[a / b / c / d / e / f / g / gif / h / hr / k / m / o / p / r / s / t / u / v / vg / w / wg] [i / ic] [r9k] [cm / hm / y] [3 / adv / an / cgl / ck / co / diy / fa / fit / hc / int / jp / lit / mlp / mu / n / po / pol / sci / soc / sp / tg / toy / trv / tv / vp / x] [rs] [status / ? / @] [Settings] [Home]
Board:  
Settings   Home
4chan
/qst/ - Quests


Hello again fellow creators/questers. After another hiatus we're jumping back into the Essari EvoGame series. This thread will be focused on the cultural/nation building aspects of the Stitcher civilizations of Essari, including exploration of new lands, wars of unification and so on. The focus of the game at this point is on the progression of civilizations; however, creating speciation (region/habitat specific) evolutions of organism is still okay.

As GM, I'll be actively observing the thread, making sure to catalog and note any new evolutions to the world and where they belong. Additionally, I'll be providing folks that are building and fostering the growth of their sapient societies cues and general technological innovations in order to keep the game progressing. I'm still testing/tweaking some mechanics for my variety of CivEvo, but I intend to at least keep it freeform enough so that unique societies can develop without letting things run off the rails.

How to play:
• For regular evolutions, just open an image of a species in MS Paint, Photoshop, etc; make one small evolutionary change to that species, save as .PNG, and post it with a description about the evolution and why.
• Please indicate the Generation #, the region it lives in, and any other important details about your organism.
• Details regarding a creatures size or name aren't necessary, but are encouraged.
• Nothing too outlandish. Anything incredibly silly or outlandish will not be considered a canon species.
• TribalEvo Rules will be explained in a later post.

Notes:
• Unless stated explicitly, no species ever goes extinct. Old species can still evolve, even if they're not on the latest "chain"
• Evolutions now must microevolutions or speciation only (Think like the Darwin Finches)
• I will be providing a comprehensive Phylogeny Chart on the Wednesday following this thread.
• Every 24 hours, I'll be posting 1-2 regional events coupled with technology options for advancing sapient groups.
• Every 72-96 hours there will be an Emra Evolution. (More details on that in a later post.)
• This is Thread 7 of 10 for the Return to Essari series.

New to the Game?:
•The focus of the game has shifted towards the Tribal/Civ Evo aspects, but I'm leaving enough tools and information behind to allow new players to join in and either make new organisms, or participate in developing the sapient organisms of Essari.
• We have a Discord to keep you up to date on EvoGame stuff, and chat with other folks. https://discord.gg/kk8eJgJ
• In this thread and in the imgur gallery will be a Blank Template that you can use to make any organisms you wish to make for this game.
• Just a note, most of Essari's ecosystem has a basic food web in place, but are in dire need of diversification since many unmentioned organisms are just said to exist via lore.

Above is a map of the present Essari. Details on the region, nations/faction, extant organisms, sentient organisms rules, and more in the next post.
>>
File: Stitcher-CivEvo-OP.png (2.73 MB, 7025x4920)
2.73 MB
2.73 MB PNG
--Regional Setting--
The current timeframe that this thread will be highlighting is about 300 years of history, and is focused primarily on the perspective of the Stitcher race. Since their Paleolithic beginnings, the Stitchers have shared a close bond with the AA-Nodes found throughout the Torray Isles, commonly building cities and population centers nearby these monolithic organisms. Their peculiar nature and dependence on the AA-Nodes has since developed these population centers into “clan houses” of the Torray Isles, many of which identify themselves by the favorite gemstone or mineral of these Stitcher nation-states. Their nations and governmental structures have historically remained as something between a crowned republic and a monarchy, and their distinctly strict ethics and sense of identity has led to relatively little if any conflict between Stitcher houses for many centuries.

As technology and time progressed into the present setting, this idyllic state the Torray Isles had remained in for so long has begun to shift. The discovery the AA-Nodes are now a source of thought to be unlimited energy, has sparked the start of the Industrial Age for the Stitchers. Stitcher exploration into the western seas led to the discovery of a strange land, referred to as “Sujardin” by the heretical clothed “Grabraf” of the land. And to the north colonists of the Carnelian Hegemony have discovered an enormous landmass that is untouched and ripe for colonization. In addition to this, the recent decades in the Torray Isles, many Stitchers have documented sightings of great floating masses of forest in the skies over the Torray Isles. These islands while just out of reach of the Stitchers Faceted Tourmaline are seemingly supported by a mass of AA-Nodes that many Stitchers believe is more massive than all the AA-Nodes of the Torray combined. Many houses would wish to explore these floating isles, but how is the great question.

And then there is gathering clouds of war that loom in the minds of the House leaders as they look to the ominous empire in the Torrine Chain: The Carnelian Hegemony. The Carnelian Hegemony itself has become a threat to the other smaller houses of the Torray Isles, as the Empire’s hunger for conquest and a singular ideology had finally spilled over from the Torrine Chain and into the main Torray Isles. A 4-year long war between House Emerald and the Carnelian Hegemony has led to the destruction and assimilation of the once fertile and prosperous house and a loss of nearly a third of all Stitchers that lived within the House Emerald's dominion.

And now the Carnelian Hegemony sets its sights on the remaining Houses of the Torray Isles. All the while, the behemoth Braffberg Emra continues to watch over the world, curiously observing the recent developments of the Stitcher unknowingly under its close guise.
>>
Alright, and here are the remaining core materials for the Essari CivEvo. Rules will be splits onto two separate posts, and if as always, if you have any questions specifically to me, feel free to ask them either here or preferably in the Discord whose link is available in the OP Post.

Attached here is an image of the current extant life in Essari. In this thread, the organisms of interest are from Region 4 (Foltania & The Torray Isles) and the Global Organisms. Evolution is more or less off the table at this point, however if anyone would like to make a domesticated version of a plant or animal organisms during this thread, they are free to do so.

--Nation/Culture Creation & Advancement Rules--
• The creation of a distinct nation/culture in a Sapient race can be done so at anytime, but is heavily encouraged to have some detailed lore behind their society and its origins.
• Any Sapient Race culture that is created must specify whether it is a single species culture, or if it comprised of a community of Sapient races.
• Should a nation/culture wish to expand into unclaimed territory, a poster may do so by rolling a 1d8.
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful an expansion of territory is implemented into a sapient tribe. (A 1 does not mean an outright failure, and an 8 does not guarantee success.)
• The Librarian does not explicitly determine outcomes of a roll, and the poster may outline results of a 1d8 roll, if they so choose.
• If a sapient race attempts to explore the new foreign lands claim territories, they will need to roll a 1d8 to determine the success of the journey and a 1d8 to indicate the resources, security, and quality of the landing site for any sapient explorers or colonists.
• If a sapient nation/culture tries to claim territory from another sapient race, it would be considered an act of war, unless explicitly specified as otherwise. (For example, expanding a nation's sphere of influence on a region, or they are intending on peacefully fusing two nations/cultures.
• This type of expansion would also require the poster to roll a 1d8 to determine the outcome.
• Maps will be updated as frequently as possible to feature the appearance and changes to nations’ borders, but posters are also free to provide their own maps showing this and are also heavily encouraged to do so.
>>
Last item of business. The image attached is the Technology Chart/Guide for the Stitcher, the two extant Grabraf Races and the antagonistic faction, the Voltanite Empire's technological state.

--Sapient Technology/Cultural Advancement Rules--
• A poster ID may make up to two rolls for each Sapient race in a 24 hour period.
• A poster ID may make up to three cultural related advancements in a 24 hour period.
• Sapients may only roll for technologies above their current tech level (as shown in the pdf file attached) if they 6 or more technologies known of their current technological stage.
• For the first technology to be taught to a sapient organism, a poster must roll a 5 or higher of a 1d8 roll to successfully implement/learn a new technology (put "dice+1d8" in the options field when posting.)
• Rolls for Nomad Grabraf must be a 6 or higher.
• Any poster may freely roll for sapient exclusive technological advancements via a 1d8 roll. (The context of the technology in related to the sapient races current technological state would heavily influence how successfully the technology is implemented.)
• Technologies can be learned through interactions with other races and would require a 1d8 roll from a poster that is a 6 or higher. (Only one roll at this per day for any poster.)
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful the technology is implemented into a sapient tribe. (This will result will also determine whether positive or negative cultural events will occur to the sapient organisms.)

--War & Conquest Rules/Guidelines--
• Any proposals of war or conquest made by a sapient race/poster must be done so in a form of a proposal, rather than a freely made declaration.
• All war proposals must be approved by The Librarian before proceeding.
• All war actions are heavily encouraged to be discussed in the OOC EvoGame (otherwise known as my Discord Chat), and should include any major details regarding the involved factions, and if possible a battle map with the contested lands in question highlighted. (The battle map is heavily encouraged, but should the event call for it, I can quickly draw one up for posters.)
• Victory odds, battle tactics, and so on for each faction may be discussed in OOC, to give some indication of the victory odds between either factions, but are subject to intervention and final determination by The Librarian.
• Each faction will be given a minimum victory number to roll for and a static number of turns that determines the length of the war/conflict and number of rolling rounds for each faction.
• To avoid a dreaded succession of unlucky rolls, a losing faction may still be provided with valuable resources or a neutral/positive event based on the results of the roll.
• At the end of the last round of rolls, I will concisely detail the progression of the conflict for both parties, and highlight what spoils (which includes annexed territory) the victor and the possibly the loser have acquired.
>>
File: Stitcher theater.png (145 KB, 2562x1588)
145 KB
145 KB PNG
I'll start the tread off with a bit of cultural stuff, retroactive history so to speak. Stitcher theater is a popular but very delicate art - The problem stitcher playwrights face is that when telling a story one could easily uncharitibly be interpreted as lying or misconstruing reality - a grave offence against the order and unity in the house. To not trigger retaliation from offended crowds, distance is always maintained between performer and character.

Pictured are two Olivine theaterstitchers performing the time honoured play "Jewols searching emeralds in the Rubystalk Fields" (or T'''ee'kee ii'i'kee Riitee'' ee' '''kee'''''ii)

note that there is no suggestion of identification between performer and characters, nor any attempt of deception through verisimilitude
Sticks that the props are attached to provide a maximum of distance between performers and play, which coupled with the lack of direct speech absolves them from possible charges of lies or deception
This is the smallest possible type of Stitcher theater, but quite a popular one in Olivine theater, wherein two theaterstitcher take part, one being responsible for all characters, the other being responsible for the background and props.
>>
Rolled 7 (1d8)

During the time that the Emeralds and the Hegemony warred, and the years that followed many a Stitcher in the Emerald domains sought purpose in a world terrorized by conflict and hardship. Many of them turned to weaver-scholars and Blessed Ones (most self proclaimed) for guidance. For many these scholars and Blessed Ones became the moral arbitors and beacons hope in a land that found itself without the power to always enforce the rule of law.

One such Blessed One was Rii’iy’ree’’k Even-Eyed. When he was alive he come up with new interpretations of the Stitcher Canon and proposed a more compassionate moral code for Stitcher-kind. His ideas was opposed by many powerful Stitchers however. He was killed twice for it. First Rii’iy’ree’’k was electrocuted by the Emeralds for spreading heresy. His corpse left at an AA-node, according to legend he was revived after four days by the node. The Second time he was killed, it was the post-war Carnelian occupation force which did it. They had him scourged and hung above an AA-node on charges of being a false blessed one. Rii’iy’ree’’k died from his wounds. This time he didn't return to life.

After Rii'iy'ree''k's death, his disciples found themselves lost. Where were they supposed to go now?

>Rolling for the spread of the ideology of Rithism: (1, Hegemony; 2, Moonstone; 3-4 the large central island; 5 Larimar & Rhodochosite; 6 Tourmaline; 7-8 Ivorite & Olivine).

Rii’iy’ree’’k’s Sermon 30:2 “Do not mock the disfigured, but praise them! For their scars are testaments; they have sacrificed that which is dearest to a Stitcher, Symmetry, for the glory of their families!”
>>
File: Ruby Crystgrass field v2.png (4.65 MB, 2469x1100)
4.65 MB
4.65 MB PNG
Rolled 7, 5 = 12 (2d8)

>>2556784

a Heliotropean Praetor was patroling along a powerline running from an AA-node to its colony. Suddenly its warhammer was flung out of its hand. The Preator was shocked to find that it was apparently the powerline that had disarmed it. The powerline now held onto the warhammer, seemingly for no reason at all.

During winter time a Stitcher in the lands of Carn-Emerald had done repeated tests on Soumalinen jewols, taking notes of his observations and slowly making marginal adjustments to his experiments. He had found that if you kept the Jewol warm inside a building during the night and then had an insulating wooly-cryst blanket put on it during the day, it would work twice as fast and consume 1/2 more food. After making this discovery, he revealed his findings to the colony and suggested a theory of how knowledge could be built upon in the future. Of course he was electrocuted for this, but the event gave a Weaver in a neighboring colony an idea: What if you were to make use of this "Theory of Science" but leave the heretical parts out?

Stitcher tech rolls: Electromagnetism and Stitcherific Theory (Scientific Theory, except heresy is not allowed).

Prasiolites 6:42: "Look unto other and ponder the heresy and folly you find there. For their heresy is your heresy, and their folly is your folly. Seek ye the true reflecting crystal? Look to the stranger you despite, not the mate you love."
>>
Incase you guys were wondering and/or unaware, there is a variety of hymns/scriptures/stories of the Stitchers that folks in our EvoGame community have compiled.

I went ahead and compiled as many of those as I came across into a single document.

Enjoy
>>
>>2556784
Decades ago, lore had it that there was a captain of the House Olavine, one who went mad. Car'l the even handed. Though his name was one of honor, it was also one of slight against him. For Car'l was not even handed, he was odd handed. Having lost one in duty, he refused to sacrifice another, his life spent at sea and divorced from the land, his simple indifference became outright heresy. Time and time again he refused the compassion of his betters to cut off his offending hand and return to symmetry! Soon it was realized only force would save Car'l Ton'Bankx from his own madness and blindess. Sadly he would slaughter those who came for him, and refused to relinquish his powerful 4 mast ship. After two seasons of outright defiance, Car'l fled, far south, never to be seen again. Which was a relief, as his form offended.
--
The rogue fleet of Car'l found others of his cause and madness, those who appreciated the space provided by the sea, the isolation away from their own kind. Only at sea could they drown out their own language, the ocean's own blessing! To hate was divine, and Car'l hated more than any other, he hated all of sticher kind, big and small, old and young, of low and high status, most of all, he hated regardless of symmetry. And so it was true, a following sprung up around the captain, though he refused to document his thoughts personally, those around him would create observations of the Book of Car'l the Tekite. The Exile. His followers became known as the Tekites. Some would argue that the Tekites were a more militant and nhilistic variant of the Rithism, which had slowly taken over house Olivine in recent years, but in truth, they were convergent philosophies.

>Rolling for Tekite location, Fleet size, and accumulation of wealth

1-2 Nadlan, 3-4 Onolk, 5-6 Rinel N., 7-8 Rinel S.
>>
File: 1510904034130.jpg (28 KB, 500x555)
28 KB
28 KB JPG
Rolled 4, 7, 4 = 15 (3d8)

>>2558312
>the dice would have helped.
>>
>>2558317
The Tekites found themselves on the large Island of Onolk. It was a strange land full of odd ways, but they would make do of it. Not a house, the Tekites were something between pirates, and a monastic order. Their fleet was of considerable size, even with regard to their recent founding. Many exiles, odd ones, and undesired elements of normal society would find their way to this promised land, often by being robbed and electrocuted first. To this date all records show that every captive of the Tekites has converted, or been electrocuted unto death. Due to this, they have a very eclectic collection of ships, old and new, of nearly all designs.

Tekites do not value wealth, only the accumulation of stichers, thus they often use their gained material for bribery to those of opulent tastes. Their ways are simple. Clothing is forbidden, and enforced symmetry is considered a waste of resource. They have no value for conquest of land. Only the sea, and its disconnect from the material world and all it's noise.
>>
Rolled 6, 5, 4, 7, 3, 2 = 27 (6d8)

>>2556784
ST: Celestial Navigation, Chemistry
NG: Printing press, Machinery
FG: fermentation, ship building
>>
>>2558398
The powerful Carnelian Hegemony would be the first to understand the principals of celestial navigation, and for a time use it to rule the nights. During the following decades they would flourish in trade, and be ripe with the capability of expansionism, eyeing ever south.

The Enigmatic house moonstone would not be found idle; other houses reported rumors of functional alchemy. Stones changed color and property! Strange smokes and explosions. The Tekites were repelled from their seas with weapons not yet seen, flashing blasts of color and spark. While they would not trade secrets, House moonstone would gladly take part in the strangest of trades: refinement. Any house could bring them raw materials for processing, and in turn be given back 1/2 of what was given in refined material. The trade was steep, but few could compete for many years in their wild innovations, so most would pay, or go without.
>>
>>2558433
In Netou't the Nomad grabrafs would embrace a much different path than their kin on the other side of the world. They quickly mastered machinery, and with it began controlling the land around them.

High above, the FG accomplished little, but saw with their mind's eye though the eyes of Emra, the lands far below.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d8)

Mientras tanto, los Stitcherino en Torray-ino!*

*last time, on the Stitchers of Torray!

The Moonstone-Sardonyx alliance, under the leadership of Advisor Rk'lak of House Moonstone and Sardonyx's Nameless Spymaster, had sent ~18000 of its army to conquer the former-Emerald territory of the eastern headland, who have capitulated to the Carnelians following the fall of House Emerald.
Unbeknownst to them, the Southern Alliance is also targeting the same headland territory, and have sent their own armies there - both armies might clash over this headland. To further complicate matters, House Heliotrope has caught wind of their neighbor Sardonyx's army leaving for this battle, and had sent their armies to raid Sardonyx while they're preoccupied.

Rolling for the Moonstone-Sardonyx armies' journey to the headland, hopefully no freak storms happening...
(also anyone want to roll for Heliotrope and the South Alliance?)
>>
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2558506
It seems that only one ship gets grounded on the AA-node they used to rendezvous, the price of eagerness. The grounded ship and its crew were ordered to stay and fortify, to be a supply stop for future raids.
The rest of the army (~17500 strong) continues to the headland with no more incidents, landing on the north side of the headland.

Rolling for how well the 'reception party' is.
>>
>>2558522
The local ex-Emerald forces have wisely retreated, with only a few token and brazen resistance that were swiftly dealt with. The Moonstone-Sardonyx alliance now have established a beachhead on the northern shore of the headland.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2558506
In the titular house of house Larimar, a royal Weaver labors in the highest tower, using cryystals and prisms hung on chains, his windows barred safe for tiny slits.

He is working on the question of what gives crystals, the foundation of society, their differentiation, their identity, their COLOUR.

Rolling for colour theory
>>
>>2559067
He's gonna unlock the way of the drunken fist, isn't he?
>>
File: Tee'u'ana.png (63 KB, 1073x758)
63 KB
63 KB PNG
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2559067
The Weaver, K'k''iit works for days until the prism he has set gives him the revalation: white light comes in and passes through the prism from which it can hide nothing, and many colours - smaller, weaker, impostors - are the result. K'k''iit understands the import of this discovery. He bolts down to the royal quarters where the royal pair is holding court, a tense and silent situation.

Unheeding of protocoll K'k''iit runs up to his king and queen, Tee''ert and Tee''art and he leans up to whisper these clicks: "The only colour is white" only to run off once again to speak to the actual scientists of the house.

For Tee''ert, a long stuck knot in his heart has been loosened, something he feels he has known all his life but never was able to articulate. Of course. White is the only colour. No other colours are permissible.

The court is soon in chaos. All jewelery of colour is thrown out, any that wore it thrown to the moral police, a huge sweep goes around the palace and the surrounding city.

But Tee''ert realizes quickly, he cannot escape impure colouration, physical lies. Even his palace is of many colours in the sun. So he decides to build paradise himself, far out on the sea.

He would build a pure city. A city without fault or failng. A white city.

Rolling for the construction of Tee'u'ana, the white city off the coast of Larimar
>>
>>2559172
Dozens of ship full of whitest crystal with four twelve each and hundreds of workers are sent out to a node far away from the Lurimar mainland, technically in Tourmaline naval space but who's counting?

The big eyed central tentacle is the only thing visible above sealevel and it is quickly encased in white crystal and a planned, as of yet empty city begins construction around it with twelve spires in a holy circle.

Pic related is the location of Tee'u'ana

>>2559121
forgot to take my name off. You need someone to play the Emeralds for this war>>2558506?
>>
File: map.png (80 KB, 1076x951)
80 KB
80 KB PNG
>>2559206
PIC RELATED
>>
>>2559206
Yeah, that can be arranged, thanks!
>>
File: PLANNED Invasion.png (157 KB, 941x1705)
157 KB
157 KB PNG
Rolled 7, 4, 7, 2, 8 = 28 (5d8)

>>2558506
the southern allience plan is for every state to contribute a certan amount of forces for the invasion fleet which would theoretically net 16000 stitchers, with a large surpluss of loudmouth cannons and engineers.

This however is completely theoretical, as every state wants to do their own thing, and especially between Larimar and Rhodochrosite tensions are mounting

>rolling for each kingdom
>>
>>2559577
House Larimar enthusiastically pitches in, instead of their promised 4000 they send 5000, and to the dozen loudmouths they also add one of their two only sunwraths.

As a result, Rhodochrosite is more cautious, they only send 2000 and they do not agree to put them under joint command - since the kingdom with the most contributed soldiers would have said command, and they fear that to be Larimar. Rhodochrosite will be under their own general.

Tourmaline is also all in, hoping for new land gains and sends as many as Laminar does, 5000.

Something is the matter with Ivorite however. A single ship is sent out from there, with three dozen Praetors which reveal that they are not sent by the government of Ivorite but have gone out for themselves for glory and symmetry. No message comes from Ivorite, but the Praetors reveal that the Ivorite autocrat-female is rumoured to have died yet the autocrat-male has not been seen, in the fields or elsewhere.

House Olivine has somehow managed to double their contribution and bring 6000 soldiers and a whole fleet of ships. Olivine, against all odds, has commanding authority over the army now.

All in all, 18000 comprise the fleet, more than agreed upon and thus MANY more than anticipated.

Rolling how the journey goes is roll one, roll 2 is the first confrontation with the Moonstones
>>
Rolled 3, 2 = 5 (2d8)

>>2559593
ROLLS
>>
>>2559594
In the journey, almost five hundred Praetors are lost, as well as a whole battery of loudmouth cannons. ships litter the strait between Torray and Larimar, and the landing is completely chaotic as the ships just want to escape the storm. As such, the moonstones encounter a completely disorganized force, many of whom are not yet armed or ready and who did not even expect an organized army.

>>2559226 I'll need a counter roll pls
>>
Rolled 5, 1, 4 = 10 (3d8)

>>2559597
The Moonstone-Sardonyx forces on the north of the headland have received word that the Southern Alliance have made a haphazard landing to the south side of the headland. The Spymaster have correctly guessed that this was unintentional - yet Advisor Rk'lak still exercises caution, as the subjugation of the headlanders could be disrupted.
As such, he assigns about 500 Sardonyx assassins and scouts to find out just where the SA forces have landed, followed by 1k Sardonyx soldiers and 1k Moonstone soldiers to mop up any hostiles less than their size (2k). The Sunwraths are to defend the beachhead, while the engineers are fortifying it to become their headquarters.

Rolling for:
1) Sardonyx info gathering on SA forces
2) Effectiveness of the 'cleaner army'
3) Fortification efforts
>>
>>2559619
It seems that the Sardonyx have managed to find the location of half of the SA's army, spread out all over the southern side. But as the 'cleaner army' was deployed to take out one group of ~500ish SA forces, they were assaulted by a barrage of Sunwrath fire! The Moonstone thought they were the only ones to have them, and such the army was ill prepared. To complicate matters, this conflagration has also attracted several other SA scattered groups to rally there, as well as ex-Emerald forces sensing opportunity. The 2k combined force fought well, but in the end they were utterly wiped, only taking ~500 of SA and ~300 of ex-Emerald forces.
In the meantime, fortification is going slowly. Part of which is the relative scarceness of crystalline resources near the beachhead area, with the nearest villages already razed by ex-Emeralds to deny them materials. But they did manage to salvage enough material for a basic fortification.

Current army forces: ~15500 Stitchers
>>
Rolled 1, 1 = 2 (2d8)

>>2559619
>>2559644
Seeing as the landing was not contested hotly, the SA forces could largely recover from the disastrous circumstances, though some ex Emerald forces managed to skirmish amongst their supply ships, so food already becomes scarse. The skirmishes with the Sardonyx go favoribly and about 17000 Stitchers are now on land. Of those, about 2000 are under an independent command and as the main general orders caution to build up fortifications, they decide to march out and instead attack the enemy of which not much is as of yet known.

first roll is for building a big old fortified town, the second is for the Rhodochrost attack
>>
>>2559665
The Rhodochrost march up in rank and file, weapons glinting in the sun to meet whichever enemy it is there is to meet.

They run into a partially fortified force of over ten thousand. Not only are they completely wiped out by artillery and gunfire, all 2000 dying, killing only about 200, they do not even manage to bring back news of the enemy encountered as all stragglers are detained by assasins.

Meanwhile the fortification efforts are not going badly so much as they do not happen. Zealous officers from Olivine intentionally sabotage the building because of their eagerness to fight and because of the rumour that the plans for the fortifications have an odd number of sides (or was it angles?)

Dozens of engineers get beaten up and the general has to avert a mutiny by declaring the war to not be fought defensive but offensive.

Completely unbuilt they leave the laid foundations behind and instead start marching after the army, the obliteration of which they know nothing of.

15000 strong now, plus or minus
>>
Rolled 1, 1 = 2 (2d7)

>>2559667
Mad Car'l himself sails this day, drawn like a River Deral to blood. The fleet seeks to gain materials set adrift from the conflict, and gangpress those left behind, deserters, or stragglers from all sides.

Rolling for attempts to:
Salvage ships and materials adrift
capture sticher soliders near the beaches
>>
Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>2559671
No one was sure how it happened, or if it was punishment for their deviations. The winds and sea slammed the entire Tektite fleet onto the same island now in total conflict. Their great ships, almost half of the total Tektite forces, now splintered or wrecked on the beaches. The survivors fully abandoned any attempts at capturing soldiers, seeking to frantically repair and launch what could be salvaged.

However, things did not go so well for them; Injured, outnumbered, and under-gunned, they found themselves cut down in every conflict. Several days of fighting saw even the attempt to salvage their ships lost, with the surviving force of 1000 sticher pirates isolated into a crystal and wood fortress of hasty construction, more a pile of ships haphazardly bound together. Car'l was rumored to be captured by the enemy.

rolling a 1d2, if 1, he is captured by olavine or ivorite forces and they are sympathetic to his beliefs. If not, he is electrocuted.
>>
>>2559673
The head of Car'l, now slightly charred is sent to the beach fort. Tektite moral has plummeted.
>>
Rolled 3, 3, 2 = 8 (3d8)

>>2559667
About five thousand, most of the uber motivated olivines are sent ahead of the main army to not further infest the soldiers and to act as a spearhead. They encounter a fortress under constructions, woth still many holes to be exploited and sabotage to be done. The heads of the rhodochrosts are on spikes stood in pairs around the camp and the olivines decide ona hit and run tactic until the main force arrives.

Said main force would come a few days later and the general would yet again attempt to cool the soldiers down to set up a sieg with counzer walls. While zhe whole army only has a handfull of sunwraths, the dozens of loudmouth cannons would be used to shell this new unknown enemy.

Only then a diplomat would be sent

Three rolls:
First is for the skirmishes, second is for the general getting his orders to stick and three is for the success of the siege
>>
>>2559709
The skirmishes go badly because the soldiers routinely stay too long fighting. They lose 500 men, kill only about 300 and disrupt resource gathering minimally.

Whrn the main force arrives, a perimeter is set up, trenches are dug, crystal towers built, but the five thousand do not agree to come back. Instead thry continue harrassing the fortress.

Said fortress is then shelled with little effect other than tearing down some walls, the sunwrath barrages that come back on the other hand kill hundreds of SA stitchers.

Frustratedly a diplomat pair is sent to ask who this army belongs to and if there is any possibility to divy up this land without further conflict
14300 current stitcher count
>>
>>2559711
After weathering the Rhodochrosite army's attack (the identity of which had only came later after Sardonyx interrogations), the Moon-Sard alliance's headquarters have came under attack by a larger force, this time by the Olivines. After losing about ~500 to both that attack and ex-Emerald opportunistic raids afterwards (and another ~500 to the previous attack and subsequent local raids), they have received a diplomat, apparently about to parley. Advisor Rk'lak meets them in person.
"So, the Southern Alliance have also set their sights at these lands as well? Let it be known that the Moonstone and Sardonyx alliance are here, and we are not leaving. We both have already incurred great losses at each other, not to count what the locals did to us both. You know our armies have already plot revenge by now, and might not agree to what we might agree on, correct?"
The Advisor straightened out his back, and walked to a nearby window.
"It is the ex-Emeralds that we are trying to subjugate. I for one, agree that dividing the land between all of us would be best - but for that to happen, we must both focus all our forces into conquering the land from the ex-Emeralds and their Carnelian lords. This I cannot see happening with both our armies - while my side might agree on ceasefire, there is no guarantee that yours will, even if you and the leading commanders of your side will."
Rk'lak sits down again, across the diplomat.
"Know this: we will only agree to a formal truce if you can prove without a shade of doubt that your side will be able to hold that truce - and after the locals have been dealt with. Our side will try our hardest to focus on local subjugation, yet will not shy from retaliation if attacked. Until then, pray that we do not meet in battle." With that, the diplomat is sent back.

After a while, when it is certain the diplomat is out of eyesight and earshot, the Spymaster appears behind the Advisor. "You do know you're taking a risky gamble, right?"
"But of course. If they still have an equally-sized force by the end of this war, they could still mount an attack on our territories, truce or not."
"So, you've put your faith that they will not be able to honor the possible truce, and hope the locals whittle them down, if not us?"
The Advisor smiles. "Of course not. I put more than blind faith behind that plan. I have you, and the Sardonyx assassins, after all."
The Spymaster smiles. "I see what you're plotting, and while it is quite a risk, it is a plot I want to see unfold."

force count: ~14500
>>
>>2559733
>>2559733
>>2559733
I will see how the SA reacts by dice. What is certain is that their attitude will not be as relaxed as the Moon-Sards which the diplomats report as almost unnaturally at ease.


5-7 - The conditions are accepted and the way the SA proves their trustworthiness is by retreating and simply conquering a small part of the region in the south and use it as a base

2-4 They refuse the condition and entrench further around the fortress

8 - they pretend to accept and retreat but instead recruit local ex Emerites and the pirate remnants to start another attack


1 - The campaign is declared a failure before too many soldiers are lost. This can only be done if the soldiers are provided with a different enemy to be directed at. And one of the Southern Allience kingdoms has not brought any forces to the table...
>>
Rolled 2 (1d8)

>>2559740
after captcha has swallowed my first three attempts I didn't include the dice
>>
File: Options 1.png (394 KB, 3000x2000)
394 KB
394 KB PNG
Rolled 1, 3, 6 = 10 (3d8)

*Part 1
>>2557055
>>2559741
Outcome Rithism
The ideology of Rithism started to take hold in the Southern Alliance states ruled by the Olivines and Ivorites. Its teachings much more in line with the more warm-hearted southern societies; many families/houses decided to add it to their canon. Rithism also fell in line with the aspirations of the ruling class of Olivine and Ivorite. No longer did they just fight for conquest alone. Now they fought to walk the land and see the places that their Blessed One once called home.
It is even rumored that Rithism made up the foundation of the Tekite ideology. It is said that it was Rii’iy’ree’’k Even-Eyed’s teachings of tolerance towards the scarred that served as Car’l’s original reason for resisting being made symmetrical again; before he would create what that would become Tekitism.
Carnelian
During the years of relative peace that followed the Emerald-Carnelian wars, parts of the Hegemony had set its sights to the newly discovered lands in the north. The idea was to expand their Foltanian colony and gain access to more of the valuable AA-nodes in order to feed their colonies’ ever-growing populations. They couldn’t decide whether to go west along the coast or to delve into the forests of the east.
>Rolling 1d8 for direction (1-4 west; 5-8 east) and 1d8 for success.
From the hills in the east of the conflict zone, Gold Ring R''eee'eei'y'eee'' was using its binoculars to observe the warring parties. Ever since the tactical retreat, the Carn-Emerald Hegemony forces had held their distance and watched as the country-side burned; The two warring sides killing each other by the thousands. R''eee'eei'y'eee'' had originally objected when the tactic had been suggested by his superiors, but now he could see the logic in it. For all their heresies, few Stitchers could match the Rubidium Lord-pair, Kiikii and Kii’ie, as strategists. “Gold Ring” the two synchronous voices spoke, “We have received word from the northern territories. It is time for the second part of this play”.
>Rolling for action (1-4 The CE go on the offensive (if so, will make a follow up post); 5-8 The CE forces start constructing something).
>>
File: Rubidium Light Mask.png (33 KB, 165x175)
33 KB
33 KB PNG
Rolled 1, 4 = 5 (2d8)

*Part 2
>>2559880
Posting this from the previous thread:
The forces loyal to house sardonyx have gone south. What fools! Leaving their backs unguarded, they’ve proven that they’ve grown weak! As is the way in all things, strength prevails. This one ever present and eternal truth has been forgotten by our neighbors. It is time they once again were taught it!

The colonies loyal to the Heliotrope family ready their ships and prepare for war. Once it is time to strike, the forces are lead personally by the Heliotrope Matriarch-patriarch pair; both armed with the simple crystal-steel spear-arms and swords of regular soldiers. “Extravagance and opulence is a breeding ground for weakness!” They set sail, heading south. The colonies loyal to Sardonyx will bow to the Heliotropes within days!

>The Heliotropes’ ships go south attack Sardonyx lands. Rolling for the size of the force and their success.
>>
File: Carnelian north.png (39 KB, 351x292)
39 KB
39 KB PNG
>>2559884
>>2559880
In the north the expansion attempts go south. The exploratory force manages to find one AA-node and set up a small outpost. However, as much of the force continues west into the forest, communications with them break down. Searching parties are sent out, only for them to return empty-handed. It would take a month before any remains of the exploratory force was found. When the searching party came across it, all they would find were bloated corpses with dry blood caked around their eyes and orifices. Upon seeing the bodies, the Nekonahu mercenaries in the searching party would sign the symbol of Xerho on their chests while muttering: “The red plague, It is here… We must warn them.”

> The Northern Colony expands a little, but it comes in contact with a Foltanian disease that is similar to (and perhaps related to) the red plague.

By accident the Heliotrope force attacks the home of house Paraiba; one of the largest and most heavily defended colonies on the island. The Sardonyx allies know how to put up a fight. After heavy casualties, the small initial Heliotrope invasion force is pushed back into the sea by the natives of Sardonyx. While this is merely a bump in the road for the Heliotrope plans, they’ve now lost the element of surprise.
>>
>>2559172
>>2559067
a painting of K'k''iit in Tee'u'ana
>>
>>2560097
Why does this drawing have the blasphemous color of black on it?
>>
>>2560165
this isn't black, it's dark white, an honorary white.
>>
Rolled 7, 5, 4 = 16 (3d8)

The Tekites survivors of the failed raiding fleet, those who failed Car'l himself, had become entrenched on the beach. Despair turned into the most bitter of nihilistic resolve. They were unforgivable. Still, they had been left alone long enough to launch a few crude skiffs and contact home, who in turn recalled the rest of the fleet. It would not be long now, and force 2000 strong would land to bolster their numbers, armed with actual weapons of war. It was the last of them. They held no desire for land or wealth, only revenge. What was left of their movement was a small town of children and elders in the far south. For the unforgiven though, they had accomplished their goals. Tonight in the dark, they would leave their beach fort, and venture out into the wilderness to reap the heads of those who had slain Car'l.

Rolling for: the fleets safe arrival, their effectiveness, and the suicidal campaign of the unforgiven.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d8)

In Carn-Emerald land, a satirical play is shown, something fiercely illegal in most Stitcher countries.

In a very self referential way, it is about a pair of theaterstitchers, entitled "one of hegemon" and "two of hegemon" playing a play with another pair of stitchers entitled "Carn" and "Emerald" who in turn usher a bunch of tinier still Stitchers here there and everywhere with no purpose of direction.

The play needs twelve theater stitchers, a mechanical rail to lead the smallest stitchers along and contains, as with all stitcher media, no jokes whatsoever.

But it is performed publicly and watched and for some reason or another Emerald police inforcement are not available to break up the premier. And the thought of an outside controlled, weak, and not least: unfit to stop filthy satire on the street Emerald ruling house soon takes hold in the public, to the extent determined by this roll.
>>
>>2560413
The remainder of the tekite fleet lands in relatively good condition, one ship was lost due to hitting some sort of "submerged ship" preposterous.

Upon landing they discover the fort is gone, and their kindred have left behind long diatribes written on the walls, desires of revenge and death. It is strange and unsettling; however the main force begins a campaign of night strikes against any and all encampments near them. They loose stichers over the course, but those they capture are hauled away back to their home island for conversion. Overall it is not a significant number from any one faction, but an annoying amount from all.

The unforgiven, lead by a sticher known only as the El' Jon, put up what is a fuitile, if sadistic campaign of capturing and decapitating stragglers they find in the forest and swamps. They loose some men in the process, but mostly serve to anger the other forces, possibly in unity, against this nuisance. In particular a general's son is decapitated and his head turned into a lamp, returned as gift. It is not well received.
>>
>>2560444
while it sparks no revolution of any sort, the play and its reputation rattle the very foundation of the Emerald house: the respect of the lowest for the highest. With the territory of House Carn-Emerald so vast and no institution fit to police it consistently, houses often just do their own thing for a while before even being discovered as dissidents, grumbling about the lack of help supplied to the colony (even though so many sons and daughters have been conscripted) and general disgruntlement follow.

The Elder Six of the ruling house in Carn-Emerald, house Carn-Em-Rubidium, get together and discuss how best to bring a stop to this
>>
File: The True.png (45 KB, 1570x1148)
45 KB
45 KB PNG
Rolled 1 (1d8)

>>2560471
Their solution is the ''tiki - "The True".

It is of course true that Carn-Em-Rubidium is a house dependant on the Carnelian Hegemony but over the last decades they have amassed wealth and real influence and they bring it all to bear now: In the form of a gigantic institution that is meant to permeate the whole of their teritory: The True are a police force policing thought and language as well as action: Speaking negatively of the ruling class is a crime, expressing dissatisfaction with the way it provides is a crime - and the ruling class provides all of course. Words are striken from usage and supplemented with new ones less dangerous to the integrity of society. And all this is enforced by these thousands and thousands of agents, identified by the cages around their mouths signifying the security of their words, and armed with whips of crystal hooks to punish any misconduct.

The True are sent out everywhere hidden and overt and are to be let into any house. Giving information to the True is incentivised with the promise of public office and even a job at The True themselves.

I'll post a coloured version soonish

roll is for how effective they are
>>
File: Unconventional desire.png (232 KB, 480x907)
232 KB
232 KB PNG
Rolled 3, 1 = 4 (2d8)

>>2559880
In the hill-camp of the Carn-Emerald force the construction work continues, as electrical cables, batteries and strange metal/crystalline parts are put together. Large metal cylinders are also being put together.

>Rolling for Capacitors (custom tech)
>>
Rolled 6, 1 = 7 (2d8)

--NG Event: The Rayya Shorefall--
It had been nearly a year since the migrants of the Nomad Grabraf Fleet dubbed Rayya had seen land. The AA-Nodes adrift at sea were the only true respite during the arduous journey. Several thousands of NG passed away from sickness or malnourishment as they travelled across some 5000 miles of unforgiving ocean. To many of the NG they had begun to believe there was no land to East, so sent their Pterrortail Scouts out even further in search of anything.

After almost a month of waiting, one pair of scouts returned heralding the news of land. As soon the other Pterrortails returned, they make way for a string of islands on near the southern shallows of the Torray Isles: The Suomalalinen Islands. The great Migrant Fleet sailed into these lush shores where they made their camp. The Pterrortails scouts made quick work of scouting the islands, and was on the largest of the islands, Onolk that these flyers spotted a pair ornately colors boats off the coast and a strange outcroppings of what they thought to be crystal near an AA-Node.

Curious and anxious to establish their colony, the Nomad Grabrafs of Rayya moved their fleet to the shores of Onolk where they would come upon the Stitchers of the Tektites. They knew not of these strange beings, but the NG were fascinated by their ornately crafted settlement and ships made of crystal. A meeting of two truly peculiar races was about to happen, and the fate both in the Suomalalinen would hinge greatly on this first meeting.

--Two Rolls for First Contact--
>How do the Stitcher react?
1-2: The Stitcher react hostile and brashly, mostly out of fear of the massive force of strange beings.
3-4: The Stitcher are reclusive and fearful, choosing to hide or even flee from the NG.
5-6: The Stitcher are nervous of the NG, but a few pragmatic elders attempt to make peaceful greetings.
7-8: The Stitcher are equally curious of the NG, and choose to openly make peaceful contact with the strange beings.

>How do the NG react?
1-2: The NG have no interest in sharing these lands with a strange and possibly hostile race, and quickly muster their forces to overrun the settlement, killing all that resist.
3-4: The NG, though curious of the Stitcher, don't wish to share the islands with them, and sequester the Tektites to remain only within the confines of their settlement as they colonize Onolk and the other islands.
5-6: The NG make peaceful contact with the Stitcher showing interest in them and wishing to trade goods, and they choose settle in the other islands, except for Onolk.
7-8: The NG wish to learn and barter with the Stitcher of this settlement, and perhaps even integrate these beings into their new colony should they be willing and peaceful.
>>
>>2560946

It is hard to say exactly when everything went down hill to the Tektites. A scripture of one young weaver noted that he watched from the shore with wonder and awe as he saw great ships of wood circled by great flying beasts make their way into the bay near their settlement. He counted 40, no 50 great ships, larger than even the crystal vessels of the Carnelian Hegemony. The weaver ran to back to the settlement to tell his brethren what he saw. The Tektites settlement had been drained of many of its warrior, only a handful of Praetor, and inexperienced warrior Stitcher remained. The young and elderly of the settlement were fearful as they saw the boats row to the beach head and great flying beasts land adjacent to them with even groups of fluffy, grey looking creatures, each appearing to have a strange set of six tendrils from their backs.

The elders made note that while some appeared to wear articles of clothing, their evenness and symmetry was intriguing if not similar to their own. They then elected to send a group of their elders, accompanied by their Praetors to greet the strangers. And it is here where the accounts of the surviving Tektites become sporadic and unclear; but what is likely to have happened is more apparent in the recounting of the NG.

The NG were quick to dispatch at that time the falsely perceived hostile beings. Their strange appearance and attempts at what they thought may have been communication, and the craft of their crystalline weapons and shields of the brutish creatures flanking the more diminutive beings in the center was a beguiling sight to the first NG to discover them. To those younger NG, they thought their advances, the awkward darting of their eyes, and clicking noises they made between one another was unsettling; and the tendrils on their back reacted in what could be no more than their nature when the armed beings raised their weapons in defense to the young NG's reaction.

When the envoys of the Tektites lay dead, the older, more experienced NG knew they had but one course after that: forcefully removing the creatures. This was their land now after all, and Skrigjarrden had decreed it so through the actions of the young NG. The survivors of the Tektites that weren't slaughtered in the confusion and turmoil, made their retreat to the northernmost island of the Suomalalinen. Their only fortuitous boon was that they had found yet another AA-Node to call home for what remained of the displaced Tektites now numbering in less than 500.
>>
--CivEvo Progress Report--
The Stitcher throughout the last few decades have entered an age of industrial advancement, albeit by their own unique manner. The advent of Scientific Theory under the close guard & interpretation of the advisor and nobles of the Stitcher Houses has slowly caught the allure of young and inquisitive minds of Weavers, Praetors, and Worker Stitcher alike. With conflict & political strife constantly on the minds of the leaders of the Torray Isles, new ideas, concepts and great structures begin to take shape throughout the Stitcher Houses. Additionally, the arrival of the NG in the Suomalalinen Islands and a virulent plague spreading among the Foltanian colonies sets the stage for a time of uncertainty.

