃtood ʃo far above them he may as well have been alone.
*
From: Reformed Harpagon
The problem is that your four pillars are four entirely different perspectives on the Hunter. The gospel allusion you made is a reasonable metaphor, but in actuality the four key primary sources on the Hunter’s life are far more disparate than the four gospels.
Matthew wrote about Jesus the fulfiller of Jewish prophecy. Mark depicted Jesus as a hero, a man of grand deeds. Luke presented Jesus as a stoic man of prayer, concerned for those less fortunate. John showed Jesus as an avatar of the Logos.
All of those depictions have their differences. But compare them to the Orange Bible, the True History, the Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever, and the Lord of the Ride, and it makes the four gospels look like they were written by the same author.
*
From: Kogung Ursid
Four pillars? Only four? There’s numerous other contemporary references to Tjuwagga and his life. More contemporary than some of those four pillars. Surviving Aururian records, and even a handful of European ones.
*
From: Eroteme
Four pillars? Four? FOUR? How dare you dismiss the fifth pillar? Don’t you know that, whatever else may be said about that tale, the academic consensus is that the account contains a great deal of unique information alongside other details which confirm what was provided through other sources? Undeniably, some errors and questionable material are included in the fifth pillar; how could it be otherwise with any historical account, ever? Why do you wish to discard that invaluable effectively-primary source?
*
From: Julie the Truthful
Much as the Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, the Orange Bible is neither orange, nor a bible, nor a primary source. Its author never met the Hunter, nor did he witness any of the great crusades firsthand.
*
From: Indignation Atwell
@ Eroteme
No matter what else the fifth pillar might be called, I struggle to see the sense in labelling it an effectively-primary source!
*
From: Reformed Harpagon
@ Julie the Truthful
The Orange Bible is neither orange nor a bible, but it is a primary source. You’re confusing primary source with eyewitness account. The Orange Bible is a primary-source compilation of contemporary oral tradition, including, probably, some eyewitness accounts. Its most probable date of composition (AD 1750) is within a reasonable timeframe for the compiler to have spoken to surviving eyewitnesses, particularly of the later crusades.
*
From: Landlocked Juntee
Setting aside the recent by-play, your question is best answered by recognising that each of the four pillars was composed for a distinctive purpose, and its bias both in writing and in selection of material to include or exclude must be considered when determining what weight to give to their depiction of each varying characteristic of the Hunter.
Bareena Uranj, vulgarly and widely but incorrectly known as the Orange Bible, is a religious account, depicting the Hunter as a great moralist and visionary whose battlefield successes were conducting with the aim of spreading his faith, and which records his statements largely because they are seen as providing some form of guidance to the later faithful about how to conduct their lives.
The True History of the Yalatji is a glorification document, recording what was known of the history of the Hunter and his family, all for the purpose of greater glory accruing to the Warego rulers who claimed to inherit his mantle. Doubtless much of what is contained is accurate, but equally the True History will exclude anything which is seen as unflattering or inadequately glorious for the Hunter.
The Lord of the Ride purports to be an account by a common Yalatji cavalryman, describing most of the battles in the great crusades, and if you are a student of warfare, it is the most valuable primary source about the Hunter’s actions during the great crusades. The downside is that if you read it, focused as it is on the Yalatji warfare and particularly the cavalry, you would think that the Hunter never got down from his horse to guide or govern others. While the Lord of the Ride claims to be written by a single author, the consensus of textual critics is that it is an amalgamation of at least two authors, probably three and perhaps four.
The Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever is an account of Tjuwagga’s deeds by a captive scribe, Gorang of Kabeebilla [Caboolture, QLD]. Gorang was a mentor to a Kiyungu prince, and together with that prince was one of the hostages brought to the Hunter’s capital. Gorang viewed the Hunter as a heretic, or more accurately as an unbeliever, and so did not hesitate to record anything he viewed as derogatory. Personally I find the Chronicle a useful counterpoint to the other three primary sources, given its willingness to criticise the Hunter, although it is intriguing to note that even in the Chronicle, the descriptions of the Hunter usually have a tone of grudging admiration.
