The Story of the Ottomans - The Early Years
The world... zooming in on the large ball floating in space. Closer, closer, through the clouds... some details start forming. Bands of people, tribes and villages, primitive. And it is your task to lead the tribe you've been picked for to glory and to dominion over the whole of the planet. None of those you're approaching know their part in the greater destiny that has been given for you.
But beware. There are others like you, sent upon this planet as your adversaries, to lead their own people to trample over yours. You will meet them in time, and you will have to decide how to deal with them. Perhaps your soldiers will march across their lands, burning and pillaging. Or perhaps you'll convince them to be your allies, friends, and have your culture spread over their lands... yeah right, scratch that. Soldiers it is.
Saranna was walking on a hill alone. She was looking around at the lands where their tribe would stay for a while. It looked remarkably fertile, there was a lake and a river, and a lot of plants which were good to eat, growing wild. The rest of the area, including the hill she was on, was very forested, so they would also find game to hunt.
The leader of the village was ill. There was nothing they could do, he was on the death's door, and so now Saranna, his daughter, had fled the politics of who would be the new leader. She hated it. They'd probably 'choose' Lyr...
She was absorbed in her thoughts, when an explosion nearby made her fall down. She quickly got up, the noise had been towards the other side of the hill... something had fallen.
She was afraid but something urged her on, as she slowly sneaked towards the weird sound. This decision, unknown to her, would change the course of not only her own, but the lives of her whole tribe. She saw a crater, with an odd shiny object in the middle of it. She approached slowly, silently, ready to run at any moment. The thing in the crater hissed, and she took a step backwards, then another as it opened from the side. It took her a moment to gather her courage, but while her doubts nagged in her head, the something that had kept urging her on made her take a few more steps down towards it.
She descended the crater, it had broken two trees into what was barely more than splinters and, although there was no fire, smoke rose from the odd object. The normal sounds of the forest had ceased, replaced by the unnatural hissing of the thing, which then also stopped. She circled the object towards the open hatch and saw, inside, the form of a man. He looked odd... different than the men of the tribe. And his head was bleeding.
"Who are you?" She asked, with a shaky voice. The man winced and turned his head to look at her. His first words were unrecognizable, and she cocked her head quizzically. The man seemed to realize she couldn't understand him, and fiddled something with his hands. "Hello there. Mind helping me a bit... I'm stuck."
This time the words he spoke were of proper language. She was still scared, but her curiosity overwhelmed that. "Where did you come from? What is this thing?"
He grunted in pain. "I'll answer your questions later. Could you pull that lever there?" The man pointed at something beyond his reach. She reached for it and pulled it, and then fell backwards, crawling farther as the whole object opened. The man stood up, looking at her. He was remarkably tall and looked very healthy. "Thank you. Would you be so kind as to tell me where I've arrived?"
"This... this is the land of the Ottomans now. The lake is Yai." She saw him stumble and rushed over to support him. Something about him... He seemed trustworthy, honest. His eyes were captivating. He had black hair and green eyes, very unlike the members of her tribe or any others she had seen. "Thank you again... Could you bring me to your tribe?"
And so, Murska was brought to the tribe of the Ottomans, who had been travelling around for as long as their spoken history remembered. He was tended to by the tribe's healer, but she seemed amazed at how quickly he recovered. He refused some of her healing methods, but still the wounds seemed to just close on their own.
Meanwhile, Saranna was questioned about where she had found him. She brought some villagers to see the crater, but the object in the middle of it had, meanwhile, vanished. Her story was thus, understandably, rather questionable, but it was undisputable that there was an unknown man. It was decided they would wait for him to heal until they would decide what to do with him.
In a few days, Murska left to walk around the area, exploring the surroundings. When he came back, he was asked in front of the tribe's council. The old leader had died of the illness and the new leader hadn't been chosen yet, so they had to make the decision concerning him all together. He stood tall and proud in front of them, answering their questions about his origin with only mysterious words. Soon, he turned the discussion to them. The voices got louder, and the conversation became an argument, as he challenged their views. He argued that they should settle down, build a city, and that it was the only way their civilization would ever advance.
The voices against him spoke of tradition, of food, of practical concerns. But his voice, booming over the rest, tore down their arguments one by one. Before the day was over, the new leader had been chosen... Murska.
He drew them a map of the area, to illustrate his ideas:
The people wanted the city to be located on the plains, for the food was plentiful and the fresh water from the lake was more than enough. But Murska smiled mysteriously and decided the city would be on a hill nearer to the ocean instead. Close to herds of sheep who tended to graze on the hills south of it. They were good to hunt, although Murska knew there would be a better use for them.
The strongest warriors, used to long hunting trips, were picked by Murska to form a group to scout and explore the area they were on, sending him messengers to tell of their findings periodically. The leader of this group was Cyrus, one of the older, experienced hunters of the tribe.
Years passed, as the city of Kyou was founded. Murska oversaw much of the construction, and especially a grand Palace, into which he moved once it was finished. It attracted many more people from other tribes, and soon grew to be a real city, taking control of a larger area around it. Shiny yellow metal was found from the southern hills, and more warriors were trained to help defend.
The scouts, meanwhile, explored the area. They sent reports of being attacked by large carnivorous bears, but they fought them off with some losses. Murska kept expanding his map, the area seemed quite fertile.
Months and years passed, although Murska never seemed to age. Soon, there was nobody left who remembered his arrival, and stories about him spread amongst the populace. The scouts made contact with the first group they could label another civilization. Murska was slightly worried about this, it was quite soon. Close neighbours weren't usually a good thing. Apparently this group called itself the Americans, and it's leader was 'Washington'.
Soon afterwards, the messages from Cyrus stopped. A ragged survivor was found later, telling a grim tale of a large barbarian ambush trapping them in a jungle. They fought bravely, but couldn't win against the crushing numerical advantage.
A few months afterwards, some discoveries were made, with the slight help of Murska, in taming and cultivating the sheep.
The newly trained warriors, headed by a young but talented leader, Kev, were sent northwards to continue the exploration effort. Meanwhile, the people working to gather the yellow metal from the southern hills developed more techniques to excavate and mine it.
Years passed, as the warriors were recalled to the capital to prepare for the first brave settlers moving out to found the second city of the empire. The area seemed quite fertile, although there had been no contact with the American borders.
Around this time Murska was growing more distant... one day, a flash from the highest window of his Palace. And the next day, the one stepping out to give orders wasn't him anymore. This one would be known as Amarth, and he would add his mark to the legacy of the Ottoman Empire.
((40 turns is very short in an Epic game, it seems. I expect detailed posts, guys. Here's the save: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://rapidshare.com/files/257016894/MurAmaNar_BC-3000.CivBeyondSwordSave.html">http://rapidshare.com/files/257016894/M ... dSave.html</a><!-- m --> ))
EDIT: ((Gameplay wise, I suggest getting us a worker ASAP after our settler is out, even if it slows down growth. Whip it if you have to, the city will grow back soon enough. And we should probably think of trying to place our cities so it blocks Americans and whoever else might be on our continent from settling too close to us, although the second city probably needs to be rather close and at an as good a location as possible.))
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