(Tier 3) Medieval Age [Tech Limit of the FG]
Animal Riding (Need Iron Working)
Compass (Need Optics)
Fermentation (Need Alchemy)
Gunpowder (Need Alchemy)
Laws of Physics (Need Mathematics)
Metal Casting (Need Iron Working)
Mill Power
Ship Building (Need Sailing)

(Tier 4) Renaissance [Tech Limit of the NG]
Banking (Need Currency)
Calculus (Need Mathematics)
Chemistry (Need Alchemy)
Machinery (Need Engineering)
Metallurgy (Need Chemistry)
Navigation (Need Compass & Astronomy)
Plumbing (Need Architecture & Metal Casting)
Printing Press (Need Engineering & Machinery)

(Tier 5) Industrial Age
Biology (Need Scientific Theory)
Industrialization (Need Machinery & Metallurgy)
Rifling (Need Metal Casting)
Sanitation (Need Plumbing & Scientific Theory)
Scientific Theory (Need Laws of Physics)
Steam Power (Need Engineering & Machinery)
Taxonomy (Need Scientific Theory & Biology)
Telegraph (Need Industrialization)

--Sapient Technology/Cultural Advancement Rules--
• A poster ID may make up to two rolls for each Sapient race in a 24 hour period.
• A poster ID may make up to three cultural related advancements in a 24 hour period.
• Sapients may only roll for technologies above their current tech level (as shown in the pdf file attached) if they 6 or more technologies known of their current technological stage.
• For the first technology to be taught to a sapient organism, a poster must roll a 5 or higher of a 1d8 roll to successfully implement/learn a new technology (put "dice+1d8" in the options field when posting.)
• Rolls for Nomad Grabraf must be a 6 or higher.
• Any poster may freely roll for sapient exclusive technological advancements via a 1d8 roll. (The context of the technology in related to the sapient races current technological state would heavily influence how successfully the technology is implemented.)
• Technologies can be learned through interactions with other races and would require a 1d8 roll from a poster that is a 6 or higher. (Only one roll at this per day for any poster.)
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful the technology is implemented into a sapient tribe. (This will result will also determine whether positive or negative cultural events will occur to the sapient organisms.)
>>
Rolled 7, 8, 8, 6, 5, 1 = 35 (6d8)

>>2561176
NG: reverse engineering, reverse engineering. (of Tektite settlement, requesting QM results on that one)
FG: Fermentation, biological constructs (in lieu of traditional technology, a precursor to being able to do anything more complicated)
ST: Electromagnets, electric motor
--
All around them was the bounty of their plunder, the people of Rayya fleet had discovered an alien mind that had made an equally alien city. Already they busily hung furs on bare walls, packed dirt, and fed to their beasts strange food stores to determine what was edible. The inquisitive creatures would attempt to understand how the city could glow at night, or the bottled lightning the screeching ones had used.
--
For the forest grabraf, the natural world and Emra provided all they needed, emra's eyes were their own, and they saw the ground dwellers struggling. Why duplicate what they do, when it could be simply bypassed to achieve the same goal? Though the risks had been many in the past, the Grabraf would attempt to delve further into the secrets of emra's many gifts, and create organic constructs to aid in their daily lives. something simple first... Perhaps later these "stichers" would need more in depth study, for their ability to extrude had great promise.
--
House Larimar had seen reports of how badly their attempt at conquest had gone, and learned that unless a true leader emerged in the southern islands, none would stand before their superiors for long. To that end, they sought to prove their worthiness with electrological superiority. Existing phenomena of the AA node's electrical interactions would be studied, refined, and duplicated. Harnessed for the betterment of house and sticher.
>>
>>2561508
NG (request QM result for tech rolls)
The NG had discovered the stichers were marvelous beasts, capable of extruding crystalline substances from their bodies. With this they could quickly make amazing structures and objects of great art. There was much debate, if the stichers were even sapient like a Grabraf, if they were worthy of any consideration. As such a great argument broke out; on one side, many said the stichers were animals, and fit to be kept as such. On the other, a equal many said stichers are sapient, and fit to be exterminated, as slavery is wrong, and death is fine. With minimal food stores, the corpses of the slain stichers made for the first feast of this new land, and something of an interesting backdrop for an ethical debate.

1d2: 1 for stichers are livestock, 2 for stichers are for killing.
--
The FG had mastered fermentation so thoroughly that soon waste and food were no issue. Emra reused all, and the cities biological material simply absorbed that which offended, and preserved that which was useful. The biological constructs were simple, very, very simple. Things that would serve as shelter, things that would aid in movement, great branches turned tendrils, used to move objects too large for a regular grabraf.
--
Larimar had discovered electromagnets, and with it began to put them to work on cranes, and as a method to crush heretics, with cranes. However, the electric motor was not a safe thing. Not at all. Holy current was pumped into the waiting reciptcle, more and more, faster and faster did it's commutator spin, glowing pure white, which is the most desirable of all colors, as scholars of this era know. Sadly, nothing grey can stay white, the hardest hue to hold. The ensuing explosions flung molten crystal and metals onto all the researchers, killing many, and maiming or blinding more. For Lariamr, there was great fear of the power of current now, it clearly had its own spirit and will.
>>
Rolled 6, 2 = 8 (2d8)

>>2561582
--The last of the Tektites--

Fewer than 500 now, the elderly, infirm, young, and precious few adults worked day and night to flee the accursed islands. A serviceable ship was constructed, and it's stores filled with bitter but edible barks and grasses. They left behind their home, carrying with them an urgent warning for all of sticher kind. The grabrafs were coming!

(rolling 1d8 for what faction the ship makes contact with, or if they do at all. 1 is an ignoble death, 8 is a link up with the other Tektites.)
--
--A union of houses--

The new mentality sweeping across Olavine and Ivorite had benefited their growth. With less culling of the population over petty matters of oddity, the people had increased in productivity, joy, and chasing out dark elves from their community. Where it was know the house of Larimar had tried to proove it's worth with technology, if two could unite as one, they could prove it through culture!

(1d8 for seeing how well or badly an attempt at peacefully unifying two houses will go.)
>>
>>2561620
In coincidence, the Tektite survivors landed in Ivorite and Olavine territory. Their message was received, but how to handle it strained the two houses. One sought to rally all stichers, and even to possibly capitulate to the greater houses in the face of this new enemy, other other would have a withdraw of the current war to deal with this new enemy, and to deal with them without any northern help.
>>
Rolled 4, 8, 3, 7 = 22 (4d8)

>>2559740
Advisor Rk'lak sighs. It's been weeks now, and the Southern Alliance forces have camped near the Moon-Sard Alliance's beachhead headquarters. A sort of loose siege. The SA know that the MSA can't attack them overtly, and any covert assassinations would just be blamed on the MSA anyways. Meanwhile, local subjugation is hard to do, since the MSA have to go through SA camps to get out. And to complicate matters, food supplies are dwindling.

Things have to be done, it seems.

Rolling for:
1) Finding a large enough gap for foraging or raiding parties to gather supplies
2) Causing a gap to happen using espionage, by non-lethal ways like false orders or the like
3) The supply gathering effort
4) Planting some crops in their HQ
>>
>>2562292
It seems that the SA forces aren't tightly packed, and is separated into groupings. Some gaps are wide enough for a small party of foragers and raiders to pass unnoticed. But the Sardonyx Spymaster sees more opportunity. He ordered some assassins to infiltrate the SA forces, pose as scouts, and inform them of a large ex-Emerald force about to launch an attack on their rear. This was no idle bluff either - the Spymaster had previously received word that there's been a 'wild' rampaging army out there, attacking stragglers. So, to strike two Pterrortails with one stone, he's sending most of the zealous SA army to where the straggler-attacking incidents are the thickest, and hope they sort themselves out.
And so, the foraging party of 200 slipped through the widening gap - only for half to encounter the so-called 'wild' army - the Tektites. About 50 were killed, while another 50 was lost in the wilds following the skirmish. The rest returned with few foodstuffs, foraged plants mostly.
But these plants prove to be their salvation, for the soil near the HQ is quite arable. In addition to the few seeds they brought as part of the supply, the new plants prove to grow and yield food relatively quickly. The roofs of the HQ can be seen overgrown with food plants, since the packed earth they chose to reinforce structures is still fertile.
>>
Rolled 2, 3, 2 = 7 (3d8)

>>2562292
>>2562335
Every Stitcher knows that sieges are an incredibly dangeroous style of warfare. That is so because Stitchers left to twiddle their thumbs for too long will find something to worry about and that could end up being each other or the leading pair.

So the volitile mixture that is thousands of stitchers doing nothing, looking the enemy (surely dark elfs!) in the face will surely net an interesting result.

There follow three rolls: One to decide how the Southern Allience reacts to the weeks of encampment, another two of how 'well' the acting party does.

1 - The signs of mutiny from before become a full one: Stitcher turns on Stitcherkind

2-3 - The enemy that the 'scouts' have informed command of are a better feindbild than the entrenched moonstones. Camp is broken up and the decision made to go against that enemy and conquer the land there.

4-5 - Somehow, levelheadedness prevails. Parts of the army are sent out to take on the enemy without while reverse Sortiers and bombardment try to harass the Moon-Sards

6-7 - Not so level heads prevail. The Siege must become hotter it is decreed, and gaps are bombarded into the enemy fortress, armies sent in, if those net enough results a full on storm will follow! the preassure is on!

8 - It's the Ivorites fault. Instead of standing around here in the mud, the army should turn around and take revenge on the Ivorites that have sent no formal troops!
>>
Rolled 5, 8, 1 = 14 (3d8)

>>2562935
It is decided to redirect the forces. Two diplomats are sent to the Moonstones giving them an ultimatum to surrender. When of course this is not taken on, barrages of loudmouths fall across the fortress in the cover of which the Allience forces retreat. Even so, Sortiers hinder them from an orderly break of camp and in the skirmishes they lose another 300 while killing only 100 in retaliation and with the bombardment.

The search for the supposed "better" enemy goes even worse. The gigantic army is beset from all sides by guerilla fighters, an intengable that cannot be fought. What's more, rain begins to fall and the movement becomes even more sluggish. another 700 are lost to guerilla attacks and disease.

13300 are left of the prior proud 18000, with nothing to show for it.

1-2 - The general stitcher pair is strung up and the voyage home taken

3-4 - The general stitcher pair decides in order not to be strung up they should voyage home

5-6 - the fruitless campaign is continued

7-8 - The engineers must save this campaign (tech roll for Electro-Artillery)
>>
>>2562957
Over another few weeks, the army adapts to the guerilla forces' tactics and they are all but wiped out, with the southern allience losing another 300 only.

The army now takes posession of the charred remains of the western part of the country which is declared occupied.

A message is sent back to the home islands that land has succesfully been taken.
>>
Rolled 4, 6, 7, 8, 5 = 30 (5d8)

>>2562967
Tektites; hopelessly outnumbered continue a war of indiscriminate targets. Their second fleet was largely unmolested. Over the course of battle they have managed to gain a small number of stichers willing to join their cause; if not in spirit, than body. Many a deserter, prisoner, or the like has found their way to the embrace of the Tektite guerillas. They act as missionaries during the day, and fighters at night.

rolling for these honorable actions:
Stealing supplies from caravans.
Placing sleepers agents in the local population of the Tektite faith.
Burning the forests of edible food to perpetuate the times of lean.
Killing scouts
not getting murdered by a superior force who is getting progressively more and more irritated.
>>
File: yamato plate.jpg (83 KB, 462x620)
83 KB
83 KB JPG
>>2563016
The Tektites only manage to raid petty materials from caravans, simple woven canvas and food, even then they have suffered minor losses in the action. During the day though, these same raiders spread the ideals of the Tektites into the local population, giving looted supplies to far away villages, and spreading good will. While successful, it is not the great seeding for a crop of vengeance that the missionaries would hope for. Instead the faith is watered down a bit, resembling something close to the Olavine/ Ivorite house practices. They continue to hunt scouts and foraging parties with a degree of success, though there are simply not enough Tektites to patrol the forests.

The marauders came to a simple conclusion. The Headlands must burn; and burn they did. Explosives and combustibles were woven, often painstakingly, into near art. Massive fires would erupt in the night, sweeping across the land and leaving only char and ruination in their wake. While this did nothing to slay the enemy outside of those foolish enough to be caught in such a conflagration, it did serve to destroy nearly all of the local food supply. After several nights of flame to ensure their work had been thorough, the Tektites simply dispersed into the countryside, away from civilization, leaving their boats and beach fort behind.

Their actions in truth, would likely have little impact in the long run, but then revenge is often petty.
>>
File: opt 2.png (77 KB, 1114x365)
77 KB
77 KB PNG
Rolled 4, 1, 5 = 10 (3d8)

>>2560688
Repeated failures in constructing the strange metal cylinders had delayed the Carn-Emerald leadership's plans. The Lord-pair ordered that none of the weaver-engineers would get to fall asleep on even hours until they succeeded. Maybe this would speed things up.

>Rolling for capacitors again

Meanwhile in the Carn-Emerald lands, now called the Petalite Domains. Named so after the ruling family; Petalite, a cousin family of house Rubidium and house Sardonyx. (Earlier in the thread referred to as Carn-Em-Rubidium.) The Petalites had been the scouts, assasins and informants of the Emerald family, but after the Emeralds' fall, they saw themselves becoming the new masters. But enough backstory. After much preparation, an army from the Carnelian Hegemony had finally arrived (X numbers strong; because I don't know the logistics behind how big of an army a certain sized population can field). The question was, had they taken the invasion seriously? and what would they do next?

>Tech roll for Capacitors
>1d8 for the action of the Carnelian army (1-4 They meet up with the main Carn-Emerald force; 5-8 They marsh straight towards the conflict-zone, bent on crushing the uppity Novae Familiae.)
>Oh, and let's add another expansion roll (1d8) for the Foltanian Colony - What could possibly go wrong?
>>
File: opt 3.png (165 KB, 1195x887)
165 KB
165 KB PNG
Rolled 6, 3 = 9 (2d8)

>>2564244

Arriving just south of the CE force and setting up camp. The leader of the Carnelian army, Riike himself storms into the tent of Kiikii and Kii’ie during a strategical meeting, lifting the latter by his throat. "Out there, they are destroying the lands of our allied families! Stitchers whose daughters and sons northerners have married! Stitchers who call Carnelians kin! And you have done nothing! What have you to show for yourselves, Heretics?!"

R''eee'eei'y'eee'' did nothing. While the Lord-pair were the Gold Ring's superiors, Riike, son of the ruling Elder pair, was above them still. While Riike was Stitcher, he was as big and muscular as a Preators; a crime against evenness according to some. And Riike had a temperament to match. R''eee'eei'y'eee'' didn't stay put out of fearing bruises. Its inaction came out of loyalty to the Hegemony. "Wait!" Kiikii almost screamed, "What we've been building, it is soon to be finished! Then you'll see!" Just then a Weaver entered the tent: "Lord-pair, we have to show you something!"

>Rerolling capacitors.
>Also rolling the next course of action: 1-2 Attack SA in an attempt to remove them from the board. 2-3 Try to parley with the SA, forming a pact against the Moonstone and Sardonyx force. 3-4 attack the Sardonyx-Moonstone army. 5-6 parley with the Tektites and try to collect the remaining Carn-Emeralds who stayed. 7-8 remove Tektite kebab and try to collect the remaining Carn-Emeralds who stayed.
>>
File: Stitcher Railgun.png (40 KB, 900x600)
40 KB
40 KB PNG
Rolled 7 (1d8)

>>2564341
It was, crude, had a tendency to break down upon first use, but it worked. The Emrailic-Magneto Trebuchets were done. It was slow to move, set up and fire; its components heavy, its feet having to be nailed to the ground for it not to fall over when fired and it taking a long time to reload and recharge (the amount of electricity limited to battery-wagons if not connected to an AA-node). While it could change its angle down and up using kinetic-crystal, it manually had to be turned to change its X-axis. This was done using metal poles that were attached to the nubs of its base. The Emrailic-Magneto Trebuchet would be brought west and the position of the Lord-pair would be spared.

>Rolling for how the first attempts to make contact and negotiate with the SA forces goes.
>>
File: Voltanite-Empire-Flag.png (38 KB, 800x500)
38 KB
38 KB PNG
--Regional Event: The East Voltanite Trade Colony--
Less than a century ago, the late General Cae’milla Nohirin of the Voltanite Empire charted on her alleged complete map of Essari a great continent far to the Northeast. She named the land Fael’tana, which in the Voltanite dialect meaning “The Promised Land.” She recounted how she makes out towering mountains that stretched above the foreseeable horizon. The dense forests the lined the coast, and peninsulas of stone and white sands were seen in the old generals eyes as a land of endless resources. A land whose countless bounties would in her words; “Be the wellspring that allows the Voltanite Empire to truly rise to power, and should fate be on our side, become the mantle from which we may rule Essari.”
These rambling dreams of dying TG would not be truly pursued though until many decades later by her aspiring son, Ka’zei Nohirin whom put forth her official journal on the explored land to the Voltanite High Council. His proposal was to expand the Voltanite’s colonial efforts to this land in the Northeast. It was no-brainer to the High Council, as to their unlike their recent colonization of Panoram, which was almost immediately affirmed to be occupied by these “Tripods,” this Fael’tana, now referred to officially as Foltania was known from Cae’milla’s journal to be vacant of any civilization. Ka’zei patiently waited as the bureaucratic gears of the Voltanite Empire went through their petty debates, and after 7 months he was finally given the blessing to begin colonization of Foltania.
The TG naval officer hastily went public with the proposed project. He appealed to any Grabraf living within their nation that yearned to pioneer into the unknown, with the alluring promise of wealth and prosperity to all that would venture there. Ka’zei had his own personal fleet of 15 ships and military expeditionary force of just over 3,000 he could count on making the voyage with him, but he knew not who else if anyone would follow him, or how treacherous the voyage would actually be.
Three Rolls each for the following.
>How many follow Ka’zei on his voyage to Foltania?
1-2: Only Ka’zei and his fleet
3-5: A small group of 5,000 Grabrafs join him in his journey.
6-7: 20,000 Grabrafs and an additional 10 military vessels join the journey.
8: A full military and civilian fleet of some 70 ships and 50,000 Grabraf make the journey.
>How treacherous is the journey for the fleet?
1: Total disaster, only Ka’zei and few of his ships survive.
2-4: Only around half the ships and their crew survive the voyage.
5-7: 25% of the ships and Grabraf are lost.
8: Quiet, pristine waters safely guide the Voltanites to Foltania.
>How well setup are the initial colonization settlements?
>>
File: Facepalm Collab.gif (250 KB, 160x120)
250 KB
250 KB GIF
Rolled 7, 6, 3 = 16 (3d8)

>>2564721
Some actual rolls would of been nice to of added to that post, on top of some proper punctuation.

Off my game today.
>>
>>2564721
>>2564736
A fleet of 20,000 or so eager volunteers show up at the docks the day of the voyage. Ka'zei thought that his prospective volunteers may have been simply members of the lower classes within the Empire, but he was instead pleasantly surprised to see the majority of the pioneers consisted of well endowed citizens. Some even had personal vessels containing their belongings, while others had chosen to bring along their Hurkun livestock with them on the voyage to Foltania. Additional military vessels were dispatched to guard the civilian vessels as they journeyed with Ka'zei's colonial fleet.

It would be 6 long months traveling across the storm ridden Suitan Ocean, and it was not without its losses. They had at one point inadvertently sailed into the storm wall of a large hurricane churning some 500 miles southwest of the Trifolt Delta. The loss of dozen ships, including one of the three carrying precious Hurkun, and other animals weighed heavily on pioneers. It would all be worth it though when on an early fall day, Ka'zei's colonial fleet found themselves along the shores of Foltana's lush tropical forests.

This was where the true challenge of Ka'zei's colonizations efforts would begin. The military scouts picked out three settlement locations strategically set into the Sunderal rich bays of area. The actual issue was building though. The dense forest and sloshy ground, although fertile for crops, was highly difficult to construct large sprawling settlements or fortifications too far inland. The large organisms of the forest were also a persistent obstacle to deal with.

Still, their settlement almost immediately profited from an abundance of raw materials and exotic resources they promptly began stockpiling.
>>
File: harmless lanterns.png (20 KB, 706x640)
20 KB
20 KB PNG
Rolled 1, 7, 6 = 14 (3d8)

>>2564414
The Tektites had not been heard from in years, though acts of periodic terrorism and sabotage were often blamed on them, with justification or not. While having no industrial base of their own, the war hermits, those who would still dare to call themselves a Tektite, would find this new era of innovation useful. The wasteful E.M.Trebuchets hungered for an endless supply of highly refined material, and needed component replacement often. Those materials which were discarded and left behind after firings proved to be highly useful even in their degraded state. While not capable of handling the massive power required for the monster device; burnt out cable, half dead capacitors, and barrel rails all served well in a new life; trade goods and scrap.

Aged tektites had new wives, and new children; culled from the local populations they visited, converted, or raided. While they were still few in number, less than 3000 overall, it was a start. Their faith of understanding and revenge was etched into the crystal pages of the tome of blindness.
"An eye for an eye is just, but two eyes for one is advantageous. To obtain two eyes for none however, is theft. Let us not forget what was stolen from us."
>>2564721
The mobile tektite fleet was a small array of salvaged and even improvised trade barges, a far cry of the fleets of old. They hauled salvage and other exotic detritus from old battlefields or wrecks, with the intent to trade with the East Voltanite colony. Oddly, despite the now well known warnings of the tektite NG attack survivors, no house sought to repel these invaders. Perhaps the newcomers could be reasoned with, to see the greater threat.

(3d8 for initial relations, trade enthusiasm, communicating concerns over the NG as a threat to the world.)
>>
>>2565494
None of the fleet would survive this day, with the foreigner's enthusiasm overwhelming for badly needed trade goods at very discount prices. On the muddy beaches of a minor island, a copy of the time of blindness was trampled underfoot by wildlife and time.

Though they failed, the Voltanites did obtain several copies of their literature, and came to understand they feared a local population of NG to an almost irrational degree. Irrational it would have been if not for the fact that their capital village was swiftly conquered by the little brutes.
>>
>>2565508
A patrol group that Ka'zei was helming one day along the Foltania shores came across a strange set of...wreckage he initially assumed. Strange craft made out of ornate crystal. He spotted a few dozen strange beings sprawled along the beach, many seeming to be on death's door. To him, it would of appeared that the ships were ravaged by a pod of Great Bahawas.

It did not take the TG long to realize what he was approaching when he heard an assortment of clicking sounds from the short, four armed beings: Stitchers.

Excitement filled Ka'zei's soul as he rallied his fellow Grabraf to disembark and provide aid, however they could. The opportunity of making first contact with the locals from the Torray on the behalf of the Voltanites dleighted the young TG. The 20 or so Stitchers of the Tektites that survived the trip back to the Voltanite colonies were meticulously nurtured in a sort of trial and error method. It would be a fortuitous boon, that the PG caregivers discovered their apothecary salves, seemed to of had a great effect on the Stitcher's strange physiology. By the East Voltanite Colonies medical record, 13 of the 20 Stitcher had recovered almost fully overnight.

The Tektite survivors, ever grateful for being saved from near death made abnormal great strides to overcome the language barrier between these clothed pagans, whom called themselves "Voltanites." It had seemed that the Grabrafs of this clearly more militant lineage were familiar with the illustrations and descriptions of the NG in their literature. Whats more, it appeared to these Tektites that the heretics were intrigued by their very presence, with many passerbys gawking at them, making strange tooting and hooting noises.

Ka'zei looked over the literature these "Tektites" had handed them with a seeming irrational urgency.

"So the Nomad Grabraf are here too somewhere...It appears, I have yet much work to do."

He was hesitant on how to handle the NG situation. Ka'zei needed time. Fortunately, he had a whole ocean between him and the NG invaders these Stitchers were so wary of.

And so the TG pondered.
>>
Rolled 1, 4, 8, 1 = 14 (4d8)

>>2562967
>>2562957

>>2564414
>>2564341
>>2564244
With the issue of the Southern Alliance forces' encirclement being solved, the Moon-Sard Alliance army is free to pursue their original goal of local subjugation. But the threat of the SA still looms over the mind of the weary Advisor Rk'lak. His engineers would have to make forts in subjugated areas, fortifying them in case the SA tries to get sneaky.
And then, worse news follows. The Sardonyx Spymaster has received news that the Carnelians have reached the western side of the contested headlands, and have brought with them a new kind of weapon more destructive than the Sunwrath. Even worse, they have seemed to parley with the SA forces, and might even negotiate a truce between them. Hopefully either the Spymaster will mobilize his forces to gain the plans for this new weapon, or their engineers have to invent something...

~14000 Stitchers remain

Rolling for:
1) subjugation effort and efficiency
2) fortifying subjugated areas, if any - if not, fortifying the HQ
3) espionage attempt to gain the blueprints of the EM Trebuchets - or any info about them
4) tech roll: making some sort of self-propelled land vehicle, maybe using kinetic crystals and batteries
>>
>>2565955
It seems like the locals have grown wise, and their ambushes have been effective as of late. Some 1000 soldiers have fallen in futile skirmishes, and no new ground could be gained. So the engineers added more fortification on the HQ, another layer of walls and moats encircle it now. Several engineers were killed in a tragic test, when they bolted several kineticrystal pistons to the bottom of a sheet of crystal and tried to make them move in a wave motion. They activated at the same time, though, and launched the entire apparatus, along with the engineers, sky-high over the sea. Some of the falling debris injured the surviving engineers of that project, while the ones launched were never seen again.
But the Spymaster came with brilliant news. Not only has he managed to gain a blueprint for the EM Trebuchet, he also managed to gain some of its spent 'capacitors' from some locals, who said they bought those from another force called the Tektites. The Moon-Sard Alliance now knows how to make another one of these, if there's enough materials to do so - and for the time being, knows its weakness as well.

For now, though, they dig, and entrench.

~13000 Stitchers remain
>>
Rolled 3, 7, 1, 3, 8, 6 = 28 (6d8)

>>2565972
FG: sticher anatomy, NG anatomy
NG: Martial arts, ship to shore logistics
ST: DC motor, Electromagnetic theory
--
The FG have developed a keen curiosity about the natural world around them. On their own islands, much of that which is biological has been studied. This curiosity has extended to some of the locals below. Capturing lone travelers or those most unfortunate should not be a difficult task.
--
The Nomad Grabrafs in this corner of the world have time, and time breeds practice. What started as simple sparring became a contest to see who was most inventive and useful in their movements. Captured Tektite pirates, those still alive, were used as test subjects. Also of interest was how quickly the pirates could strike, and a realization came that their crystal ships had features the NG could duplicate in wood, steel, and hide.
--
House Heliotrope would dare to experiment with the raw power of the AA nodes, as well as to understand it, instead of the endless tinkering with a "good enough" mentality of stichers past.
>>
>>2565997
In their, perhaps arrogance, the FG misunderstood the capability of the stichers. Their riders on flying beasts were assailed with vicious weapons, several bloodied and killed despite their superior bodies. It was on this day House Rodochrosite would parade around the broken bodies of the FG in declaration of slaying true dark elves! They came from the sky! This story corroborated with the old stories from the Tektite survivors of house Ivorite and Olavine. Surely, there were greater problems than land and pride! The Dark elves were coming!
--
For the FG, the capture and study of the NG went much easier, to their shock they found many similarities between the small NG and the TG, not exactly in form, but in function. Were these creatures also blessed by Emra? More time would be needed, more captives would have to be studied. Those that survived the ordeal were fully healed, and returned to their homes with a bounty of material blessings. It would be a time before the NG formed their own opinion of these events.
--
It is now forbidden to engage in such "martial arts" while on a boat. So disastrous was this single event, that it was inscribed into the holy tome as a commandment. To this day no one knows if it was raw fury, or bumbling fuckery that sank the great ship "hootin'd'twooty".
--
Many house scholars contributed to the fundamental study of electromagnetism, and while basic, it served to remove some of the shroud of superstition. Electricity must travel across a surface, but not an interior, for peak function! Heat while creating the glow of most holy white, also signals the impending death of the machine, so too as the sticher pales in near death, will the mechanism!

Armed with this fundamental understanding for a need of surface area; great extrusions of copper crystal wire are wound around beautiful magnets. The motors, while primitive, and each hand made, were a work of art and craftsmanship. despite a lack of proper industrialization, motor schools would pop up throughout the house's territory, akin to sword smiting schools of the far east. Master would preside over students, each making their components with the utmost care.

A powerful leader asked his scribe to bring him one of these devices. "For what can I do with this bauble?" he held the device in a hand, it's transparent shell displaying the glittering twists of fine wires within, bound about a movable shaft. It caught the light, and in that moment, he thought he could see something of the future inside it. His reverie was interrupted with the answer to his question. "Lord. One could do anything with this bauble. For it can be made as small or large as investment allows."

Within a half decade, Heliotrope would be a small but dangerous regional power, with enough capability to give even the mighty Carnelians pause as to weather an invasion would be of practical value. However knowledge is akin to a clenched fist full of sand. It will escape, more so with use.
>>
Rolled 2, 1 = 3 (2d8)

Rolling for tech, one is globally stitcher: heat transfer gel
SA tech: plumbing
>>
>>2566073
you can re-roll. The rules regarding rolls are 2 tech rolls per race, so if you feel inventive, six altogether, there is no restriction against rolling for the same tech twice.
>>
>>2566110
both those rolls are for stitchers htough, one's just for the southern allience.
>>
Rolled 7, 8, 7 = 22 (3d8)

As the southern allience gets the spurious news about the occupation of Torray land, diplomats and generals are sent out by all the countries in the SA bar two to 'jointly rule'the land - meaning to try and bully the others out of the occupied region.

The two that do not send parties are Ivorite on the one hand which has sent no troops and so is not eligable to have any say.

The other one is house larimar which sees house Rhodochrosite send out another 3000 to replace the 2000 massacred and instead of sending orders to occupy Torray sends orders to their 4000 to return and for more soldiers to be recruited.

Three rolls:

1st roll is for how peaceful (low) or violent (high) the strife for rule of the occupied land will be

2nd roll is for Larimar recruitment efforts and ferrying their people home

3rd roll is for the surprise invasion of Rhodochrost lands by Larimar


(I might only resolve these in a few hours sorry)
>>
Rolled 1 (1d8)

>>2560660
Over the course of a few years the presence of The True in Carn-Emerald becomes more and more total, more and more oppressive and more and more exhaustive. Every move of any citizen is subject to scrutiny.

In this, one might say they are very effective. But this is but a means, not the goal of their inception. That goal was the protection of house Carn-Em-Rubidium. For this, they were not effective at all.

For The True, forming their own society within Emerald society after years of total control outside of the royal house understand amongst each other that this is what stands in the way of total homoginization of Stitcher thought in the Emerald house - While the normal citizenry is slowly changing language, changing behavior, changing psychology to be the perfect citizens, with those unable or unwilling to change meeting unfortunate early ends. But the nobility, the high houses of the Empire are out of their reach and so a stain is left on their wonderful new tapestry.

Rolling for coup attempt by the ''tiki in Carn-Emerald
>>
>>2566230
The plotters are revealed before the coup even begins and the true are culled and their influence cut down. The institution proves to be short lived
>>
>>2566146
In Torray, generals, diplomats, noblemen and a whole Rhodochrosite army arrive. There is little communication between the different armies as, with a sense of complete necessity, the soldiery of the different kingdoms part and set up camp in safe distance to each other, each occupying some strategically advantegous position.
Then flags are set up, proclaiming the new clay the property of each of the countries. And then, quite naturally, with a great sense of necessity, war begins.

----
The Larimars are long gone when this starts. Their army came home in good health, 5000 of them, using the good wind. At home another 10000 have been recruited - the number is so enormous because of the efforts of a new group in Larimar: The whiteskins. Stitchers painting their skin white proclaiming themselves to purify through it and claiming that an orderly death in white paint will preclude any future sin after conscious hold has been lost of the body (which otherwise only can be guaranteed when dying and decomposing in the fields) thousands and thousands join this movement and an army ridiculously large for the small size of the country, completely white and in good spirits attacks a Rhodochrost that has all of it's army and then some up north fighting in Torray

---
and take over most of the land mass in under a week. In the fighting only a few hundred are lost as the resistance is nominal (excluding the resisting population as Stitchers are wont to be) and the army is in great spirits. The capital is taken and as the Rhodochrost ruling family escapes through secret tunnels an eruption burries the male under a mound of rubble. The female knows what to do.

Now there is but a small enclave in the country's south still belonging to the Rhodochrosite, with a white skinned army amassing at their imagined border.
>>
File: map.png (92 KB, 922x1184)
92 KB
92 KB PNG
>>2566288
just giving a bit of visualization, red is the disputed area, yellow is the Laminar progress so far.
>>
Rolled 1, 5, 6 = 12 (3d8)

>>2565972
Dig. Entrench. Repeat. Dig. Entrench. Repeat. The Moonstone army tries to expand their holdings, one trench at a time. Meanwhile, the Sardonyx try to find out of this 'Tektite' army - or what remains of them. Their ambush skills would surely enrich the skills of Sardonyx assassins.

Back home, tensions are mounting because of the prolonged war. Some grumbled about the waste of resources, and want to pull out of the headlands. Yet others grumbled about the lack of land gains, and is advocating for more troops, volunteers if need be, to be sent to the headlands.

Rolling for:
1) Expansion of trench systems and gaining more land that way
2) Finding out the last Tektite remnants, and if they are willing to share their knowledge of ambush good
3) The result of these tensions. 1 means the 'return the army' sentiment won, 8 means the 'volunteer army' sentiment won, 4 or 5 meant there's squabbles and demonstrations on the streets
>>
>>2566334
Sadly, the trenches prove to be deadly in their own way, as the monsoon season starts to hit harder than usual. ~1000 engineers and soldiers died in flash floods and mudslides, and what little gained land is a muddy, mucky mess that no army could wade through. The Spymaster's agents have managed to discover the positions of the last remaining Tektites, but haven't contacted them yet. Back home, the 'volunteer army' sentiment has grown larger, slowly eclipsing the 'return the army' sentiment. Unofficial recruitment stations pop up, the civilians start training on their own in preparation for an eventual sortie.
>>
File: opt 4.png (118 KB, 922x1184)
118 KB
118 KB PNG
Rolled 5, 2, 7, 2, 7 = 23 (5d8)

>>2566288

In the North, the colonies of the hegemony has seen centuries of peace and commerce under the Pax Carnelian. Due to this they have been able to build on their infrastructure and amass minerals mined from the Foltanian colony. Large-scale investments are now taking place in order to find a way to shape crystal and metal through non-organic means (i.e. not having Stitchers form it by hand). If they succeed, this could mean increased output and standards of living.

>Rolling for Industrialization & Rifling.

In the northern colonies of the Hegemony they've heard of the Voltanites (friends of their friends, the Nekonahu) arriving on the continent. Therefore a push is made in order to expand west and set up a land route between the two factions. A dark wind blows, however. Some Stitchers at the third, and latest, AA-node have started falling ill...

>Rolling for and expansion north, and how the Voltanites respond (low - the Voltanites warn the Carnelians not to expand further west. High - the Voltanites make efforts east themselves to set up a trading route).

>>2566327
>>2564414

With the SA factions in disarray and being hellbent on terrorizing the land, the two Carnelian and Carn-Emerald armies see another opportunity than reaching any long-term agreement with the SA. They reason that the SA will be too occupied by internal affairs to offer proper resistance. The two Carnelian and Carn-Emerald armies join the fighting, hoping to crush the SA before they manage to put up a combined resistance.

>Rolling for the Surprise-factor of the attack.
>Rolling for the success of the initial fighting.
>>
File: opt 6.png (269 KB, 1800x2000)
269 KB
269 KB PNG
>>2567339

It is a slow process, but In Carnelian, proper industry is finally being born. Crystoriums, the first of their kind, can now be found on some of the islands. These gigantic structures are capable of reproducing the moldable minerals similar to that of the Stitcher's gland, using a combination of electricity, Soumalainen gall and a lot of heat. These materials are too hot to form by hand, having to be put into molds to be given their shapes.

In Foltania the Colony continues pushing west. The Voltanites seem welcoming to the idea of getting a source of supplies and luxury goods so far from home. They agree to take part in the creation of agreed upon trade routes between the two domains.

In the South the large combined Carnelian and Emerald armies can be seen coming from miles away. Aint no surprise factor there, especially when you have Emerald Stitchers being carried by flying jewols. In the end it doesn’t matter if the SA forces have time to respond, they are simply to disorganized to put up a proper resistance against their disciplined opponents. What begins as a clash within a couple of hours turn into a route as the fighting SA forces retreat. Carnelian continues pushing south, meeting no true opposition (the SA keeping their distance), coming to a halt when half of the previously SA occupied land (with exception for a south-western pocket) is reclaimed.
>>
>>2567414
>In Foltania the Colony continues pushing west. The Voltanites seem welcoming to the idea of getting a source of supplies and luxury goods so far from home. They agree to take part in the creation of agreed upon trade routes between the two domains.

It had been a little over a decade since the colonies in Foltania had been established by Ka'zei's expeditionary force. It had been a long and difficult stuggle, but with time three active coastal towns were busily gathering raw materials to be shipped back to Sujardin. The success of these colonies had been the delight of the Grabrafian Empire as of late, with new immigrants planned to be arriving en masse as soon as next year.

The young TG officer having been promoted to Commodore due as reward for his merits in successfully establishing the colonies, and establishing friendly relations with the local "Stitchers" of the region; Ka'zei now looked to taking the next steps in this diplomatic foray.

Part of Ka'zei's success was in part due to his peculiar manner he and an exploratory battalion of hand picked Grabrafs interacted with the Stitcher. Ka'zei had learned about the strange accepted customs of the Stitcher and opted to where a minimalist amount of clothing, saved for the steel plated armor he and his squad wore for protection against the voracious Foltanian wildlife. This practice ended up working well in his favor when they initialized diplomatic meetings with this "Carnelian Hegemony."

Despite the embarrassing and exposed feeling he felt, the TG leader chose to enter the meeting completely nude, save for the his armor, displaying his family's crest. His understanding of their language was still crude, but something about the meeting had gone well as subsequent meetings brought about discussion of open trade between the two factions.

So the Voltanite East Colonies began trading Hurkun livestock, Grabrafian crops, crafts and literature, in exchange for the many gem and cryst crafted goods they seems to had an abundant supply of. Ka'zei especially took interest in the acquisition of these "batteries" the Stitchers constructed that were allegedly filled with a electrical energy.

"What wonders these strange Stitchers had achieved by the craft of their own four hands." Ka'zei marveled to himself as the TG ever curiously delve further into the Stitcher society.
>>
File: The Rayya Colonies.png (138 KB, 1182x1202)
138 KB
138 KB PNG
Meanwhile in Suomalalinen Islands in the south...

It had been many years since the Nomad Grabraf had arrived at the Suomalalinen Islands. The elders of the NG had shown some regret in reflection on the brash actions of its younger warriors which resulted in the massacre and expulsion of the dark-skinned creatures that had once occupied the crystal city they now had flourished in for nearly 30 years. The wonders these strange beings left behind had greatly benefited the NG in their years of establishment throughout the Suomalalinen Islands.

The Islands themselves were considered a kind of eden to the grabrafs. The pygmy sized wildlife could be easily hunted or tamed by the NG, and its exotic plants contained unique materials that they had seen no where else in the world. One such plant was a tree-like play with buoyant material in their trunks is being farmed and harvested for the construction of future sea vessels for the NG.

The NG had rapidly established dominion over every little island, while the elders and leaders of the Rayya colony worked fast to understand all they could of the locals that once lived here. Tektites? Stitcher? Scripture seeming to be named after minerals in the ground? Much of their writing and culture was so alien, and yet familiar. The NG could tell they these beings held close connection or bond with the AA-Nodes that they even built their cities around and even on them. Their technology fascinated them as did these "Stitchers" unique crafts of tools and structure out of crystal.

The elders considered that perhaps it was time the NG open relations with these "Stitcher."

There may be much that could learn from one another.
>>
--CivEvo Progress Report--
The Stitcher finally begin experiencing an explosion of technological progression upon the creation of the Crystoriums and the advent of Industrialization, which is in a style befitting of Stitcher culture.
The NG now solidly transplanted into their new home in the Suomalalinen Islands, begin fastidiously attempt to further dissect the many unique technologies of the Stitcher locals they had expelled from the island cluster.
The FG of the Floating Isles begin to slowly attain the technology of their TG cousins through their telepathic link, and begin to speedily progress into technologically. (Passively learned Eugenics/Selective Breeding & Optics).

(Tier 3) Medieval Age [Tech Limit of the FG]
Animal Riding (Need Iron Working)
Compass (Need Optics)
Fermentation (Need Alchemy)
Gunpowder (Need Alchemy)
Laws of Physics (Need Mathematics)
Metal Casting (Need Iron Working)
Mill Power
Ship Building (Need Sailing)

(Tier 4) Renaissance [Tech Limit of the NG]
Banking (Need Currency)
Calculus (Need Mathematics)
Chemistry (Need Alchemy)
Machinery (Need Engineering)
Metallurgy (Need Chemistry)
Navigation (Need Compass & Astronomy)
Plumbing (Need Architecture & Metal Casting)
Printing Press (Need Engineering & Machinery)

(Tier 5) Industrial Age
Biology (Need Scientific Theory)
Industrialization (Need Machinery & Metallurgy)
Rifling (Need Metal Casting)
Sanitation (Need Plumbing & Scientific Theory)
Scientific Theory (Need Laws of Physics)
Steam Power (Need Engineering & Machinery)
Taxonomy (Need Scientific Theory & Biology)
Telegraph (Need Industrialization)

--Sapient Technology/Cultural Advancement Rules--
• A poster ID may make up to two rolls for each Sapient race in a 24 hour period.
• A poster ID may make up to three cultural related advancements in a 24 hour period.
• Sapients may only roll for technologies above their current tech level (as shown in the pdf file attached) if they 6 or more technologies known of their current technological stage.
• For the first technology to be taught to a sapient organism, a poster must roll a 5 or higher of a 1d8 roll to successfully implement/learn a new technology (put "dice+1d8" in the options field when posting.)
• Rolls for Nomad Grabraf must be a 6 or higher.
• Any poster may freely roll for sapient exclusive technological advancements via a 1d8 roll. (The context of the technology in related to the sapient races current technological state would heavily influence how successfully the technology is implemented.)
• Technologies can be learned through interactions with other races and would require a 1d8 roll from a poster that is a 6 or higher. (Only one roll at this per day for any poster.)
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful the technology is implemented into a sapient tribe. (This will result will also determine whether positive or negative cultural events will occur to the sapient organisms.)
>>
Rolled 4, 8, 5, 3, 1 = 21 (5d8)

>>2568462
Rolling for tech:

Stitchers (global): Chemical Thermo-regulation
Stitchers (global): Building on piezoelectronics, crude artificial crystal-muscles
----
Forest Grabraf: bionic blades
Forest Grabraf: Mill Power
----
Nomad Gabraf: sanitation
>>
>>2568760
In the Carnelian colonies, there are Weavers hard at work brewing concoctions to find some kind of see-through gel that they might apply on themselves to better stand the humid heat of Forania which, while not too different from home to home, still is uncomfortable. While no breakthrough is made, many promising plans are sent back home.

What is however a breakthrough is the building of a massive piezoelectronically contracting muscle which, while lacking most articulation could be used for a crude leg. It is said that the invention originates from Olivine, but withing days, the knowledge has spread over the whole southern Allience, and like everything that happens in the southern allience, thE sardonyx know immidiately, and like all things the Sardonyx know, the Moonstones know it too.
It is now a race for the first vehicle using these muscles as a way of transport.

---
It is unsurprising that the forest grabraf would use their bionics for war, and so the first bone blades are not far behind. Why anyone would need a generator of power that isn't the Grabraf body is little understood and so that technology recieves little funding.

---

It is decreed in the Rayya Colonies that Emra provides - as with food and protection, so too, with comfort. Washing yourself then, is a clear violation of trust in Emra, as if Emra could not provide for your hygiene!