* * *
From: “Harmony Through Nutrition: Principles of a Balanced Diet”
In ancient Aururia, the wisdom of a proper diet was ancient. Learned Plirite scholars taught the value of proper diet in maintaining a balance in mind and body, hundreds of years before European savants even learned what a vitamin or fibre was.
The basics of a balanced diet were first taught in the twelfth century by Yerila, one of the leading disciples of the Good Man. Yerila recognised that a good diet should include a variety of foods from different kinds of sources, in order to best maintain a balance between mind and body. Yerila taught that a harmonious diet needed to include a combination of reasonable amounts of food from beneath the earth, growing from the earth, and from above the earth.
In Yerila’s prescriptions, below the earth meant any tuber or root vegetable, or an animal that habitually lives underground. From the earth meant any plant which grew from the soil or above it, and so included leaf vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Above the earth meant any animal that did not live underground, and in the traditional diet featured poultry, wild game, and eggs...
The schools of Plirism followed Yerila’s general wisdom, but differed in their interpretation of what was involved in a harmonious diet, in the proportions to be consumed, and their degree to which they viewed a balanced diet as useful or as essential [1]. A prominent point of dispute was later scholars who added food from the water as another essential component, comprising fish, other fresh and saltwater animals, and plants that grew in swamps or other watery environments.
Later scholars built on that knowledge provided by pioneering Plirites...
* * *
From: The Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever (Merringford translation).
Tjuwagga returned to Cankoona [Toowoomba] without fanfare, as was his manner. He had completed some trade pact with a Raw Man trading group, or so those around him claimed. As was his habit, Tjuwagga said little of what he had accomplished. Once before I had heard him state: “A man who must speak of his own deeds has no deeds worth speaking about.”
On this day, Tjuwagga was speaking to a true priest [i.e. Plirite], one of my fellow Kiyungu, who had observed him eating and wished to discuss the effects of diet on Tjuwagga’s life and that of his people.
The priest observed that Tjuwagga ate nothing of the flesh of animals, and only consumed incomplete eggs [2]. He said, “How do you balance your diet, with so little from above the earth?”
Tjuwagga gestured to his empty plate and said, “That was a large portion of incomplete egg.”
“For you, that may be so,” the priest said. “A leader can obtain food which is not so commonly available to their people. But what of your people as a whole? How can they balance their diet?”
“My people eat as they wish,” said Tjuwagga. “I eat as does a Wirrulee [priest / warrior], not an ordinary man.”
“What your people eat is grossly imbalanced, it brings discord between mind and body. They eat almost entirely meat, yoghurt and cheese, and little else. Too much from above the earth, and little from the earth or beneath it, or from the water.”
“Hard to obtain food from the water when living in the hills inland,” Tjuwagga said.
“You have swamps, you have rivers, you have waterholes. These things can be managed.”
Tjuwagga said, “If we wished, we could eat some small amount of watery food, but there is no need [3].”
“There is great need. Your diet has too much meat, which leads to too much anger, too much pride, and too much desire for vengeance.”
Tjuwagga laughed. “That is determination, not pride. It has made us successful and veterans of war.”
The priest said, “Not entirely successful. Your people farmed once, and so ate a more balanced diet, yes? Then you took up riding horses, raising cattle, and stopped growing food from or beneath the earth. Ever since then, your people raided and fought each other in endless discord.”
“My people still eat food as they wish, but I have brought them balance.”
“Indeed you have, for now. You are a man of great vision.” The priest said that last in tones of simple fact, not meaningless flattery. “But even your vision may struggle to hold everyone together while your people eat a diet so disharmonious. And when you pass on, as all men do in time, then your people will be composed of too many keen to fight, and no-one with enough vision to keep them in harmony.”
* * *
“Sovereignty is analogue, not digital.”
- Apocryphally attributed to Solidarity Jenkins [4]; not attested before 1986.