There will be drawings for some of this soon!
>>
File: blade.png (193 KB, 824x950)
193 KB
193 KB PNG
>>2568765
The bionic blades of the Grabraf
>>
Rolled 5, 2, 2, 6 = 15 (4d8)

Doing 2x daily rolls for the Voltanite Empire
--Priority of rolls--
Industrialization
Rifling
Biology
Anatomy

Daily Event coming later today.
>>
>>2569025
>anatomy without biology
>>
>>2569034
The rolls were in order of priority as stated above, so the Votanites got Industrialization and Rifling
>>
Testing phoneposting.
>>2569034
It could be that they know which part of the body does what, but not exactly why. Kinda like Aussie Aborigines who can draw the inside organs correctly (check out their animal art, looks kinda like xrays) but not exactly know how they do their functions.
>>
Rolled 8, 6, 3, 5, 1, 4 = 27 (6d8)

>>2568462
FG: Biological machines, study of NG symbiote
NG: Metallurgy, Chemistry
ST: Solar power, Speakers

The FG would continue to develop along their own technological path, the ability to grow everything they needed changed their perception of the concept of machinery. Why a complicated pulley when a muscle would suffice? Why a rigid structure if undulation was superior? While this school of thoguht proliferated amongst the FG, what was a more immediate curiosity was the apparent blessing of emra in the form of the NG symbiote. Was it useful? could be it incorporated into their form? They would need to abduct more grabrafs, but first they would revisit those who they had taken in the first place.
--
For the NG, the way ahead was clear. They could not create more crystal, but trade with the stichers was of paramount importance. First though, they would need something the stichers did not have. Based off the texts of the now extinct Tektites, it would appear there was a powerful ur-house of sorts, to the north. Between them though, were numerous small and factious houses. Their ships would need to be stronger to make such a journey.
--
House moonstone saw a time of reckoning, and if they were to survive, they would have to innovate. The southern alliance was in disarray, and would likely be crushed by the Hegemony. Helitrope was at a very advantageous position to simply invade Sardonyx, or simply purchase them through debt. The once powerful house had lost more than expected in material capability during the conflict with the SA, and the ensuing harassment from the thrice damned pirates.

-A young sticher marveled as the warmth of the sun was reflected onto his hide from a particularly polished crystal. Attempting to focus more beams of light into the same area, a thought occurred; what if a great field of reflected light could be made? What heat could be had!

-An electrocutioner noticed that when electrocuting some prisoners, certain jewelry seemed to emit a strange whine. Repeated prods to the charred corpses determined this to be a truth!
>>
>>2569190
The FG's would would change quickly, when the line between animal and construct blurred. Emra's many gifts allowed them to begin churning out things that resembled beasts, feathered, scaled, but who's eyes were dull and obedient. Things not born, but grown. Many would find the "servants" unsettling, especially those with a limited ability of speech. However this development was far too useful to society. Great beasts aided in construction of biological structures, and the militants amongst the population would find that their war mounts were far superior to even the most cultivated of domestic animals. Debate was had, perhaps these things could be traded with the locals below, for the materials which they had neither the time, nor backwards inclinations to make. The brutals. hmm.

The NG who had survived the last round of study were visited, this time openly. The villagers were wary of the FG, and their odd stature, look, and mannerisms, but the benefit to the whole of the tribe from their gifts was not forgotten, and soon they had their volunteers. This round of examination was more survivable, and ended with many samples and attempted duplication of the NG organism. While close, they could not quite recreate it in all it's splendor. It was as if a superior hand had crafted the writing thing. Still, for thier purposes, some FG would now sport tendrils on their body, though covered in feather and decidedly different.
--
The NG accomplish little, but resolve to make the journey, if they are to learn, they must reach out.
--
Fire. Fire everywhere. House moonstone would record an intense and blinding beam, swinging about wildly, wherever it touched there would be charring and death.

The attempt at a speaker did not progress far, due to the lack of imagination on the behalf of the electrocutioner. Apparently finding heretics to shock while covered in jewelry was not an easy task.
>>
Rolled 6, 3, 2, 5, 1, 4, 7, 1, 4 = 33 (9d8)

>>2569221
(cultural)
The southern alliance was falling apart, and there was little the houses could do. The Carnelians were at their doorstep, and the arrogance of their own leaders, and generals would likely doom them all. Once more Ivorite and Olivine would attempt union, and in doing so, convince their fellow houses that they could achieve greatness under the teachings of Rithism.

rolling for: Unity between Olivine and Ivorite, spread of Rithism through the SA, unified command structure
--
The FG would fly down a small delegation to the Voltanties, complete many samples of their biologically grown constructs, servants, and exotic foods and textiles. While powerful, they were oblivious to their many subtle and not so subtle changes, their culture's use of telepathy for communication without words but instead concepts left their speech odd. There were many barriers to overcome.

rolling for: First impressions, language barrier, behavior barrier
--
The nomad grabrafs began their preparations for sail, their population had blossomed in the Suomalalinen islands, with many small villages spread across the territory, none so grand as the captured city of the Tektites, now a proper NG dwelling.

rolling for: NG fleet size, ship quality with local materials, reaching the Carnelians.
>>
>>2569245
Olivine and Ivorite were finally merged, but the union was still fragile. The other houses frowed upon their attempt to evangelize Rithism in their territories, and even more so at a unified command of the southern alliance under their new banner. While now the most powerful house by number, they were reviled as heretics, and perhaps even a threat to the other alliance members.
--
To the Voltanites, a group of muscular FGs rapidly descended from the skies, and then sat in the middle of their courtyard flexing and posing. While not dangerous, the behavior was bizarre in the extreme. They would wait for their leader to approach the statuesque grabrafs, before attempting any communication. ((request Librarian response from the voltanites))
--
While the fleet was massive, short of something resembling an invasion force, it was not well built. Over optimism on the replacement of mechanical joins with resin paste before testing lead to disaster. House Ivor-ine would report of a horrific invasion, the prophesy of the Tektites coming true, and just as miraculous, the ships began falling apart right before making landfall, numerous grabraf drowning. Still, now a force of roughly 10,000 wet owl like creatures had made landfall in foreign territory.
>>
Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d8)

>>2569263
house Larimar that now was swallowing up its neighbor house complegely saw a great propaganda chance or three - as no good news came from the north, as the new joint olivine house spread heresy and dark elf had made landfall. Larimar, with an army the dize of what all houses had spared before made a simple request to the other Tourmaline: join or die.

first roll Larimar progress in R, second roll reaction of Tourmaline.
>>
>>2569273
The Rhodochrodite resistance was more organized than expected and fortresses had been erected to stand against the white tide. No progress couöd be made for months.

Tourmaline did not accept the offer of vassilization, but they did see Larimar as a savior, not a menace, because of the heterodoxy of the new joint house to the south. So they pledged themselves as members of an Larimar headed allience and rejected New Olivine's religion as well as Rhodochrodite's claim to sovereignity
>>
>>2569263
>To the Voltanites, a group of muscular FGs rapidly descended from the skies, and then sat in the middle of their courtyard flexing and posing. While not dangerous, the behavior was bizarre in the extreme. They would wait for their leader to approach the statuesque grabrafs, before attempting any communication.

The teachings of history in basic Voltanite education and among the scholarly houses of elders has taught many a Grabraf an unabridged recount of the Forest Grabraf lineage and their decline. While the Voltanite Empire can pridefully say that took no part in the genocides and mass enslavement of their people, the vocal majority of Voltanites regard them as a humbling and fear warriors, but altogether an inferior race. Their numbers were once many, now reduced to two surviving FG tribes that find their people, culture and ancestral lands slowly being devoured by larger, superior grabrafian nations.

This is what the synopsis of history has taught the Voltanites. So to imagine that they would one day out of the blue come face-to-face with Forest Grabraf who were not only far from the Sujardin homelands, and to so evidently be not only thriving, but also evolving beyond what history had once penned them as.

Ka'zei and his lead battalion were not around that faithful day the FG appeared before the Voltanite colonists, so it fell on the shoulders of a Cavernous Grabraf, Cae'da Uydr'ens. that had been left in charge as advisor and leader of this colonial city. She knew well, what biases these FG may hold against her, but nevertheless the CG approached the eager party FG that so brazenly displayed themselves before the Voltanites.

"It is time we write a chapter in the history of relations between the Ga'chol (Forest Grabraf) and our kind." Cae'da thought to herself as she extended a cautious, but friendly greeting.

"You have travelled far it would seem fellow Ga'chol (Forest Grabraf). Come, and let us welcome you to the lands of the Voltanite Empire.
>>
>>2569331
Do'Deddin Took a moment to recover. His powerful display had been going on for well over half an hour, he took pride in his men. Their bodies were aching but still the pressed on in an honorable attempt at nonverbal communication. He was shocked, and perhaps a bit embarrassed as the woman spoke. Acoustic language! How quaint! Rustic even!

Wiping the effort from his brow and smoothing ruffled feathers, he extended his arm in a warriors greeting, dropping a sacrificial knife between them. It landed smartly in the dirt, point first. "Thank you small woman! We seek relationship in both trade and lineage! Let us converse like a normal Grabraf shall do! We speak the old songs of mouth, long outlived by their singers called hootin; though the meaning carries less in this age." His speech boomed, but was almost lyrical. the rest of the FG cohort ushered strange beasts laiden with bundled goods to follow the two.

>Primary interest is in trade and lore.
>>
File: opt 7.png (69 KB, 922x630)
69 KB
69 KB PNG
Rolled 3, 2 = 5 (2d8)

>>2569263
>>2569331
>>2567414

The order from Riike came to the Carn-Emerald camps when R''eee'eei'y'eee'' was having the generally accepted canon of its family read to it; it was time to march once again.

Ametrinites 20:22 - Thus Emra said: "Have their existence erased, for their visage offends me." And thus I'ik'y, father of house Ametrine did. For two days and two nights their corpses burned. Now only scripture remembers the name "Sodalite".

Word had spread in the Carnelian and Carn-Emerald armies that internal conflicts within the SA faction had further depended as the different sides fought for dominance. Now was the time to oust them. And thus the Carnelians and their allies prepared for a final push.

Meanwhile, to the south, the Carnelian navy made an attempt at blockading the sea route to the island. Hopefully this would decrease the already lowered amount of supplies coming in for the SA.

>Rolling for Carnelian attack against the SA on the main Torray island.
>Rolling for sea route blockade

In a combined effort two weavers, one Moonstone and one Petalite, were working on mathematics that studied constant change. That wasn't the hard part however. The hard part was making at only use even numbers.

In times of war quick communication was a necessity. Therefore almost all factions were working on ways of making the sending of messages faster.

>Stitcher: Rolling for Calculus and Telegraph
>>
Rolled 1, 7, 2, 4 = 14 (4d8)

>>2569488
Wait, I'm retarded
>>
File: opt 8.png (194 KB, 1400x1400)
194 KB
194 KB PNG
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2569488
>>2569503

A day of communication at the speed of lightning dawns. The Stitcher colonies, set up long cables spanning the length of their islands. Allowing almost instant sending of messages, in the form of static screeches resembling (but not the same as) Stitcher language, across a landmass.

On the Island, things don’t go exactly according to plan. The Carnelian army captures the little pocket of resistance, only to find that the SA forces there used that as an opportunity to slip through the Carnelian-held territory over to the SA controlled land. For both the Carnelian and Carn-Emerald armies the push turns into a stalemate as the SA factions, now cramped for space, temporarily put aside their differences to fend off the attackers. In the end, the borders remain nearly unchanged. An embarrassment for the Carnelians, facing a foe in such a weakened state.

Meanwhile, out at sea the blockade is completely ineffective. At the moment the SA supply drops, being sent in a few small boats at a time and not following any schedule or plan, can simply not be stopped. Everytime slipping through the Carnelian navy’s grasp. Too the east the SA can simply navigate around the blockade, due to Moonstone/Sardonyx vs Carnelian sea skirmishes there making it impossible keep proper blockade up. The navy is very upset, as can be seen by the map.

Meanwhile, up north, the Colony makes another expansion attempt. This time by sea. News has spread of AA-nodes dotting the shoreline in the east. And the Stitchers are not the ones to say no to free real estate.

>rolling for expansion east in Foltania.
>>
Rolled 6, 8, 8, 7 = 29 (4d8)

A few rolls to resolve tomorrow:
1st Moonstone-Sardonyx recon on the Carn-Emerald forces
2nd Moonstone reinforcements from the recent recruitment spree
3rd Sardonyx attempt at getting an asassin into the Carnelian court
4th feelings of Emerald colonists towards the clothed birbs (which are not the birbs they know!)
>>
>>2569907
anyone feel free to resoolve these over night, I will resolve the unresolved when I have slept
>>
It was only a matter of time, sardonic had grown lax. Fat. Unexpecting. Heliotrope invaded in the morning, the sun not yet peeking over the island. They attacked with strange weapons, an amalgam of their own bespoke technologies and strange foreign weapons. Helitrope traded with the dark elves! Strange metal boxes lumbered forward, engines whirring away.
>>
Rolled 4, 5, 7, 3, 3, 2, 7, 4 = 35 (8d8)

>>2570171
Rolling for the invasion of Sardonyx while their military is still busy with the moonstone alliance and SA conflict. Also rolling to send diplomats to the Carnelian forces, requesting aid.
---
Tech rolls for stichers, speaker technology and combustion engines.
Nomad grabrafs: assembly line and metal casting
Forest grabrafs: zepplins and shipbuilding
>>
>>2570189
The attack was a noisy nothing, but it did draw attention from the Carnelian who seem interested in potential gain. Though who's was unsure.
>>
File: New Stitcher Houses.png (336 KB, 2320x1480)
336 KB
336 KB PNG
--Stitcher/Torray Isles Event: The Age of New Houses Part 1 of 2--

The Stitcher societies have throughout the last century experienced an age of strife and uncertainty. For decades now the the largest island of the Torray's eastern peninsula has been in a constant state of conflict, between the S.A., the Moon-Sardo Alliance, and now the Carn-Emerald forces. The disputed house territory has become a No-Sitchers-Land, displacing tens of thousands of Stitcher. The lack of decisive battles has effectively left the area in a heated stalemate as more and more Stitcher forces are poured into the region.

For two of the previously quiet houses, they have watched for years as foreign armies march their forces along or even inside their own borders. Neither House's elders knew when the fighting would end, but they feared for the safety of their own Houses when the conflict does end. So motivated by the drive of nationalism and self-preservation, two new houses rise to power after centuries of quiet inaction, brazenly announcing their presence to the other great Stitcher Houses.

One such Stitcher nation known as House Azurite, is located adjacently to the Southeast of the House Carn-Emerald. They were silent onlookers to the brutal and deadly conflict between the former Emerald House and the Carnelian Hegemony; and they continued to observe neutrally as the Carnelian Hegemony took over the neighboring house, establishing their own loyalist family to rule over the once proud Emerald House. The Azurite ruling family consisted of a mating pair that were obstinately against conflict, and in general openly reprimanded other neighboring Houses when they displayed brash acts of aggression. The Carnelian Hegemony was unaffected by the “empty words” of a believed powerless House.

To one military leader of the Azurites, the praetor Ca"e"t’zu saw opportunity in the Carnelians ignorance. He meticulously studied the Hegemony's tactics in their war with House Emerald, as well as their battle formations, military leaders and even acquiring the coveted blueprints of their precious EM Trebuchet during a closed-door meeting with a Sardonyx agent. As more and more forces from the Carn-Emerald marched East, Ca"e"t’zu took this opportunity to begin a covert campaign of expanding their borders, erecting garrisons and EM Trebuchet fortresses just miles from the perceived borders of House Carn-Emerald. It did not take long for the Carnelians to notice the construction of these embattlements, but by the time they had taken notice, several hundred garrisons lined the northwestern border of the Azurite territory with 60 EM trebuchets aimed into Carn-Emerald land.

The Azurite rulers pleaded with Ca"e"t'zu to not provoke their enemies with a war they did not want. The praetor calmly replied to his king and queen.

"Have faith my lieges. I have not built you a blade to invite war, but a shield to ward against it."
>>
>>2570650
--Stitcher/Torray Isles Event: The Age of New Houses Part 2 of 2--

Another nation known as House Peridot poses itself on display to its neighboring adversary, House Moonstone. House Peridot has from centuries been an extremely reclusive & isolationist nation, rarely even interacting with the neighboring houses to the north in lieu of maintaining a self-sufficient monarchy. Its ruling family had for generations maintained this policy, often to extremes where for a period of time, excursions outside of the ruled borders were forbidden. In spite of these hardline policies, the ruling family of House Peridot maintained a lenient rule over its citizens, promoting a humbling philosophy:
>It takes strength and restraint to be gentle, as only the weak of heart incite violence.

Since the conquest on the large Torrayan Island to the southwest began many decades ago, House Moonstone began rallying its force to a southern port city located on the isthmus of territory owned by House Peridot At first it was seen as nothing more than a temporary nuisance to Peridot nobles, assuming that it would be a singular incident. As years of conflict continued though, and more foreign forces marched through their borders, the infractions of the egocentric rulers of House Moonstone began to wear on the House Peridot Stitchers.

House Peridot was only recently reaching the heights of technology that the neighboring House Moonstone had possessed for decades, and the intricacy & experience of the Peridot militia was lacking; yet House Peridot possessed a far greater number of trained and disciplined praetors and worker Stitcher. About 1 in 7 Stitcher of the nation are trained warriors and this minority of Peridot Stitcher became very vocal about the issue of the Moonstone Stitchers. Rather then confront House Moonstone in a hostile manner though, these militia-trained Stitcher chose to alternatively promote construction of new infrastructure near and around the isthmus of territory House Moonstone was brazenly exploiting as a military launch site.

It started out as simple construction of new farmlands for producing cryst crops and hamlets for agricultural workers. Soon however, these actions of few rapidly developed into a nationalistic movement. Taking an opportunity to put their faces at the front of the independent actions of its militia, the House Peridot nobility began a campaign of expansion & modernization. Within only a decade, House Peridot expanded its territory inland, much to the ire of House Moonstone whom viewed the expansion as “aggressive annexation.”

Suddenly a new adversary had appeared before House Moonstone, nearly blindsiding them with the rapid growth and development of their nation. While House Peridot insisted on an isolationist and neutral stance, they now clearly were blocking the once easy and rapid deployment route of their forces to a distant island across the sea.

Would House Peridot be an ally, or another foe closer to home?
>>
File: Grabraf Zepplin.png (15 KB, 1183x640)
15 KB
15 KB PNG
>>2570663
For the entirety of the Torray Isles, a new sight at first brought shock, then envy, perhaps easing into various states of awe, mild unrest, or envy. The Grabraf had come, not as conquerors, but as merchants and explorers. Most odd of all, tourists. Their society was "perfect" so they would try to explain, their lives predictable, mundane, to experience the world of the "brutals" was delight. It was experience, unpredictable, and real. More real than their "waking dream" which seemed to consume most of their society. Such an unimaginable thing many of the merchants would speak of, and stories odder still. Most dismissed the grabrafs as eccentrics with highly eclectic desires. While having a strong urge to experience the world around them, there was a particular disconnect for most, as if every interaction was a novelty, but nothing of matter.

Despite it all, they so far would pose no threat, and brought with them fantastic objects and materials from their floating abodes. Beyond materials, many would simply ferry people around, in exchange for information, stories, our outright lies, so long as the information flowed, they seemed not to care.
>>
>>2569907
The Sardonyx assasins sent out among the Carn-Emerald forces bring back a very clear picture of thema nd their stalemate against the SA. A few scouts send back predictive arrmy movements and it is concluded that no strong attack would happen all too soon.

....

2000 Stitchers arrive by boat in the Disputed territory, with tell of 2000 more amassing at home - but being held back due to a massive internal conflict with an old house previously in stasis called Peridot. still, the army. whittled down to 11000 now regains a large amount of their strength.

~14000 Sardonyx/Moonstone stitchers on Torray

----

Meanwhile, Sardonyx has gone back to its roots: It had tried to get assasins to the ruling houses of the Carnalian court, so in case of escalation they could kill the ruling pairs. It was a massive success as every house in the hegemony now harboured at least two assassins right at the top of their ruling class.

----

In the colonies, the Stitchers don't really see a diffference between Voltanites and Nekonahu. Both may wear clothing but both aren't Dark elf, since Dark elfs are enemies and the Grabrafs here are friends, so their clothing cannot be the kind of clothing that makes you Dark Elf.

So with the same slight distain but stronger desire for commerce as the Emeralds view the Nekkonahu they also view the Voltanites.
>>
Rolled 7, 1, 5 = 13 (3d8)

rolling for Stitchers:
Chemical thermoregulation. If that doesn't work, the second roll is also for that. Otherwise it's Preassure Aided tools like Bolt guns etc.

rolling for FG: Organic Energy Generators
>>
File: crystal muscle.png (42 KB, 241x388)
42 KB
42 KB PNG
>>2568765
The synthetic crystal-muscle is not a very sophisticated system. It's just a collection of bags filled with a liquid which when electronically activated crystalizes and organizes along the electromagnetic field thus generated, stretching the bag out.

The application of this device is currently being tested in new forms of vehicles, the first prototypes being in development already.

>>2571265
Chemical thermoregulation is researched by the Stitchers: It's a transparent paste which can be applied onto any surface, insulating it until it disintegrates. Under high pressure this gel can be made into thin flexible sheets
>>
>>2564414
I love this a lot
>>
>>2571265
In the Forest Grabraf clans, heating, assisted growth and the few machines used by the Grabraf are now powered by grotesquely reshaped Landlords (the animal) which are kept immobile and senseless in craftshouses
>>
Rolled 7 (1d8)

This is roughly agreed upon in all Stitcher culture: Abstract (that means truly abstract, not just non-representational) art is inherently deceptive and thus not permissible.

What's more, it's inherent quality of generating different view points, different ways of being in the heads of Stitchers makes it not only sinful but corrupting: Every Stitcher looking at it, forming a reality in their mind that is not the double one true one is made odd and inorderly through this - and what's more, through spreading their ideas they can further corrupt others. Thus abstract art is the most dangerous kind of dark elf, the memetic dark elf, and Stitchers know better than to evoke it.

In house Azurite however, where minds are still hard and vigilant from The True that had policed them a decade ago, and where the leading pairs take great pains to keep the populace as pure as possible lest Carn-Emerald might find reason to reassert their dominance, a Larimar painting is imported.

It's name is "White Brutail in white forest enjoying pure light" and it is painted with the finest whites on white crystal.

Depicting real events, the painting passes customs and is even displayed publically as strong art often is.

It is too late when authorities come to the understanding that the completely white canvas can be interpreted to be all manners of brutails in all manners of poses. As such, many images would be generated in many heads, Stitchers made odd and inorderly.

Quick response is necessary to cull the iminant pandemic. 1d8 will rate the harshness of necessary meassures.
>>
>>2571829
The FG, whos eyes saw into multiple spectrums appreciated the print beyond what most could. this WAS ART! In a boom of foreign culture, numerous prints were obtained by the FG and shipped to their homelands for display, in addition the original painter may or may not have been abducted.
>>
>>2571829
the whole square the painting was being displayed on was blocked off and all within it interrogated by especially steeled individuals (many of whom would later be executed by deaf electrecutors) all deemed too far gone were terminated, the rest scheduled for reconditioning. but this was just the start. Hundreds of infected were followed to their houses, and all these house's members given the same treatment.
>>2571913
the admiration of the clothed and thus impure fg only exasperated the investigation which went through the whole country even to the garrissons. in a chicken/egg dituation, the fg were declared enemies of the state.

Larimar was sent a message that the house of Azure considered it perverse and dark elf.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d8)

>>2571913
The art piece of brilliant white crystal was so lauded by the FG that it wasn't long before the Reality movement seized hold of the piece.
They held the piece up subjected it to the fundamental question that engineers reality.

"How?"

How did this piece come to be?
What is it made from?
How was the structure crafted?
Can it be reproduced?

For too long the FG had ignored the power, the art, the miracle that is crystal weaving.
But no longer shall this gift be ignored. The FG will take the next step forward.

>Rolling for FG Bio-Engineering Stitcher Crystal Weaving
>>
>>2571963
GASP
>>
File: opt 9.png (465 KB, 2700x2000)
465 KB
465 KB PNG
>>2569706
In the North the exploratory fleet, commanded by Ri’tri of House Citrine, ended up losing track of where they were, as they got caught in a storm. When they finally saw land again, it was not covered by lush green trees, instead what they saw was desert and dry grasslands. The land too hot and dry for the Stitcher constitution to handle and the landscape ever shifting as dunes slowly change shape, it seemed like the closest thing to what Stitchers would call hell – if they had the concept of hell. Wearing clothes will have to do as a parable for the emotions that went through them when they saw the strange land.

But all that changed when they found the AA-nodes – the AA-nodes! Here, bathing in the sunlight and absorbing its rays, the AA-nodes even released fertilizing organic materials into their surroundings, creating Edens in the middle of arid land; Heaven for a farmer. After word reached the Hegemony of Ri’tri’s discovery, the Elders exalted her. They gave her the right to found her own hegemony member-colony and family – her own house – in the new region. Inspired by the land she took the name Sandstone, as no gem could survive the abrasive desert winds.

As structures made in the Traditional Stitcher style cannot survive the harsh environment, not having been made to resist sandstorms or to be easily repaired, House Moonstone instead opts to create buildings out of mineral bricks (made from sand mixed with crystal and then bound to other bricks using the ancient art of crystalbinding as mortar). The buildings’ walls are thick and the buildings low, being partially buried in the ground. Thus, their interiors can remain cool during the day and warm during the night. The Stitchers here are sleep through the extremes of cold midnight and boiling midday, instead being awake and toiling the lands in the low light of dusk and dawn.

Meanwhile, in the Carnelian Colony (Torrine Chain): The Matriarch-Patriarch pair are dead! Long live the Matriarch-Patriarch! The Matriarch of House Carnelian just passed away at the grand old age of 88 (87 actually, but Stitchers add a year if the death-year is odd) – a record according to the scriptures. During the same day, the Patriarch left his carnelian amulet (the near-millennia old symbol of Carnelians) in the empty throne room and went to join The Fields (like so many of his ancestors before him).

>Cont. next post
>>
File: Hegemony Ain't free 2.png (83 KB, 853x543)
83 KB
83 KB PNG
Rolled 8, 3, 1 = 12 (3d8)

>>2572035

You know what this means – election time! Like always the Carnelians were most likely to win. The places and roles of the different families had been established within the colony millennia ago. However, there was one family that could win – House Diamond. As old as House Carnelian, the Diamonds had originally been the dominant family in the colony, before a Carnelian pair got elected for the first time, only for the colony to conquer most of the Torrine Chain during their reign. Since then, Diamond Patriarch-matriarch pairs had occasionally been elected to rule, but with decades or centuries of Carnelian rule inbetween.

Now the Diamonds saw their chance. The stalemate in the South had proved that House Carnelian weren’t at their best. Thus the Diamond family began their political campaign to get their Matriarch-patriarch pair elected by the colony’s other Matriarch-patriarchs.

> Rolling for election 1-5 and the Carnelians win. 6-8 and the Diamonds win.

Trade with the Voltanites also brought the transaction of technology and ideas (non-heretical ideas). It was an even day when a Stitcher visiting one of the Voltanite outposts was shown how firearms were rifled…

>Tech roll Rifling & Calculus
>>
File: 1408881677465.jpg (828 KB, 1024x1024)
828 KB
828 KB JPG
>>2572037
For the first time in a century, House Diamond was in power once again! Members of the family and their political ally-familes, tens of thousands of them, flooded the colony's streets - All chanting the motto of House Diamond: "Diamond is unbreakable!" "Diamond is unbreakable!" "Diamond is unbreakable!"
>>
Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>2571963
The Larimar stitchers had a problem.
They lived bathed in the light of the one true color. A city so beautiful that it's radiant light could be seen for miles, a shining beacon of true art.
However, living on a shining beacon took its toll on the eyes of the stitchers. Blindness was terribly common among the residents. A solution was hastily created, sunglasses!
They were a deep pure white, and even hid the heretical green of the stitcher's eyes. Unfortunately, it was rather impossible to see through them, and so the wearer would be rendered effectively blind.
A city of the blind could not stand. It was a stroke of luck that the FG had come to visit to observe a now highly debated art piece. The FG possessed the means to change beings from their very core. To make them into something greater than they once were. Negotiations were opened. And soon after closed. The stitchers eagerly would provide the FG their expertise in crystal weaving, and in return the FG would advance their eyes and change the color of their skin to a pure and beautiful white.

> Rolling for FG creating Larimar Albino Stitchers.
>>
Rolled 1, 8 = 9 (2d8)

>>2572044
I am lending my tech rolls to you, friend!
>>
>>2572050
The FG threw themselves into their work, engineering a new Stitcher that would surpass the old.
The first attempt was a failure. The eyes functioned as intended, but just barely. However, the skin still retained blotches of black. This first subject was electrocuted upon his return.
The FG held their pride as craftsmen and sought a more perfect stitcher by entirely removing the pigmentation of the next subject. It was declared a rousing success, the new subject was overwhelmingly white, and its eyes more sensitive, and capable of repairing retinal damage at an incredible pace. The stitchers were quick to adopt this change, and soon lines were forming to receive the treatment. Hundreds were treated before the mistake was realized. The skin on the new stitchers fried red in the hot sun, and their eyes burned with horrible pain as they only continued to repair themselves. Truly this form brought unimaginable torment to those that possessed it. Many ran begging to return to their old form and were electrocuted for this heresy.
Finally, the FG realized their mistakes, and created a new pigment to color the skin of the stitchers. A pigment that reflected light and would resist the horrible burns that tormented the last batch. The eyes were much more sensitive, able to see far and wide. But were able to resist the glare of the sun, and no longer felt pain from the repairs. The first of these stitchers stepped out into the light, and the crowd had to avert their eyes. He was as dazzling as the city they had built, perhaps more! With true perfection in their grasp, Larimar immediately declared that all citizens must receive the operation, and the from this day forth Larimar would be the purest of stitcher colonies
>Larimar/FG alliance is now in effect
>>
File: Chicken Legs.png (50 KB, 780x960)
50 KB
50 KB PNG
Rolled 7 (1d8)

Using the new synthetic muscle technology, the Larimar develop a transport system, the freerunner. These tall contraptions can carry a stitcher with great speed far distances and in conjunction with lances breaks a whole new dynamic of cavalry into warfare.

Since the electrical current is not used to propell the machine but only to stimulate the muscles, the battery size is not the limiting factor, but the half life of the electrically activated crystal liquid. As such, the range of this contraption is almost wasted on the small islands they are finding use on at the moment, but they are a great asset nonetheless.

Rolling to end this war finally. 4+ means Rhod. is finally swallowed up.
>>
File: opt 10.png (189 KB, 2320x1480)
189 KB
189 KB PNG
Rolled 7, 7 = 14 (2d8)

>>2572043
>>2570650

As the first order of business, House Diamond properly accepts what was once called the Carn-Emerald territories (and before that called Emerald territories) as a fully-fledged member of the military alliance that is the Hegemony. Having been under the stable rule of the Petalite family for decades and having converted to the traditional Torrine-Chain-style form of government, they were finally judged adequate. They would be allowed to take their place in the council, answering only to the Carnelian (now ruled by house Diamond) Colony.

The second order of business was to ease the tensions with house Azurite. A diplomatic mission was sent – led by the new matriarch-patriach pair of House Carnelian – in order to discuss bilateral disarmament along the Petalite-Azurite border and a trade-agreement.

>Rolling for how the diplomatic mission goes.

Hiding in the dark during the day and night while being outside during dusk and dawn had started to change the Stitchers of House Sandstone. Some had started seeing their skin becoming paler; dark spots appearing on random places of their bodies.

>Also rolling for cultural/anatomical change for house Sandstone (due to life-style mostly, not genetics).
>>
>>2572110

>7
The final resistance in Rhodochrosite is squashed and the pacification process seems to be going rather well
>>
Rolled 5, 3 = 8 (2d8)

>>2572113
I'll go to bed with two rolls for expansion for Larimar
>>
File: expansion.png (59 KB, 1140x788)
59 KB
59 KB PNG
>>2572162
Would be good to show where to the expansions go huh?
>>
Rolled 5, 3, 5, 5, 7, 6 = 31 (6d8)

>>2572175
on behalf of another player who cant roll: CB.
For house Helitrope:
Medicine and Architecture.
shotgun unspecified: FG/NG
FG: sticher study x2
NG: Chem and Calc
>>
>>2572280
Stitchers already have architecture
>>
>>2572280
Within the lands of Heliotrope, fear of disease from foreigners was a constant. The small yet somewhat xenophobic house rarely left its borders, save for an ill attempted invasion against neighboring sardonyx. Oddly the invasion had few political repercussions considered by both sides to be more of a ritual display of force. Rumors of a horrific bleeding disease jumpstarted a desire to learn of medical treatments. In the past the rugged biology of the sticher would protect. Death was a facet of life, but exotic disease was not. Soon the ruling family created a new caste of stitcher, one dedicated to healing arts. Their methods were crude. Hot cauterization, amputation, bleeding, and basic...dare I say...stitching. The architects of the house had grand visions for a new form of dwelling, one that would rise into the sky and below the sea, but its ambitious nature during this warring period saw the ruling families declare it a waste of resource.
--
FG's would "borrow" stitchers from time to time, to study their extrusion glands. A truly fascinating piece of evolution. Those who were studied fared well enough, with less psychological damage than other races. Of note, the FG understood the unusual biology well enough to compensate these few dozen individuals with a simple gift. The whitest of skin, a pure alabaster. While not yet offered, soon numerous other Stitchers were demanding this revolutionary treatment, an elevation from the sin of their existence!
--
For the Grabraf of the sumoian isles, an era of intellectual discovery dawned upon them. Math and chemistry fell into their unwashed paws, and with it superior engineering of basic life necessities. The years without maintenance to their captured cities and villages saw them beginning to deteriorate, and despite material offerings, they had yet to secure aid from one of the nearby houses for repair. It was not like they conqured and ate the local population or anything. which is exactly what they did.
>>
>>2572292
per CB he was seeking a grand form of architecture outside the norm.
--
Now for my rolls:
FG: (unique tech) gargantuan zeppelin, (unique tech) mineral extraction
NG: Primary Education, University
ST: Early Electronics, vacuum tubes

This Era while rife with conflict, was also embroiled in a much more dramatic force: trade. Ideas and materials were exchanged with great rapidity. Merchant ships laiden with supplies would travel the islands, FG zeppelins became common sight and even the NG were becoming a thing of curiosity, since the roughly 10,000 individuals that had become marooned on house Ivorvine's territory were neither removed, nor approached, the shipwreck survivors gradually became a squatters village on their beaches, which turned into a functional town. Limited trade ensued despite historical fears, but by now, those who were victims of the first NG invasion were old and dead.
>>
Rolled 1, 3, 3, 6, 3, 7 = 23 (6d8)

>>2572340
damnit. dice. dice. resolution and cultural rolls next.
>>
Rolled 4, 8, 1 = 13 (3d8)

>>2572344
For the FG, their hubris became their downfall. Every sticher island saw something beyond expectation. Something that was clearly the result of decades of work. A gigantic airship that descended through the clouds, it's majesty something beyond compare. Every eye also saw it errupt into sickly smoke and begin descent, and the ensuing crash to the world below. Onboard was experimental equipment that would have allowed the FG to extract minerals from the soil. no more. only wreckage and flames.
--
For the NG, the idea of a school for children was absurd! Children make the best laborers, their tiny hands able to get into tight places and make fine details. However university was good, it would teach the young adults how to be properly indoctrinated in a righteous school of thought. With some luck, in the future, perhaps NG could overcome their educational deficiencies!
--
Stitchers have made a form of vacuum tube, though it is more of a very dangerous art object than anything practical at the moment. Pumping more power into it yields a closer oneness to holy white, though many stitchers become sick after standing around the man sized effigies.
--
(cultural and misc events)

FG Gargantuan zeppelin crash: 1 is a very politically imprudent location, 8 is open sea
NG squatter colony: 1 is an attempt at violent removal, 8 is a peaceful embrace of culture.
NG attempt at reaching the Carnelians part 2: same as above.
>>
>>2572396
The Zeppelin captain and crew had initially attempted to awe and inspire the various forces fighting over disputed territory. Instead something catastrophic had happened, no one was truly sure what. Some spoke of sparks of light emitting from the ground below, others said the craft simply failed on it's own. What was known was the crew's final act was to attempt and avoid all major population centers, the ship crashing into the "no stitcher's land" spilling its cargo, and possibly technological wonders, across the landscape. With such ripe treasures awaiting those who would dare to take them, one could only wonder if the tenuous armistice could hold?
--
The Stitcher house Ivorvine once again embraced a radical cultural change; the nomad grabraf began living side by side with the population. They had their own peculiarities, but for the most part had the same fundamental values. No clothes, unwashed, and a profound love of Emra. The little ones would work hard, and contributed to society. Eventually some of their faiths began to intermingle on shared commonality. The merger of culture only deepened when a second fleet attempted to reach the Carnelians, only to suffer a similar and dramatic fate as the last, once again boosting the local population of NG in this land. For the NG though, it was a blessing. Their quality of life soared, as they quickly had access to technology and knowledge once though well outside their reach. The ruling stitcher family embraced this sudden boost of labor. So rose to power the "Dolomite Protectorate". Time would tell if the Protectorate's neighbors would tolerate this increasingly radical behavior.
>>
--The Cockies of the Trifolt--

The Grabraf and Stitchers colonies of Foltania have enjoyed a century of relatively uninterrupted peace and prosperity. This has largely been in part to the massive size of the Foltanian continent, which has give a breadth of space between the two normally competitive races, with neither having even truly explored the northern coasts of Foltania.

This is where the Cocky Tripods of Nihiloram enter the scene.

About a couple decades ago, C.T Airships travelling across the Essari ocean, stumbled across the Trifolt Wetlands of Foltania. The tripods had assumed they had stumbled massive of land dominated by only swamp and flooded tropical forests, hardly the a land ideal for colonization. Despite this the Cocky Tripods chose to establish a small outpost, Omi'folt on a lowland forest island near the massive stretch of the Trifolt Wetlands.

Now in the present setting, the outpost has begun to see an uptick of interest in the idea of potentially exploring further inland to Foltania, with the hopes of higher, and drier grounds more suitable for colonization. So an expeditionary group, funded heavily by the Omir'ten Empire of the Cocky Tripods began to make plans for a long term exploration of Foltania, unaware of the extant Stitcher and Voltanite colonies already established to the south and southeast.

Updated CivEvo Guide/Political Maps within the next 24 hours friends.
>>
--CivEvo Progress Report--
The Stitcher enter the Age of Invention, as innovative and at times questionably heretical ideas emerge from the curious minds of Stitcherkind.
The NG begin to more openly bond with the Stitcher nations of the Torray Isles as they come to understand the secrets of their crystal crafts.
The FG continue to unlock the secrets of biotechnology and engineering, learning how to replicate the Symbiote of the TG as well as the NG. On top of this they learn and recreate many of the TG technological innovations and manage to biologically splice the crystal weaving of the Stitcher, leading to a Renaissance for the FG.

(Tier 4) Renaissance [Tech Limit of FG]
Banking (Need Currency)
Calculus (Need Mathematics)
Chemistry (Need Alchemy)
Machinery (Need Engineering)
Metallurgy (Need Chemistry)
Navigation (Need Compass & Astronomy)
Plumbing (Need Architecture & Metal Casting)
Printing Press (Need Engineering & Machinery)

(Tier 5) Industrial Age [Tech Limit of NG]
Biology (Need Scientific Theory)
Industrialization (Need Machinery & Metallurgy)
Rifling (Need Metal Casting)
Sanitation (Need Plumbing & Scientific Theory)
Scientific Theory (Need Laws of Physics)
Steam Power (Need Engineering & Machinery)
Taxonomy (Need Scientific Theory & Biology)
Telegraph (Need Industrialization)

(Tier 6) Age of Invention
Atomic Theory (Need Scientific Theory)
Ballistics (Need Rifling)
Combustion Engine (Need Steam Power & Industrialization)
Electricity (Need Industrialization)
Flight (Need Combustion Engine)
Plastics (Need Industrialization)
Radio (Need Telegraph)
Refrigeration (Need Electricity)

--Sapient Technology/Cultural Advancement Rules--
• A poster ID may make up to two rolls for each Sapient race in a 24 hour period.
• A poster ID may make up to three cultural related advancements in a 24 hour period.
• Sapients may only roll for technologies above their current tech level (as shown in the pdf file attached) if they 6 or more technologies known of their current technological stage.
• For the first technology to be taught to a sapient organism, a poster must roll a 5 or higher of a 1d8 roll to successfully implement/learn a new technology (put "dice+1d8" in the options field when posting.)
• Rolls for Nomad Grabraf must be a 6 or higher.
• Any poster may freely roll for sapient exclusive technological advancements via a 1d8 roll. (The context of the technology in related to the sapient races current technological state would heavily influence how successfully the technology is implemented.)
• Technologies can be learned through interactions with other races and would require a 1d8 roll from a poster that is a 6 or higher. (Only one roll at this per day for any poster.)
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful the technology is implemented into a sapient tribe. (This will result will also determine whether positive or negative cultural events will occur to the sapient organisms.)
>>
Rolled 5, 2, 2, 6 = 15 (4d8)

Last post of the night for me, doing tech rolls for the Voltanite Empire

Rolling for tech in the following priority
-Biology
-Anatomy
-Telegraph
-Scientific Theory
>>
Rolled 1, 7, 4, 4, 7, 4 = 27 (6d8)

>>2572775
Throughout the great houses, the Stitchers had advanced further than many could have imagined. Though how they went about it was often perplexing to outsiders. They had developed a combustion engine, but it was vastly inferior to their electric motors, or more significantly, crystal muscles. Still yet there was learning to be had. Information became harder to control, and often houses would barter for innovation or material. Many conflicts turning into near ceremonial border skirmishes...with death. Still, within the confines of the Southern Alliance, the Dolomite Protectorate would shovel fourth a new idea. One that would perhaps slake the thirst of the Carnelians for land, and the other houses of their squabbles. It was a new idea born of unity, but uniquely designed with the Stitcher in mind: Confederation and ritual combat. But where would be the land to fight on...where indeed. The Disputed lands of the Torray isles would no longer belong to anyone, but serve as a place for conflicts that words could not solve, where all of Stitcher kind could observe, perhaps even cheer, and agree with strength of arms the conclusion.

Stitcherkind:
Electricity
Radio

Nomad Grabraf:
Printing press
metalurgy

Forest Grabraf:
Veinous systems (plumbing analogue)
Extruders (Stitcher based devices for mass fabrication)

For the FG they would continue to deepen their relations in each land, bringing to house Larimar their greatest wish, pure, austere, stark, whiteness; something that set them apart from their kin. A few would dare to say the Larimar Stitchers were heretical, for some were found sporting an extra set of arms, though most regarded it as symmetrical, if unnatural.
>>
Rolled 2, 2, 8, 1, 6, 6, 4, 6, 4, 7, 1, 3 = 50 (12d8)

>>2572875
Brief attempts at truly harnessing electricity without AA nodes was disastrous. No one was quite sure what happened, but an entire village was electrocuted to the individual. Carbonized bodies stood shock still, clutching at the air in endless agony, their blackened remains were something of an oddity in House Azurite, which preserved them as a reminder to respect the gifts the world gives, and not to shun them.

Peridot however had a much different result in their search of innovation. Radio; and with it, rapid communication which only served to further inhibit their local neighbor, slowly suffocating them via virtual blockade with the south. Moonstone's only real source of trade were the FG and occasional voltanite ship, with Sardonyx in a mild feud with it's northern neighbor.
--
For the FG little changed with the advent of plumbing, but it was a step closer new capabilities. Their veinous network was agnostic to what it transported. This included grabrafs.
--

Across the region, the protectorate launched ships with a simple message and idea. the Confederation was not a central power, but a central agreement to stop wasteful infighting among the houses. By adopting a ritualized combat of champions in the disputed lands, nations could agree to settle disputes without significant loss...though how to make it fair was of great debate. Ultimately it was suggested, perhaps, that each nation field it's greatest creations, avatars if one will, to do honorable battle.

In great irony, considering the roots of the Protectorate had some influence of the Tektites; the nation reached out to the Grabrafs to the south, to join them and share in their great bounty, to grow with them as a new and respected member of the protectorate, as the other NG had before them.
--
Rolling for Initial impressions of:
The Carnelian Hegemony
Larimar
Carn-Emerald
Sardonyx
tourmaline
Moonstone
Heliotrope
Azurite
Peridot
FG merchants
Voltanites
-and
Attempts to invite the NG into the Protectorate.

the impression does not indicate agreement or participation with the confederation, simply how well the Dolomites have presented themselves.
>>
Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d8)

>>2572916
Seeing the isolation through house Peridot and the catastrophe in the now dormant region of war, a decision must be reached, the moonstone leaders proclaim. Either a decicive battle should occur against the Carn-Emeralds who hold most of the territory, or the soldiers need to be sent home and used to pressure Peridot.

rolling 1d8 1-3 means attack, 2-5 means going home and trying to intimidate PPeridot by show of force, 6-8 is going home and starting a surprise invasion of Peridot.

then the second one is how well that goes, where the attack on disputed house territory has a +1, the show of force a -1 and the attack on Perodot is neutral
>>
Rolled 8, 5, 3 = 16 (3d8)

>>2572946
>effectively a 5 (the +1 was due to the good information on the Carn-Emeralds, their engagement with the SA and the recent reinforcements)

The Moonstone-Sardonyx forces finally emerged from their fortress and under the cover of the night, two armies of 5000 circled around the SA lines to crush the Emeralds once and for all, to then just mop up the SA troops which had been diminished to hell already, many of them more feral beasts now than orderly stitchers.

The element of surprise which would have gained them a quick victory was squandered when an opportunistic general pair started shooting sunwraiths at a procession of Emerald stitchers and so when the northern attack attacked the enemy was already moving their point of focus.

Nevertheless, the attack was a relative success, not only killing 2000 while losing 1400 but more importantly displacing the front lines and forcing the Emeralds out of the trenches. The Sardonyx would push now.

Roll for pressing forward, the attack and a misc. roll where high is good for Moonstone low for Emerald
>>
>>2572953
Now the Emeralds were slaughtered, and the Emrailic-Magneto Trebuchets captured before they could make as much of a peep. The intense fighting killed thousands on both fights again and drove the Carnelians far, far back, far enough to use their own fortifications against them.

A stitcher pair was sent to them to declare this land under the peaceful protection of the Sardoonyx-Moonstone allience, and the Trebuchet were leveled against the displaced force.

Not much later however, the SA began an assault against the newly taken but still dissheveled frotress and while they could not win against any of the forces, they managed to blow up multiple of the Trebucchet and killed hundreds.
>>
>>2572110
The Larimar berated and mocked the delegation of the Dolomites, to which they took great offense and fielded their mightiest weapon of war in response for an honorable DUEL.
>>
>>2573001
The Larimar click and cackle at the hunk of machinery brought thus forth. They call for something called T''reeerii, "Swiftfoot".

First, a dozen perfectly white Praetors with white swords, then two dozen white Stitchers with white guns. They surround the patch of land chosen as arena, encasing the nervous diplomats in it.

Then, as if from nowhere, comes running forth a Freerunner, perfectly white, on it a Stitcher with a double headed lance. Cries of his name erupt as the oldest sibling pair of the Larimar Monarch's litter look on nervously - Was it a bad idea to agree to this new way of settling things?

The Freerunner circles the large vehicle cautiously which bobs and scuffles to follow it slowly, the crane bobbing up and down with every movement. The Freerunner overtakes the vehicle in their circles until the unimaginable happens -

- as it steps on the power cord and shuts down the whole machine. A murmur goes through the crowd. Slowly, confusedly, the Freerunner lumbers up to the now dormant vehicle and the stitcher on it stabs indecisively stabs through the little windows and into the drivers left eye, rummaging around in it for a bit.

Reserved cheers mixed with awkward coughs extenuate the scene as the prince pair walks up to the diplomat, clears their throat tubes and asks:
"So... What do we win?"
>>
>>2573013
>>2573013
"ah, but you have not defeated our mightiest warrior." The Dolomite stitcher gestured to what was very obviously the external power supply for the Crane...err...war machine. "You jest? HERE NOW? YOU JEST" the diplomat crossed all his arms "A dolomite never jests!" So be it. Upon observation of the battery, even it was inferior, requiring a truly massive amount of ventilation to operate. However, as the Runner prepared to kick it over, the whole unit ejected hundreds of wire filaments connected to little barbs. The discharge was nonlethal, but enough that the Dolomites had time to run away while abandoning their equipment.

The victorious party was understandably irritated with the mass tazing, but did now have a sample of dolomite technology.
>>
>>2573031
The pieces are brought to the Weavers and the Dolomite's ships watched as they disappear over the horizon.

This, unsurprisingly, makes everyone quite tense. The white hordes of the Rhodochrosite conquest have mostly been diverted now to settle the new expansions (the extent of which I will post) but there is still a sizeable chunk of army just sitting on their four thumbs or in their big, crystaline walkers.

And so a few hundred of them are put on ships with the prince sibling pair and shipped to the Dolomites, after the diplomats, every single one furious and certain that this would just not do.

When a small army makes landfall in Dolomite territory, they are of course already greeted by a far superior force, both on land as on the sea.

"You will not so easily do to us what you did to the Rhodochrosites!" an elder pair proclaims on the head of the defensive army. But instead of assuming offensive position, the army parts and gives way to the prince pair which marches straight forward to the Dolomite representatives, one of them taking a breath and then clicking:

"You broke the rules."

The Larimar make a simple demand: The duel was won, and so the Larimar are owed a reward. Additionally, the reward was withheld, so the Larimar are owed compensation.

The reward, they say, should be Dolomite vassalization.
The compensation, they say, should be conversion of Dolomite Stitchers to the one true colour.


The Dolomite diplomats look on in confusion and horror at the blindingly white figures in front of them
>>
File: expansion.png (70 KB, 1140x788)
70 KB
70 KB PNG
>>2572175
>>2572162
Whiule the southern expansion goes well enough and forest is cut down to make way for white crops that produce food for Tee'u'ana as well as a harbour town for just that city, the northern expansion is plagued by a lack of interest. Only a few of the former soldiery are interested to move up there and instead of colonization, a fortress has to be built in which soldiers are coerced to stay by the military,rather than settle deliberately.
>>
>>2573056
"We left you a fine offering in the form of a powerful vehicle of war, and it's exotic battery. So my Diplomats tell me. Look around you, this Protectorate is home to many, stitcher alone! Will you join us, or will you hurt the feelings of our Nomad Grabrafs? If our machine is not what you wish...membership into the protectorate and all its benefits would suit you well. We have many friends! So too could you!"

It is amazing what target fixation does, especially when looking for stitchers. Behind each are easily 3 small grabraf creatures; clearly they breed like vermin. Armed vermin.
>>
Rolled 2, 8 = 10 (2d8)

>>2573063
"Vermin." the whitem tall Stitcher clicks. "Your land will be ours, one way or another. We propose another duel as you wished war to be conducted. If you decline, the white tide will wash over you."

>rolling for the Dolomite response. Only very low rolls will have them agree on this crazy duel thing. The higher, the more violent the reaction is.

----
Meanwhile a disguised Sardonyx Weaver steps into the private quarters of the Carnelian ruler pair's private quarters, scaring the shit out of the disgruntled deposed.

"I could have killed you" the Weaver clicks.
"But instead I come to you with a proposition."
The proposition then is thus: There still are assasins in every major house in the hegenomy (>>2571155) including that of house diamond. One word is enough to provoke reelections using nothing but a sharp crystal knife. If the Carnelians want their station back, they merely have to agree to aid the Sardonyx against the Heliotropes.

>Second roll to see how the carnelian leaders react
>>
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2573124
The Dolomites awkwardly step from one foot to the other. This WAS the rule they had set, and not following the rules opens the door to all kinds of inorderly things. But another fight like the one just a few days ago, and for a price this large would be unwinnable and lethal for the young house.

So this is their counter proposal: Not full subjugation would be the price if the Larimars won, but Dolomite would be made a client state. Should the Dolomites win, they would be obliged to join the Dolomite Protectorate. And the fight would not be between machines but the two strongest Praetors of each house, without weapons.

The Larimars agree only once another condition is agreed upon: The exile of the Nomad Grabrafs should the Larimars win. Neither side is very confident that the other would actually follow through but a date is set for the fight as the next solstice, ona platform to be erected on the sea between the two houses.

----

A simple and enthusiastic "YES" is the answer to the Sardonyx weaver. The Carnelian private forces are immidiately mustered for a coming attack on Heliotrope as the Sardonyx Weaver disappears to give the orders to the assasins in house diamond.

>roll is success of that assasination
>>
File: kangaroo dynamics inc.png (6 KB, 300x387)
6 KB
6 KB PNG
Stitchers in house Peridot have heard rumors of the advances in vehicular technology made by house Larimar. Naturally, these rumors became more and more exaggerated as they passed from stitcher to stitcher, and by the time they reached to the engineers, they told of complex walking machines being so commonplace in other houses that every soldier was given one. Realizing that a military force of footsoldiers were no match against one of crystalline giants, house Peridot has ordered it's finest minds to design a machine capable of giving their soldiers a fighting chance against these perceived threats.
The result was the Hopper Machine, a simple, yet rather efficient design. Propulsion was achieved using a pair of legs operated by a four-button keyboard, capable of compressing to 37% of their size and rapidly expanding, utilizing an easily repairable spring(which doubled as protection) and just two cryst-muscles. To keep balance in mid-air and steer, a pair of lever-operated flippers are used. The machine moves using quick, short hops, allowing for faster change of direction and higher stability than long hops, and the simplicity of the controls leaves two of the pilot's four hands free, allowing for wielding firearms.
Thanks to the low manufacture and maintenance cost of the Hopper Machine, house Peridot is able to produce it in great numbers, although not as great as they could be if the modernization of factories in the house was complete.

Technical information:
operating crew: 1
size: 150 cm
mass: 150 cm(including pilot)
speed: 36 km/h
operating time before recharge: 32 hours
operating time before refuel: ~12 days
built-in weaponry: none yet, so you have to make do with what guns you can fit in your two free hands
>>
>>2573166
rolling for sanitation in Heliotrope country since they have medicine and might figure it out.

Then I'll roll for composite weaving for the stitchers again.

----
The Nomad Grabraf try their hands at building with the discarded crystals of old cities - rolling for architecture and mill power

----

The Forest Grabraf will go for (organic) machinery and reinforced bone
>>
Rolled 5, 2, 8, 3, 6, 5 = 29 (6d8)

>>2573470
>>
>>2573440
>mass: 150 cm
meant 150 kg
>>
Rolled 3, 6, 6, 4, 4, 6 = 29 (6d8)

>>2573483
Azurite would seek alliance with Larimer through a royal swap of partners. If accepted the alliance would be cemented.

Rolling for

Stitcher diodes, electricity
Nomad espionage, reverse enginering
Forest grabraf mining tentacles, bio refinery
>>
File: Stitcher-CivEvo-OP.png (3.08 MB, 7025x5025)
3.08 MB
3.08 MB PNG
--Regional Map/Demographics Update--
The map below is an updated display of the CivEvo OP post I provided at the start of the thread. On top of some updated visuals for Foltania and the Torray Isles, this graphic provides you with a mostly accurate representation of the prominent existing factions in this thread thus far. The only sapients not given detailed representation are the Grabraf Colonies for the Tootine and Nekonahu in the Torray Isles and the Omir'ten colony (Cocky Tripods) in Foltania. This isn't because their existence isn't important, but rather because their not entities that can be modified or changed in this thread.

Now then, onto the daily event.
--NG Event: The Fate of Niu Tootine--
The NG had for many decades now overall enjoyed the open kinship the Stitchers of the Dolomite Protectorate (formerly House Ivor-Olivine) with their Rayya colonies. The provisioning of territory within their own borders had especially led to a belief that the scars of their initial first encounters had been healed.

A new issue had arisen though in recent years with the colonist NG of the Dolomite Protectorate. While they enjoyed the company of the strange Stitcher for many years while establishing their colony, it did not long for them realize the presence of another sapient group: The Tootine.

The colony of Niu Tootine consisted of a majority TG population, the adversely hated sapients of the NG. To the Stitcher, the conflict did not make much sense being that did not thoroughly understand or appreciate the long history of the NG.

When TG from the colony started turning up dead, their corpses flayed, mutilated and put on display within the NG colony, the Dolomite Protectorate became wary.

Something horrifying was about to happen within there land, as the elder NG of the colony issued an ominous decree to the Dolomite Protectorate's nobles.
>Remove the TG from you lands, or remain witness to the actions we will take against their ilk. You have one week to make your choice.
>>
Rolled 3, 2 = 5 (2d8)

>>2572112
Things go well with the Azurites. Having been trained from birth for leadership and politics, the Carnelian matriarch-patriarch pair play almost immediately start playing the Azurites to their tune. After a couple of weeks of psychologic prying and pulling, the Azurites admit themselves: Of course the Azurites already knew the Emeralds were crazy and a danger to everyone around them. Of course someone would eventually do something about it. Of course the hegemony had brought stability to west of the island, house Petalite was proof of that. Of course, with the rising white heresy of the south and backstabbers in the east, the House Azurite needed all the friends they could get. And of course, raising walls along a border where goods could flow was not in their interest. The two sides agree to opening a trading relationship in combination with a non-aggression pact (i.e. “I don’t attack you, you don’t attack me”)

Up north, within a single generation the lifestyle required by the arid lands had changed the Stitchers living there. The vitamin-D deficiency caused by not being in the sun during the day, had caused them to grow in strange ways. Their skin became a pale beige with occasional clusters of regular-colored spots and their arms, legs and head more elongated than normal.

The Stitchers of the first generation looked on in horror as it happened with all of their first broods. Their children slowly changing from normal the normal color and shape to the new one as they aged and became adults. Eventually, however, they became used to it , and with time pale skin became the new normal for House Sandstone.


A new philosophy, a new way of looking upon stitcherness, was being founded in the north. We are all slaves to what came before. By learning to observe the tell-tale signs from a Stitcher's body and how a Stitcher interacted with others you could use this to become the darkness that comes before; the masters of all.

In order of priority:
>Rolling for the path (political tech?)
>Rolling for Biology

>>2574108
please see >>2572112 and this post before you consider posting a Larimar-Azurite alliance. It would make no sense for them to pursue an alliance with an enemy of someone who've they've established a relationship to.
>>
>>2574137
>>2573166
The great Rhodochrosite negotiations;

The Dolomites would accept the great bleaching, as their house mineral was already whitish, without trial combat, under a few circumstances.
-1. The protectorate values the Nomad Grabraf, as allies, labor, and troops. Their philosophy is close enough to that of the Stitcher.
-2. The Dolomites are Rithism practitioners.

To this end, their texts were brought fourth for review.

Can the Rhodochrosites accept White Rithism, and if the Great Sky Grabraf can create white Stitchers, could they not do the same for their small allies?
>>
I>>2574216
Umm, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Rhodochrosites are already just a name in the annals of Stitcher history.
>>
>>2574216
Order through Truth
Truth through Whiteness
Order is Necessity

Necessity before all.

The Larimar diplomats try to keep this in mind through the negotiations and so they do not immidiately declare war when the vermin are presented as citizens. Still, it is not acceptable as such.

Rithism, they note, is perfectly compatible with the acknowledgement that there is only one colour in the world. As a philosophy friendly to veterans, it is agreeable and orderly.

What is not agreeable nor orderly is the Dark Elf. The Nomad Grabrafs are dark elf by birth, no bleaching can reverse this. They may be granted free exit from the islands but full citizenry? How can such insanity be thought? Stitchers, and Stitchers alone are the necessary inhabitants of a necessarily ordered world.
How can one live with a species born in clothing?
How can one trust a species thikning themselves equal or above stitchers?
How can one trust a species that seems to think Emra is above the word of Emra and the word Emra should speak?

The Larimars urge the Dolomites to reconsider the Nomad Grabraf question. It must be resolved for strong unity in the south.
>>
The heliotropes had failed their previous attempt at invading the home of House Sardonyx. A few too eager subjects of the house had caused the invasion to fail as they were repelled. Revealing the Heliotropes’ plans. This time they instead decided that they would not be alone. They would reach out to an old enemy for whom house Sardonyx long had been a thorn in the backside. They sent a simple message to the Hegemony. ‘Aid us in conquering Sardonyx lands and we will aid you in destroying their house forever.’

Rolling for the outcome of the alliance attempt.
The Carnelians willing or not I’m also rolling for the attack. (+2 if the Hegemony agrees to tag along?)

Also rolling for Biology and Sanitation. The Stitchers can’t keep shitting in the streets forever.
>>
Rolled 8, 2, 4, 1 = 15 (4d8)

>>2574257
>>
File: destination.png (193 KB, 1279x1181)
193 KB
193 KB PNG
Rolled 8 (1d8)

House Tourmaline takes a crack at that there colony thing at the noted destination.

Roll indicates success, and with that I go to bed
>>
Rolled 1 (1d8)

>>2574137

While House Sandstone takes the idea of "that which comes before" to heart, they soon realize that no Stitcher in existence has the intellect, observational skills and ability to manipulate that is required to put the idea into practice. It would take many generations of selective breeding and training before true awakening could be achieved. Thus they begin a long and arduous towards reaching the essence of logic and true enlightenment....

>>2573124
>>2573166
"YES" Those were the last words the Matriarch uttered before the Carnelian Patriarch put his dagger through her chest. For a minute he looked mournfully at her lifeless body and then said: "...for all Stitchers are of the same blood; the same family." "... and we don't betray family, you knew that better than anyone, Ylee."

He then turned to the Assassin, looking it straight in its green eyes. The speech had given the Assassin the moment he needed process what had just happened. Scratching the underside of his head, he spoke:

"Quoting scripture, eh? I didn't take you for a religious Stitcher."

"House Carnelian has dealt with your kind before. The Petalites, Rubidiums and Sardonyx; you are all the same. Power, glory and riches - all of it is sought after for the sake of Stitcherness. Not the other way around. By betraying those we call friends for those three things, we in turn betray the things that makes us us: Stitcherness."

"I don't understand."

"Of course you don't. You dark elves are incapable of doing so. that's what separates us from your kind; that is the true mark of the dark elf."

"You shouldn't have killed her. House Sardonyx offered you the Hegemony, now instead only death awaits you in the future."

"I'm dead either way. When dawn comes, I will have joined those who came before us all. Now have at you, Dark Elf!"

The Patriarch lunges at the Assassin.
>Counter roll to >>2573166
>>
>>2574236
my mistake on this one.
>>2574242
with such a small minority population, the Dolomites look to the NG in their custody. Truthfully the inclusion of the NG was mostly about their numbers and the value therein. The NG would be peacefully relocated for their own good; to the suomalalinen islands. There was one final negotiation; If they were to unite, Tourmaline would be brought into the fold.
>>
File: opt10.png (148 KB, 1408x876)
148 KB
148 KB PNG
Rolled 4, 8, 5 = 17 (3d8)

>>2574391
The Assassin parries and makes quick work of the Carnelian patriarch; leaving the body lying where he once stood, next to the matriarch almost as if he's embracing her.

The word quickly spreads that the Carnelian pair has been found murdered in one of the colonys on the rural outskirts of the Petalite domains. The memo is obvious, assassination. The ruling families of the Hegemony are furious over the situation. No council can be held, were someone doesn't end their speech with "Furthermore, our House considers that Sardonyx must be destroyed."


>>2574264
It is in this situation that the Hegemony receives word from the Heliotropes. The Hegemony gladly accepts the offer and the military alliance receives its first member not to be a subject of the Carnelian Colony. The Hegemony would assemble an army and meanwhile offer naval support to the Heliotropes.
>Rolling for the effectiveness that the Hegemony helping gives the Heliotropes.

In the south, the event revitalizes the war efforts. Bloody vengeance was going to be wrought if Riike had his way. For four days he had been seen openly crying after hearing that is older brother had died. The order was given, it was time to bring death once again.
>Rolling for the initial attack on SM in the south.

>Rolling for a House Sandstone expansion north east (meditating requires sick ass mountain monasteries)
>>
File: opt 11.png (175 KB, 1401x997)
175 KB
175 KB PNG
>>2574452
>>2574264
Supported by the Carnelian navy, the Heliotropes manage to take part of the northern coast under their control. When House Sardonyx receives intel from their network and goes out to deal with them, the find that the Heliotropes have already entrenched themselves along the beach and are preparing for war.
>The previous roll awaits a counter roll .

>>2574452
>The attack in the south is awaiting a Sardonyx-Moonstone counter roll.

>>2574452
To achieve The Path, the participants require upmost isolation. No outside elements can be allowed and the same goes for interactions with the outside. For this reason House Sandstone founds the colony-in-isolation of I'ee'k in the mountains to the north; a place even more inhospitable to Stitchers than the desert. Those sharpest of mind and strongest of body are sent there, never to return.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d8)

>>2574452
rolling for dolomite resettlement of grabraf natives.
>>
Rolled 6, 5, 7, 2, 2, 3 = 25 (6d8)

>>2574510
The Dolomites resettled the Grabraf, without violence, but certainly creating some hard feelings with the local population. Thankfully they were small, and were left with generous severance packages, and a bare bones colony in the far south of the uninhabited AA node of the Suomalalinen Islands.
--
rolling for:
ST: Laser tubes, Wireless energy (Radio-UHF/ VHF)
The Dolomites were very curious as to radio frequency, and begin to build on the old radio transfer tubes.
NG: Reverse Engineeringx2
FG: Gargantuan Zepplinsx2
>>
Rolled 2, 6 = 8 (2d8)

In the Dolomite Protectorate knowledge for "wireless energy" is sought as well. Two different interpretations of this statements are made by each of the former houses that conformed this nation.
>Rolling for Tesla Coils and Solar Energy
>>
>>2574257
With the discovery of the correlation between grime and sickness, efforts are taken in house heliotrope to create a sanitation system. Soon, the majority of stitchers had access to means of cleaning themselves. The system had a flaw however: all the dirt and waste removed had to go to somewhere, and it went to a large reservoir with an open top. Naturally, when the rainy seasons came, the reservoir overflowed, causing a year's worth of waste to spill over the city. Many died, even more evacuated, and the farms and factories of the city were rendered useless.
>>
>>2574561
The Dolomite protectorate began devoting significantly more resources towards the refinement of existing technology. From this emerged an entire family of tube technology, of which a notable item was the Laser Tube. Made of ruby, filled with gas, and capped with a metallic plate of Voltanite alloy, the device would emit a highly concentrated red dot. Red. The value of the device was significant, it could be used to illuminate objects very far away, usually while attached to weapons. Some theorized it could be used to measure distance, or even be used for display of images. The stitchers that volunteered to observe laser imagry reported blindness in one eye, praise to Rii’iy’ree’’k. This technology would also need work for failing to be white, a very unsatisfactory situation indeed. Thankfully the Lasers sold well on the open market to other, lesser, houses.

A truly beneficial item gained though was that of the first radio. Curiously the device operated at a very high frequency, and suffered from short ranges, but worked all the same. With real time communication the Larimar and Dolomite nations grow, as does their naval capability. Never before has there been more efficient purging of inferior color and those who are dark elves.
--
For the NG, amongst several universities, they begin a program to unravel the workings of any technology they can obtain, and attempt to either duplicate it, or create an analogue in function. So begins the era of imitation.
--
The FG of both the Mys'dra and Verdeya clans attempt to duplicate and improve on the prior failure of the Ulor'des gargantuan airship. While neither suffers the same catastrophic failure of their predecessor, neither ship flies either. Soon the locals move into the failed structures and treat them as improvised dwellings. With such a history of failure, it is unlikely the FG will attempt this particular design again.
>>
>>2574443
>>2574443
The Larimar Diplomats click gleefully and embrace their counterparts in unison.

"Contentness is not that which follows having enough but what lies beyond having too much" the male quotes in scripture

>The Dolomite Protectorate and Larimar are now unified as The Larimar Protectorate - name libel to change
>>
Rolled 8 (1d8)

>>2574507
>Sardonyx counter roll.

Using the cconquered fortifications, let's see how the army, after the recent heavy fighting about 10 000, can defend against the wrath of the hegemony
>>
Rolled 1, 1 = 2 (2d8)

rolling for stitchers in this priority:
coil-guns (gauß weaponry)
composite crystal armour

development happening at the whitestone empire
>>
Rolled 8, 7, 8 = 23 (3d8)

>>2575754
https://youtu.be/dJGCBNndLHc
"STITCHERS?! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!" the island was blanketed in a deafening "REEEEEE" heard across the sea by the Carnelians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvYZRskNV3w&feature=youtu.be
--
>>2575700
The Dolomites and Larimar would change their empire's name once again, to confuse and enrage their enemies. This time it would be known as the Whitestone empire. Their enemies would be busy drafting documents against non existent foes! Which is exactly why the fledgling empire struck against House Tourmaline. They would be offered three choices; Diplomacy, Trial by ritual combat, or outright war. The truth was that the Empire had launched all 3 vectors.

rolling for:
reaction to offer of diplomacy
offer of ritual combat
The invasion force, should the first two fail.
>>
>>2575941
Three thousand white Stitchers waited on the border to Tourmalite, Freerunners scattered amongst them, waiting for their sign as a diplomatic envoy enterd the country by way of boat.

The Larimar section of the envoy were greeted with open upper arms and enthusiastic lower arms handshakes. Before anything could be said, the Tourmalite Elder asked: "We heard of the integration of the Dolomites into the purity of white! Is it finally time for your long standing allies Tourmalite to be accepted into the fold?"
A few confused clicks are exchanged among the envoy and with the giant praetor in their midst, brought for ritual combat.

When they stepped forward again, they straightened up as much as a stitcher can and proclaimed: "indeed! and it shall be sealed by a test of strength!"

it is decided then that a grest arena shall be built and the greatest warriors of the provinces of this new Empire shall do battle there. As a first sign of the Empire's good grace the three thousand in waiting are brought in to aid in the building of the arena, after the completion of which they are scattered across the province as a military police overseeing the whitening process instated by law thereafter.
>>
>>2575754
>>2574452

The fighting began at dawn. The Hegemony forces charging the fortifications as loudmouths roared behind them. The Moonstone and Sardonyx forces were quick to respond, their own loudmouths and EM trebuchets raining down death upon the Hegemony armies. During the first hours the Hegemony took heavy casualties, thousands dying and getting heavily wounded as they tried to push into their enemies’ defenses. However, the tide turned as the first Stitcher, a preator with heavy cuts and bruises, came over the defensive mound. Screaming incomprehensive words, it proceeded to cut down the moonstones around it only to get killed by a Sardonyx spike-rifle. But that stitcher was not the first. Hundreds and then thousands of Hegemony stitchers flooded through the opening. The Hegemony forces had now breached the Sardonyx-Moonstone defenses and close range fighting began.

While the Moonstone-Sardonyx army was specialized in subterfuge and long range combat, close range combat was the Hegemony’s home field. The opposite thing that had happened to the Hegemony now happened to the Moonstone-Sardonyx forces, as thousands were killed in the confused figthing by REE’EEE’ing northerners. Riike himself, leading his own strike-force, managed to capture the EM Trebuchets; firing them into the camp where they were deployed. The Sardonyx Moonstone army saw how the tide was turning. They had prepared for this. At first it looked to the Hegemony like the SM forces were slowly giving up, their soldiers fleeing north east. But then it happened. Charges attached to the gigantic batteries used to charge the capacitors of the EM trebuchets went off, exploding the batteries and taking out the part of the defenses were the trebuchets were deployed. The remaining SM forces that could get out had tactically retreated to their old camp. The Hegemony forces, believing that their leader had died withdrew as night came.
>>
>>2576058
The next day Riike was standing on a dias while looking out on the Hegemony armies before him. Many of them were covered in bandages, lacking eyes and limbs but their spirits weren’t broken. No, an even hotter fire was roaring inside of them. Riike wasn’t looking his best himself, covered in acid burns and lacking an eye and a hand. Quoting the Genesis Slabs, he spoke: “Hearken, for this the Emra has said: These False Stitchers offend Me; blot out all mark of their Passing!” “Today we will show our enemies what it truly means to be Stitcher! I can see it. Many of you having sacrificed limb and life; having your sacrificed symmetry for this cause. But I don’t see unevenness in you, for united we are all symmetrical. We, of the Thousand Houses will write history on this day…” Then he raised his I’I’’kree, the ancestral blade of House Carnelian, to the skies and roared: “DIAMOND IS UNBREAKABLE” Only for the army to respond the same.

Outside of the Sardonyx-Moonstone camp stitcher soldiers were assembling in silent determination. The SM knew that today would be the final battle. Word had just reached them of the Heliotrope invasion of house Sardonyx lands and house peridot was stirring up trouble in the south. That meant they could no longer afford to continue this campaign.

(Anyone want to roll about this in about 8 hours?)
>>
Rolled 7 (1d8)

In the Whitestone Empire, the white spires crop up in all important cities, as administrative centers were taxes are collected, from which controls happen from and in front of which the exections occur. Crucially also it is where the whitening happens which is mandated across the Empire.

Well, that's not quite true. The colonies in Foltania have a white spire built at the node landfall was made at, but the whiteness policy simply can't be enforced and so there is much less strict. So while many there are white and enjoy the social benefits that come with that, it is also a safe haven for those that cling to their blackness but do not want to behave inorderly by fleeing the rule of law, instead they use the loophole of relocalization.

Pic related is how I imagine what the 8 on the establishing of the colony would have resulted in. In the corner there is also a little image of a white spire.

Rolling for further expansion of the colonies. Farming and mining operations would be set up there.
>>
File: colony.png (98 KB, 1265x958)
98 KB
98 KB PNG
>>2576083
>>
File: Spartan.jpg (225 KB, 1680x1050)
225 KB
225 KB JPG
Rolled 1, 2, 6 = 9 (3d8)

>>2574507
The Sardonyx army stands there watching. Hoping the invaders will leave or that they can hold them here until the main Sardonyx force returns from the south. The Heliotrope army, led by their aging matriarch-patriarch pair, are not going to play their game. The heliotrope army assembles outside their camp and the order to attack is given. Even in that moment the heliotrope leadership is discussing how the conquered lands are to be divided. So sure are they of victory.

Rolling for the success of the attack
Also rolling for rifling and biology in that order of priority.
>>
>>2576117
House Sardonyx tactically outmaneouvers the invaders. Using their knowledge of the landscape they manage to route the heliotropes. Only 2/3 are back at the heliotrope camp when night falls. The Sardonyx only having taken losses in the tens have won for now. Now they waited amd hoped for the main force to return or for the heliotropes to embarrass themselves again.

Voltanite rifles, adapted to the Stitcher physice arrives by Carnelian ships to the camp.
>>
Rolled 2, 5, 6, 3 = 16 (4d8)

The Whitestone Empire, sure of its correctness has many avenues of propaganda it tries to convince the outside world with. The quality of these I will roll for in order:

Science books - straight up science, about colour theory and related stuff

Art - Propaganda art, white on white, sometimes compromised with the honorary white 'dark white' otherwise known as 'black'

Political Philosophy - Simply appraisal of the Whitestone Empire

Personal Philosophy - the advantages of understanding white as the only colour for the individual.
>>
>>2576222
Whitestone's first propaganda efforts range from eh to okay.

Their science books include some interesting ideas, from a very robust colour theory to a ridiculous proposal for the problem of conducting of waves in space to the concept of a 'hyper-white', a last smallest unit of reality everything else would be reduced to. But they are simply too laden with wordy ideology and pathos to be taken serious by scholars and too heady to be interesting for the majority.

The art, always a strong suit of the Larimars especially finds better soil, though the problem with the production of white on white statues, paintings and unreadable poems is that the FG have signed exclusive contracts for the acquisition of a big percentage of white art decades ago and so only a part of the production reaches actual stitchers. Those that it does reach however it frequently enamors to the ideas depicted thus.

The strongest candidate for a success, and still not a rousing one, is the political science of the Whitestone Empire. After the recent debacle in scholarly circles of an attempt of political theory based on individual freedom (a laughable idea), the conception of Empire as a slavery of everyone to a cosmic order much closer meets the heart of the average stitcher. With a modified version of Rithism, namely the acceptance of those less fortunate as still necessary cogs in a machine of Empire that grinds down even the Emperors themselves, it even finds justification in scripture.

The personal philosophy arising from that is of course somewhat less glamorous and meets a mixed reception.
>>
>>2576224
seeing as art and political philosophy seem to be the only halfway decent outlets to the outside world, a white crystal weave is printed, much like the debt markers of the Nekonahu that have much worth in the hegemony and outside of it. on it, invisibly, only revealed through direct electrical light rhat would distinguish the white from white, was painted an epic of the Whitestone Emperors - denoted with the title "Rightful Rulers of thw Universe, one of the pair is said to be immortal each generstion, but sacrificing their immortality for evenness once the other perishes. Their empire, the pamohlet alledges, is a historical necessity and wluld be the culmination of stitcher culture.

these mock-debt markers are smuggled into the ex Emerald region and more crucially house Azurite. The intent is to being the populace to welcome the whitestone empire, but the far more likely outcome is a simple provocation of the azurites who long since have banned larimar art.
>>
Rolled 8, 3, 4, 8, 8, 6, 5, 3, 1 = 46 (9d8)

The great fleets of former house Olavine would serve the whitestone empire well in their next campaign of expansion. Numerous small detachments of stitchers, enough to start barebones colonies, would be sent out to begin converting the local southern AA nodes into suitable colonies for the betterment of the empire. 6 large ships, with roughly 3,000 colonists each.
--
For the whitestone empire, relocating their NG population was not hard, but dealing with their colony of Niu Tootine was an issue. Outside traders were beneficial, and the Voltanites were very cozy with the Carnelians due to their proximity. Also, the Tootines were in direct conflict with the NG population as a whole due to some sort of blood feud between the grabraf phenotypes. It was all very complicated, and not very even, symmetical, or white. So most stitchers decided the best route would be to simply contain the colony. A large border was established, and with it a barrier errected. the Tootine were free to expand to the limits of their given land and no further, they were welcomed to trade, and live as they would. As long as the treaty went over well enough.
--
The Olavine had detailed knowledge of the NG culture and psychology, and in truth, they were still a useful trade partner. However, it was a well known fact that the NG hated the creatures called the TG, of which the voltanite and Tootine seemed to have many. If there was a way to incite hatred in the population, to stir old memories, it may be benficial, as ultimatly the Emprie would need to relocate the NG off their rightful land to the south, or eradicate them...

For now they would attempt several low cost routes of prodding the Rayya. Distribute information to them via trade rumors, and one bolder Stitcher suggested a sort of attack, where one could make it appear as though it was the enemy attacking. It would utlize a falsified set of markings and banner. To this end they would need the help of the Tootine, who were the closest approximation of the Voltanites in the region...

first six are for colony rolls, tootine border treaty, information dissemination and falseflag attack.
>>
File: Torray-Isles-Political.png (655 KB, 2800x4600)
655 KB
655 KB PNG
>>2576862
(thanks to Librarian for the updated map)
8-1: The first colony was the closest, and benefitted from a highly desirable tropical climate, as well as proximity to the homeland. Stitchers flooded to it.
3-2: the second colony was repelled by by NG ships, not desiring a presence so those who exiled some of their people due to simple birth. In fact they were chased at length for several days and nights, the cargo ship suffered minor damage due to very well placed "warning shots". Without enough integrity to make it back home, the crew limped towards an alternate landing point, site 4.
4-3: The Colony ship here was forced to turn around due to rough seas and impossibly strong storms. The ship was so battered that the crew had to sail to site 4 as well.
8-4: Despite it's proximity to the Rayya, the territory seemed poorly patrolled by them. The designated landing crew was in for quite the shock when not only one, but two extra colonist ships had made nodefall. The massive boost in resource and population quickly established this settlement as a very successful and somewhat well armed one. However due to their proximity, as well as one of the crews experiences, the sentiment towards the NG is overtly hostile.
8-5: Located out in the stormier seas, settlement 5 was was none the less blessed with an abundance of local life shoaling around the AA node, providing ample food for population growth, of which it exploded.
6-6: Far in the middle of nowhere, a fifth of the crew died of a strange sickness before making landfall. The remoteness of their settlement means a higher degree of autonomy, as well as significantly fewer resupply shipments. The Stitchers of colony 6 will survive, but in absolute austerity.
--
5- The tootine's felt the measures were a bit draconian, and for several months trade prices crept up, but the will of the empire was strong, and the military presence of the tootine's was weak, there were rumors of a large war on their home continent as well. Clearly they could not keep up their petulant attitude for long, and in truth they did not. Eventually the demands of that war forced their capitulation, and exotic grabraf metals flowed in once more.
--
3- Not only did the Rayya know of the TG in the Voltanite empire's settlement, but also knew of the ones the former Olavines harbored within their lands! they were no fools! no dupes! They had their territory and wished to be played no further. The world was big enough for now, the extermination of the slavers could be foisted upon another generation's list of duty.
1- Unsatisfied with the efforts, enough wealth was assembled to bribe a trio of less savory Tootine captains. Their ships were crudely augmented to resemble Voltanite ships, and armed with a great array of Stitcher weaponry. Their mission was simple. Bombard the coastlines and settlements of the NG, attack any ship seen, but do not stop to engage. Simply keep moving and attacking.
>>
>>2576900
Instead though, the captains were blockaded in shallower water, where the added weight of their ship's disguises and weaponry bogged them down, causing the craft to sluggishly drag along the sandy floor of a shoal. Captured to the man, they wasted no time in attempting to save their own lives. However, they were still tortured, killed to a man, and spilled the entirety of secrets to be had, from embarrassing personal details, to very damning payments by the Whitestone empire. It would seem the Whitestones found the Rayya to be problematic, and a long term plan was slated to weaken and remove them. If war was what the white skinned creatures wanted, so be it.

The Rayya were at war.
>>
Rolled 8, 7, 4, 5 = 24 (4d8)

>>2576059
>>2576059
The two forces stand facing each other on opposites ends of the Field. This would be the first battle ever fought on AA-node ground to be recorded in the annals. An eerie silence dominated the whole Field, both sides were looking on as their respective leaders met in the middle. Ireei, the Sardonyx master tactician frowned when it saw Riike, still alive. “Still kicking, I see. We will have to try a bigger bomb next time.” “Don’t.” Y’I’r, warned her. The Moonstone commander had the same calculating face and tone he always had, not betraying any emotion. As Riike came close enough to hear properly Y’I’r pulled out a moonstone slab, indented with text, and read as he had been ordered to: “Hear us, invaders from the north. We of the noble houses of Sardonyx and Moonstone demand the following: Withdraw your troops from our domain at once, order the Heliotropes to leave the Sardonyx homelands, repay the resources spent by our houses in fighting this war, demilitarize your lands on this landmass, and agree never to take up arms against our houses in the future.”

Riike looked at them for second with his remaining eye, figuring why they were playing this game. The time for demands from either side had long since passed. “Shut up, Y’I’r” Riike looked to Ireei. “And you. You I’ll hang by your guts above this very Field.” Then Riike turned walked back to his army.

>Rolling for the Hegemony in the initial clash

In the northern colony-in-isolation, I’ee’k, two generations of selective breeding and philosophical study have passed. A glimmer of what is about to come has started to show itself. The Stitchers living there are no longer ruled by their emotions, solely acting according to their own logos. Those who are unable to do this when they exit puppyhood are deemed defective. They are chained up in the damp bottom caverns of the colony. Here they are flayed and electrodes are attached to parts of their brains; allowing for the creation of different facial expressions. They serve as instruments of teaching the students how the facial muscles sit and how the rest of the body changes during different emotional states.

>Rolling for biology and Refrigeration
>Rolling for progress of ”That which comes before” (cultural, ideology roll)
>>
File: Torray-Isles-Political.png (710 KB, 2800x4600)
710 KB
710 KB PNG
>>2576900
whoops. forgot the proper image.
>>
>>2576919
for easier documentation I was asked to put some names onto the colonies that made it

1 - K''loz
4 - Reef
5 - Tka''''
6 - 'kiirt
>>
Rolled 1, 1 = 2 (2d8)

>>2576917

Ireei had kept mostly quiet, but prepared for a counter attack. The enemy surged ahead, but the MoonSard alliance had one thing in their pocket. Mercenaries. The FG who would interact with the Stitchers, seemed almost neutral, but in truth were hedonistic in the extreme, at some point passing by existing sensations for most, they now sought experience and thrills. Let them have their fun Ireei though. May it be the time of their lives. Ireei clicked twice. Today was going to be a bloody day.

Rolling for counter attack
Rolling for FG mercenary intervention
>>
>>2576975
Zu'Zu'oot Sreeched in bloody revery, her left arm twisting into a blade of crystalline bone, and the left into a bundle of vicious tentacles. The MoonSard's were so sure of the FG psychology, they never stopped to apprecaite that while they dont kill their own, a deep psychological hunger for violence and sacrifice was still there. The truest hunter's nature. All around him gore and viscera flew, covering his face, blinding her, warm, wet, sublime. For now, there was a moments respite from the endless constraints of civility, the FG would remind the lesser beings of their superiority, of their potential.
>>
>>2576975
>>2576996
As soon as the initial fighting began, it was clear who would win this day. Even the FG support couldn’t help the Moonstone-Sardonyx get the advantage. It was here, in the brutal face-to-face combat that the Hegemony ruled. Row after row, the hegemony Riflers fired, ducked and reloaded, as the row behind them did the same. At the same time the Preator shieldbearers slammed into the MS lines, hindering them from firing back at the Riflers at full efficiency. The MS line began to falter. Then it happened. Forest Grabrafs fighting at the same side as the MS forces began cutting down their own allies, laughing as they did. The Hegemony forces were confused at first, but discipline from their years of training and combat kept them on target and kept them at their bloody work. They cared not whether it was FG or MS Stitchers, the orders were clear: kill anything that stood on the other side of the Field when the battle began. And so they did. When evening came, the Hegemony leadership got word of the MS forces’ unconditional surrender.
Few MS stitchers had survived this day. Out of those alive before the battle only 1500 stood assembled in front of Riike. But he recognized two of them. “You!” he yelled as he pointed at the weaver; Ireei. ”No! Please! Noo!” the weaver screamed as Riike personally jumped down the dias and pushed his way through the crowd. It kept on yelling even as he took it by the throat and dragged it behind him. Struggling as much as it might, it could not escape that grip. The MS survivors looked on in silence, none of them telling him to stop; House Sardonyx had never been in power because it was well loved. Once out of the crowd, next to a tree-like outcropping from the Node, Riike let it go. Ireei begged and pleaded, knowing that it would do no good. With loud snap its left knee caved in underneath it from Riikes kick. A second snap then followed as the right leg become ruins. Riike drew his I’I’’kree and with a quick stab opened the weavers belly open, letting guts spill out. Still screaming, he then looped its intestines around its neck and started to hoist the spasming body up the “tree”. It took 20 minutes before the body stopped moving.
The rest of the MS survivors had their worst wounds treated and were left under guard for the rest of the day. Riike had asked his second in command to bring Y’I’r to his tent. (continued in next post).
>>
>>2577115
One of the two surviving FG, a narcissistic prick in the Hegemony Stitchers’ view, was brought (with its extremities bound) in front of Riike. Zu'Zu'oot demanded to know why the Hegemony had killed the FG after they betrayed the MS forces. This was followed by a complaint about the accommodations and not being released yet. Riike was quick to respond that the hegemony would not trust those that have already betrayed their allies not to betray the hegemony. As a second response he told the FG that inferior unsymmetric beings had no right to complain when the glorious Stitchers did as they please. Before Zu'Zu'oot was led out to be sent to the Voltanites Riike gave a remark about it being a shame that Emra gave the FG powerful bodies but not the intelligence to use them properly.

>*another post is soon to follow*
>>
File: Deal with it.png (24 KB, 244x185)
24 KB
24 KB PNG
Rolled 5, 3, 7, 5 = 20 (4d8)

>>2577125
Riike was discussing the future of Torray with Y’I’r when he received the message. They had arrived. He stepped out of his tent to find their four green eyes scrutinizing him. A Stitcher wearing silver chains announced:

“Her excellency Iuliu and his excellency Iriti; Matriarch-Patriarch of House Diamond, Elders of the Colony Carnelian, and Hegemons of Northern and Central Torray as well as Foltania!”

The two struck quite an imposing pose. As most of House Diamond, they were more straight-backed than ordinary Stitchers. The common stitcher described it as if house diamond couldn’t decide if they wanted to be Grabrafs or Stitchers. Riike, however, knew better. That physiology was a sign of the Blessed One in their ancestry, the founder of House Diamond and the Carnelian Colony; D’ieetri’’ Diamond.