* * *
[1] In fact, only a minority of early Plirites followed Yerila’s dietary philosophy. The competing schools of Plirism and Tjarrlinghi have many differences, and one of them is how much they follow this dietary advice. The only school to follow it completely was the Nangu school of Plirism. Some of the Five Rivers schools of Plirism followed parts of it, but not in its entirety. Other schools of Plirism, such as the Yadili school (followed by peoples in the western lands ruled by the Yadji), and the main Tjarrlinghi branches, disregarded this advice. However, the dietary advice became prominent because Nangu trade influence spread their interpretation of Plirism across much of Aururia and, in time, overseas.
[2] Some Tjarrlinghi follow a dietary rule that they should not eat anything which cuts short the life of an animal, so they exclude meat, dairy products, and what they call complete eggs (those produced by a female duck that had been in contact with male ducks and so potentially has laid fertilised eggs). The only animal product permitted is incomplete eggs, i.e. from a female duck, or more recently chicken, that has not been in contact with a male duck or chicken. The Hunter followed that diet, although the primary sources disagree about how rigidly he adhered to it.
[3] The Tjarrlinghi of this era, of course, do not follow the Nangu-Plirite dietary principles.
[4] Solidarity Jenkins, originally called Mymutsi Makan, was a major nineteenth century labour agitator and co-author of The Nationalist Manifesto.
* * *
Thoughts?
Not quite. It's related to the tale that Clements tells Ashkettle, but there's more to the fifth pillar than that.
Also, I'm wondering if the Chronicle of Tjuwagga the Unbeliever features a ring made of white gold as a significant item at any time.
I believe that the Chronicle includes a passage where Tjuwagga says that the greatest enemies of his life are "the lords foul who rule the Five Rivers".
To expand a bit on my previous reply: throughout the rest of Act II, there were be more gradual revelations about what's going on with Clements. That will give more of an idea of both what he's doing and why. It will also reveal another tale (which has so far only been hinted at very indirectly) which comprises part of the fifth pillar.
The Poarter
Banned
Asia Versus Australia
Hey Jared, when are we going to see the first modern clash between an independent Australian and an independent Asian power?
Hey Jared, when are we going to see the first modern clash between an independent Australian and an independent Asian power?
Depending on how you define Asian power, that would have already happened. The Nuttana have fought various small wars as part of their expansion of trade and religious influence into what is in OTL eastern Indonesia. They have, however, been careful to avoid those areas where the VOC has a keen interest, not wishing to rouse their wrath.
At some stage soon, the Nuttana will be nominally at war with a couple of Indian states, too, as allies of other Indian states, but actual fighting in that will be negligible. (Supplying firearms, now...).
If you mean bigger clashes than that, well, such things will happen eventually, but we're not quite at the stage in the timeline for that to happen. Aururia is still mostly the target of attacks (direct or indirect) by European powers, not projecting power outward, and the closest parts of Southeast Asia to Aururia are much the same in terms of targets of European attacks.
So it's hard to put a precise date on when that pattern will change, without giving too much else away.
Now that the Nuttana have links to India, what do they import? What about export?
Can they get things like elephants, horses, and such work animals not available in Aururia? People, like laborers or mercenaries and such?
BTW, how is rice as a crop doing in Aururia?
Kaiphranos
Donor
Elephants seem a little difficult to transport, but maybe a few as a prestige thing...
Difficult to transport, perhaps. But the idea of native Aururian monarchies using them to move cannons from place to place is a beautiful one.
Elephants are best used to clear large areas of vegetation. Which now that I think of, is only needed in small parts of Aururia. Aururians also lack the religious reverance of the elephant as Indians would have.
So I guess elephants would be pretty much a prestige item, that is if they don't have circuses yet. Maybe lugging around large loads or people of status.
Haven't been online much as of late due to my son being in the hospital, catching up on the last month or so of posts.
There is one obvious place for the Kiyungu to travel not mentioned here - the Mascarene Islands, or maybe the Seychelles. While some were discovered by Europeans before the POD, European settlement was only firmly planted by the 18th century. Indeed, the Dutch settled Mauritius in 1638, but effectively abandoned it by 1710. Given the chaos caused by the Aururian plagues in TTL's 17th century, it's plausible that some or all of the islands were still uninhabited when the Kiyungu need to make the choice of where to flee to. The Nuttana certainly would know about these islands, even if they didn't have victualing stations on all of them. And the climate would be pretty amenable, all things considered, the the Kiyungu crop package - particularly the Mascarenes, as they at almost the exact same latitude as the Kiyungu homeland.