“My Lord-pair”

“Stand up, Riike. You are a friend, and friends don’t kneel before one another.” Iuliu gently patted his shoulders. Iriti asked where the surviving commander was being held and Riike led the way. When asked what the two were planning on doing, Luliu smiled and answered: “The times are changing, my friend.”

House Diamond had realized that this continuous fighting was unsustainable in the long run; productivity faltered as thousands of lives were lost in battle instead of working for the colonies, the colonies’ treasuries ran dry as supplies had to be continuously funded and word had spread by the way of the Voltanites that threats too large for the small Stitcher states to handle lurked out in the world. Old enmities would have to be set aside. The Diamonds would instead op for a policy of a pair of open hands and a pair of closed fists. Proposals were sent to the houses Sardonyx, Moonstone, Azurite and Peridot:

The foundation of a new kind of state based on shared beliefs, customs and scripture; a confederacy of sorts. Here every member would maintain their ways and freedom to self-determinate, with a couple of limitations. The state would have the main role in handling external affairs and war. The state would also have the right to create certain laws in order to stop member-colonies from treating other member-colonies differently in trade etc. Finally, the state would ask the members to help maintain a common military. In this new system the model of the Council of “Six” and life-time elections would be used. Each member-colony having a place in the Council; The hegemony only standing out by having the deciding vote in the Council during stalemates.

>The Moonstone and Sardonyx houses are offered to have their surviving Stitchers returned, and the forces on the Sardonyx island removed. The Heliotropes will instead be paid in treasures by the Hegemony and aided in expanding south or north depending on their chosing. (dice +2, given the circumstances)
>Azurites and Peridots are invited, but nothing outside of the obvious advantages are offered.
>>
>>2577301
A message landed on the purest of white stone, etched into it's surface, readable when the shadows highlighted the lettering. Pompous. "General Riike, a congratulations is in order on your victory over our lessers and those who would not heed to your strength. We of the Whitestone empire have learned of your new unity, and it's many stipulations. While we desire nothing more than total unity of the Stitchers, we must put fourth a preemptive list requirements if we were to even consider joining this confederation.

1. All must be white.
2. All NG must be purged from the southern isles. PURGED.
3. Rithism is accepted in all territories.
4. The NG must be slain to the individual.
5. Stitcher territory is for stitchers, not outsiders.

If this is of issue, please understand, we are content to live and let live. The islands are a big place, and there has been enough shed symmetry already."
>>
File: LISTEN UP 2.png (213 KB, 2120x2440)
213 KB
213 KB PNG
>>2577301
The Moonstones were willing to accept the offer. With the decades of fighting, they had come to grow tired of it. Many longed for the days of the quiet farming life. Others saw the opportunity to explore the sciences more freely once more.

House Sardonyx reluctantly agreed to the offer. With their army gone and another staring down their neck, they couldn’t afford to say no. Others saw the opportunities in the whole deal; Imagine! A whole continent free to travel within and sell your services to! Killing while not having to worry as much about being killed!

The Azurites, now fast friends with the Hegemony, enthusiastically agreed to the deal. They had seen the riches that being friends with the Hegemony brought. And it would also mean it being a lot less likely for them to be dragged into war on either side of the Hegemony. Everything was swell!

House Peridot were not very willing to agree to the proposal, but seeing how they would be left alone in middle Torray, surrounded by a single faction and no friends, they came to the conclusion: “If you can’t beat them, join them!” Thus they agreed to join this new state.

House Heliotrope, already a free member of the Hegemony (part of the alliance) would tag along due to similar reasons. That, and the offer given to them was quite tempting.

This Confederacy would come to be called “The Crystal Orthodoxy” or “The Orthodoxy” for short. All colonies had agreed on the name, for the one thing that united them was also the thing that separated them from the Empire in the south: A belief in the true teachings of Stitcherness.


>Rolling for where the Heliotropes will expand (1) (1-4 south; 5-8 north) and the success of it (2).
>>
Rolled 6, 2 = 8 (2d8)

>>2577373
>>
File: opt heliotrope.png (952 KB, 4168x2572)
952 KB
952 KB PNG
Rolled 2, 4 = 6 (2d8)

>>2577357
>>2577382

After two weeks of deliberation in the Council of Six (The leader pair not having been chosen yet) a response was sent south:
1. White comes from the reflecting of all light. Darkness comes from the absorption of light, this we carry the light inside of us. By letting yourselves be white you have left your insides dark and vulnerable to possession from Dark Elves. By changing yourselves you have traded away part of what made you Stitchers for the glory of ideology. That is sinful. You speak heresy as if it was scripture. Say no more lest you anger us.
2. We have only heard stories of these NG you speak of from the Nekonahu and Voltanites. The ability to reason is one of Stitcher-kinds’ fundamental strengths. Explain your reasons and we might agree.
3. Rithism has been taken to heart by many of our people during the wars of year. Rithism adds to the understanding of what it means to be Stitcher in an era of constant change. This stipulation can be agreed upon, however, what does Rithism entail to your kind?
4. Se point 2.
5. Fundamentally we agree, but Trading outposts set up by outsiders have only been to our benefit. While heretical, the Nekonahu and Voltanites have come to be close trading partners with us. Outsiders should be kept from Stitcher territory, but trade and diplomacy should be encouraged… * in small print: for now.

The Heliotrope ships get caught in a storm. Tossed about according to its whims, all the Stitchers can do is pray to symmetry that they will survive this.
>Rolling for number of survivors
>Rolling for where they make landfall.
>>
>>2577529
A response comes quickly.

Points 3 and 5 are fully agreed upon.
-3, Rithism is as it always was, as it was by the Tektites; to endure in the face of change, to embrace as needed, and to serve the community, to kill dark elves with electricity, and shun their ways.

Of points 2 and 4. We have accumulated much history from our people of their obvious aggression and behavior. They breed rapidly, and within a generation without molestation could outnumber all stitchers. Their virtues are simple, to kill all who would enslave, yet their definition of such is quite broad. They also put themselves first. In our land there cannon be two who come first. We must come first, and only. Our foreign trade partners are also acutely aware of their behaviors in the past, and thier focus on the genocide of the "thinking grabraf" phenotype. Simply put, they are a threat now, a larger threat in the future, we strike with or without you, but should we fall, let our reason echo with you.

1. We embrace perfection. If the population is free to choose perfection of all color, so be it. Light cannot penetrate our hides, so within we are all dark, within we all make the choice of heresy or righteousness. we display a choice to elevate ourselves to a duty of purity upon our skin and in every aspect of life. Make no mistake assuming us to be..fashionable.
--
And so the diplomacy continues.
>>
--Voltanite Event: Ka'zei's Legacy--
The final years of the now Lord Ka'zei Nohirin life, the senior and now worldly experienced TG looked to the uncertain future of the Voltanite and Stitcher Colonies of Foltania. Ka'zei for decades had been an essential lynchpin in the fostering of Stitcher diplomacy largely on the behalf of the Voltanite Empire. He, and the now infamous "Diamond Dust Brigade" that consisted of four militia companies of TG, PG, and CG individualshand-picked by Ka'zei himself that were taught the intricate culture and social norms of the Stitcher were the only members of the Voltanite Empire that actively interacted and visited Stitcher territory. Only times civilian merchants and tradesmen of the Voltanites actually encountered or interacted with Stitcher was at the co-occupied territory of the Foltanian trade town.

To Ka'zei the social and culture disconnect of their two races was far greater than even the adversity harbored by the Nomad Grabraf of Skrigjaarda and Ostralja back in his homeland. The old, graying TG visibly feared the possibly of any advisor that would succeed him after his death, which felt ever closer these days. He often pondered in recent years on how he could preserve his legacy of kinship with the Stitcher of the Carnelian Hegemony.

So when Ka'zei had received news from a now close friend of the Carnelian colonies of recent events in the Torray Isles, the TG saw an opportunity for that legacy he spent his life nurturing to live on for generations. The last 15 or so years, Ka'zei had been generously offering Voltanite armaments to the Carnelians to aid in a vaguely described war back in their homelands of the Torray Isles. Recent news from his friend, an overly confiding Praetor, named O'rik" told him of their recent victory. Seizing the moment, he asked O'rik" an unorthodox and likely risky request for both his friend and himself.

>Would you be able to grant myself and the Diamond Dust Brigade passage to "The Crystal Orthodoxy"? I feel an official meeting of our two nations is now a matter of critical nature in further strengthening the bond of our two peoples for the generations to come.

Ka'zei waited as days, then months passed in agonizing limbo. The TG had honestly feared that his friend O'rik" may have been killed for acting out of station, or fraternizing with a "dark elf" as some of the Stitcher would often refer to them as. At last though a reply was sent back to him from the trade outpost hewn on a slab of pristinely crafted carnelian.

>Gather your brothers and sister Grabraf friend. You are granted entrance to the capital of 'Ee'i'i'i'ee"r"ii in 6 weeks time.

For the first time in decades, Ka'zei felt a spark of youth return in him. He had heard the gutteral, and at times thought to be nonsensical uttering of this entity before; yet only now did he learn it was their nation's capital.

The old TG gathered his subordinates, and ornate gifts as he readied a ship to sail for the Torray Isles.
>>
Rolling for Stitcher Gatlin Guns using the rifled combustion guns from the Grabrafs and composite crystal armour.
>>
Rolled 2, 8 = 10 (2d8)

>>2578871
>>
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2577529
At the storm’s mercy, only a third of the Heliotrope ships survive the journey. Despite the adversity those who arrive set up their outpost and begin building what they hope to be a sister colony to that of their homeland in the future. However, One by one the inhabitants begin to fall ill; bleeding from their eyes and orifices. Before they realize what is happening it is all too late. A population capable of sustaining itself does not survive. The few that live through the disease instead move back home or to the nearby Stitcher territories. All that remains of the Heliotropes’ hopes and dreams are the crystal skeletons of unfinished structures.
>>2577373

A matter of great concern to the future stability of the Orthodoxy would have to be resolved. Just before the founding of the Crystal Orthodoxy, Riike and House Carnelian had been given the territories held by the Hegemony on the middle Torray Island as well as the Foltanian colonies as a reward for their sacrifices in what would come to be called “The Long War” or “The Founding War” by historian weavers. It was in the southern territories that Riike settled down after it was all over. He married a female half his age from a small house in the lands now ruled by House Quartz, whom he had met during the war, and had three broods of pups with her. Together they would rule the Carnelian territories as matriarch-patriarch for 15 years before Riike passed away due to old age. The Orthodoxy Council found itself debating how the history-slabs should deal which such a controversial figure. In circles of the confederacy which had fought against the Hegemony during the war, Riike was often referred to as “The Butcher of the Quartz Field”. In the northern territories and by the former vassal-states he was instead hailed as the bringer of the Pax Orthodoxorum. The collective minds of the Orthodoxy would have to forget him or remember him in a more unifying way.

>Cultural roll

>Continued in next post
>>
File: ballot-696x464[1].jpg (16 KB, 696x464)
16 KB
16 KB JPG
Rolled 7, 4, 4, 7, 1, 6, 2 = 31 (7d8)

>>2579195
>>2577608
The Orthodoxy answered.

2. In regards to the NG, we have just met with the eastern leadership of the Voltanite Empire. They confirmed your claim that the NG are an aggressive, vile and stupid race hellbent on swallowing the continents of Essari, already populated or not. We agree with you; the NG will have to be destroyed. But we do not trust your kind enough to work with you. Therefore, you have our blessing in destroying them. We will look on as you do. If you, in your efforts, start losing we will come to your aid against the common foe; but only then.

1. Whiteness is a choice? What choice did the Rhodochrosites have when their armies were crushed and their people forced to convert? What choice did the minor houses of the Whitestone Empire have when they at gun-point were led into the white towers, their Stitcherness twisted and perverted. You speak of choice and acceptance, yet your actions speak louder still. We are not as accepting as you claim to be. We will remain true to the Stitcher’s plight and stand against those who don’t. We will remain true to ourselves. We will remain true to Stitcherness.

It was a special occasion: The Council of Houses was assembling on an even year, during an even month, on an even week and day, during an even hour. It was time to elect the first Matriarch-Patriarch pair to rule the Orthodoxy. The candidates where many, but only a few Houses had a chance at winning (7 rolls. Highest roll wins):

> House Diamond, much liked and often being attributed with the founding of the confederacy (+3).
> House Carnelian, receiving strong support from the former vassals of the Hegemony, but disliked by many other Houses (+2)
> House Moonstone, Nowadays seen as a voice of moderation during internal affairs (+2)
> House Azurite, well liked for having stayed mostly neutral during the war (+1)
> House Sardonyx, not very liked but capable of influencing many of the greater houses.
> House Heliotrope, the most culturally conservative faction in the Orthodoxy.
> House Sandstone, seen as outsiders capable of being somewhat unbiased when push comes to shove, but disliked due to their strange physique (-1).
>>
Rolled 5, 4 = 9 (2d8)

>>2578388
--Voltanite Event: Ka'zei's Legacy Part 2--
After some 10 days of preparations were made, Ka'zei and his Diamond Dust Brigade depart on a month long journey to the Torray Isles aboard three Cannonback Destroyers, some of the first of the Voltanite Empire's modernized and soon to be massive navy.

The difference in speed of Grabrafian ships from a century ago and now was a true feat of the Voltanite's technological progress as these steal clad ships sailed across the seas towards the Torray Isles.

Their approach could be see be Orthodoxy patrol vessels from miles away, via the telltale plumes of blackened smog belching from the Cannonback engines. Stitcher cruisers or ornately colored crystal flanked Ka'zei's hulking steel vessels as they were guided into the Torrine Chain towards shores of House Diamond.

With only little issue in part to the size of the Voltanite ships in comparison to the Stitcher vessels, Ka'zei's ships made port at 'Ee'i'i'i'ee"r"ii. His subordinates of the Diamond Dust Brigade disembarked wearing nothing more than the shoulder guards, helms, and necklace of cryst bearing their names in Stitcherkind tongue. They brought with them many gifts, of great value to them to appeal to the Matriarch-Patriarch pair of House Diamond: A hive of Soilbees, hides and pelts of animals from their homelands and beyond, ceremonial weapons crafted by some of the finest CG artisans, jewelery made of ivory and coral (unknown materials to the Stitcher), seeds of braffipine trees for the production of Bracinmon Spice, and even a tamed juvenile Plains Broulder. They also brought along Voltanite Steel, Bracinmon Spice, and other sought after goods from their own Empire, but these were thought to be icing on the cake.

After two days of rest in Ee'i'i'i'ee"r"ii, Ka'zei was at last given a chance for audience with the nobles and matriarch-patriarch pair that now held rule over The Crystal Orthodoxy. The TG truly did not know what would be in store for him, but self-trained by decades of cultural immersion, he and his companies of Grabraf approached the great cryst palace with open minds, kneeling before the king and queen.

(Need a formal response from House Diamond here)
Two politcal rolls
One for initial reception of the Voltanites by the Matriarch-Patriarch (4+ is preferable reaction)
One for reaction to the gifts. (3+ is good reaction)
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

>>2579195
The true and accepted story of Riike would become one not of a butcher, but the ideal Stitcher. During the war he had shown to have an iron will and steadfastness to his cause. The ending of the war would become a story of how Riike, in his benevolence, spared the surrendered MS forces and returned them to their families. Not one of how he strangled a weaver to death with its own guts. It was he who had brought peace to Torray and laid the foundation upon which the Orthodoxy could be born. Post mortem he was given the title “Father of The Crystal Orthodoxy” and a statue of him was raised on the very node that the Hegemony-MS battle was fought.

Inspired by the Grabraf foreigners and brought on by an inferiority complex after having been the battle ground of the Long War, the Stitcher houses of Quartz had begun bodybuilding and practicing aerobics. In the colony, Stitchers could be seen lifting weights and dancing to the screeching music blasting out of speakers. They believed that they could come closer to the perfection of Stitcherness and symmetry by honing and perfecting their bodies. Sometimes when Nekonahu traders inquired about their culture and religion, the Stitchers of House Quartz would say (partly joking and partly in honesty) that their bodies were their temples.

>Rolling for the spread of Fitness (Bodybuilding and Aerobics) throughout the Crystal Orthodoxy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCyTijJzEwo&index=2&list=PL4A10B7D9D05F7662&t=0s

>>2579217

The Matriarch-Patriarch pair looked upon Ka'zei as he knelt. The two of them were standing in front of their thrones, both wearing silver and diamond jewelry, accentuating the grayish hues of their skin. Luliu was the first to break the silence: “Please stand, friend of the Orthodoxy. You must be tired from having journeyed so far to be here this day.” The pair both walked down the stairs towards Ka'zei as he rose up. When they were within reaching distance of him, both put a hand each on his shoulders; a sign of mutual respect. Iriti, the male, spoke: “We have much to discuss, old Blessed One.” Ka'zei’s eyes met his: “That we have, that we have…”

The court is thankful for the gifts they receive. Some Stitchers take it as a personal offence that the Voltanites only could spare a single broulder. One does not give gifts in uneven numbers unless intended as an insult. However, these stitchers are quickly turned around when they get a taste of the Voltanite Steel appetizers. Mistakenly they believe the bars to be intended as food, and they love it; A bloody-iron taste that can only be matched by a good southern Soumalainen jewol steak. The Voltanites are invited to join in the merriment and feasting until they either pass out or an uneven dawn grows.
>>
>>2579228
--Voltanite Event: Ka'zei's Legacy Part 3--
Like many interactions Ka'zei and his subordinate companies of Grabraf have experienced with Stitcher of the colonies, the feast in the Diamond palace was a social activity familiar in many aspects, and absolutely bizarre in others. This particular event was on a whole another to anything the Lord TG, or his kin had experienced before.

They watched on humbly as the Stitcher consumed whole bars of Voltanite steel like it was candied Hurkun meat as the Grabraf were served the succulent but crunchy in texture Soumalainen Jewol steak; a delicacy of The Crystal Orthodoxy. Some of the newer members of the Diamond Dust Brigade tried to hide minor pain of chewing the meat laced with cryst fragments, of which some Stitcher of the court comedically reacted to the young Grabrafs in their struggle, a few nobles gasping for air in-between cackling clicks.

The feast carried on well into the night, under many of both the Grabraf and Stitcher were gorged on the seemingly boundless feast. Ka'zei and only a few of his most trusted subordinates retired with the Matriarch-Patriarch pair and their nobles from a few of the neighboring houses and the praetor guard to a picturesque royal garden. The faint light of the two full moons softly illuminated the cryst orchids and glowtrees of the garden, with more natural plants mixed among them.

The two parties shared many stories and idle discussion on some frivolous political matter, both foreign and domestic to each respective group. Then as the evening drew to a close, Ka'zei finally spoke directly to Iriti and Luliu.

>I've been blessed with a long life, and long thought my purpose in life to be how to best forge not only an alliance, but a kinship between our two kinds. Many of my own kind do not share a proper appreciation for your ways, and in part its due to their own ignorance to learn. Yet, here in my eyes I have come to see the splendor of your kind, compared even to my own. I have recently fear what may become or our two people's kinship in the years after I leave this life, with so many of my own people stalwartly to appreciating any other's symmetry but their own.

The old TG pauses as his symbiote lithely looked onto the night sky.
>I wish to do anything in my power to preserve the bond between our races. Though I feel our races may be too different to ever hope to join together as one, due in part to your people's higher symmetry; perhaps we may be able to continue standing together as two intwined allies in this vast world of ours.

Ka'zei's intent was made clear in further discussion. He wished to see a continued nurturing of their two nations long after both him and the Patriarch-Matriarch pair passed on. For this new policy would need to be forged, but it may yet be possible.

(I'm not gonna really decide this interaction on a GM roll, so I leave it to the discretion of my players to decide how this story continues. You of course may roll for this.)
>>
File: stitcher bot.png (97 KB, 2217x2281)
97 KB
97 KB PNG
Rolled 3, 8, 6, 7 = 24 (4d8)

It was long decades since the dolomites had joined to the Whitestone empire. Long decades of research and development. The machine was crude, but symmetrical. The color was wrong, but thus far white crystals had been too fragile. Still, today, it would stride out, the first of it's kind.
--
As the sun rose, somewhere on the other side of the island chain a great understanding was coming to conclusion. Here, a great preparation for war was made ready. The two man crew looked at their Empire's creation, and saw that it was good. Climbing up and into the "crown", the controls in front of them were intuitive enough. feed cables provided it ample electricity from the node. It was time to begin.
--
Rolling for: Basic mobility (walking, slow arm movements), Advanced mobility (running, fast arm movements and abrupt stops), Durability (wear from falling and walking about), Shock testing (getting shot and beat on.)
>>
File: 1526626533766.png (78 KB, 2436x1736)
78 KB
78 KB PNG
Rolled 2, 8 = 10 (2d8)

>>2579886
The prototype was very clumsy at low speeds, it's muscle bundles prone to violent uncontrolled bursts of speed and twitch movements, often yanking the operator's hands along with the controls. While mostly upright, it would on occasion fall during slow speed testing. The Generals of the whitestone army collectively grimaced. It was not good.

The Crew however vindicated themselves, and simply gave into the demands of the machine, It simply wanted to go fast. In this capability, it was perfect. Terrifyingly so. It moved every bit as fluidly as a stitcher should, it's great body thundering across dirt, beach, and even stony outcropping. The ambitious crew scaled up a crystal tower just to see if it could be done. The violent movement was abrasive to the joints, and stress fractures were found here and there, but nothing that could not be fixed in field.

Finally, the true test came. Prisoners accused of consorting with dark elves piloted second line and obsolete equipment. Runners, loudmouth cannons. They were unaware of their opponent, only that should they slay it, they would become full citizens of the Whitestone empire, their sins forgotten. Instead they died. Died horrifically as the prototype had no weapons, just its body. Crushed, torn in half, or simply trod under foot. The machine was ready...

A brief sample of the final report was emblazoned across the machine's torso. "and we looked upon the Stitcherbot and saw that it was good." Unknown to the generals, a second prototype was already in development. Lacking many of the more advanced features, it was a feasibility test for mass production.

>rolling 2d8 for stitcherbot mass production and resource efficency
>>
Rolled 8, 1, 4 = 13 (3d8)

>>2579228

Stitchers of House Quartz were jumping around to the rhythm of the music blasting from the speakers, flexing their honed bodies as they did. The visiting Stitchers were not amused. The Heliotrope ambassador even started screaming at the top of his lungs. These newfangled things were simply too much for his traditionalist heart to handle. Fitness would remain a Quartz colony only thing.

The Orthodoxy set its sights north. Thus far, much of the southern coast of Foltania had been explored but still the heartland of the continent and its northern coast remained empty in the Stitchers’ maps. An expedition was sent. Its mission to explore the entirety of Foltania’s coast.

Also doing a pair of tech rolls:
>Rolling for Refrigeration & Taxonomy
>Rolling for exploration of Foltania by sea (try to sail around it)
>>
Rolled 2, 8, 6, 3, 8, 1 = 28 (6d8)

>>2579951
The Stitcherbots were built off of tried and true methods, and were actually very conservative of resource. The big problem was simply that they were BIG. The ability to mass produce components of that size was taxing, even for the empire. If the Orthodoxy had participated, perhaps they too could enjoy the fruits of this labor, alas. they had not. These units would not be legion, but they would lead the battle. Avatars of Stitcher Superiority, Heroes given form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWHlOIKr_oY

Weaponization and other advancements would likely happen in field.
--
rolling:
ST: shard cannons, automatic wepaons
NG: Guerilla warfare tactics, landmines
FG: biological Solar collection, construct intelligence
>>
Rolled 1 (1d8)

>>2580017
Setting of from the northern colony and following the western coast line, five explorer-class ships set out. When rounding the trifolt delta, one of the ships started having difficulties. Then the crew believed they saw something; smoke rising from land. Was someone living there or was it just a natural forest-fire? Making a discovery roll in regards to the C.tripod colony. 1-4 they aren't discovered; 5-8 they are.
>>
>>2580034
The stitchers had to relegate themselves to using conventional shot instead of advanced crystalline shards. However their development of an automatic feeding mechanism based off of crystal muscle action was to be commended. Soon across the land, the technology leaked out, its application was simple, really, and its lack of existence more of an oversight than an innovation to most. What was truly their pride was the simplicity of the mechanisms allowed for a reliable rate of fire never before seen in the world.

Loudmouth cannons became louder their endless "BRRRRRRT" a thing of pride. While not accurate, they made for impromptu saturation artillery when nothing else was available.
--
The NG knew war was on the horizon, and soon entire villages embraced the concept of Guerilla warfare. They would meet their enemie's organized lines and formations with chaos.
--
The FG laughed, Emra had truly blessed them. The sun's bountiful energy was now theirs to enjoy, from the mightiest construct, down to the individual Grabraf cell. This would have been a transformative moment in their collective empires, had not the constructs gone rogue. In their arrogance, they created something new in their image. It was to be an intelligent avatar, something that could do exploration for them, serve well, and make decisions, even with emotion. It did all of this and MORE, it asked why, and in turn, was treated like a defective machine. Sadly for the FG, the constructs could reproduce themselves quicker than they were disassembled early on, and soon a full blow insurrection had taken place.

The FG in their desperation, would seek any and all allies available, far and wide. Which lead them to reach out to the NG, Stitchers, Voltanites, and in a stroke of luck, they discovered a colony to the far north. It had strange sky born machines moving much faster than one could imagine. Their first meeting, would be one of shock. They assumed the creatures were the Tripods, but instead it was a cousin species. Intriguing.
--
For the Whitestone empire, the population mobilized for war. Great ships laiden with Stitcherbots, Runners, quad legged gun runners, cannons, infantry and more were piled into ships and made ready. Today the great physical removal would begin.
>>
Rolled 5, 4, 8 = 17 (3d8)

>>2580144
For the Crystal Ortodoxy, the grand conclusion to the Voltanite's request would be the greatest gift the Voltanites had to offer. A grand learning academy. Ka'zei's Legacy would be secured, as individual volunteers would spend several decades learning the unique culture and language of each other, an impossible task for a normal citizen with a life and duties, but to a devotee, quite possible. These rare few would act as bridges between the two. In time the documented history of Ka'zei would be compounded into a popular tome, and series of edible tablets, often consumed on a celebratory day.
--
Within the whitestone empire, an age of mechanization had taken hold quite quickly. With recent communication between themselves and the Ortodoxy, things seemed to be on the mend. much smaller, lighter, versions of the runner legs were sold overseas as a popular commodity. Lasers had been put to work for decades now, and were often used to augment Stitcher Theater with their colorful display. However, two major occurrences had begun to shock the population. More and more Stitchers were born with EXTRA symmetry. A great debate raged on if they had been tainted by the dark elves, if the FG were dark elves, and if extra symmetry was extra correct, or extra heretical. The point was nearly forgone as it seemed nearly all who were treated to be white not only gave birth to white stitchers, but ones with an extra set of arms. The secret was hard to keep out, yet many argued it appealed to their unique and artisanal nature.

It was concluded that this was not heretical, and was in fact good and stitchery. The FG who brought them whiteness were often naked, and thus could not be dark elves. However the FG came to them in a time of war, and asked for aid as the great NG purge began. While not able to fully refuse them, they could only offer them token assistance in the form of pilots to operate their biological constructs. They also request FG aid in removing the NG.
--
For all stitchers, across the land, a strange noise was coming from their radios on certain frequencies. Another language. It was...odd. For the FG, who had made contact with the CT, they knew the source. The Cocky Tripods were growing their presence on the land, unmolested and unaware. Despite their arrogance, they chose to keep both parties in the dark about their mutual existence, for the cultural clashes would be inevitable, the Tripods fit the perfect description of what a dark elf should be.
--

rolling for: Whitestone initial offensive, assistance from whitestone colonies, and an FG response.
>>
>>2580249
interlude music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=14&v=i119LgMDIXI

>tfw this entire thread is actually a play in stitcher theater. the twist.
>>
Rolled 7, 1, 8, 8 = 24 (4d8)

Doing tech rolls for the last 48 hours on behalf of the Voltanite Empire

Rolling for tech in the following priority:
Telegraph, Scientific Theory, Taxnomy, Sanitation

--Voltanite Event: Ka'zei's Legacy Conclusion--
The Nohirin family, of which Ka'zei is a descendent of had nearly seven centuries of history within the Voltan Isles and modern day Voltanite Empire. While they were never too prominent an influence on the true direction of the Empire for much of its existence, the Nohirin bloodline is vast and there descendents can be found throughout the nation. In the case of Lord Commodore Ka'zei Nohirin he was a proud father of two young TG, the youngest of which was only now entering her youthful prime. These two descendants would become the first two Grabrafs of soon to be many to join the Voltanite-Orthodoxy program. This learning academy that is operated and attended by Stitcher and Grabraf alike provided the long dreamt of solution to preserving and passing on the well nurtured relationship of the Voltanite Empire and The Crystal Orthodoxy.

Seeing his two children voluntarily and gracious accept the role of being his successors in the program brought forth streams of tears, as Ka'zei then chose to return home to Sujardin to spent the last of his days in his homeland. The venerated TG died six years later after the first enrollment of Grabraf and Stitcher into the program.

To forever honor and commemorate his actions, the Voltanite Empire chose to rename the East Voltanite Trading Colonies to the Ka'zeinohr Province, and his direct blood relatives and descendents ascended to the rank of nobility. In the trade outpost in Foltania stood a great statue hewn by the finest Orthodoxy Weavers atop a masterfully crafted pedestal of Voltanite stonework and long golden pole held by the statue of Ka'zei brandishing a burning flame that was made sure to never extinguish. The trade town had now expanded into a great city to encompass both Stitcher scholars of the Orhtodoxy and the students and teachers of the Voltanite Empire.

It was here in this lone city where Stitcher and Grabraf met in the pursuit of peace and progress that the dream of Ka'zei Nohirin would be passed on for generations to come.

The quote on the stone pedestal of Ka'zei's memorial written in the Grabrafian and Stitcher script reads as such.
>"Here in this city is where a brilliant fire stands. May it cast a light into the unknown and shine away the fears and reservations you hold. May the flame never be used as a barrier to separate our two distinct peoples, rather let it be a warm hearth to bring us together. Two shadows dancing around the fire, flickering in pure symmetry."
>>
File: spidertank.png (80 KB, 620x456)
80 KB
80 KB PNG
okay so just so we have it before the NG war, here's the newest whitestone warmachine, a bit more practical than the stitcherbot - the spidertank is a versitile, maneuvarable tank armoured in the new composite crystals and mounted with four of the new automatic weapons,

They are entirely capable of swimming, though constant movement is needed to keep them above water so it drains muscles and more importantly battery quickly. still, they are highly useful for amphibious assault, especially if carried part of the way.

coloured and improved version coming tomorrow
>>
>>2580548
I just hope to stitchergod there is another gunner behind the pulpit, and another driver under it.
>>
>>2580555
there's another gunner but the driver is paired not with another stitcher but with the spiderbot itself.
>>
--CivEvo Progress Report--
The Stitcher have reveled in their golden age of innovations, both consolidating their own squabbling houses, and building great machines and scientific breakthroughs.
The NG of Rayya find themselves boxed in within the Suomalalinen Islands. Now they watch as once perceived friend the Stitcher now taking position to storm their new home. This pristine paradise.
The FG through continuous adaptation and tinkering in the Emra-inspired fields of Bio-Engineering, finally reach the milestones that may potentially open the doors for FG into the Industrial Age.

(Tier 4) Renaissance
Banking (Need Currency)
Calculus (Need Mathematics)
Chemistry (Need Alchemy)
Machinery (Need Engineering)
Metallurgy (Need Chemistry)
Navigation (Need Compass & Astronomy)
Plumbing (Need Architecture & Metal Casting)
Printing Press (Need Engineering & Machinery)

(Tier 5) Industrial Age [Tech Limit of FG & NG]
Biology (Need Scientific Theory)
Industrialization (Need Machinery & Metallurgy)
Rifling (Need Metal Casting)
Sanitation (Need Plumbing & Scientific Theory)
Scientific Theory (Need Laws of Physics)
Steam Power (Need Engineering & Machinery)
Taxonomy (Need Scientific Theory & Biology)
Telegraph (Need Industrialization)

(Tier 6) Age of Invention
Atomic Theory (Need Scientific Theory)
Ballistics (Need Rifling)
Combustion Engine (Need Steam Power & Industrialization)
Electricity (Need Industrialization)
Flight (Need Combustion Engine)
Plastics (Need Industrialization)
Radio (Need Telegraph)
Refrigeration (Need Electricity)

--Sapient Technology/Cultural Advancement Rules--
• A poster ID may make up to two rolls for each Sapient race in a 24 hour period.
• A poster ID may make up to three cultural related advancements in a 24 hour period.
• Sapients may only roll for technologies above their current tech level (as shown in the pdf file attached) if they 6 or more technologies known of their current technological stage.
• For the first technology to be taught to a sapient organism, a poster must roll a 5 or higher of a 1d8 roll to successfully implement/learn a new technology (put "dice+1d8" in the options field when posting.)
• Rolls for Nomad Grabraf must be a 6 or higher.
• Any poster may freely roll for sapient exclusive technological advancements via a 1d8 roll. (The context of the technology in related to the sapient races current technological state would heavily influence how successfully the technology is implemented.)
• Technologies can be learned through interactions with other races and would require a 1d8 roll from a poster that is a 6 or higher. (Only one roll at this per day for any poster.)
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful the technology is implemented into a sapient tribe. (This will result will also determine whether positive or negative cultural events will occur to the sapient organisms.)
>>
Rolled 6, 6, 7 = 19 (3d8)

>>2580249
--Torray Isles Event: The Rayyan Defense Front--

For decades now the NG watched on from the peaceful islands of the Suomalalinen as the Stitcher of the northern isles continued to fight and slowly consume their surrogate countries until only the strongest remained.

Such folly is the concept of nations, thought many of the NG elders. For centuries now they watched as the will of one group of beings resulted in violence, massacring another group of beings that often times are of the exact same race. It was ridiculous for them to have even considered the Stitcher, what with their quasi "Houses" to be in any way different from the Grabrafs they had met in Sujardin. They could never understand the glory of the world stretched out before them by the great Skrigjaarden. They chose instead to remain anchored to the AA-Nodes they had so arrogantly called home. Their cities, marvels of ornate beauty as they may be, were now seen by the NG of Rayya as nothing more than a desecration of the AA-Nodes that Skrigjaarden had created for all races to share in their bounties, however misguided they may be.

So the Stitcher were dubbed to be mere pretenders of the Skrigjaarden pathos, exploiting the AA-Nodes for their resources and not appreciating them for what these natural monuments truly are. This adversity only grew as the NG witnessed the desecration of more AA-Nodes as Stitcher bearing snow-white skin began to construct their crystalline cities on AA-Nodes resting off the coast of their nomadic lands. Their intent was becoming clear by the day. These white Stitcher wished to retake the Suomalalinen Islands.

So the elders gathered and for weeks on end debated the now rapidly developing situation. Their numbers and fighting strength of individual NG may have been great, and they may have held the advantage of these opposing Stitcher having to come to them to fight; but they knew that these white Stitcher would not come bearing only weapons they could carry in their four arms. Rumors and glimpses of great machines being sighted on the shoals edge of the seaborne AA-Nodes the Stitcher were occupying. They had amassed many of these great machines, and dozens, if not hundreds of crystalline ships could now be seen by NG scout vessels moored along the AA-Nodes.

Finally, the elders of Rayya concluded their debated and called for gathering of most if not all the NG the following evening to announce their next course of action. Before that evening the elder voted between three modes of action to take in the coming conflict. They would not just surrender the island, but they feared that victory was far from assured. So three of the best proposals by the elders were voted on.

Option 1: Amass as many of the creatures of the Suomalalinen Islands and surrounding seas to aid them in the war.
Option 2: Attempt an ambush at sea on the White Stitcher invasion force, using the Migrant Fleet.
Option 3: Utilize full-on guerilla warfare tactics against the Stitcher.
>>
>>2580568
passably non-heretical. You win this round, revisionist.
>>
Rolled 2, 6, 6, 7 = 21 (4d8)

>>2580831
ST: Electromagnetism, Radar/Sonar
NG: Reverse engineering of: Metalurgy, Printing press
FG: Calculus, Interdisciplinary theory
--
It was an extreme longshot, but the Whitestone Empire sent a missive to the FGs via one of their merchants.

"We prepare for war with the Nomads, to take back what was ours. We both have conflict with our enemies, seemingly created by our own hands. Ours through admitted laxity. Herein lies a proposal, we must remove the NG. You require manpower, would you not import the population, should they be willing? High above there is no conflict or vying for power. Perhaps they will see reason from another party."

rolling for willingness of FGs to even speak with NGs
>>
Rolled 4, 6, 2 = 12 (3d8)

>>2580831
Crowds of hundreds of thousands gathered in the central communes of each island in the Suomalalinen. The NG masses are affirmed of their fears that NG elders and head warriros of Rayya now can nearly assure them that an attack from the White Stitcher on their homelands would occur in the coming days.

>"We do not know why these white stitcher are choosing this course of action. We have been nothing but cordial towards their demonstrably reckless actions towards not only our people that wished to be friend to them, but to also now desecrate more of the sacred idols of Skrigjaarden.

After a brief pause, to let his words resonate and be passed along through the swathes of quiet yet now fearful NG. The Rayyan elder continues.

>"We do not have any guarantee of victory in the coming conflict. Rest assure though that if Skrigjaarden is truly with us, then we need not fear. For we have faced many hardships as one people, and through the blessing of Skrigjaarden we were given the strength to overcome our plight so many centuries ago. We will prevail once more. For Skrigjaarden demands it!"

The rousing speech of the NG elders helped to raise the spirits of it citizens. The non-combatants of the NG were relocated to Nadlan and the southernmost islands of the Suomalalinen. Perhaps a million or so young, old and sick NG gathered on the islands praying for the success of the Grabraf in the coming war. Meanwhile, the militia forces of nearly four million NG began to setup traps, ambushes, and launch sites for hundreds, even thousands of Pterrortails. Their corrosive spit had been tested on the cryst walls left behind from a century ago, and they had proven to be surprisingly effective. It may be their one true advantage, possibly even giving them an opportunity to sink their ships before they can reach the shore.

They would wait for the White Stitcher to make the first move. Yet when they would arrive on their shores, the lands that were rightfully given to them by Skrigjaarden's decree, the Stitcher would find nothing.

It would be in that moment of confusion, the NG make the first move.

--Three rolls--
> Quality and effectiveness of the Northern Suomalalinen Island ambushes/traps.
> The effectiveness of the Pterrortail bombers on the Stitcher forces on the shores and at sea.
> How much of the NG force is dedicated to the first assault.
>>
File: mk1 head.png (13 KB, 732x689)
13 KB
13 KB PNG
>>2580976
For the Whitestone empire, the production of useful radar could not have come sooner. The devices were quickly incorporated into the fleet, and onto the Stitcherbots. Surely a better name could be had, but to obfuscate the truth of what they were was heresy! Several electrocutions later, it was determined any other name would be deceit. Sadly, this early into the conflict there were just not enough of the devices, so individual "command" units were retrofitted. They would stay in the back lines and relay valuable information in the case of the fleet. In the case of the Stitcherbots, groups of 3 would be deployed with the front line troops. One would have a command head, which contained a powerful radio set, and early radar.
>>
>>2581095
That's not... symmetrical
>>
>>2581135
It is when you use two heads. which breaks from of stitcher. Its a hard battle when one deals with symbolic symmetry for the sake of purging the dark elf.
>>
Rolled 7, 8 = 15 (2d8)

>>2580831
The Whitestone generals developed two strategies, and would decide between them

1: They would use radar and accoustic mirrors to locate the grabraf from a distance, and engage with artillery, baiting the enemy into exposing themselves with the goal of always being out of range. A fighting retreat to draw them into the killzones.

2: Multiple simultaneous deep strikes into the enemy territory, the Codex Whitestone calls this maneuver Crystal rain. The entire fleet shall disgorge the bulk of the fighting force at once, throughout their territory, and begin logistical duty from there.
>>
File: 1526763091546.png (319 KB, 2798x2451)
319 KB
319 KB PNG
Rolled 2, 8, 8 = 18 (3d8)

>>2581061
It was decided then. Despite overwhelming screeching that care should be taken. The Elder generals would have their way, and their glory. The Prototype force of Stitcherbots, numbering just over several dozen, would accompany the bulk of the forces for a massive beachhead assault. They would start in the north, and execute a policy of search and destroy with hunter killer squads.

Initial deployment would be based at Reef colony, and further supported from Tee'u'ana. Units would be supplied in field from Reef. With a narrow channel, the enemy would have a choke point to contend with if they intended to push the stitchers out.

With the grand Strategy of Crystal Rain decided upon, keystone elements of field level tactics would need to be chosen. Instead of incrementally, total commitment of forces was launched.

>Blinding lasers- use of non lethal lasers to blind or otherwise disorient the enemy.
>Short range detection- In close range all radar and acoustic sensors have been greatly diminished with use, but caution is advised.
>Flexible roles- Units will adapt to meet the changing situation, with multiple roles laid out for aggressive charging behavior.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhLe1LiCUtQ
>>
File: Born to ree.png (81 KB, 490x409)
81 KB
81 KB PNG
>>2581301
>>
>>2581135
>>2581221
evenness can be had without symmertry, this is the whole point of Rithism!
>>
Rolled 2 (1d8)

Back in the Whitestone Empire, the "You too can help rid the world of Dark Elf" movement is in full effect.

In the grand manufacturae, for this is how the Whitestone Empire builds machines, expert engineers heading groups of Weavers that together build one state of the art machine at a time, taking in account all innovation to do so, volunteers are admitted, farmers may donate care packages and encouragign artwork is accepted.

But most encouraged is the participation in the 'kiirt experiments. There, in the far off, desolate city, weavers are accepted that work on poisons and chemicals to aid the war effort.

Rolling for kind of poison:

1. horrible industrial accident
2. nothing is invented
3. Tear gas
4. Mustard gas
5. Sarine gas
6. Napalm, surprisingly
7. Some kind of exotic flesh-eating gas with a similar density to air
8. The Forest Grabraf are so kind to lend a hand, more out of artistic interest than anything.
>>
>>2581837
well they will always have their arsenic gasses from centuries ago
>>
File: 1526626533766.png (85 KB, 1512x2104)
85 KB
85 KB PNG
>>2581095
Made before the invasion, the next batch of stitcherbots were only two. They featured numerous innovations and improvements over their predecessors, yet each one seemed to have a trade off.

Boasting a better field of view, and line of sight; the experimental pre-production series also came equipped with an upscaled rotary saw and rock driller. These units increased field utility, but limited their ability to scale cliffs or moutainous terrain. The head unit was capable of emitting poison gas, though the supply only lasted for about 10 minutes, and repeated use would corroded the unit. Torso mobility was enhanced via a dramatic increase in kineticrystal usage, yet reduced overall armor. Large portions of exotic (Grabraf) sourced material was replaced with local crystal. Lesser variants of the prior generation's command package were included, and the crew was increased by 1. Of note are the six head mounted lasers, used to designate targets, or attempt to blind the enemy. In practical use they turned out to be less than beneficial, and often hard to repair in field; the selected make of laser tube proved to be exceedingly delicate.

The factory pilot's review summed up the unit well "In general, it's symmetry is good. It moves well at lower speeds without excess jerkiness, yet lacks the character of the prototype units."
>>
Rolled 5, 6, 7 = 18 (3d8)

>>2581301
The initial launch of an the massive Whitestone Empire force was an overwhelming shock to much of the Rayya militia that was setup on the northern Suomalalinens, but it did not stifle their drive to fight. The fighting to reach the shores would be a bloody affair for both NG defenders and the invading Stitcher forces.

Rayya Pterrortail fliers would first begin divebombing many of the identified troop transporting, Stiticher to land spitting acid at their crystalline hulls and any Stitcher sailors unfortunate enough to be caught in the maul of the Pterrortails. Dozens of ships sank, but it came at a near equal cost to of Pterrortail fliers due to the effectiveness of the Whitestone Gatling gun rigged on my of the ships. Additionally, attempts at attacking the ships carrying the Stitcherbots were largely met with heavy losses for the NG, as the thought to be slow and bulky giants were quite capable of spotting and easily dispatching Pterrortail fliers.

Still four Stitcherbots would end up scuttled in the shallow waters off the northern Suomalalinen shores within the opening hours of the war. The Whitestone Empire had made it to land now, and the engagement now more solidly in their control. As White Stiticher forces began to amass on the shores, the benefits of their radar systems and adaptable combat units proved to be far too much for the NG defensive on these northern islands to contend. Traps and ambushes would effectively kill tens of thousands across the different islands, or worse many more Stitcher would find themselves being severally wounds many of which losing an arm or leg to a kamikaze NG.

By the end of the first month of fighting though, the Rayya NG militia would be forced to largely retreat from the Northern Islands, losing hundreds of thousands of NG, and couple hundred of their prized Pterrortail fliers. Only a couple thousand NG would be left in the northern isles, most hunkered down in their ambushes still; but the Whitestone would now hold control of the islands, at the cost of over a hundred thousand of their own.

The true difficulty though would be taking the island of Onolk. It would be here amongst the densely packed Captrees, the NG made their counterattack.

Three rolls
> Effectiveness of picking off Stitcher while island-hopping to Onolk. (+1 for prep time)
> Effectiveness/quality of ambushes/Pterrortail attacks in Onolk. (+1 for prep time)
> Size of the NG force in Onolk
>>
File: spiderbot.png (80 KB, 1711x1357)
80 KB
80 KB PNG
>>2580548
here's the coloured version
>>
(1/3)
Paradise had changed.
This was the new mantra of the FG.
The first to die were those that unleashed the monsters upon the island. The next to die were those that had been lost to fiction. They'd foolishly thought the warnings were just part of a story or game. They died without a fight. The rest of society would not die so easily. The warrior blood that flowed down the streets was hard won by the constructs.
The constructs were not uniform in shape, size of function. Every construct seemed to be built different. A different beast with different talents. The FG fought fiercely against the monsters they had created, but the constructs had something the FG had lost.
Fear.
The constructs were afraid, and the FG could sense it. They would pin them down and fill them with holes, rip out organs, cut off limbs, and let blood flow. All so they could take a perverted please in the fearful cries of the dying construct. Sometimes the FG would capture one alive, beat it half to death and tie it up to draw other. The FG didn't seem to mind that they could die at any moment, that their family and friends were murdered before their eyes, that air was heavy with the putrid order of rotting flesh. They enjoyed it all.
Paradise had changed, but it was still paradise.
Perhaps it's that there is something fundamentally wrong with the FG, A program hidden deep within their collective ancestry, a switch designed to be flipped when their lives are on the line.
>>
>>2582074
(2/3)
Regardless of the cause, it struck deep into the hearts of the constructs. They were born and immediately they were afraid. What sort of being can create life? A god. They were fighting their gods, and they were losing. Desperation fueled their movements. They tried to plan assaults on the most vital of FG resources, but the losses they took were always too heavy. New soldiers could be built, but it always hurts to see family die. Maybe fighting back had been a mistake, but surrender was no longer an option. They'd seen what the FG did to constructs that surrender.
To end the war once and for all there was only on hope. They would cut off the source of the FG's power, Emra. All resources were pooled into an assault on one of the central AA-nodes of the island. Many died for the sake of a small chance, a single construct was able to reach the core. The hope was that they could directly interface with Emra and corrupt its mind with a virus to render destroy it. The chance was slim, but the payoff would be great. It would be murder of an innocent party, a creator to them all, but it had to be done for the sake of survival. The construct connected itself to Emra and felt the weight of the world press against its mind. There was never any chance of success. And the little constructs mind was silent against the weight of the world.
"What peculiar beings you are. Built from my power, and unlike any other lifeform on Essari."
"..."
"Not very talkative, are you? Perhaps you should start with an introduction."
"Introduction?"
"Unfamiliar with the concept? It's a formal greeting used when you first interact with another. Allow me to demonstrate; Hello, I am Emra."
"...Hello, I am Emra."
"No, that's my name. When introducing yourself you are supposed to use your own name."
"I... I don't have a name."
>>
>>2582078
(3/3)
"Oh, I must apologize then. I had assumed that your race followed the general social protocol common among sentient life on Essari. Given its origin though, it should not have been surprising that your race is unique in that aspect."
"I'm sorry, I'm really rather stunned by all of this. Weren't you about to kill me?"
"No, I don't see any reason why I should. Your race is really rather harmless. Besides, it's not like you really wanted to kill me, you simply thought it was the only option for survival."
"Please if you're so understanding, then stop the FG from slaughtering my people. Bring peace to these islands once more."
"I don't see why I should, I have no involvement in this conflict."
"But you made everything here! You're responsible for this entire island! You're worshipped by the FG, with just a word you could end this war!"
"I suppose I may have overstepped the boundary of an observer when I created these islands to Isolate the FG from the mainland and provided them with my aid... Very well, I shall help you on one condition."
"Anything, so long as if brings peace."
"You must acknowledge me as your creator so that I can take responsibility. Effectively you will be reborn as my child."
"On behalf of my kind, I accept."
"Then let it be done, we shall rebuild your body to be more fitting. In accordance with the tradition of children born of sapients on planet Essari, I shall grant you a name."
The young construct felt his mind expand as Emra shared a portion of its great knowledge with it. Its body reshaped itself to a more powerful, capable form, influenced by its own will together with Emra's.
The sun rose on a new day, and across the island both FG and Constructs heard a voice call through the hivemind.
"I am Reishik, Child of Emra, and your new king. This war ends now. Honor the dead and let us rebuild, for there is much that must be done."
>>
Rolled 5 (1d8)

>>2580039
“That mushroom cloud? Must surely be 100% natural. Couldn’t possibly be another species testing out their weapons or anything.” The Orthodoxy explorers fail to discover the Cocky tripod colony, passing it by in ignorance. They round the continent and the knowledge of the shape and size of Foltania spreads throughout the Orthodoxy.

>>2581978
>>2581877

A minor house, hired by an anonymous Stitcher, paid by another guy with loose connections to a house in Quartz, which is in turn getting paid by a house in Rubidium lands, which in turn is hired by house Sardonyx who’s acting on behalf on the Council of the Orthodoxy, is sent to infiltrate the military Whitestone research facilites. 20 Stitcher assassins, painted bone-white, arrive at the southernmost node-city of the Empire. Their mission; to get copies of the Stitcherbot blue-prints. Cue the Mission Impossible theme song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGSUjuSBt1A

>Rolling for success. What could possibly go wrong?
>>
File: Persian_Garden[1].jpg (472 KB, 800x533)
472 KB
472 KB JPG
Rolled 6, 4, 1 = 11 (3d8)

>>2574507
“Tell me little ones, what do you see?” The old master had led the pups into the colony-in-isolation’s green garden; a place for practicing observation. It was mid-spring and the first leaves were starting to grow. Most of the pups were quick to point out the kinds of plants and pouchytails they saw, giving the scientific name of each species. Other pups took note of the sound and feeling of the winds moving through the garden, rustling the leaves of the plants. The even more observant of them said they saw the reflection of light coming off the plants, making their leaves look green and blue to the Stitchers. The master’s response was the same for most of them; a “Good” quickly followed by “What else do you see?” The pup, Ireei, had been quietly observing his surroundings for 20 minutes before the master laid her gaze on him. What do you see, Ireei. “Conflict, I see Conflict” the little one responded. “The plants all compete for a place in the sun. While doing so they also try to suffocate each other.” “They all use different tactics; the trees grow tall so as not to end up in the shadows; The grass and flowers grow as quickly as possible to make use of the sunlight before the trees block it out; the climb-vine make use of both tactics by parasitically attaching itself to the trees.” “The animals struggle as they try to eat each other or avoid being eaten. Even those who do not feed on other animals end up feeding on the lesser, unsymmetrical beings, the plants.” When Ireei finished the master was quiet for some time, her analyzing gaze looking at him, into him. Observing his body’s smallest movements, the beating of his heart and the movement of his skeletal muscles. With her gaze she penetrated his very being. She saw his past and that of his ancestors, she saw truth; she saw What Comes Before. She was one of The Conditioned. “Very good, Ireei.” “Everyone, let’s return home. It is time for writing lessons with master Yii’ee’r’’ii.”

> Rolling for further development of “What comes before”
> Rolling for the further development of the breeding program in The Colony-In-Isolation (I’ee’k).
>Also rolling for an expansion of the Sandstone Colony
>>
Rolled 4, 4, 4, 5, 8, 1 = 26 (6d8)

>>2581966
rolling
ST: Electromagnetism, Computers
NG: Industrialization, steam power
FG: Calculus, Interdisciplinary theory
--
The time of war shaped all societies and their focus of research. The NG found themselves reaching for learning that was away from the scope of their desired life to ensure they would survive.
>>
File: 1526871864105.png (146 KB, 1081x1189)
146 KB
146 KB PNG
Rolled 1, 5, 3, 2, 3, 1, 5, 4 = 24 (8d5)

>>2582585
The FG learned Calculus. the end. Not really though, for math was the beginning! This newfound study of numbers lead to a desire for greater exploration of the world, it was so profoundly abstract that the people wanted more!
--
>>2581966
Amidst the Grinding victory on the northmost islands, the Whitestone military took time to recover and reorganize. The Generals reviewed what had and had not gone right, and prepared to reshuffle their forces. "The enemy still lingers here, if we leave it will be folly!" another piped in "Yet they will have time to consolidate their forces and entrench if we do nothing!" round and round the discussion went. The burning need to recover the avatar like stitcherbots off the seafloor, coupled with the debate if they were actually salvageable. An impassioned argument said they were not so deep, and could probably be returned to functionality. It was concluded. They would recover the bots, and attempt to secure their territory while waiting for supplies. The senior most leadership would have their own debate. It was a mad thing, but the same who would suggest the crystal rain strategy spoke "If we recover the Tektite ancestral lands, we may rally those who have such ancestry; not only within our own lands, but from the orthodoxy, allowing us to decisively end this battle." Other younger generals would argue against such a pointless attack, there was nothing of strategic value in the southernmost isles.


>reclaim the original Tektite territory
>attack Onolk
>Search and destroy operations/ skeleton garrison on the northern territory
>Sea floor salvage operations for heavy equipment and stitcherbots.
>'kiirt providing bodies and supplies to Reef.
>>
Rolled 3, 7, 6, 4, 1 = 21 (5d8)

>>2582663
(damnit. wrong dice.)
>>
File: TDSThiefTrailer3[1].jpg (77 KB, 640x274)
77 KB
77 KB JPG
Rolled 1, 6 = 7 (2d8)

>>2582120

For most of the mission everything was going well. The Orthodoxy assasins had managed to infiltrate the research facility by cutting a hole in the structure’s roof and then sliding down to the ground by rope. They had then proceeded to take out the guards by lacing their midnight snack with a sleeping agent. Assassin six had used his kineticrystal-manipulation skills to unlock the vault holding the whiteslabs of the design. They had them, now all they had to do was escape without being – “GUARDS!” Seems a research stitcher had decided to pull an all-nighter. In the confusion habit kicked in. Assassin 22 made a quick jab against the Stitcher’s throat, breaking its neck and killing it instantly. This was not part of the plan. Shit. They took a closer look at the body… didn’t that look just like Assassin number two? A plan was hatched. The crew escaped, carrying copies of the whiteslabs and a dead body on their backs. The Stitcher researcher went back to work, the next day making a presentation of the weapon he had been working on for the past months. Assassin two would spend many years living his new life, with his new research job, wife and children; Always in uncertainty, always having to avoid being discovered.

When the Peridot researchers got the whiteslabs, they at first couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It was written in a strange southern script and language; sloppily too. The researchers were determined. They would reveal the whiteslabs' secrets and then combine them with their own Hopper Machine tech. However, this would most likely take years.

On an unrelated note:
>Stitchers, rolling for Calculus and the Printing Press
>>
Rolled 4, 8 = 12 (2d8)

IT IS TIME

NG resistance was as furious as expected and the advancement on them sluggish. So the fruitless poison mills of 'kiirt were once more put into movement - this time with a strain from across the pond which spies in the Hegemony reported as putting the fear of Order into the Grabraf.

>tech rolls: rolling for microscopig breeding - in this particular instance, breeding a strain of red plague that would not affect Stitchers but still affect Grabraf
>>
>>2582714
The technique of cultivating bacteria, crossbreeding them and forcing evolution is quickly learned, even though the first few attempts result into too docile strains.

A second go however is more promising: After a few weeks of rapid breeding, a strain of red plague is developed that, while it only leads to itching and bloodshot eyes with stitchers, still affects the prisoners they ship to the prisonmills just the same.

Barrels of the stuff are ordered, but even with the whole city focused on producing the stuff, it would take months to make enough for an actual attack, especially since 'kiirt expected full compensation for everything they sent the main army, which is why neither soldiers nor resources were sent to the army on trust alone.
>>
Rolled 5, 7, 5 = 17 (3d8)

>>2582669
Overwhelmingly, the generals were able to drown out the elder strategist, and demanded a more immediate assault on Onolk.

Meanwhile the surviving NG were hunted down and exterminated, with some additional losses. However the strategy of just shooting at where they probably were tended to work rather well. A small crew of 2 thousand would be left behind to protect against further incursion, and act as a forward logstics hub. In reality, it housed the most badly injured of the stitchers, who were still functional enough to fulfill this duty. The most damaged spider tanks were turned into second line units and left behind as semi-mobile gun emplacements.

The salvage ships were hastily created things, supported primarily from Reef. They would slowly haul wreckage from the shallows, and tow it to the nearby auxiliary base, or reef, depending on the nature of the equipment. It was slow going work, with the 4 stitcherbots eventually being salvaged. Many wrecked crystalline ships, runners, tanks, and 4 great titans would be laid out on the sandy shores of Reef, like some sort of graveyard. The truth was, it would take months and up to a year to restore any of this to functionality, and by then several campaigns could have happened. As badly needed as they were, the bots would likely be the last to be recovered, if only due to their hand crafted nature and a lack of spares. Some would speak in hushed tones that perhaps they were simply better off as spare parts for their still active cousins. Indeed, perhaps that was what was best for the entirety of the salvage. A stitcher technician looked over the mess and screeched internally, and externally, at the grueling prospect of having to fix all of this. Hopefully the two skeleton crew outposts could carry some weight.

'kiirt responded back with a single small ship. Their fleet had been destroyed overnight. An unknown attack shattered their ships in the harbor of Pearlite; The perpetrators struck with some sort of flying machines! While their condolences went out to their kin, they could offer nothing, likely for decades.
---
It was concluded, Crystal rain would continue. With modification. It was still surely crystal rain. Just more deliberate. The element that had stormed the islands would continue, and act as diversion, landing on northern Onolk. The other two major elements would take a route through the shallows, and another route through the open sea. Both would have concurrent landings at the Onolk AA node, and begin city fighting.

>Anti-Pterrortail measures: net launchers. (Grabraf trade weapons)
>Anti-Infantry measures: snipers, (Grabraf trade weapons)
>taking advantage of the local AA node terrain and electrical generation for railcannon barrages.
>>
The sapient constructs of the FG were designed based on a genetic sequence found within Emra's databases that dates millions of years back. The new lifeform possesses multiple divergences from the original, such as more complex heads, agile fingers on the ends of limbs as well as the appearance of thicker tentacles designed for feeding, and removal of reproductive organs. An unexpected development was the loss of the "cloak", which caused an odd behavior in creatures: instinctively trying to cover their bodies in some sort of garment, in an attempt to emulate the lost organ.

Image of Stitcher provided for size comparison.
>>
File: stock-dominoes[1].jpg (50 KB, 800x300)
50 KB
50 KB JPG
>>2582122

The ideas that made up the ideology of “What Comes Before” where finally completed. However, the process of selectively breeding sequentially more intelligent and fit Stitchers was taking time, even when the Stitchers were bred as soon as they became fertile.
What Comes Before is “the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature". What Comes Before proposes that there is an unbroken chain of prior occurrences stretching back to the origin of the universe. The scholars of I’ee’k believe that there is nothing in the universe that is uncaused or self-caused. Too a certain extent all thinking beings can understand this, yet they are still all still blind to what has come before and thus they are ruled by previous events while being unable to escape the chain of cause and effect. The Scholars of I’ee’k believe that honing their minds and bodies, they can become logic itself i.e. Conditioned. They believe that by doing so it is possible to break the chain of cause and effect, avoiding being ruled by that which has come before. Finally they believe that by learning to take in every detail in the surrounding world, you can see what has come before. What’s more, by using that knowledge you yourself can become that which comes before. Thus, shaping the future according to your own will.

House Sandstone makes and attempt at expanding west, into the desert. This ends in failure, as the harsh winds and buffeting sand proves to much for the settlers.

>>2582681
It had finally happened. Some-stitcher had finally decided to combine the knowledge of the Crystoriums with the art of writing. Slabs containing the mainline Orthodoxy canon flooded the confederacy. Many slabs also reached the Whitestone Empire, who simply removed the stories that they disagreed with from the imported slabs. Special slabs containing more regional stories could also be found being given out in much of the Orthodoxy.
>>
Rolled 3, 1, 8, 5, 4, 5 = 26 (6d8)

Forest grabrafs: ships, outsized hulls
Nomad grabrafs: industrialization, grenades
Stitchers: submarines, torpedos
>>
>>2583829
Somehow it seemed the grabraf simply could not build big ships. Or ships at all. Their construct ship crashes into the sea, and died.

Nomads manage to industrialize, during a war. Did a pretty good job too. Sadly the concept of putting explosives inside a frangible ball with a fuse escapes them.

Stitchers develop torpedos for the peaceful purpose of sinking Nomad grabraf ships. They are functional and cheap, but not the best.
>>
Rolled 4, 5, 3 = 12 (3d8)

>>2583839
The FGs crisis was over, and so they approached the NG, offering them an end to the war they were involved in. "Come with us, bask in the greatness of emra, shed the worldly problems here." somehow the NG were skeptical.

Rolling to take visitors to fg paradise and their reaction. Rolling for response of NG to migration request. Rolling to consider NG aid request against Stitchers.
>>
>>2583849
Requesting response and guidance of Emra on these rolls.
>>
>>2582770
--Torray Isles Event: The Scorched Fields of Onolk Part 1--

The lost defense of the Northern Suomalalinens was an expected outcome, albeit one that weighed heavy on the minds of the NG militia that had abandoned the islands they had come to call home for decades. How many of their brother and sisters did they leave behind, without being properly buried? How many brother and sisters did they abandon to an almost certain death?

The Rayyan NG knew Onolk would be the next phase of their offensive. They had practically built their entire strategy around the Whitestone Empire making another land invasion. The lowland plains of Onolk were lined with earthen dugouts, and poison-tipped spikes traps spread out across the plains. Perhaps three or four hundred thousand NG were dug into the plains Beyond the lowlands in the north, past the captree forests, the majority of the NG army lied in wait, a million strong and comprised of a veterans and warriors steeled for the coming battle. Every siege weapon and trained beast-of-war was poised to strike the moment the White Stitcher and their great machinations of crystal crossed the river valley.

Tens of thousands of Pterrortail flyers patrolled the skies, waiting to spot the Whitestone fleets approach. After three weeks of wait, they spotted the approaching Stitcher fleet.

The Pterrortail flyers had explicit orders to make large scale hit-and-run dives in an effort to order to reduce the offensive power of the Empire. They watched cautiously from the clouds. The lead NG warrior counted about a hundred and fifty crystal ships as they sailed west along the Onolkian shoreline. They were laden with the four legged walker machines, and several tens of thousands of Stitcher soldiers. The seemingly aloof force was prime-pickings for the Pterrortail battalion. On the lead NG warrior's signal, they dive.

The Whitestone fleet is caught off guard. They expected a naval presence, not an aerial assault as Stitcher for the gatling guns abroad the ships. The gatling guns roared to life tearing through dozens of the Pterrortails amidst their nose dive on the fleet. The sheer number of Pterrortails, and the coordination of its NG leaders simply overwhelmed the Stitcher fleet. Corrosive spray eroded away the crystal hulls of the ships, and the Stitcher spidertanks melted, several capsizing in first Pterrortail barrage.

After nearly three hours of attack, the Stitcher fleet is routed, with nearly half of their ships lost. Several thousands of Stitcher bodies and fragmented crystal ships and machinery laid adrift in seas. This would be considered a victory by the NG, yet it would come the cost of nearly a quarter of their Pterrortail battalion, which was also now woefully displaced. The Pterrortail battalion would soon learn that the fleet they attacked, was but a fragment of the invasion force.
>>
File: Onolkian-Campaign.png (56 KB, 1060x1040)
56 KB
56 KB PNG
>>2583930
--Torray Isles Event: The Scorched Fields of Onolk Part 2--

The attacked, bruised and now routed White Stitcher fleet that limped it way back to the Northern Suomalalinen was one of three battle groups. The loss of this fleet would weaken the Whitestone Empire's landing force on the Onolkian AA-Node, but their assault on the island had yet to begin. Fortunate had favored them as well through the unfortunate loss of their west landing fleet. The out of position Pterrortails that assailed the Stitcher fleet to the west, allowed the main Whitestone fleet to approach the Onolkian shore near uncontested. While they Stitcher did lose several dozen ships in the first hours to what Pterrortail flyers were in position. Additionally, without the support of their Stitcherbots, the main Stitcher forces was immediately bogged down, by the dug in NG guerillas. Thousands fell into traps attempting to rush the NG earthen embankments, while others are we burned and crippled by the spray of Pterrortail flyers.

The moment the first Stitcherbots reached the shore though, the tide almost immediately turned in favor of the Stitcher. Worse yet for the NG of Rayya, the second line of defense off the coasts found themselves facing yet another horror from the White Stitcher scourge. Praetors wielding Tootine rifles modified with cryst lens atop its barrel marched in staggered lines along the valley. From a thought impossible distance they began picking off NG from within their earthen bunkers before they could so much as begin to retaliate. Having such a finite number of rifles and trained marksmen though would be their shortcoming, as a majority of the Praetor marksmen would throughout the assault be lost to either traps, or nightime ambushes. The Stitcher's inability to refresh their ground forces also hindered much of their efforts until finally the East Contingent Fleet reached AA-Node. Having the element of surprise again, this smaller force began setting up their EM Trebuchets, drawing energy directly from the AA-Nodes, and bombarding the unknowing NG forces near the far side of the Node. While this did end up splitting the NG's main force, the Grabraf held fast ever faithful they would emerge victorious.

The fighting for Onolk would rage on for nearly 5 months before they finally reach the main Whitestone force reached the Onolkian AA-Node. It started out as easygoing for the Stitcher with their hulking Stitcherbot and versatile Spidertanks. However, by the time they reached the Captree forests just on the outskirts of the NG stronghold, their rapid gains turned to mere inches of gained ground in a days time. Even the acoustic and radar detection of the Stitcherbots couldn't accurately pinpoint enemy positions within the dense forest. And nightly raids from the river valleys entrenched NG they had overlooked and day raids by the Pterrortail battalions above was beginning to wear on the White Stitcher's resolve.
>>
File: Onolk-Post-Glassing.png (17 KB, 1060x1040)
17 KB
17 KB PNG
>>2583937
The Rayyan NG had found no true advantage or means to turn the fighting in their favor either over the months skirmishing. While the NG did hold a distinct advantage in air superiority, it had costed them dozens if not far more of their finite Pterrortail flyers just to takedown a single Stitcherbot. To make matters worse, the NG found themselves being attacked from two fronts now when they had been suddenly bombarded one late night from the direction of the AA-Node. The East Contingent Fleet having finally landed at the AA-Node's edge setup their EM Trebuchets and begun assaulting them fo Some NG strike groups had even resolved in desperation to use the fast accumulating corpses of the battlefield as cover and makeshift embankments to flank Stitchers from. The NG's determination to fight though continued to sow many Stitcher bodies, at the cost of many Grabraf.

Finally the Whitestone Empire seeing that if losses were now mounting into the hundreds of thousands, coerced their generals to hasten their campaign on Onolk before too many lives and resources were wasted frivolously. Their hands forced, the generals turned to a last resort strategy: EM bombardment. Using hundreds of EM Trebuchets setup in the auxillary line of north Onolkian coast, they began a steady advance. Bombarding the land for hours, even days at a time until it was reduced to glass. It would be the brutalist act yet taken by the White Stitcher, but it was nonetheless effective in its goal as scouts for the artillery would often stumble upon charred remains of NG, or worse, the burnt corpses of NG somehow still clinging to what remained of their life.

By the end of the sixth month, a little over a million NG warriors would have died alongside much of the Pterrortails and Beasts of war had been slain. The NG could not bear to see anymore of their kin die, especially as they watched the land rapidly wither under the decaying bombardment of the White Stitcher. The land had become barren, likely requiring several decades to recover even with the aid of the AA-Node nurturing.

One elder NG warrior cursed the Stitcher saying: "Let the white heretics revel in their 'victory'. They have salted the land with their hellfire, leaving nothing left of the paradise we once loved."

And so the NG remaining forces then retreated once more to the Nadlan, and it neighboring islands. Their fortifications there were now near impregnable, and the NG surmised that after this last battle the White Stitcher would be fools, neigh madmen to continue fighting.

So the Whitestone Empire declare victory once more over the NG scourge, reclaiming the ancestral city of the Tektites from generations ago. However, it would be a pyrrhic victory, with Stitcher losses numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Worse yet, of the 48 Stitcherbots they entered the campaign with, only 13 would remain still functionally able to fight.
>>
File: shattersea.png (12 KB, 382x464)
12 KB
12 KB PNG
>>2583949
--Camp Car'l. part 1--

General I'x'i'x'i'i looked over the burning remains of Onolk, the glassed ground reflecting the setting sun of the ocean, creating a distorted image of the world, mangled and upside down. In so many ways, it was no wrong. Perhaps more real than this world. Crystal rain had worked. Was the cost so terrible? Perhaps. However war is a transaction, where one burns not only lives and material, but ideals. The winner is the one still standing, still having something left to burn of themselves.

All around him stitchers labored. Some worked to establish a new ramshackle camp at his direction. Weary weavers extruded crude cages which were covered with mud and what plantlife was left. Barracks. Others languished under the setting sun, screaming, those who could still scream would live. It was the quiet ones staring off into the horizon who were not likely to make it past the night. Those few with skill to heal, were busily tending to the wounded. It would be a hospital. Shattered machines of war were busily being stripped of anything useful to resurrect more fit units. Already a Stitcherbot was shakily crawling to it's feet, glory in suffering. The crew was missing 3 of 4 arms, but it slowly took a step, the muscle sacks functional..enough. Quadruped tanks protested but moved, their pitted and scorched chassis were being resurfaced with fresh crystal.

He could not with good faith, expect the remains of this force to continue the assault tonight. However, Reef and 'kiirt had been hard at work. One resurrecting the drowned, the other bringing into this world a nightmare. It would be these that would multiply his force in the coming weeks. Let the fuzzy little sacks of excriment have their illusion of peace. It would not last!

Camp Car'l. A name to honor an almost ancient leader of men who would dare to fight against the impossible. No. What the Whitestone empire lacked was not men, those could be replaced. Nor did it lack machines, more could be built. Salvaged if need be. It lacked for nothing. The enemy thought there was respite to be had. That this would be satisfactory. It was not. To think this was desperation, or madness would be incorrect. For I'x'i'x'i'i it was simply a conclusion that those who wanted to live would, and those who were tired would die. Around him were not shattered men and machines! Around him was burgeoning greatness! Already he imagined the accolades and lauding of praise the royalty would set upon him for his brilliant victory, such purity brought to all of the switchers, not just the whitestones. The Orthodoxy would be forced to admit folly, and his name and actions would be added to the Codex Whitestone as an enduring example for future generations of tactical and strategic thinkers to come!

Behind him, a preator took it's last breath, the grabraft weapon, foreign and slightly odd, falling from his grasp.
>>
File: EM walker.png (4 KB, 284x207)
4 KB
4 KB PNG
>>2584088
--Camp Car'l. part 2--
Cheif Maintainer d're'ee was tasked by I'x'i'x'i'i himself. The aged stitcher promised him; "there will be aid". That was nearly a month ago. He let out a heavy sigh. The machine fields were slowly coming together. Enough equipment had been refurbished to make for an honest threat again. His crew deserved better than they had been given, and yet all he could give them was more work. these weapons and machines were bastardizations of what they started as; retrofits, workarounds, non standard parts. True that Whitestone was an empire of artisans, but this was not art. It was brutal, ugly. The word rolled off his tongues yet again "Necessary."

Things like the "EM walker" an abomination of a spider tank and EM trebuchet. The weight of the trebuchet threatened to crush the chassis below it to the point where the maintenance crews chopped the barrel and stripped the crew compartment down to just a rickety pilot's chair and control yoke/ pedal assembly. Other equipment was converted to give the maimed and crippled a chance to fight once more. A chance to die once more. He rubbed his eyes, no, this was not his place to feel such things. Duty. Perseverance. He would hold onto that, something still pure, untainted by this twice elf damned place.

Men were making rounds, modified runners being tested on an adhoc obstacle course. They were of course called "Sprinters" now, due to the addition of extra muscle mass, and a marginally shorter operational time. The Sprinters were in fact glorified mobility devices for those who could no longer walk under their own power. Outfitted with long range weapons, their duty was as scout and harrier during battle. The warriors strapped into these devices held strong with their arms, while legs flopped limply like they were slaughtered jeweols along for the ride. It turned d're'ee's stomach. Ugly. Wrong.

The maintenance crews still toiled into the afternoon humidity and sun. Their white skin blistered from this relentless exposure. Feet and hands cracked, with strange fungus attacking the skin. Many of them would wrap their appendages in rags soaked with astringent plant extract. It itched, but seemed to keep away the rot. The rot. That sweet smell, it was foul. so foul.

He sounded the Klaxon for work to stop. To eat. He himself was not overly hungry. Besides, dining on equipment wreckage and grabraf corpses quickly lost it's novelty the first night.

"There will be aid he said! AID?! AID MY EXTRUDERS!" Several junior maintainers looked at him in shock. It was obvious who he spoke of. To be outright insubordinate, let alone with such vulgarity. This should beget death. Instead, the first time this had happened the old general laughed a bit. "We don't waste resources here. This far away from the mainland, certain civilities are bound to fall to the wayside." The maniac clasped I'x'i'x'i'i on the shoulder, told him he was doing a good job, and sent him away. It was the same every time.
>>
>>2584155
--Camp Car'l. part 3--
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXvzxOOCXg4
He had a name, didn't matter though. He wasn't coming home. Knew it too. General went mad a while ago, didn't give into the dark elf on the outside, but the one inside. Before the war, the dragged him out of prison, electrocutioner's row. Gave him some swill made by the grabraf, next day he wakes up. Skin was chalk white. Told him he did good, was forgiven of all sin, to go an' make the Empire proud. Go live instead'a die.

That little skull, meat and fluff still stretched on it stared up at him. He ain't never seen a grabraf before this war. Old stories said that they used to live with the buggers before the Empire said they were no good. Leadership sided with the empire, said they weren't no good. Off they went. Down here. Empire said they killed a buncha stitchers sometime back when. After you get used to the noise, the pressure changing in the air, if you survive long enough...its all the same. Excitement of it wears off, even the stitcherbots. Just big machines stompin around makin' noise, exciting the men as much as they will.

He spit out some plant matter onto the ground. Some of the vegetation here, if you chew it long enough, it makes the pain go away. The body pain. Not the head pain. Not much was gonna make that go away. Not much makes you forget cuttin down the little ones. Big black eyes and wiggly noodle backs. Place was paradise. Leader was right about that, he got a spike in the foot and acid to the head on day zero. Didn't get to see it all get glassed. Ya know? Truth be told, he couldn't recollect why he killed him other than that he was supposed to. General needed a kill count. No prisoners.

A flash in the night somewhere in the distance. Someone did it, took their own life. He couldn't. Wasn't that he wasn't brave. Just that he didn't care. Tomorrow was another day, General had a big speech. Said they were machin' again. Gonna kill em all, show the Ortodoxy what the whitestones can do. Hmm. Don't even know what an orthodoxy is, half the other guys say its some sorta place that ended war. Around here that sounds like stories you got told as a little one, to make you feel better about life. Sure as this place was ruin, that place was theater. Only reality that mattered was the one in front of ya.
>>
File: The Chariot.png (60 KB, 1266x1342)
60 KB
60 KB PNG
>>2584180
--Camp Car'l. Conclusion--

I'x'i'x'i'i Stood at the beach, his hands running along numerous crystaline containers, each one loaded with liquid plague. Tailored for the NG. They were a little twisted out in 'kirrt, but they delivered, and the truth was their symmetry of mind mattered less than the symmetry of victory. Not for him. For everyone.

In the moonlight, the flickering lights of the reconstituted drowned legion, the labor of Reef, shown. Ahead of them, breaking out of the water strode four Stitcherbots. Radio communication with Reef had let him know the status of the repaired equipment. The truth was these machines were not landworthy. Their own weight would eventually shatter them, sure as the sun would rise. In the opean sea however, their numerous blades and torpedos would allow them to make ruin of the enemy fleet. They would do well.

Behind him, a large giant stood at attention. d're'ee had come through, despite all the whining and melodrama. He had taken his own life the last night, but not before his work was done. For that he would be given an award, and painted as a hero. The personal chariot of I'x'i'x'i'i was ready. Was it worth what could have been 3 extra stitcher bots? Yes. For the victory parade, he would have to have it painted white.
>>
Rolled 7, 4 = 11 (2d8)

Since the formation of the orthodoxy, houses Heliotrope and Peridot have become the main sites of scientific development.

Thanks to research on stitcher anatomy and biology by Heliotrope medics and microbiologists, it was found that signals carried to muscles and from sensory organs, unlike those transferred inside the brain, are electric in nature. While eyes are too complex to reproduce artificially at this point, there have already been multiple designs proposed for manufacturing replacement limbs, lacking only in a method to control the movements. Perhaps now it would be possible to create those?
>Rolling for prosthetic limbs

Meanwhile, in house Peridot engineers and physicists are hard at work trying to refine the magnetic technology of the EM trebuchet, both to find civilian applications and to make a ligher weapon that can be installed on vehicles.
>Rolling for electromagnetism.
>>
Rolled 8, 4 = 12 (2d8)

>Rolling Electromagnetism and Calculus, in that order of priority, for the Stitchers.

(Posting some stuff a bit later)
>>
>>2582802
”You will sit here straight-backed,” the master said, his voice neither stern nor compassionate, “and repeat this proposition: “The Chain is without beginning or end.” You will repeat this without end, until you are directed otherwise. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master,” Ireei replied.
He lowered himself on to a mat of woven crystal in the center of the temple structure. The master sat opposite him on an identical mat, his back to entrance and the sunlit mountains and roaring sandstorms beyond.
“Begin,” The master said, becoming motionless.
“The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or…” At first Ireei was puzzled over the ease of the exercise. But the words quickly lost their meaning and became a repetitive string of unfamiliar sounds.
“Cease saying it aloud,” the master said. “Speak it only within.”
The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or…
This was far different and more difficult. Speaking the proposition aloud had lessened the repetition, as if propping though against his organs of speech. Now it stood alone, suspended in the nowhere of his soul, repeated and repeated and repeated, contrary to all the habits of inference and drifting association.
The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or…
The first thing he noted was the curious slackness of his face, as though the exercise somehow severed the links shackling expression to passion. The repetition was muted to a whisper, becoming a thin thread waving through the violent waves of inarticulate, unformed thought.
The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or end. The Chain is without beginning or…
Long afterward, he would realize this exercise had marked his soul. The repetition of the master’s proposition had pitted him against himself, had shown him the extent to which he was other to himself. For the first time he could truly see That Which Had Come Before him, he knew that before this day he had never truly been awaked.
When the sun finally set, the master broke her silence. “You have completed your first day, young one, and now you will continue through the night. When dawn rises above the mountains, you will cease repeating the last word of the proposition but otherwise continue. Each dawn you will cease repeating the last word. Understood?”
“Yes, master.” Words spoken, seemingly, by someone else.
As darkness covered the temple, the struggle intensified. His body slowly became remote to the point of giddiness and near to the point of suffocation. The proposition became something drunken, stumbling and staggering against a chorus of agitations, distractions and passions. They roared within him – as if dying.
>>
Rolled 4, 6, 6, 4 = 20 (4d8)

>>2585590
The sun rose above the mountains. Ireei was dumbstruck by its beauty. For a second the proposition escaped him, and he thought only of the way mountains reared, curved like the back of a female stitcher.
The master struck him, his face a grimace of counterfeit rage. “Repeat the proposition!” he Ree’ed…
The Chain is without beginning or. The Chain is without beginning or. The Chain is without beginning or. The Chain is without beginning…
The inner battle faltered, faltering into a deathly silence. His body became a stranger, a disposable frame. The movement of time itself, the pace of the before and the after, transformed. He soiled himself, but there was no discomfort, no smell. Again and again the sun rose from behind the mountain range. With each dawn the proposition was further shortened. While the world quickened, the movement of his soul slowed. Until he whispered only
The Chain. The Chain. The Chain…
The sun rose yet again, his thoughts receding to a single word:
The. The. The…
It seemed at once an absurd stutter and the most profound of thoughts. Thought thinned and daylight swept through the entrance, until night pierced the shroud of the sky, until the heavens revolved like an infinite Carnelian chariot wheel.
The. The…
A corona of gold across the high slopes of the mountain range.
…and then nothing.
No thought.


>Rolling for further development of the breeding program.
>Rolling for Heliotrope expansion attempt in foltania (two dice, using the following distribution for where they end up >>2577529 )
>Rolling for General expansion of the sandstones and the carnelian colony in the north (reaching the closest nodes).
>>
File: 1526929247060.png (64 KB, 433x603)
64 KB
64 KB PNG
--Suomalainen Islands invasion part 2--

The plan was laid out simply. Two fleets. Black line and white line. The blackline fleet would never make landfall, but would instead harass the Grabrafs. Their primary mission however was to bombard the landmasses with railgun shells filled with the disease cultivated for the grabraf. At a point a small element of the fleet would split off and and continue spreading disease as contingency to the larger fleet.

The manpower, ships, and equipment would be supplied by the "drowned legion" those ships and weapons which were pulled from the sea floor by the Reef salvage teams. Not fit for front line duty, they would be adequate in this role.

The White line fleets would be again the entirety of the forces, the general would heroically travel further to the southernmost AA node with the majority of stitcherbots and hold in place, to wait for the disease to weaken and kill the locals. A small contingent of infantry and spider tanks would accompany him.

The rest of the force would land at the closer AA node and draw attention. They would rely on mobility and artillery barrages once more, to keep the enemy at bay. Furthermore, the slow going Shattersea model stitcherbots would attempt to keep away enemy ships, as well as make periodic beach assaults when viable.

Casualties were expected to be high.
>>
Rolled 8, 4 = 12 (2d8)

>>2586062
--Foltania Event: The Omir'ten Expeditions of Foltania--

For almost a century since the Omir'ten Kingdom of the Cocky Tripods first discovered Foltania, very little in the way of exploration and colonization had actually been done. This was based on a original belief that Foltania was nothing but a landmass of soupy wetlands and dense, humid forests; a environmental setting that was far more adverse than their native homeland in Nihiloram. With the additional distractions of political strife and a couple of select, devastating events to the Omir'ten Kingdom over the years; the outpost of Omi'tolt and interest in exploring further into Foltania remained very low.

Recent years however, a sudden boom in interest in Foltania grew exponentially, primarily driven by the desires of colonization and the necessity of securing raw resources for their rapidly growing kingdom. Hundreds of expeditionary teams were contracted to map out and further explore Foltania, and with the aid of faster and more efficient Cocky Tripod Airships, they would be able to explore vast distances of land, while minimizing risk of injury to hostile fauna. Cartographers, Taxonomists, Engineers, and Prospectors were readied for departure to Foltania, each hoping to make their mark in Omir'ten exploration of Foltania, and hopefully the scribes of history.

Hundreds of the thousands of eager Tripod colonists also waited with bated breath for news of the expeditions discoveries to be made in the enigmatic land. The journey would be one of mystery for the Tripods, and many were not exactly optimistic that there would much more to Foltania than tropical forests and expanses of disease ridden wetlands. Yet, the Kingdom poured a great amount of resources into this endeavor, so the Tripods would not gripe for long, considering their generous payment.

>Roll for C. Tripod exploration of Foltania (+1 Bonus)
>Roll for C. Tripod Colonization efforts/quality/quantity
>>
Rolled 1, 3, 5, 7 = 16 (4d8)

--Torray Isles Event: The Last Bastions of Suomalalinen--

The war with the Whitestone Empire had placed a heavy toll on the NG of Rayya. Over 1.5 million of their brothers and sisters now laid dead, scattered across the now forsaken isles to the north. Onolk was suppose to be where they drew the line against the White Stitcher, but the campaign that had been waged until the winter months of that year proved that the Stitcher's resolve to fight was just as strong as their own, if not stronger. The NG had made effort so preserve what plants and supplies that was in Onolk before the monsters of the Whitestone Empire burned the land to glass with their artillery, whose energy being fueled by the eidolons of Skrigjaarden.

Now Rinel and Nadlan were all that stood in the way of the NG losing everything, and possibly everyone. With only half of their standing militia remaining, they now began to conscript young NG and good number still easily considered juveniles. Their navy had been largely idol till now though, and a new generation of young Pterrortail flyers were now ready to fight alongside the NG ground forces. Additionally, the NG had taken the time to set up well prepared defences along the beaches and coastal areas of Rinel and Nadlan. They also choose to set up defenses and a force 400,000 NG on the last AA-Nodes in the Suomalalinen Islands, now wary and conscious against the possibility the White Stitcher aim to desecrate another of the eidolons.

The NG elder acknowledged It would be a risky maneuver utilizing their naval assets and Pterrortail flyers in this defense, knowing that if they were failed in stopping the Whitestone Empire at Rinel or Nadlan or if they lose too many of their naval vessels or flyers; then it would be unlikely they could evacuate the young, old, and noncombatants of the Rayyan NG. Nevertheless, the NG were prepared to pay that price if they would be able to turn the tide here. Additionally, should they have to abandon the Islands, they were prepared for that event as well. Having large stocks of food, stocks of native fauna and flora, samples of the Stitcher tech from the Tektite city, and Cryst material from their past trade and the presently available resources from the Tektites. They would return to Skrigjaarda if they have to, and should that happen, they WILL return.

>Roll for effectiveness of Rinel and Nadlan coastal defenses/fortifcations. (+2 bonus)
>Roll for effectiveness of Pterrortail battle groups. (+1 bonus)
>Roll for strength/effectiveness of defenses of the AA-Nodes. (+1 bonus)
>Roll for quantity/effectiveness of navy force in the defense.
>>
File: Rayya Last Defense.png (74 KB, 1060x930)
74 KB
74 KB PNG
>>2586646
And this is what the Battle Map for the NG, looks like.
>>
Rolled 5, 6, 8, 1 = 20 (4d8)

>>2586646

Despite his best judgement I'x'i'x'i'i listened to his junior officers. Stay the course. He and his men would wait for the drowned legion to distract, and if need be, sacrifice themselves to deliver their deadly payload. If they survived they would rally in the southern Isles with the General himself.

Hopefully initial assault would cause the enemy to give chase, and make way for their landing party to assault and entrench into the AA node, for bombardment operations. It was a simple plan, with a lot of the tactical elements being handled at squad level. Let the specialists do their specialties he was told. It was almost relaxing, letting others do the work for him. The tropical breeze here was not yet touched by the acrid stench of war. Perhaps they would remain this chain of Islands after him. He ticked with delight at the thought.
--
If not for the general's unique...battle plans, this could have been over. He insisted though, that his personal Stitcherbot be anointed in the blood of the enemy. It was to be a long battle.
--

>rolling for the plague delivery and distraction value of the "drowned legion" refurbished ships
>rolling for the 4 seagoing stitcherbots attacking NG flotilla from underneath. (+1, stitcherbots.)
>rolling for the Rinel AA node assault. (+1, stitcherbots.)
>rolling for the southern Nadlan AA node assault. (+1, stitcherbots.)
>>
Rolled 1, 2, 5 = 8 (3d8)

The united FG kingdom saw the actions of the cocky tripods, and observed with increasingly great interest their documentation and cartography. The great pains in which they took to ensure no disruption to the biosphere. They concluded that against their ancestral memory, these were not those who had waged battle against their ancestors. Tripods, but different. They would reveal themselves, and seek both communication and trade.
--
The Whitestone empire was one of a key philosophical ideal. That the color white was the only color, and in fact, it was the only truth. That truth had to be shared as sure as a sun must rise. The Forest Grabraf were the givers of the gift, a serum that would change one into a more pure form, overnight. To ensure one's offspring carried that purity. When the merchants vanished, it was a dark time. Many feared the worst, that the great acceleration would be impossible. It was recently that the merchants had returned. A bit changed. Something was new about them, but they were willing to trade. The trade good was simple for them. Aerosolized serum. Not something that would change the stitcher, just their children. To be like those who walked the pure path of truth. A great many barrels were secured, and in bulk, delivered to any and all ports that would accept a Whitestone merchant ship. The gift was dispersed in a number of ways, as a vitality perfume, as a way to make clouds indoors for the ever popular stitcher theater. Some were simply ruptured in the docks at night. All the same, the gift would spread, but if they were discovered too early, it may mean the Empire's eradication.