There is one obvious place for the Kiyungu to travel not mentioned here - the Mascarene Islands, or maybe the Seychelles. While some were discovered by Europeans before the POD, European settlement was only firmly planted by the 18th century. Indeed, the Dutch settled Mauritius in 1638, but effectively abandoned it by 1710. Given the chaos caused by the Aururian plagues in TTL's 17th century, it's plausible that some or all of the islands were still uninhabited when the Kiyungu need to make the choice of where to flee to. The Nuttana certainly would know about these islands, even if they didn't have victualing stations on all of them. And the climate would be pretty amenable, all things considered, the the Kiyungu crop package - particularly the Mascarenes, as they at almost the exact same latitude as the Kiyungu homeland.
The Nuttana using war elephants would be pretty cool. I wonder if the Hunter and his armies could be able to counter them as effectively as the Mongols did. If the Hunter marches north and threatens the Nuttana homeland, some Nuttana commander might try to use them in battle.
The Plirite dietary guidelines are fascinating. I think I'm getting overly fascinated with the Plirite religion, since I've made references to them in my daily life among other things.
The Plirite dietary guidelines are fascinating. I think I'm getting overly fascinated with the Plirite religion, since I've made references to them in my daily life among other things.
The most critical thing which the Nuttana import is saltpetre (or full gunpowder) - this is their primary source both for their own needs and for re-export to their colonial sphere of influence. They also import a variety of Indian spices, textiles, and manufactured luxury goods (such as lacquerwork).
Their export goods are primarily Aururian spices (sweet peppers and various kinds of myrtles are the most popular in India), and smaller amounts of other Aururian goods such as kunduri.
The Nuttana can get horses from India, although they're also available from plenty of other places. In practice, the Nuttana already have about as many horses as they can support with their available land. (Most of their land is already devoted to other uses).
Mercenaries are commonplace; like the VOC, the Nuttana use mercenaries for the majority of their fighting forces. Labourers, not so much from India; they get what they need from slaves / indentured labour closer to home.
Elephants, well...
A fairly small-scale crop, for the most part. Not unknown, but most of the Aururian climate is not that well-suited to it; not without significant irrigation works which are generally deemed too much trouble. It's also fairly labour-intensive by Aururian standards, where the preference is to get more yield out of each worker by spreading their labour over multiple crops in a larger area, rather than just on one rice crop.
Feeding elephants on a long voyage would be a mammoth undertaking...
The notion of elephants in Aururia is one which attracts the "cool" factor, but not the realism factor. They are hard to transport, hard to feed, and not really that much more use than an equivalent number of horses or cattle, save for quite specialised purposes.
With elephants, the food bill is the problem. They do look great, and are high prestige if you can afford to maintain one (or 10), but a royal pain to transport tamed ones, and hard to set up a wild population in Aururia to harvest more elephans from.
Not impossible, but rather a large and expensive gamble.
Those dietary guidelines were one of those ideas which I've had floating around for a while, but hadn't really found somewhere suitable to work into a post. So I just made them part of their own small post.
The general idea with them was that Plirites came up with an analogy which both fits within their general religious outlook and (largely by coincidence) is a decent way of producing a reasonably balanced diet. The components suit the staple Aururian crops too (yams/murnong for root crops, wattleseeds for other plant crops, domesticated birds for the animal section, and aquaculture/fishing for the seafood component).
The Mascarenes are good in many respects, being islands which even the Maori wouldn't reach, and having a very decent climate.
There is, however, the question of whether Europeans have settled the Mascarenes earlier than in OTL. There is the chaos of the plagues, of course, but even with that the Dutch East India Company is bigger than in OTL and is sending more ships eastward, sooner. The Mascarenes make a very useful victualling station along the way, and strategic port which the Dutch would want to keep rather than risk the English capturing it during the Proxy Wars (or later). So it's quite likely that the Dutch are already happily (or unhappily) on Mauritius at least, and possibly other Mascarenes.