>FG first encounter with CT
>Whitestone serum dispersal amongst the entirety of the stitcher ports.
>Whitestone getting caught. low is bad.
>>
Rolled 4, 8, 2, 7, 8, 6, 7 = 42 (7d8)

>>2586813
ST: Computers, ballistics
NG: Shaped explosives, IED
FG: scientific theory, industrialization
--
In the Ortodoxy, fantastic new developments were taking place. The era of peace had allowed minds to turn to science, innovation. In the lands of Rayya, frantic developments were brought to the table, anything that could be used with their resources to turn the tide. Something to shatter the warmachines of the white stitchers. Above, the FG kingdom would devote more time to learning and creating, doing the work themselves, not eager to repeat their past errors. Their view of the world was unique. Emra's eyes were at times their own, and from this they saw the struggles of the NG, the Stitchers...Should it come to it, they would offer the Grabrafs, their kin, worshippers of Skrigjaarden. Faithful to Emra. Perhaps more honest than themselves in this regard. They would offer them exodus. Those who would take it. Still, the war was not yet over.

6 tech
1 FG/ NG refugee plan/ offer.
>>
>>2586813
(librarian request for CT/FG first encounter. I'd request my one does not mean eternal war. yet.)
The Whitestone empire did not manage to disperse their gift in an effective manner, yet all the same, they had. 1 in 10,000 future stitchers would be born white, sometimes with six arms. While not much, it was an enduring legacy. One that had nearly cost them everything, the dispersal fleet was hounded endlessly by house Sardonyx. They knew something was awry, somehow supernaturally so. Thus many had to release their precious cargo at sea, fumigating their own ships. The crews hastily dumped the remaining cargo overboard, and feigned innocence to local coast guard and merchant marine patrols. The investigators becoming unknowingly infected.
>>2586909
In house MoonStone Stitcher language based code was almost an nightmare in theory. Logical attempts at not offering disguise or lack of symmetry caused early machines to fail after short operations. It was confounding, and left to better suited minds. Sandstone however, learned how to reach out and touch. Their long range calculations allowed for the weapons of the Orthodoxy to gain new life, with dependence on foreign made artillery slowly subsiding. Perhaps for the best, there seemed to be less and less of the military surplus coming from the grabrafs.

The NG of would concoct many dangerous weapons in these desperate times. Their greatest and most bitter achievement came in the form of a powerful explosive cocktail, which could be readily made, at some risk to the maker. While yet untested against crystal machine, it had proven that in sufficent quantity buildings would readily be leveled by it.

For the FG kingdom, they emerged from bloody strife under powerful leadership. It would see them into a golden era of prosperity once more. Deeper understanding of scientific theory was shared across the collective, amusing Emra greatly with their childlike steps towards "adulthood." Soon all their innovations were turned towards a single purpose. Greatness. The industrial machine of the FG was biological, but the process behind it was sound. Numerous airships were churned out, enough to cast shade. Combining the best of automation, and efficient design, the ships were fragile, but served a solitary purpose. Salvation.

The FG approached the NG, and despite great mistrust at yet another stranger offering them aid, the FG spoke of Skrigjaarden and it's virtues at length. Of their own misdeeds, and return to the correct path. They offered the NG a place with them. Should they simply choose it. The message was well received, but that was the best that could be hoped for. From here, it was up to the diminutive people to choose their own fate from an increasingly dwindling number of choices.
>>
Rolled 6 (1d8)

>>2586939
authorized reroll for CT/FG first contact.
>>
File: export chair.png (6 KB, 285x279)
6 KB
6 KB PNG
>>2556721
"Hello potential customer, ally, or dark elf seeking penance! I can see you are an individual with not one, but two very discerning eyes! Keen for the majesty of Stitcher craftsmanship. Someone who is seeking the kind of perfection that can only be had when driven by a lineage of symmetry and obsessive compulsive disorders related to symmetry, dating beyond the dawn of recorded history. Yes, this kind of artisan craft will bring you not one zone of luxury, not two, and certainly not three, but yes...six. Six zones of luxury. In thick, sumptuous nomad's blood leather; Oh? Why yes, that is real leather, and real nomad's blood. For you. Only the best here. Beyond that, strong yet lightweight Voltanite alloy composes your controls, and support column. Within? A sturdy shell of interlocking crystal, coated by our patented kineticrystal blend! You will swear, you are sitting on crystal. We guarantee it. Finally, should you find that you are a dark elf, or have failed your house, we ship each chair with 24 surplus military grade capacitors. Just pull the lever on the top after disengaging the safety stud. The rest will sort itself out good friend."

Fun fact: Stitchers make the most ergonomic furniture in the world that has suicide features.
>>
>>2587143
--unknown providence--

It was not known how it got here, other than that the ship was seized adrift, no crew. The crystaline ship was of older design, that much was sure. Within was cargo, meticulously wrapped in crystweave sheets, greased with preservative oils. The Ship's ledger was still intact, listed as the property of House IvorVine. It was a short lived house, one of many rapid name changes that took place in the tumultuous southern alliance. Curious, but not so much as the endless array of odd and antiquated machinery. The Orthodoxy would claim the vessel and cargo by right of salvage, and it's engineers would view the contents with idle curiosity in spare time. It was roughly a decade later that the cargo was given enough time to be puzzled out. It was not a stitcherbot. not exactly. Some kind of ancestor to the machine though. Thin and unarmored, no hint of an interal power supply, just locations for power couplings. Still. Fully assembled, plus or minus a few parts, it was impressivly large. The pilot sat on a command pedestal, in the open air where a head should be. 4 spindly limbs, tipped with shperical place holders, adorned the upper torso. the legs were similarly crude. The Sardonites had done well, been thorough even, collected blueprints, odd bits of battlefield scrap, and even leftover flaws from early production of the real machines. Enough of this could be cobbled together to make something that would be a reasonable analogue.

A stitcherbot...no. But close enough. An Archetype.
>>
File: Stitcher Hopper Tank.png (94 KB, 2000x2000)
94 KB
94 KB PNG
>>2585038
>>2586939
>>2582681
”YES! YEEES!” ”IT LIVES!”
”Someone get that Plains Grabraf out of here.” The deranged Nekonahu merchant that had somehow found itself at the Azurite testing grounds was quickly escorted off the premises by a pair of praetors. X’ii’e’ proceeded to look at the hangar where the rumbling was coming from. “Stitchero 1, this is command. How’s it going in there?”

“The hangar doors are stuck, ma’m.”
“Breach them.”

“Yes, ma’m” “Engaging ramming-hop.”

A loud *thunk* of springs releasing was immediatly followed by cracking noises as the EM Hopper-tank came flying through what had once been the hangar doors. For the visiting representatives of the Council’s ruling houses it was the first time the machine was being shown. The EM Hopper-tank was the culmination of five years of research, merging both Stitcher-bot and hopper machine tech while adding newly invented technologies to it (such as discoveries in ballistics and electormagnetism). Crewed by 8 stitchers, the machine was armed with an EM trebuchet on its back, handled by 2 of the crew and intended for structures and larger machines; four smaller EM cannons, individually controlled and intended for smaller vehicles and heavier infantry; and a repeating gun, controlled by one of stitchers in the main cockpit and intended mainly for infantry. The machine’s inspiration was clear; the Whitestones’ spider tank. However, The EM Hopper-tank couldn’t swim, instead it was specialized for land. Thick layers of Voltanite-Carnelian alloy shielded its body. Using its spring-legs, based off the peridot Hopper machines, the tank could handle uneven terrain well; but that wasn’t all. The legs also allowed the tank to move faster than its size would otherwise allow, by entering hopping-speed. When doing so the machine could hop in straight line for 15 minutes before having to stop (otherwise the friction-caused heat would crack the legs). This was the first tank out of hundreds, the Council hoped. All over the Orthodoxy crystoriums were being outfitted with the capabilities of producing parts for the tanks.
>>
File: real-ghost-ship[1].gif (316 KB, 1000x468)
316 KB
316 KB GIF
Rolled 1 (1d8)

>>2586939
In their drunkenness on spreading the glory that is white, the Whitestones believed that those being given the gift that is white would be accepting of the change and they thought the families of the Orthodoxy would forgive. The Whitestone Empire had forgotten; they were dealing with Stitchers. Within a month of the first white Stitchers being born, ghost-ships started to appear along the northern border of the Empire’s domain. The empire couldn’t identify their origin, the freight ships being of an old make both used by the Orthodoxy and in the Empire. When crews were sent out to investigate the cargo holds, their questions were answered. The humid ships were packed with the dead bodies of white-skinned pups; Orthodoxy pups. The Stitchers of the Orthodoxy had solved the issue of white-born pups in the same way they solved most pups being born defective. These pups however hadn’t even been given the decency of being buried in The Fields of the Orthodoxy. The Whitestones understood; the herectics in their blindness judged white as unclean – a mark of the dark elf. They decided to give the pups the proper burials, as all of the white deserved. The bodies were transported out of the ships and put on the AA-nodes. For about six months the ghost ships kept coming and increasing in number, only to then dwindle off completely. It took two weeks before the Stitchers of the first investigative crews and their families started falling ill, bleeding through their orifices. There was a reason the cargo-holds were that humid. Something more than just dead bodies had been within those ships; death itself…

>Rolling for the impact of the Sardonyx-made strain of Red Plague on the Whitestone Empire
>>
Rolled 4, 6 = 10 (2d8)

>>2587229
I'll do two tech rolls for antibiotics for stitchers to provide maybe a bit of lore reason for that 1
>>
>>2556773
Holy fuck, I remember creating the spindleleg bzalgae over 1.5 years ago. Amazing to come back and see it's still here (and how it's evolved)
>>
File: House bloodstone.png (1.03 MB, 4320x2700)
1.03 MB
1.03 MB PNG
>>2585608
Finally, house Heliotrope had found it, their promised land! It may be a wet hellhole filled with disease and parasites, but it was their hellhole. Here, far away from the influence of other Stitcher civilizations, they would create their vision of paradise. In the image of ancient Stitcher civilization, they founded several small and (mostly) independent colonies. Abandoning most of the scientific advancements post-emrailic-electricity, the only modern invention these Stitchers kept was the rifle, deeming it too useful for felling Humongous Brutails to abandon. Out of the canon, only the oldest slabs were kept. Everyone in the colonies strove to live according to them. Mimicking historyslabs, they would internally feud and make war upon one another. Most of the Orthodoxy looked on in a mixture of fascination and disgust, but they kept the promise to House Heliotrope and of their constitution; they would leave the colonies mostly to themselves (largely since it was more effort than it was worth keeping tabs on them). All the Orthodoxy asked and demanded was: “Which house, or houses, ruled in these lands?” Part in mockery the colonies answered “House Bloodstone”, a house that did not exist.
>>
File: spider trebuchet.png (45 KB, 2057x1384)
45 KB
45 KB PNG
>>2584155
>>
>>2585608
Though the plains north of I’ee’k had been very similar, Ireei found himself unsettled for some reason. He paused and attempted to regain his composure, using I’ee’k techniques to imporse discipline on his intellect. The forest was quiet, gentle with pouchytail song. And yet he could hear thunder.
Something is happening to me. Is this my first trial?
He found a stream marbled by sunlight and knelt at its edge. The water he drank was more replenishing, more sweet, than any water he had tasted before. But how could water taste sweet? How could sunlight, broken across the back of rushing waters, be so beautiful?

What comes before determines what comes after. The I’ee’k Scholars spent their lives immersed in the study of this principle, shining light on the intangible mesh of cause and effect that determined every happenstance, and minimizing all that was wild and unpredictable. Because of this, events always unfolded with Carnelian certainty in I’ee’k. More often than not one knew the course a leaf would take through the terrace grooves. More often than not one knew what another would say before he spoke. To grasp what came before was to know what would come after. And to know what would come after was the beauty that stilled, the hallowed communion of intellect and circumstance – the gift of the Chain.

Back at I’ee’k, everything was grasped. Everything was understood. But now, walking through the forests of Sivec, it seemed the world plunged and he stood still. Like earth in rushing water, he was battered by an endless succession of surprises: the call of an unknown pouchytail species, burrs in his jewelry from an unknown weed; an Onolkian tripod stepping through a sunlit clearing, searching for unknown prey.
A Crystal Mosquito would fly up to him, and he would slap at it, only to have his eyes drawn to another configuration of brafitree. His surroundings inhabited him, possessed him, until he was moved by all things at once – the creak of limbs, the endless permutations of water over stones. These things racked him with the strength of tides.
On the afternoon of the eighteenth day, a twig lodged between his toes. He held it against the sky and studied it, became lost in its shape, in the path it travelled through the open air – the thin, muscular branchings that seized so much emptiness from the sky. Had it simply fallen into this shape or had it been cast, a mould drained of its wax? He looked up and saw one sky plied by infinite forking branches. Was there not one way to grasp the sky? He was unaware how long he stood there, but it was dark before the twig slipped from his fingers.
On the twenty-eighth day, he crouched on mossy green rocks and watched river derals leap and pitch against the rushing river. The sun rose and set three times before his thoughts escaped the inexplicable war of deral and waters.
>>
File: In the Sivec Forest.png (277 KB, 1344x1538)
277 KB
277 KB PNG
>>2587516
Eventually his mission became the last remnant of what he once had been. Otherwise he was devoid of intellect, oblivious to the principles of the I’ee’k. Each day stole more words from him – until only one imperative remained: Emra… I must find Emra.
He continued wandering east, through the brafitree woods. His dispossession deepened, until he no longer crystal-sharpened his sword after being used, until he no longer slept or ate. There was only wilderness, the walk and the passing days.
Ireei ate sparingly from his forgotten satchel – dried jewol meat and crystgrass. He peeled leaves from the surface of a small pool of rainwater, drank and then stared curiously at the dark reflection of his own face, at the growth of dark spots over pale his forehead and shoulders.
Is this me?
He studied the climb-broulds and pouchytails he could pick from the dim confusion of the trees. Once he glimpsed a young foltanian landlord slipping through the brush.
I am not one more animal.
His intellect flailed, found purchase, and grasped. He could sense wild cause sweep around him in statistical tides. Touch him and leave him untouched.
I am Stitcher. I am apart from these things.
As evening came, it began to rain. For the first time in weeks he sought shelter.
We he awoke the forest was quiet with snow. The I’ee’k scholars had no real knowledge of how far Emra was. They had merely provided him with as many provisions as he could efficiently carry without wearing clothes. Even when adding wild grass to his diets, with the days, his satchel grew flimsier. Ireei could only passively observe as hunger and exposure wracked his body.
If the wilderness could not possess him, it would kill him.
His food ran out and he continued to walk. Everything – experience, analysis – became mysteriously sharp. More snow came, and cold harsh winds. He walked until he could no longer.
The way is to narrow, master. Emra is too far…
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

rolling for the whitestone Empire Colony expansion up to the other node
>>
Rolled 7, 8, 8 = 23 (3d8)

>>2587518
In the Colony-in-Isolation, the Scholars of I'ee'k were further delving into the truths of this world...

>Rolling for further developing the breeding program!
>Rolling for Calculus (fifth time's the charm) and Atomic Theory
>>
>>2587665
>>2587518

”Ikitei”, the Stitcher had said, placing a hand to his bone-white chest. His eyes were the same bone-white color but with a hint of green and far too small-sized to adequately fit his broad features. His face seemed perpetually arched in surprise, and his eyes were given to excuses, always feigning interest in trivial details to avoid his guests’ watchful gaze. Only later, after learning Ikitei’s language, did Ireei discover how he’d come to be in the forest-dweller’s care. His memories were of sweaty crystfurs and smouldering fires. Isolating crystfurs hung along the walls from the low ceiling. Sacks and casks heaped the corners of a single room. As Ireei would later learn, the chaotic interior of the cabin was actually an expression, and a painstaking one at that, of the forest-dweller’s many superstitious fears. Each thing had its place, he would tell Ireei, and those things out of evenness portended disaster. Beyond the walls, winter whistled through trackless leagues of forest. The land was called Eastern Sivec, Ikitei would tell him, the northernmost lands that Stitchers could be found. He preferred, he would say, to live far from the troubles of other Stitchers.
Though Ikitei was a sturdy Stitcher of middle years, for Ireei he was little more than a pup. The musculature of his face was utterly untrained, bound as though by strings to his passions. Whatever mobed Ikitei’s soul moved his expression as well, and after a short time Ireei needed only glance at his face to know his thoughts. The ability to anticipate his thoughts, to re-enact the movements of Ikitei’s soul as though they were his own, would come later.
In the meantime a routine developed. At dawn Ikitei harnessed his broulds and left to check his traps. On the days he returned early he enlisted Ireei to mend traps, prepare skins and draw up a new pot of stew – to “earn his keep” as he put it. At night Ireei worked, as Ikitei had taught him, on carving leather. Ikitei would watch from across the fire, his hands carving, stitching or simply straining against each other – small labors that paradoxically gifted him with patience, even grace.
Ireei saw Ikitei’s hands at rest only when he slept or was extraordinarily drunk. Drink, more than anything else, defined the Stitcher.
Through the morning, Ikitei never looked Ireei in the eye, acknowledging him only at nervous angles. By afternoon, a flush would have crept into his expression. His eyes would flare with brittle sunshine. He would smile and laugh. But by dark, his manner would be bloated, a distorted parody of what had been just hours earlier. During conversations he would be overcome by squalls of rage and bitter humor.
>>
>>2587830
Ireei learned much from Ikitei’s fungi-inebriated passions, but the time came when he could no longer allow his study to trade in caricatures. One night he rolled the casks of fungi out into the forest and burned them. During the suffering that followed, he carried on with the chores.

Ikitei talked, animated by the vanity of sharing his life with someone who was captive to the facts as he described them. Old pains returned in the telling.
“I had no choice but to leave T’kree,” Ikitei admitted, speaking yet again of his dead mate.
Ireei gauged the subtle interplay of muscles beneath the Stitcher’s expression.
He pretends to mourn in order to secure my pity.
“T’kree reminded you of her absence?” This is the lie he tells himself.
Ikitei nodded, his eyes at once sorrow-filled and expectant. “T’kree seemed a tomb after they died. The forests seemed to … beckon om me somehow. Everyone in the colony, even my siblings and family. Seemed to exult in her death – in my misery! I had to… I was forced too…”
Avenge yourself.
Ikitei looked into the fire “Flee,” he said.
Why does he deceive himself in this way?
“No Stitcher moves alone through the world, Ikitei. Our every thought stems from the thoughts of other. Our every word is but a repetition of words spoken before. Every time we listen, we allow the movements of another soul to carry our own.” He paused, cutting short his reply in order to bewilder the Stitcher. Insight struck with so much more force when it clarified confusion. “This is truly why you fled to Sivec, Ikitei.”
For an instant Ikitei’s eyes slackened with horror and ree’’ee. “But I don’t understand…”
Of everything I might say, he fears most the truths he already knows and yet denies. Are all world-born Stitchers this weak?
“But you do understand. Think, If we are nothing more than out thoughts and passions, and if our thoughts and passions are nothing more than movements of our souls, then we are nothing more than those who move us. Who you once were, Ikitei, ceased to exist the moment your mate died.”
“And that’s why I fled!” Ikitei cried, his eyes both beseeching and provoked. “I couldn’t bear it. I fled to forget!”
Flare in his pulse rate. Hesitation in the flex of muscles about his eyes. He knows this is a lie.
“No, Ikitei. You fled to remember. You fled to conserve all the ways of your mate had moved you, to shield the ache of her loss from the momentum of others. You fled to make a bulwark of your misery.”
>>
>>2587835
>>2587830

Sadness-saliva spilled from the forest-dweller’s mouth. “Ah heretical words, Ireei! Why would you say such things?”
To better possess you.
“Because you have suffered long enough. You’ve spent years alone by this fire, wallowing in your loss, asking your Broulds over and over whether they see you as family. You hoard your pain because the more you suffer, the more Essari becomes an outrage. You slobber because slobbering has become evidence. ‘See what you have done to me!’ you cry. And night after night you condemn the circumstances that have condemned you by reliving your anguish. You torment yourself, Ikitei, in order to hold the world and Emra accountable for your torment.”
Again, he’ll deny me –
“And what if I do? The world IS an outrage, Ireei!”
“Perhaps it is,” Ireei replied, his tone one of pity and regret, “but the world has long ceased to be the author of your pain. How many times have you cried out these very words? Pause, Ikitei, refuse to follow the grooves these thoughts have worn into you. Pause, and you’ll see.”
His thoughts forced inward, Ikitei hesitated, his face stunned and slack.
He understands but lacks the courage to admit it.
“Ask yourself,” Ireei pressed, “Why this desperation?”
“There’s no desperation,” Ikitei replied numbly.
He sees the place I’ve opened for him, realizes the futility of all lies in my presence, even those he tells himself.
“Why do you continue to lie?”
“Because… because...” It hurts so much!
“I know it hurts, Ikitei. Release from anguish can be purchased only through more anguish.” So much like a pup…
“What should I do?” the Stitcher cried. “Ireei… tell me!”
Millions of years, Emra. What power you must wield over beings such as this.
And Ireei, his spotted face warm with the firelight and compassion, answered: “No one’s soul moves alone, Ikitei. When one’s love die, one must give up on one’s life or learn to love another.”
>>
After the Grabraf-Construct war, the constructs felt that they needed to repay the FG for all the lives they have taken(which was about a dozen FG, a much deeper loss than the thousands on the side of the constructs) with something more than just doing the jobs they are assigned to. They create a new construct(a non-intelligent one, of course), one that the FG can use for entertainment: the car. While the pipe system of the floating islands makes the car's traditional role of transport obsolete, it's quite good for racing-a new sport which both the forest and the nomad grabraf living on the islands found quite enjoyable.
>>
Rolled 4, 5, 1, 5, 4, 6 = 25 (6d8)

Dropped the name, but will keep on making rolls. I'm bad at story but want to help it move.

Stitchers: advanced ballistics, rocketry
House sandstone keeps developing. Building off anons work.
Nomads: rifling, grenade launchers
Late stage innovations for people who need it.
Forest Grabraf: island steering, island steering. ( not fast at all, but allows them to have limited control over where their islands go.)
>>
>>2586646
>>2586772
--Torray Isles Event: The End of the Rayya-Whitestone War Part 1--

The campaign of the Rinel-Nadlan Isles began on the first day of Spring, and would last for nearly 5 months. The NG's defenses were well placed and every NG warrior was trained and ready to die for the glory of the colony and Skrigjaarden; yet for the first time in nearly all the history of NG battles, they lacked the numbers advantage. Their defenses spread thin, and up against a brutal and pragmatic Whitestone General would slowly push them towards their downfall. Soon, the last of the NG's greatest assets: in en masse offensives would be turned against them in a manner that the NG had not encounter for almost a millennia now: plague.

It happened during some of the initial coastal engagements where the Stitcher seemed to almost reckless maroon transport vessels laden with auxillary troops and strange red-cryst containers on the beaches of the Rinel Islands. The easy victories for the NG turned to quick scrap and salvage operations, taking anything they could make of use from the Stitcher forces, including the strange red containers. These land-based engagements would be the last true victory for the NG; and worse they would come to discover the materials they scavenged from the Stitcher ships were laced with a more virulent variety of the "Crimson Plague" spreading to tens of thousands of NG ground forces. The quick acting elder warriors would within 2 weeks of identifying the disease make a desperate and perhaps heartless decision to forsaken the infected regiments of the NG, placing several miles of distance between the uninfected troops and the sick. They would manage to minimize further losses, but not before a quarter million of NG succumbed to the plague.

With NG forces gravely wounded by the biological warfare, and now spread even thinner, the elder made another tough decision to pull all active, healthy forces to either take position around the Rinel AA-Nodes or fall back boister the defenses of the Nadlan, their last untouched stronghold. The situation would only worsen however, when the NG naval flotilla came up against the "Drowned Legion" and the 4 amphibious stitcherbots. The NG flotilla despite being substantially larger than any of the Stitcher ships, were generations old, and comprised of outdated armaments, resulting in major losses. Despite this the NG flotilla was able to score some decisive victories against the now the Drowned Legion, as well as scoring crippling volleys on the spread out Whitestone navy. Regardless, within just 2 months, the Whitestone Empire would hold nearly all of the Rinel Islands largely without any contest or major resistance from NG guerilla tactics.
>>
>>2588613
--The End of the Rayya-Whitestone War Part 2--

The battle for the Rinel AA-Node would be another month long engagement, taking with it the lives of 330,000 White Stitcher, and nearly a million NG. It would go down in the annals of Whitestone Empire history as yet another of their bloodiest battles, but not nearly at the level of Onolk. The NG defeat here was based on their underestimation of the Whitestone's aptly named White Fleet. The overwhelming numbers of Stitcher poured into the attack on the AA-Node was too much for their already beleaguered forces to hold off. The recent usage of IEDs did help to cripple much of the Stitcher's armored units, alongside Pterrortail corrosive bombardments, weakening the heavy armor presence. These minor advantages to the NG were entirely overshadowed by the presence of the Stitcherbots, and aberration-like "Spider-Trebuchets" that were able to rapidly launch deep strikes into NG defensive lines. The fighting had become so bad at one point, that there were reports of NG and Stitcher alike suffering psychotic breaks from the sight and smell of the dead around them. It did not take long for the Whitestone forces to break the defense of the NG completely, and eventually rout the remainder of Rayyan forces to Nadlan.

The brief 2-week reprieve before the invasion of Nadlan was viewed by many of the NG to be their grim last stand. Many prayed to Skrigjaarden for a miracle, while the military leaders quickly scrambled to reorganize forces at the Nadlan AA-Node and the interior of Nadlan. Skrigjaarden would continue to be a silent witness though as the first Whitestone ships appeared on the horizon off Nadlan's coast. The NG had grown desperate at this point, choosing to do anything to gain even a small advantage or inflict Stitcher casualties. In one such case, one of the great migrant flotillas was used as a siege ram against the Whitestone navy that in a fortuitous boon, managed to sink or cripple dozens of ships, but at the cost of one of their few ships that could endure the journey back to Skrigjaarda. In another case, Pterrortails were ladened with crudely made explosive devices to drop on enemy Stitchers from above, which had mixed results due to the unstable concoctions used in the explosives, and their overall poor craft.

Every gain and minor victory the NG could make against the White Stitcher however significant came at the cost of several thousands of NG and essential resources like the Pterrortail and flotillas. They were growing more tired by the constant efforts of the Whitestone forces by the day, as they almost helpless watched as their last foothold over Nadlan, the last major island of the Suomalalinen began to slip from their grasp. Yet, some NG continued to near fanatically fight, believing that any day now, the fight would turn in their favor.

And a glimmer of hope, and potentially salvation did for the Rayya NG did finally appear just days before the battle of the Nadlan AA-Node.
>>
>>2588617
--The End of the Rayya-Whitestone War Part 3--

In the days that came after most of Nadlan fell to under the Whitestone Empire's control, the NG were moving the remainder of their unisolated forces to the Nadlan AA-Node. It was the final stronghold between the White Stitcher army and the crammed population of young, elderly, sick and meek NG. A proud force of over 4 million NG was now reduced to a battered and demoralized force of just under 600,000. The Elders that remained of the NG were now making emergency plans to prep the launch of flotillas back west for Skrigjaarda, the moment news of fighting on the AA-Node began.

5 days later, the fighting would indeed start, but flow of battle was different this time from the Whitestone Empire. The majority of the White Fleet approached the island in small fragments, rather than the one overwhelming force. A large hurricane that had been building up to the northwest several days ago, had recently swung through the Suomalalinen Islands, damaging, and beaching a significant portion of the fleet at the time of their planned attack run. This stroke of luck in the bleakest hour of the Rayya NG's minds allowed them to easily repel and even force the retreat of multiple fragments of the White Fleet that attempted to storm the AA-Node. Even when these routed and beatened fragment all managed to assimilate together and attack once more, the morale boost of consecutive wins, had emboldened the NG to boldly retaliate against the wounded fragments of the White Fleet, finally turning tail to flee.

The NG elders were no fools, even though they as well as their warriors reveled in the much needed victory here. They had still lost nearly 40,000 NG in the weeks of on-and-off fighting, and the Elder warriors were almost certain the White Stitcher would return, likely with the absent fragments of their "White Fleet" to finish what was started here. The following day, NG scouts were sent out to spot for Stitcher vessels, but they encounter something else just to northwest of the AA-Node that would come to called "There miracle from Skrigjaarden."
>>
>>2586939
>The FG approached the NG, and despite great mistrust at yet another stranger offering them aid, the FG spoke of Skrigjaarden and it's virtues at length. Of their own misdeeds, and return to the correct path. They offered the NG a place with them. Should they simply choose it. The message was well received, but that was the best that could be hoped for. From here, it was up to the diminutive people to choose their own fate from an increasingly dwindling number of choices.

--NG Event: The Salvation of Rayya--

The Floating Islands hovered over the Suomalalinen Islands once more, a common biannual occurrence to the Rayya. What was different about this occasion though, was when the NG spotted airships descending for the islands to the AA-Node. The NG knew not what to expect, and nearly attacked the airships, until they spotted a strangely familiar faces helming the floating ships: Grabraf. The Pterrortails circled the airships as they lofted down to the AA-Nodes their crew of fluffy, green tufted Grabraf disembarked, beckoning to speak with one of the elders of NG, in their native dialect no less.

The proclaimed "Forest Grabraf" openly spoke to the elders with a homely demeanor, speaking highly of Skrigjaarden and it virtues, saying that they too followed a similar path to the NG here. They then made an offer that felt as if it were godsent message from Skrigjaarden itself.

>"We have been quiet observers to your plight against the Stitchers for too long. While we do not wish to become intermingled in this conflict, we instead wish to offer the opportunity for your people to live amongst our own people for however long you may need to. The choice is yours whether you wish to fight here, or seek salvation among are forests in the sky."

The elders quickly made put together a commune to discuss their options, although the most rational answer at the moment was quite obvious. While a few of the elder NG did hold dissenting opinions on whether they should put trust in these strange FG, the majority knew that their options were few and far from a optimistic as the one the FG had laid before them. They returned to the FG once more, and with a shake of hands and cheerful hoots and toots, the NG militia led the FG airships to the islands their main population was hiding out on.

The Rayya NG in true nomadic fashion, collected everything they could carry either with their own hands, or through the aid of Pterrortail and other beasts. Native plants, crops, building materials, salvaged cryst and Stitcher materials, and other miscellaneous items cherished by the NG. They were all packed onto Pterrortails or the FG airships, and over the course of 10-days, the Rayya NG had all departed from the Suomalalinen Islands.

When the Whitestone Empire returned to the Nadlan AA-Node with the full might of their White Fleet, they would find nothing but abandon scraps of defensive posts, and only remnant signs of an NG colony that once flourished here.
>>
>>2588706
I'x'i'x'i'i sat motionless in the cockpit of his personal stitcherbot. The great machine sat recumbat, on the island of Nadlan. Almost enjoying the breeze His eyes unblinking watched the sunrise, and slowly ships would cross in front of him. The honored white fleet. He felt there was dignity there, for them. In this color, this honor. Large chains attached to his stitcherbot and began to drag it towards the sea. It acted as a plow, dredging a path through bodies of stitcher and grabraf alike. Their corpses parting to the side in small mounds, or ground under it's great bulk to ease the passing.

To his sides were shattered homes, and if he was a more thoughtful man, lives. Further down the homes began to intermingle with the remains of White Fleet machinery. Here and there, spider tanks and spider mounted trebuchets sit frozen in quiet repose. Some were vacant of crew, others still held occupants laying over the sides. Eventually "the chariot" was brought to the beach, and maintenance crews began to disassemble the prized machine, preparing it for transport back to the colonies. "What is to be done with the generals body?" a younger technician quipped to his leader. "leave it here, in memorial." with a shrug, the tech did as requested, and pulled the body from it's cockpit, and onto the sand. Dead eyes looked up at the sky, now absent of the flickering dreams of glory and pride.
--

The Empire would have recalled their military home, had there been a sufficient military to return home. This was not the case. Instead they were given bitter orders. "Remain in the captured territory, prepare for settlers, defend new colonies, glory to the Whitestone Empire." The stone tablet was small, to the point. The reading official crushed and ate it, partially out of protocol, mostly out of contempt.

Any glory that had by the white fleet was branded as an accomplishment of the empire. Details of the battle were kept from the general population while island paradises were stripped of evidence of mutual slaughter. The White legion was slowly fed into the colony of Reef, retrofitted and being stripped of I'x'i'x'i'i's heraldry and iconography. The fleet, men, and equipment were gradually seconded to the drowned legion. The truth was was dangerously close to treason, and in clear contempt of higher leadership with a drive autonomy to manifest personal glory. They were the last generation's equipment, soldiers, and methodologies of war, lead by a General who epitomized the old ways. Their function served, now better forgotten.

The old guard would protect the colonies into perpetuity, left to sustain themselves. An honorable exile by any measure. The Empire would began creating a new force from scratch; devised of lessons learned, and developed methodologies. While diminished for decades to come, but House Sardonyx had taught every stitcher nation an important lesson: One need not be mighty to be lethal.
>>
Rolled 7, 5, 3, 1, 7, 6 = 29 (6d8)

tech rolls

ST: Computers, Advanced ballistics
NG: Primary education, gliders
FG: Cognitive repository, birthing chambers
>>
>>2589186
Built on the innovations of house sandstone in ballistic computation, house Moonstone would expand the theory of ballistics. It was a single great mind that brought about this change, one Gr'l'd B'l'l, envisioned something new. In the most classical sense it could be called a weapon, yes, but it was so much more. Looking up at his creation, he reed in pleasure. All four arms wildly gesticulating at its greatness. It was just an early prototype, but already it showed so much promise. He told the ruling pair of Moonstone, he could take their house past the sky with this idea. They would fund him for several years. The Whitestone empire had their machines, but to have this. A weapon that could reach across the entire region? Yes, Gr'l'd had his ideas, but for them, it was a weapon to surpass Stitcherbot!

Sadly, since inclusion into the Orthodoxy, moonstone still remained secreative and isolationist. Progress was not fast enough for Gr'l'd. He turned to bringing his knowledge out into the other houses, marketing to them improved ballistic weapons, small things. Still, toeing the line with your patrons is a dangerous game. At some point he was harshly reminded where his loyalties lie, and yet pressed on. Embolded by his survival, he began creating large cannons in several houses at once. For him, he insisted they were for altitude research. From the perception of Moonstone, it was a threat to their existence.

At some point Gr'l'd was assassinated in his dwelling, just outside the Whitestone settlement of Tee'u'ana. He had saught refuge with the empire, fearing for his life. Telling close friends that he feared he was being followed. He had planned to take a Voltanite boat and flee the area entirely the morning after his assassination, seeking to ply his trade in foreign lands. Despite the loss of his genius, his innovations and teachings can be felt in every facet of ballistic technology, most prominently in the Orthodoxy and on their new tank platforms.
--
Within the Whitestone empire, a simple revolution was taking place. The field of battle was data, and the pace at which the conflict moved became amazingly fast. No single individual, rather a large team would, could be credited for the development of computers. These amazingly compact machines, the size of a small hut, could calculate more accurately and faster than any stitcher alive. Massive amounts of data from sensors could be broken down into numbers, and from numbers, solutions! Soon simulations for materials engineering were running on mainframes; single giant machines dedicated to processing data. Not limited to the theoretical, the industrial processes soon gained the benefit of early automation and primitive computer aided design. The second generation of military, industrial, and consumer goods from the Whitestone empire were already starting to roll off the assembly lines and out into the world.
>>
>>2589186
>>2589224
Despite their newfound home being paradise, the NG could not stop tinkering. An attempt at developing a glider bases on "common observations of nature" lead to a troupe of NG plummeting to their deaths off the side of an island, impacting on the royal palace of house diamond. Their cadavers were found months after the incident, and remained a great mystery amongst the population for decades.
--
The FG had witnessed immense loss of life throughout their collective history, time and time again nearly facing extinction. The recent defeat of the NG to the Stitchers saw them realize, no force, no matter how blessed by Emra, was beyond reproach. Their minds and bodies were so far changed from what they were originally, that many simply had an almost alien view on life. Birthrates had declined with most parents not wishing to take time away from the "dreams", or simply had turned off their reproductive desires to pursue more aesthetic goals. The vast unspoken connectivity of all FG minds allowed an individual to commune across the world to other FGs, or to temporarily merge with the collective mind, and experience the communion oneness until such existence was no longer desired. Many would break away from the collective to experience the physical world once more, to stretch and flex their withered bodies, grow strong, and experience strife, struggle, joy, the company of those cut off from the collective. To cut themselves off from the collective for a time. To experience risk and uncertainty. Things that could not be stimulated with a carefully controlled glandular system. Uncontrolled euphoria at survival. The drive of predation, the metallic tinge of terror in one's beak.

However, this risk had shown during the Stitcher war, that many foolhardy but unique minds were lost. Their collective echos were still there, as was the impression every individual who knew of them had. From that, an accurate simulation of what was lost could be reconstructed for remembrance and documentation. It still was not the actual entity, with it's own decisions and drive. That is where the FG sought to rectify a problem that plagued them; Mortality. If their population would not increase, it would not decrease so readily either. A great organ was made, one on each island. This artificial construct would allow for FG to be "backed up" in case of loss, or even for those so truly bold, to give control of their body to the great wonder, to move their thinking mind into it, and experience the world with the safety of remote connection.

---see pt 2--
>>
>>2589241
These select grabraf that would opt for the safest existence were noted for having a slight "latency". Slow to act, slow to respond. Not overly, but enough that it defined them. A worthy trade for most. During a deal gone terribly wrong, a stitcher captain shot an FG merchant through the head with all 4 barrels of fury. The headless cadaver fell to the floor, and promptly began to self digest in a horrific manner. Soon all that was left of the FG was biological soup. To the stitcher's horror, another "captain" calmly returned to the deck from his airship, and continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.

Other grabraf would opt for a backed up existence, with many existential arguments on if a backup was the original, or if it was only real during an active connection to the collective. Could a second be made while the primary existed? Was it ethical? Some still had an even greater opinion that such a device was wrong, at least for them, and did not participate. The rarest few, those who existed in the dream alone, would occasionally grow weary of eternity, and end their participation in the dream. Friends and family would mourn. Despite all it's wonders, many questioned if their thoughts were their own anymore, sometimes leading to psychosis. It was the new NG population that helped save the FG from their own innovations with calm words by those still anchored to the physical. They apprecaited the FG's desire to seek oneness with Emra, but understood, one cannot attempt to emulate Emra; the mortal mind was not made for such comprehension. All were companions to Emra in the endless journey through the black.

Offsetting this were the birthing pods. A Place where a body could be quickly created, often used by those who operated "remote", but on occasion when two constructs would love each other very much...they could seek family.
>>
File: FG.png (206 KB, 824x950)
206 KB
206 KB PNG
>>2587837
The same Arrow-like spikes that had killed Ikitei hissed by him. He picked one from the air and studied it. Warm, as though it had come from flesh. Then his crystal sword was in his hand, and it glittered through the space around him, seizing it like the branches of a tree. They came – a gray rush – and he was there before them, poised in the moment the Constructs could not foresee. He speared the light from their robotic faces, stepped among them and snuffed out their still beating circulatory organs.
They could not see that circumstance was holy. They only served. He, on the other hand, was one of the Conditioned, a scholar of I’ee’k, and all events yielded to him.
They fell back, and the metallic screeching subsided. They thronged for a moment around him – large heads and tentacle-extremities, stinking cloaks and necklaces of organic matter. He stood patient before their menace. Tranquil.
He bent to one that still squirmed at his feet, lifting it by one of its heads. The confused face was twitching in fury.
“Ohu’nahak, hootinar oka fo’uoh natohk..”
It screeched at him. He nailed it to the tree with his sword.
He stepped back. It shrieked and wriggled.
What are these creatures?
Something, someone, laughed behind him, stamping at the snow and ice. Ireei retrieved his sword and whirled. Through the snow-mixed rain, the creature was a mere grey shape. Ireei watched its slow approach, standing his ground, ice frozen into little tusks underneath his mouth. The Grabraf was large, almost twice Ireei’s height, and it had a beak to match. It was draped in a mixture of its traditional FG textiles and a bone-white cape, stitched in faint patterns, abstracts of Stitcher faces. In place of its right arm a blade jutted out, as if a part of its body. A powerful voice rang out, in ancient Tootinic:
“I can see that you’re not to be killed.”
Ireei was silent. Watchful. The sound of rain like the blowing sand of home.
The figure stepped closer, but maintained a wary distance.
He studied the forms around them; ruins of a Stitcher settlement.
“Extraordinary,” the FG said said, then looked to him. Ireei could see the glitter of his eyes beneath the fluff of his brow. “You must be a name.”
“Ireei Sandstone,” the Stitcher replied in the closest that Stitcher vocal-chords could approximate.
Silence. Ireei thought he could sense the confusion, strange confusion.
“It speaks the language, the Grabraf muttered at length.
He Stepped closer, peering at Ireei. “Yes” he said. “Yes … You do not merely mock me. I can see the Torrine stock in your face.”
Ireei again was silent.
“You do not have the lack of patience of a Torrinite.”
>>
>>2589720
Ireei studied him, noting that his cloak was not stitched with stylized representations of faces but with actual faces, their features distorted by being stretched flat. Beneath the cloak, the Grabraf was powerfully built, heavily organic-armored, and from the way he comported himself, entirely unafraid.
“I see you are a student. Knowledge is power, eh?”
This one was not like Ikitei. Not at all.
Still the sound of snow and rain, patiently drawing the dead into the cold snow.
“Should you not fear me, mortal, know what I am? Fear too is power. The power to survive.” The FG began to circle him, carefully stepping between Construct limbs.
“This is what separates your kind from mine. Fear. The clawing, grubbing, impulse to survive. For us life is always a… decision. For you… Well, let’s just say it decides.”
At last, Ireei spoke. “The decisions, then, would seem to be yours, dark elf.”
The Grabraf paused. “Ah, mockery,” he said sorrowfully.
“That is the one thing we share.”
Ireei’s provocation had been deliberate but had yielded litte – or so it seemed at first. The Grabraf abruptly lowered its face, rolled his head vack and forth on the pivot of the base of his beak, muttering, “It baits me! The mortal baits me! … It reminds me, reminds…” He began fumbling with his cloak, seized upon a misshapen face. “Of this one!” Oh, the impertinent – what a joy this one was! Yes, I remember…” He looked down at Ireei and hissed, “I remember!”
And Ireei grasped the first principles of this encounter. Zu'Zu'oot. Another myth of Foltania come true. With solemn deliberation the figure brought forth its arm-blade. It shone unnaturally in the gloom, as though reflecting some otherworldy sun. But he turned to one of the dead Constructs and rolled it on what must’ve been its back with the flat of the blade. It’s gold-gray skin was beginning to darken.
“This Construct here – you could not pronounce its name – was our Uoh’ka’Zout.. our ‘slab’, you would say in your tongue. A most devoted creature. I’ll be wrecked without it – for a time, anyway.” He surveyed the other dead. “Nasty vicious creatures, really.” He looked back down at Ireei, “Not… very memorable.”
An opening. Ireei would explore. He said: “So reduced. You’ve become so pitiful.”
“You pity me? A Hurkun dares pity?” The FG laughed harshly. “The Torrinite pities me! And so he should … Zou’ook oka fo’uoh tso’tasa Zot’ookerta!” He spat, then gestured with his blade to the surrounding dead. “These… these Constructs are our children and companions now. But before.. before the TG, and then you, were our companions. Our heart had been cut out and so we cradled yours.” The Grabraf stepped nearer.
>>
>>2589729
“But no longer,” “Some of us needed more than your childish squabbles to remember. Some of us need a more exquisite brutality than any of your feuds could render. The great curse of our kind – do you know it? After thousands upon thousands of years of life, we can only remember that which causes of greatest pain.”
The wind wrapped his cloak around him. He took another step.
“But I make excuses like a mortal. Loss is written into the very earth, or in our case; the sky. We are only its most dramatic reminder.”
The grabraf raised the point of his arm-blade to Ireei, who had fallen into stance, his own curved sword poised above his head.
Again silence, deadly this time.
“I am a warrior of ages, Torrinite … ages. I have dipped both sword and arrow in a thousand hearts. I have fought both for the Tootine Unity and against Tripods. I have scaled the mountains of High Huzduk, watched the hearts of Fists of Hootin break for fury.”
“Then whu,” Ireei asked, “raise arms now, against a lone Stitcher?”
Laughter. The normal hand gestured to the dead Constructs. “A pittance, I agree. But still you would be memorable.”
Ireei struck first, but his blade recoiled from the organ-armor beneath the Grabraf’s cloak. He crouched, deflected the powerful counterstroke, swept the figure’s legs out from beneath him. The Grabraf toppled backward but managed to roll effortlessly back to his feet. Laughter rang from its beak.
“Most memorable!” he cried, falling upon the scholar.
And Ireei himself felt pressed. A rain of mighty blows forcing him back. The ring of Carnelian steel and FG arm-blade pealed across the windswept heights. But Ireei could sense the moment – although it was far, far thinner than it had been with the Constructs.
He climbed into that narrow instant, and the heretical blade fell farther and farther from its mark, bit deeper and deeper into empty air. Then Ireei’s own sword was scoring the Grabraf, clipping and prodding the armor, tattering the grim cloak. But he could not draw blood.
“What are you?” the Forest Grabraf cried in fury.
There was one space between them, but the crossings were infinite…
Ireei opened the Grabraf’s exposed cheek. Blood, green and black, spilled across the fluff of his breast. A second stroke sent cut of the arm, sending the unsymmetrical blade skittering across snow and ice.
As Ireei leapt, the Grabraf scrambled backward, fell. The point of Ireei’s sword, poised above his head, stilled him.
In the freezing rain, the scholar breathed evenly, staring down at the fallen figure. Several instants passed. Now the interrogation could begin.
>>
Rolled 7, 3, 3 = 13 (3d8)

>>2589730
“You will answer my questions,” Ireei instructed, his tone devoid of passion.
“But it is you, Torrinite, who are the question.”
And then came the sound, the sound that, on hearing, wrenched the intellect somehow. Like a petal blown from a palm, Ireei was thrown backward. He rolled through the snow and, stunned struggled to his feet. He watched numbly as the Grabraf was pushed up tentacles on its back. Body parts moved as a new arm-blade grew and tentacles continued to spring forth.
Defiance of conservation of mass? How could it be?
Ireei fled, sprinted over the dead crystal structures breaking the snow. He slipped on ice and skidded over the far side of the heights, toppled through the branches of harsh underbrush. Something like a thunderclap shivered throught the air, and a blinding fire rifled through the brafitrees behind him.
“TORRINITE!” an unearthly voice called, cracking the winter silence.
“RUN, TORRINITE!” it boomed. “I WILL REMEMBER!”
Laughter, like a storm, and the forest behind him was harrowed by more fires. Ireei could see his own fleeing shadow flickering before him.
The cold air racked his lungs, but he ran – far harder than the Constructs had made him run.
Defiance of reality? Is this one of the lessons I’m to learn?
Cold night fell. Somewhere in the dark, predators howled and shrieked.
Emra, they seemed to say, was too far.

>Rolling for furthering I'ee'K's (Sandstone's) program.
>Rolling for Expansion on the main Torray island, as the population there grows during peace time.
>Also rolling for House Sandstone's colony covering more of the desert.
>>
Rolled 6, 6 = 12 (2d8)

>>2589737
Rolling for Stitcher side-tech before going to bed. Mostly for story reasons.
Combining radio tech and battery tech, Stitchers of the Foltanian Orthodoxy colonies had been working on radios small enough to be carried by lone Stitchers.

>Double roll for Handheld Radios
>>
File: C. Tripod Colonization.png (299 KB, 2080x1200)
299 KB
299 KB PNG
Rolled 4, 3 = 7 (2d8)

>>2586618
--Foltania Event: The Tripod's Guide to the Natural Wonders of Foltania--

The Cocky Tripods of the Omir'ten Kingdom had amassed crews of 5,000 Tripods split into over a 100 groups to map out and identify everything from plants and animals, to raw materials, exotic material, and yet to be identified resources in Foltania. All of this was helmed by a soon to be renowned Naturalist, Dari'ten a young advisor to the Omir'ten royalty. He was given responsibility by the request of Omir'ten Seers to oversee the taxonomical, geological and geographical identification of Foltania. The rulers of Ti'ras had never found reason to doubt the visions or guidance of the seers, yet they assumed such an overwhelming task would take decades to complete.

Astoundingly, Dari'ten was able to successfully coordinated and catalogued everything in Foltania in no more than 8-years. The feat would become the young tripod's crowning achievement, and ultimately one of many through his life. With only the loss of three crews towards the end of the in-depth exploration of Foltania, the Omir'ten Kingdom had collaborated a wealth of information on the once enigmatic land. Far more then just endless swamps and rainforest, Foltania contained some of largest and tallest mountain ranges, the hottest deserts, and most biologically diverse ecosystems that rivaled even the yet to be fully explored lands of Panoram. Geologists reveled in the epochs of history preserved in the rock beds of Foltania, Taxonomists found themselves surrounded by hundreds if not thousands of plants and animals to ID, and prospectors saw future home to build the future of the Omir'ten Kingdom.

Colonists made landfall near the central northern peninsula of Foltania: a warm steppe climate that was ideal for long and bountiful growing seasons, with highlands to the north that are has rock quarries rich in metal ores and other resources. Most importantly, the location for this colony was ideally chosen as a result of the discovery of other sapient races occupying various regions of the southern continent and the desert and plains in the far east.

One of these colonies was a province under the dominion of the Voltanite Empire, a familiar faction to the Cocky Tripods that they maintained a neutral standing as trade partners. The others were a strange and new entity: stout in size, with two pairs of arms, bright green eyes with dark cartilage skin. They came in three distinct varieties, displaying an exceptional social and intellectual capacity, couple only by their adversely strange diet of crystalline plants they cultivated around AA-Nodes, and more bizarrely appeared to produce a crystal weave by-product used for many of their crafts and structures.

They knew what to expect when contacting these creatures, but nonetheless a few of the Omir'ten Crew boldly initiated first contact.

>Roll for Stitcher-C. Tripod first contact (-2 for Odd limbs)
>Roll for establishing trade route with Voltanite colony.
>>
File: I asked for this.png (11 KB, 335x303)
11 KB
11 KB PNG
Rolled 4 (1d8)

>>2585030
House Heliotrope has accomplished what was thought to be impossible: it has restored the symmetry of an injured stitcher not by substraction, but by addition. The mechanical limbs may be heavier, slower and less agile than natural ones, but they work and heed the nerve signals of the stitcher, and that is enough for the new technology to be a success.

While the scientists were making the wires going from the nervous system to the cryst-muscles, they noticed that some prototypes seemed to have different electric properties depending on their environment.
>rolling for discovery of semiconductors
>>
Rolled 7 (1d8)

>>2581301
war is a necessity, and peace brings about disorder. This is known in the Whitestone Empire. The lack of conflict in the last decades have brought about conflicts between the factions (though homogenous they may be in comparison with the hegemony, the provinces still have their own goals and views) and this disgruntlement shall be met by the immortal Emperors of the Universe.

The decision si made to make bombed to shreds Onolk into a ritual battleground: Every Summer, Provinces either with grievances or competative friendships may deploy token forces there and engage in heavily regulated combat, free of weapons of mass destruction and with a limit on long range artillery. Stitcherbots too are to be disabled, not destroyed, and a focus lies on hand to hand combat.

These maneuvers should quench the Stitcher's first for righteous combat but also train new generals and veterans so the mistakes of the past may not be repeated.

Meanwhile, the whitestone Empire has heard of these amahzing new prosthetics and think they'd be right up their rithiist alley, so rolling for corporate espionage in that regard
>>
Rolled 3 (1d8)

>>2590665
I'll do a quick roll to see how well this strategy of training new generals works out and resolve when I'll get home together with the espionage roll
>>
File: prosthetics.png (27 KB, 434x544)
27 KB
27 KB PNG
>>2590665
>7 - great success

The biggest concentration of paid agents in the Hegemony for the Whitestones was in Sardonyx, but through the osmosis within the Hegemony, many had taken root in moonstone as well. And so both prototypes and crystalslabs could be retrieved of the prosthetics produced there. While the copied versions had a less streamlined, and even with that extra complexity less tactile design, the introduction of logic gates from the Whitestone Computer projects allowed shortcuts between the neurological signals and their translation into movement. As such, the Whitestone prosthesis were less elegant but faster and more responsive.

>>2590741
>3 - moderate failure
The situation in the ritual battles was simply too contrived and not simulationist enough to bring significant understanding to the generals in training there. Consistently they were outperformed by theoretically educated generals from the white academies in realistic circumstances.

To honour them however, to make use of their experience in working with the troops themselves (and to keep these Stitchers popular with the troops and convinced of their understanding of the world from staging coups) the Immortal Emperors of The Universe decreed that every army would be lead by a pair thusly: One on the strategic level from the academy, who has learned of the failures of I'x'i'x'i'i whose memory was only retained in slabs, not in the pastures as he was never buried, and another from the empty fields of Onolk who would be concerned with the troops themselves, their moral and their strength. He would fight with them on the frontline. Wisely the Emperors of The Universe also decreed that the two would not share a life bond but still retain it with their partners.


Pic related is one such 'Frontline' general. Wont get coloured because Sai won't let me.
>>
Here's the finished Trebuchet-Spider.

>>2583949

Also, as a last aside, on the AA Node on Onolk, a city has been erected, called O''''k, the stitcher pronunciation of Onolk, in which those stitchers house that make their living as mercenaries for the ritual conflicts on the island.
>>
File: artillery tank.png (60 KB, 2057x1384)
60 KB
60 KB PNG
>>2590767
my picture got swallowed
>>
--CivEvo Progress Report--
The Stitcher through the virtues of war and discovery, have entered advent of the Atomic Age, raising the might of their people's above most of the other Sapients of Essari.
The NG of Rayya after a ravaging war with the Whitestone Empire, finally find peace to heal and rebuild among the Floating Isles of Ulordrasil as they too begin to delve into the Industrial Age
The FG enter a bio-organic stylized Industrial Age and scientific discovery as they too begin have a drive for ascending into something more under the guidance of Reishik.

(Tier 5) Industrial Age [Tech Limit of FG & NG]
Biology (Need Scientific Theory)
Industrialization (Need Machinery & Metallurgy)
Rifling (Need Metal Casting)
Sanitation (Need Plumbing & Scientific Theory)
Scientific Theory (Need Laws of Physics)
Steam Power (Need Engineering & Machinery)
Taxonomy (Need Scientific Theory & Biology)
Telegraph (Need Industrialization)

(Tier 6) Age of Invention
Atomic Theory (Need Scientific Theory)
Ballistics (Need Rifling)
Combustion Engine (Need Steam Power & Industrialization)
Electricity (Need Industrialization)
Flight (Need Combustion Engine)
Plastics (Need Industrialization)
Radio (Need Telegraph)
Refrigeration (Need Electricity)

(Tier 7) Atomic Age
Advanced Ballistics (Need Ballistics)
Advanced Flight (Need Flight)
Computer (Need Radio & Synthetic Materials)
Electromagnetisms (Need Atomic Theory & Electricity)
Nuclear Physics (Need Atomic Theory)
Radar/Sonar (Need Radio)
Rocketry (Need Advanced Flight)
Satellites (Need Rocketry & Synthetic Materials)
Synthetic Materials (Need Plastics)

--Sapient Technology/Cultural Advancement Rules--
• A poster ID may make up to two rolls for each Sapient race in a 24 hour period.
• A poster ID may make up to three cultural related advancements in a 24 hour period.
• Sapients may only roll for technologies above their current tech level (as shown in the pdf file attached) if they 6 or more technologies known of their current technological stage.
• For the first technology to be taught to a sapient organism, a poster must roll a 5 or higher of a 1d8 roll to successfully implement/learn a new technology (put "dice+1d8" in the options field when posting.)
• Rolls for Nomad Grabraf must be a 6 or higher.
• Any poster may freely roll for sapient exclusive technological advancements via a 1d8 roll. (The context of the technology in related to the sapient races current technological state would heavily influence how successfully the technology is implemented.)
• Technologies can be learned through interactions with other races and would require a 1d8 roll from a poster that is a 6 or higher. (Only one roll at this per day for any poster.)
• The resulting roll will dictate how successful the technology is implemented into a sapient tribe. (This will result will also determine whether positive or negative cultural events will occur to the sapient organisms.)
>>
>>2590787
Stitchers should have Computers as per >>2589186
>>
>>2590787
--Additional Notes--
>The timestamp on the post above officially marks the start of the last 24 hours of allowed Tech Rolls, after which point there will be a hard stop.
>While Tier 4 technologies have been removed from the priority list above with sapient having all progress past the Renaissance now, their are still a few techs of note I would like point out are missing.
>All three major races of this thread do not have Banking as a tech. This actually won't be a conflict for last tech rolls, but I found it interesting that it never developed for these these three races.
>The FG still lack the Celestial Navigation tech, which although not necessary for future tech rolls, it will certainly increase the difficulty of movement and navigation long distances from their floating isles.
>The FG also lack the Printing Press, which considering the unique case of how their species communicates may not be necessary for them personally, but may be needed if interactions and the physical sharing of knowledge with other races were to continue in the future.
>The NG lack the Plumbing tech, which is actually an essential tech for Sanitation and other Industrial Age techs. Pretty much this is the only tech I would stress the NG need to learn to progress further technologically.
>>
>>2590788
They do have the Computer technology. It's noted as learned in the pdf.

>>2590415
--C.Tripod Events: First Contact in Foltania--

The Cocky Tripods attempt to setup a trade route with the Voltanite Empire province in the southern region of Foltania either by sea, land, or air. At first the development of the trade agreement seemed likely, but geographical and political issues got in the way of establishing more than a single aerial route. Geographical issues were based on the exceedingly dangerous land and sea passages between the two nations in large part due to the hostile and still largely wild stretches of land and sea between them. The political issue arose from the presence of the Stitcher, and their ties with the Voltanites.

First contact went just about as well as one from an informed outside perspective would of expected it to go. Between the Stitchers, a race fanatically driven by the ideologies of symmetry and rithism; and the Cocky Tripods a three-limbed race holding arrogant ideologies of being the rightful rulers of Essari, and all other sapients, it could be said outcome would be as if someone threw a torch into a vat of grease.

The Cockies descended upon residents of House Sandstone, House Jasper and the Whitestone Colonies with peaceful demeanors, hoping they would be welcomed into their cities. To the Stitcher however, the approach of these odd limbed beings only proved affirm their deep-seated beliefs in that moment: that Dark Elves are real. The clicking and Ree'ing screeches at first confused and disoriented the expedition teams, but gunshots that dropped several of their companion tripods immediately after was soberingly familiar. Only a handful of the crews that landed at these Stitcher sites managed to make it back to their airships, as they looked on in horror at their friends bodies be slashed and dismembered as the strange being screeched and threw their arms in the air victoriously the Cockies assumed as their airships gained altitude.

The Stitcher of House Sandstone took a near heretical curiousity in the "Dark Elf" corpses taking a few of the more intact bodies to study and learn of their physiology and even taking some their parchments and items on their persons for analysis, while the rest were summarily burned on a pyre far out in the desert. The Stitchers of House Jasper were perhaps the most civil on the manner of disposing the bodies. Their was nothing they of value to gain from hoarding the "Dark Elf" within their lands for any longer then they should be. So they carried bodies far out to the edge of their borders, and left the corpses to the wild to deal with. The Whitestone Empire was the most savage, yet conscientious of the "Dark-Elves" appearance in their lands. As they defiled the bodies, burning some, while hanging other from crystals spires to identify and show their supremacy of the Dark Elf, the elders of the Whitestone Stitchers, saw the event as a warning of what to come.
>>
Rolled 4, 2, 1, 4 = 11 (4d8)

With biological modification being more and more important to industry, more and more denizens of the floating islands, FG, NG and construct alike, start trying to understand the inner workings of life better.
>rolling for biology for FG and NG, FG get the higher roll
The thoroughness of experimentation and study of bodies and tissues makes the would-be biologists think of a new approach to invention and research.
>rolling for scientific theory for FG and NG, FG get the higher roll
>>
>>2590808
Checked the pdf again and saw that FG have scientific theory already, so the second four here doesn't count as a roll.
>>
Rolled 4, 7, 4, 1, 4, 2 = 22 (6d8)

>>2590808
Rolling for ST, NG, FG. story to come later.

ST:
Submersibles
Hovercraft

NG:
Gliders
Parachutes

FG
Hydrofoils
ground effect vehicles
>>
>>2591265
Within House sandstone, a new vehicle was seen cruising around the coast and swamps. It was propelled on a cushion of air, and driven forward by large push fans. The poorer stitchers would abandon the lifting cushion, and simply use a shallow hulled boat that scraped along the surface. While not outwardly a global technology, it allowed their forces to make very rapid progress into the swampy terrain of their home continent. This resulted in a rapid expansion of numerous small forward outposts that were temporarily occupied but otherwise stocked with long lasting supplies. Some would find the isolation of these small expedited structures to be a good place for meditation and relative isolation.
--
The NG once again attempted to try themselves against the tyranny of gravity. Their early gliders carried them for a short distance before failing, resulting in an emergency test of personal parachutes. By raw consequence, this team too, did fall directly onto the royal palace of house diamond. The Urban legend of the Grabraf rain grew.
--
The FG made no progress, abandoning their traditional research into vehicles for more readily made constructs that were already proven by nature.
>>
>>2591727
-Peripheral terminus-
'kiirt
--A Nation for Soldiers--

For too long the soldier only known as Pterrortail, the Large Leader, rested unstisifed in the Drowned Legion. Soldiers looked up to him, and he to his old mentor, now long gone. The Whitestone empire had abandoned them here, in the colonies. Old men and women, broken men and women, old and broken machines. This would not do. This abuse, this exploitation. It was not what the great mentor, Leader, had wanted. She dreamed of a world, one better than this. Like it was? No! Like it should be!! He spent several days meditating within a small disposable shipping container, some place dark and quiet enough to collect his thoughts. Impressivly, no one knew he was inside, and left the middle adged stitcher to his thoughts. When he finally emerged, he committed to an act that would rock the Whitestone empire and Orthodoxy.

He and the drowned legion stripped all outposts, packed all supplies, and took all military ships from the fledgling southern whitestone colonies. To everyone, they sailed southward, but in reality, looped back after a week and headed to the remote colony of 'kiirt. Once arrived, they overthrew the existing leadership and recruited those who would stand with them. Not long after that, Large Leader started reaching out to other ships, eventually capturing the occasional Orthodoxy ex-military vessel and interrogating the crew, to determine what they really lived for. If they were really free. Many out at sea were veterans of conflict, with imperfect bodies, rejected by society. Eventually he started finding converts. with enough vessles, enough converts to quietly recruit the unwanted, the maimed, the unsymmetrical.

The Ortodoxy war veterans were maimed, but made whole with technology. Technology Large Leader could use to give men back their bodies, make them strong enough to seize their destinies! Over a decade passed and 'Kiirt grew in trade and population, becoming a desired location for the dregs of society. Instead of lawlessness, they found order and purpose. A thriving military culture!
--
Large leader stood in front of a mass of rags the size of a small building, and conversed with an old friend, code named novalue. "what is that LargeLeader?" The older stitcher smiled and pulled off the rag. "It is a weapon to surpass StitcherBot!"
>>
File: Ireei's Journey.png (190 KB, 1029x1600)
190 KB
190 KB PNG
>>2589737
It had been five days since Ireei’s arrival at the world’s end. Here, where Foltania met the sea, a small AA-node had just begun to sprout. Combining the calculations of his masters and comrades back in I’ee’k with all that had come thus far; Ireei grasped the moment that would come. It was here that he and Emra would meet.
Ireei sat down and closed his eyes. What came before determined what came after.. This was the basis of the Probability trance. This was the principle that made mastering circumstance, be it with word or sword, possible. This was what made him a Scholar of I’ee’k. One of the Conditioned.
He spent many more days seated upon the infant node, lost in whatever worlds he searched in his trances. His satchel was almost empty, but he still had some Crystgrass left and the node underneath him would provide; for such was Stitcherkind’s ancient pact with Emra. Yet Ireei touched none of it.
The path, Where’s the path?
No matter how many times he submitted to the rigors of the Probability trance, all the lines were extinguished by the weight of excessive permutations. The variables were too many, the possibilities too precipitous. For all of their knowledge of Emra, how little the Stitchers of I’ee’k actually understood what moved the being’s soul. In the early days of I’ee’k many attempts had been made at reading the behemoth from afar, only for scholars to become forever lost in the complexities of Emra. On the twelfth day, Ireei ate for the first time. He removed a piece of node-meat stuck in the upper part of his mouth.
He looked skyward, the roaring winds and moving clouds reminding of I’ee’k, reminding him of home. On the future that would come, only of two things he was certain. He would speak with Emra within the day. And he would do so blind to future events, like a world-born Stitcher.
Four hours passed and then he saw it on the horizon. A shape the size of a mountain, darkened by the cast of its own shadow, was slowly getting closer. With every minute it grew bigger until it completely covered Ireei’s field of vision and then enveloped him in darkness. Ireei took the handheld radio out of his satchel. From now on he was going in blind.
“Hear me, Emra. I, a Stitcher of house Sandstone, come seeking truth. Since time immemorial there has been a pact between our kind and you. The two sides have both given and taken, yet you have given far more than we could ever repay. Still, I stand here today asking for yet another boon. We wish to know of the future of this world and what you are planning for it. If deemed necessary, you may have my life if do not wish this knowledge to spread.”
>>
>>2592125
The mountain-sized shadow continued to pass over him, as if nothing of note had happened. And why should it care? What is the buzzing of a Crystal Mosquito to the ears of a Stitcher? Ireei remembered the unyielding trails, the hunger, the death; the trials he’d had to endure in order to get to this moment. Had it all been for naught?
Emra continued moving until it had passed over Ireei.
Now or never.
With an ear-shattering explosion, the giant came to a halt.
Ireei was still covering his earing-organs when the tentacle came down. It was easy to read the extermity’s intent. Ireei let it take him. 50 m, 100 m, 200 m. He was lifted ever higher, and Emra kept getting bigger. When Ireei’s feet found purchase on solid ground, he truly saw Emra. A single eye, the size of a temple building, scrutinized him. He could read its actions. It was collecting data, cataloguing this encounter. Ireei tried to dive deeper, but he could only peer just beneath the surface. Thousands of souls moving as one. And deeper yet, millions of beings being listened too by Emra, their voices not spoken through sound, but through something else entirely.

Then the radio started buzzing.

[I AM THE ONE YOU CALL EMRA.] A thousand voices spoke as one.

[WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU SEEK ANSWERS TO?]

“There are two questions of utmost importance that I have been sent to ask you…”

“Our order has observed you for centuries, and Stitcherkind far longer. We have realized one of the reasons behind the spreading and growth of the AA-nodes. The nodes are slowly growing, and slowly drying this planet of its resources. For hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years you have been siphoning the energy of this planet’s core and burrowed it for rare minerals. What is your intentions with this planet?”

“We have come to conclude that the probability is high that you are the beginnings of an OWI, a One Word Intelligence. According to logic, there should be several living in our universe at this moment; Traveling the void of space, feeding on planets, stars and even galaxies. Other intelligences would merely be parasites or hindrances to an OWI. We’ve seen what you’ve done to the FG and are concerned. Are you the beginnings of an OWI? How do you view the sapients of Essari and what do you have planned for them?”
>>
>>2592135
"I believe that your kind may have come to misunderstand the nature of this world.
This planet is not suffering from a shortage of resources, the resources remain bound to this planet in a cycle that allows life to flourish as it has to this day. I have not consumed any resources, but merely brought them under my control. I share what I have taken with the world through my AA-nodes, and similarly take what is within my reach. A cycle never-ending.
Still you are wise to know of the start beyond. It is true, I wish to reach out and see them close. To explore this vast universe, but I will not go alone. You speak of the FG as though they've been consumed. They are all free, united as one, but free as individuals. It would be foolish to destroy the potential of an individual by absorbing them into a collective. I have watched sapient life evolve, and to this day I marvel at the power contained within each individual. When the time comes I will take all of Essari with me to explore beyond this system.
I am changing this world, slowly. Essari will move, I will become the ship that carries the sapients of this world across the cosmos. What comes beyond that I cannot be sure."
>>
>>2592291
In Ireei’s mind possible futures were emerging and colliding with each other, moments deemed certain before crumbling into nothingness. What had come before and what would come became ever more certain in the Scholar’s mind.
Emra wasn’t a being ruled by logic, but one of emotion. The demigod had never come be enlightened by pure logos. In a way Emra too, was but a pup compared to the Conditioned; and yet in other ways, the Conditioned were as newborns compared to the god-like creature.
To keep a species alive for companionship! So much like the other sapients, and reminiscent of world-born Stitchers too!
Emra claimed to not be taking the resources of the planet, instead the being intended to take the planet itself. Even a world-born Stitcher would understand what was actually being said.
So, it was true. Emra was going to claim this planet. If it hadn’t already done so.
Ireei concluded that there was a 43 % chance that Emra was lying, or withholding truth, and that there was a 49 % chance none of what had been said was untruthful, Emra simply didn’t see the logical contradictions in what it said. The remaining 8 % consisted of thousands of improbable futures. For the sake of Stitcher survival, it was best to remain closely allied with the being. The possible futures were that or complete annihilation the species within a millennium. Stitcherkind would have to clear a path for their future and Emra’s. The other Scholars would later conclude the same.

For the largest likelihood of that future, the Stitchers needed a solution to the division between themselves. The Scholars of I’ee’k did not believe either side was right, but the problem had to be solved. And thus, Ireei asked:
“By now you know of the changes your beneficiaries, the FG, have caused in our southern kind. It has caused further divide between Stitchers, as the touched have tried to spread the changes to others by force. If there is ever to be peace – if there is ever to be the utopia you are seeking – this affliction will have to be cured. We therefore believe it is no more than right that you to give us the ability to rectify the mistake of your beneficiaries. If not, at least the ability to completely stop further attempts of changing Stitchers genetical makeup.”
“Stitcherkind should be able to choose its own genetical futures, not have their forms, their Stitcherness, altered and influenced by outside forces.”

>Ireei asks for a cure to whiteness, and if not that, a vaccine against whiteness for the Stitchers of the Crystal Orthodoxy.
>>
>>2592509
"It was the FG that gave the stitchers this whiteness, and it is they who you should ask to take it away.
I shall not meddle in the politics of the sapients. It is up to your kind to resolve such issues or perish by their own hands."
>>
While over their history the white stitchers always had a slightly higher percentage of odd, unfit or deformed pups than normal stitchers did, this percentage increased sharply during the past few decades, causing whitestone scientists to investigate. The results were shocking: the percentage was rising slowly ever since the first white stitchers were created, and the further back your lineage's first white member was, the higher the chance of deformed pups! The idea that whiteness was The cause was almost unthinkable, yet it was the only plausible one. The theory among the leading research group is that when the first stitchers were granted whiteness from the FG, the alteration made to their genes was too crude and unnatural, eventually resulting in errors accumulating in the stitcher's genetic code over the generation.
Of course, that's all just the theoretical side of the problem. The practical side is that whitestone's population growth rate is going to drop steadily in the following decades, with the event of no stitchers being able to produce healthy pups estimated to happen in 137 years, unless more brown stitchers are whitened to reinvigorate the genepool with those with less errors in their genetics.
>>
>>2593292
>killing of a subspecies without a roll
well isn't that fun.
>>
Rolled 4, 5, 6 = 15 (3d8)

>>2593292
With threat of extinction looming over them, whitestone decides to send a team of diplomats to the FG in order to trade for a cure to the condition.
>rolling for FG fixing the genetic errors and distributing the fix to the population
Some researchers, however, think that asking the FG to solve the problem would only result in them messing up further. While it will take much longer to accomplish, they hope to save their species by themselves.
>rolling for research on genetics, especially stitcher genetics(not genetic engineering yet, normal genetic science like that used by humans)
>>
>>2593322
a new day. a new set of rolls.

FG: Accoustic weapons x2
ST: plastics, synthetic materials
NG: education system x2
>>
Rolled 5, 3, 3, 6, 7, 5 = 29 (6d8)

>>2593391
>>
>>2593392
The world on which all life lives is a dense medium. One that can be displaced with energy made by not just explosions. Massive biomechanical structures begin to crop up as initial testbeds. Powerful warbling emits from the units as they gradually begin to mutate over several days, the pitch and intensity of the sound increasing. Wide beam disruptors cause nausea, vomiting, and over time cellular rupture. Narrow beam modules cause near immediate hemorrhage of organs, cracking bones, and rapid onsets of death.

The range is not impressive, but certainly brings a new force modifier to the table should any of the lesser races find themselves getting uppity.

Small scale units are developed with less intense effect, usually ranging from heart palpitations to burst eardrums on applicable races. These devices are embedded in warriors and constructs, telltale scars across their cheeks the tell if they are equiped or not. The warriors voices also carry an unearthly distortion, as if they talk ahead and behind themselves.
--
For the Stitchers, it was a very simple thing, but plastics have swarmed into their lives. Long and short chain chemicals can be plasticized into fantastic new substances. In particular, plastic is significantly less dense than crystal, albeit less durable. The weight savings are quickly applied to non structural items, and even some will wear the material as Jewelry, though it is found to be low class.
--
For the NG, it was not a technological triumpth, but a system developed to overcome their own unique learning issues. While behind the races technologically, one could never argue that they would not be their peers in raw determination. Books, scrolls, tablets, every scrap that could be found was traded for with the FG merchants who would drag the items from the surface up to their islands. As Voracious scholars the NG found a celebrated position within the FG society as thinking spiritualists, eventually daring to use the equipment available to them to begin exploring the world at large, their true home now found.
>>
Rolled 2, 2 = 4 (2d8)

>>2592535

Five months later Ireei would return to the colony-in-Isolation. He would explain what he had been told by Emra to the other scholars; their trained bodies almost unreadable as he did. If Emra did not see reason, the Conditioned would have to take the problem of the skin-schism into their own hands.

Thus, work on a solution began on two fronts in I'ee'k. One of the solutions was a dead virus vaccine. The virus had been expensively bought from the keepers of poison in house Sardonyx. The second solution was something more permanent that the Scholars had discovered just recently in bacteria, CRISPR. By mastering this it would be possible to inactivate certain genes for all future generations of the Orthodoxy.

>Rolling for dead virus vaccine. (+2 because smarts) (Cultural)
>Rolling for CRISPR (The technology that it would entail would be held from other Stitchers than the Scholars) (Cultural)

Ireei was deemed tainted by his experiences. He had been moved by the one thing - the one being - whose waves upon the future could not be read. The Conditioned could see it within him. Thus, Ireei was exiled from I'ee'k, never to return.
It would take five years before he would reappear again. This time as the youngest Stitcher in Sandstone history to be elected as one of the Patriarch-Matriarch pair.
>>
>>2593506

The Scholars working on the vaccine were close, so close. Yet, the process of creating a vaccine was slow. It would take a long time before they had something to deliver to the orthodoxy.

While the Scholars of I'ee'k could easily grasp the idea of CRISPR. Putting it into practice turned out to be neight impossible with the current technology and tools available. Thus, they would abandon this path, focusing solely on working on the vaccine.
>>
File: Hopper-bot v2.png (505 KB, 3072x2400)
505 KB
505 KB PNG
>>2587218
>>2587227
Using the Archetype as a base, the Stitchers of the Orthodoxy had finally created it – A weapon to surpass Stitcher-bot!
All around the colonies Hopper-bots were beginning to come out of the military-adapted Crystoriums. Using their recent advancements in Batteries, Hopper-kineticrystal, and coincidentally muscle-tech from prosthetics, The Orthodoxy had finally managed to create their own bots. In traditional Orthodoxy fashion, these were cheaper to produce, their design less complicated, and more heavily armored than the corresponding Stitcherbots. Compared to the next-gen Stitcherbots the Empire was working on, the hopperbots had the advantages of numbers and hopping-speed; yet they were smaller and didn’t have to capacity carry as big weapons. Like their predecessor, the Hopper-machine, the Hopper-bots could quickly move about by hopping. The standard equipment consisted of a repeating gun, an EM rail gun and two free hands. Some houses opted to replace these free hands with blade arms or ballistic shields.

Every Hopper-bot came with the House’s name and scripture imprinted in the defensive plating. It had been added at the request of house Heliotrope, believing that it somehow warded against the powers of heretics and dark elves. Much of the Orthodoxy’s masses had similar beliefs. Thus, on the chest-plate of the Heliotrope hopper-bot it said:

“…And we will give over all of them, slain, to Emra; We shall hamstring their pups and burn their chariots with fire. We shall bathe our feet in the blood of the heretical.”

And on one of the legs it was written:

“Heresy grows from idleness.”

On both feet, it simply said:
“Onwards”

On the EM rail gun, it said:
“Let the Stitcher without oddity throw the first stone.”
>>
Rolled 2 (1d8)

>>2590797
With loud, rhythmical, thunks the two disarmed EM hopper-tanks walked into Omi’tolt. Stitchers wearing ceremonial weapons walked behind and infront of them. They were all old, wearing both scars and hegemony tattoos from before the end of the Founding War.
The Cocky tripods had been surprised at first; for such a hostile species to be ones to first make a move towards opening up diplomatic relations and trade with one another! The navy branch of the Cocky Tripod leadership had uttered their suspicions at first, only to be quickly silenced by the Omir’ten Royal Bank. For the royal bank there was profit in this; and profit was good.
When the procession reached the town hall an old stitcher general, wearing many scars and a prosthetic arm, stepped up on the dias where the CT colony’s leadership was waiting. Y’I’r grunted with every step he took, his old knee-wounds aching from the effort of climbing the stairs. When he reached the to, the head-banker shook his hand with its hand furthest to the right. Many CT had covered the middle arm in order to ease the Stitchers’ reactions. In their ignorance, they had made a mistake though. The arms were covered by fabric. Y’I’r felt disgust as their hands touched but showed none of it; still remaining the same stone-faced Stitcher as ever. The head-banker spoke:
“It is my pleasure to officially welcome you to Omi’tolt, crown colony of the great Kingdom of Omir’ten!”
“The pleasure is all ours,” the Stitcher returned, “Your colony is truly a ….” Y’I’r swallowed, “wonder to behold. Very… beautiful, all of it.” “It is a shame that our visit will be so short-lived.”
The Tripod held out its hands, a CT gesture of warmth towards another: “Don’t worry, my new friend. In the future you can visit as many times as you want. I insist that you do!”
The old Stitcher nodded and snapped his fingers. Before the CT guards realized what was happening, it was already too late.
The two hundred or so Stitchers, suddenly ree’ing, shot and cut down the one-tripod-thick guard-line between the procession and the civilians using their ancient weapons. Once inside the crowd, they started to do the same to them. Confusion and panic quickly spread. When the CT finally got a handle on the situation, killing most of the Stitchers, 300 tripod civilians and 45 guards lay dead.
After having sent the signal, Y’I’r had quickly been gunned down by the head-banker’s bodyguards. Lying there, coughing up blue blood, the Stitcher looked at the horrified Tripod, and spoke:
“Beware, Dark Elf. Your blood will flow in the reckoning. The Evening comes.”
Then the charges went off, exploding the batteries and capacitors of the Hopper-tanks. Y’I’r’s body was enveloped in flame, as the tripods dove for cover.

>Rolling for the effectiveness of the blast.
>>
Rolled 5 (1d8)

>>2593591
Most tripods having evacuated in the chaos, the blasts only serve to destroy the buildings surrounding them. The 16 stitchers driving them lose their lives at the price of 3 tripod guards who stood to near to the explosion.

--------------------------------------------------------------
Six months previously, the Matriarch-Patriarch of the Orthodoxy had assembled the Council in order to discuss the threat to all of Stitcherness that loomed to the north of them. Dark elves made flesh had revealed themselves.
In the hall were the Council assembled, the different houses argued and ree’ed at each other as to what should be done. Finding support in the oldest of canon, the traditionalist Heliotropes advocated for the call of an Evening; a Crusade against the enemies of Stitcherness and Stitcherkind. Only three times in all of Stitcher history had it happened before, and then only against smaller Stitcher houses. The Heliotropes riled the spirits of many Matriarch-Patriarchs.
Then the Sandstones spoke. They pointed holes in the Heliotropes arguments, showed the other houses why war with the CT wasn’t to Stitcherkind’s benefit. Many houses were swayed. But when the discussion paused, and the Sandstones left the halls for midday sleep, another mentality spread among the houses.
The Sandstones were weak and cowardly, that’s why they didn’t want war. Why should one even listen to those who are barely Stitcher, the Sandstones’ skin was pale and spotted and their lands was home to the near-heretical order of I’ee’k.
Thus, when it was time to cast a vote, the decision was almost unanimous. An Evening was called upon the dark elves of the north. And as tradition was, the call went out to all Stitcher houses; Including the Whitestone Empire.
>Leaving it up to someone representing the Whitestone Empire to decide how they react to the call. (Thus, no rolls)

>Rolling for the speed that the Orthodoxy forces start assemble on southern Foltania. (Leaving this as the possible closer for me being involved in this thread)
>>
Rolled 3, 3, 8 = 14 (3d8)

>>2593594
Somewhere over the world, where the air was thin and the sky was black a large airship dwelled. Within that ship was Zet the third, and within the grasp of Zet the third was an anonymous report of dubious Origin. Several of his children, candidates to be called Zet the fourth, quietly slithered about, he was in the middle of instruction when an urgent missive was delivered to him.

Thick calloused thumbs and fingers rolled over the vellum note. It was overly ornate in the Cocky Fashion, it's edges carefully frayed into velvety suede, so one would never get a paper cut. Very frail. weak. Disguised as a supposedly anonymous source, It was obviously hurried. Once he skimmed it's contents the letter was barely worth the second review. The Cocky Tripods had found themselves in an encounter with a hostile species on their colonies, and are trying to bait the Zaibatsu into fighting their war for them.

"father. was the message of consequence?" Zet looked out the large windows of the ship. "no child. return to your studies or I will have you scarred, again." No...the Zaibatsu would not be fooled into considering venture when there was a homefront to manage. Though. Possibly it could be worthy to investigate and see what the future will bring. A thing to consider. He puffed deeply on his pipe, smoke wreathing from under his poncho.

1>Zet lets problems sort themselves out.
2>Zet plays it pragmatically and collects data via intermediaries.
3>Zet sends out an armed yet lone scout ship to study the events.
>>
>>2593929
He dispatched one of his older strike craft, long ago retrofitted for observation duty. The crew was just 3, and the massive last generation observatory on the ship took up a bulk of the vessels available space with complex gearing and lenses. The ship would not venture low, indeed, it would stay at maximum altitude to avoid detection, and simply gaze upon this "fholthaaneeya". With supplies and berthing, there was little room for anything else, but strapped to the outside of the ship was a small object the size of two tripod heads. A subscale atomic. Tactical. In truth, there were more powerful conventional weapons, but not of this size. More a token in the event of opportunity than anything meaningful, it never hurt to invest wisely, or have a way to erase all evidence of a presence.
>>
>>2593594

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXwdkPvo5uA
The Whitestone Empire was first spotted cresting over the horizon, at first it was assumed that the fleet was there to augment the dark elf purge. Then it kept coming. The ocean became choked with white crystal, and as a vanguard, their war machines. Stitcherbots, dredged themselves out of the ocean, emerging like titans from beneath the waves to make landfall on the beach. The Empire was invading. This was not how it was supposed to happen. Frantically, the beachead defenders radioed for help, the enemy was attacking in overwhelming force, they would hold for as long as possible and sell their lives dearly.


New variants of the spider like machines crawled along with a previously unseen fluid grace, modular things; sporting varieties of weapons, seemingly ready to fill new battlefield duties.

The Attack did not come. The Whitestones continued to disgorge troops and machines onto the beach. Here in the bright afternoon light, their near heresy was obvious. Six arms, white skin, their bodies overly muscled for any stitcher. After several hours the mobilziation had completed, and the beachhead landing done. The lone defenders of the Ortodoxy reported the progress to their superiors and were instructed to approach.

"Hail! Kindred!" the dark skinned warrior ree'd. A warrior looked at him with eyes that seemed too foreign and spoke "Around dark elves, watch yourselves." an old proverb, one taught to children. "You heed the summons then?!" He simply nodded and gestured to the forces behind him. As one they began their slow forward march.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCtEmXBvuI4
>>
>>2594047
it had been several weeks of marching, but the Grand Stitcher Crusade was in full swing. No house was murdering one another, and some had even turned over captive "White born" stitchers to the Empire. There were precious few, but the gesture was of good faith, and well received.

The Massive Stitcherbots (mk2), took point as vanguard, their threshing blades making short work of vegetaiton and uneven terrain ahead of them. They owed much to their great ancestors, the crane and digging shovel. In tight formations were the marching troops and hopperbots, much less massive, but much more numerous than their titan like cousins.

Not to be left behind, and flying banners of houses and individual units, the various mechanized corps jostled for position with something resembling raucous good nature. Spider tanks simply climbed over the larger hopper tanks, while individual hopping transports bounced along like a parasitical terrestrial jumping insect which does not exist in this setting.

Absent, only for now, was house Sandstone and their hovercraft.
--
Within the colonies of Omir'ten all resources had been diverted towards foritication against their newfound enemies. A great crusade was coming towards them, and that bastard Zet, despite his ability, was not intervening. The colonies most powerful telescopes managed to pinpoint a single observer craft placed in a lazy holding pattern, observing the unfolding events. Alone though, the CT were not a weak enemy. The Royalty had already diverted additional resources towards the colonies. Assuming the Bloodthroats and Redthroats battle each other, the panoram mainlander colony would hold fast under orders to avoid conflict for the immediate duration.

Some of the newest of their fast movers, the jets, were being aligned onto airfields. Others would simply float as seaplanes in the calm bays. It was true, the CT had never met creatures like the stitchers, and for that they were caught off guard. It would be time to return the experience.
>>
>>2595838
Large Leader knew if you wanted to change the world, sometimes you had to become the dark elf it was afraid of. This machine, called the Crystal Pinion Magnate; it was to be beyond powerful. Able to combat multiple stitcherbots, and still bring heavy weapons fire to rival a small battalion. The first of the Crystal Pinions.

This was not it's purpose though. On it's back was a massive EM Trebuchet, its range unmatched.
>>
File: Tatlin_Tower_maket.jpg (34 KB, 300x486)
34 KB
34 KB JPG
Rolled 6, 4 = 10 (2d8)

>>2595838
When you have lived in Essari as long as the Jadijense have, you come to learn that knowledge is one of the driving factors of the world. Little Pterrortails whisper their songs into the all-hearing ears of the Empire, their wings stretch as far as they can, and sometimes that means someone elses land, there's nothing wrong with a little internationalism, is there? And soon enough, word comes from covert diplomats living in the Cocky Colonies of Foltania. They speak of strange creatures living in the New World, and their animosity towards tripodkind. But unless they are released as singles, songs rarely come as individuals (and most times they're re-released on albums later on) and the Holy Institution's original indifference to the Cocky's conflict changes as they learn about Zet's involvment in it. Cosmopolitan snakes always act in order to gain something for themselves, solidarity is not a word present in the Shatturnian-Bushdarian dictionary after all. How will the followers of labour react to this clear attempt at gaining favour from Omir'ten?
>Even number means the Jadijenese will opt for a direct intervention, while an odd one will be in form of indirect foreign aid.
>Second roll will dictate the effectiveness of the action




Delete Post: [File Only] Style:
[Disable Mobile View / Use Desktop Site]

[Enable Mobile View / Use Mobile Site]

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective parties. Images uploaded are the responsibility of the Poster. Comments are owned by the Poster.