This is my play through has Songhai so far, just about to enter the Medieval Age!
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Rules:
Note initial City founding.
Note advancements in technology AFTER they are discovered, date stamp is new per tech, except when discovered via ancient ruins.
Note production for initial cities AFTER they are built.
Note ancient ruins and their effects only after exploring them.
Note new access to resources AFTER they are acquired.
Note all Wonders with their own date stamp
Start -
4000 BC
I, great Askia, am blessed...
I guide my people from the forests to the mouth of the river Gao, next to the plentiful wheat and hills. I name the city for the river, and send my loyal warrior band to the eastern plains.
Forty years pass, and the warrior band finds coins of gold in ancient ruins... it is clear to me now, and my people, they must have been the ancestors of Gao, once the warrior band returned from their journey of many seasons. After many, many seasons, II have been deemed a man of incredible veneration by the tribe... one of the few elders to have remembered the founding of Gao.
After I live as long as a child growing a man beyond the age of the oldest elder... I am deemed an angel. Truly I am blessed, even as I hear reports of a foreign encampment of warriors. In the ruins near them, survivors are found! They tell stories that the encampment is full of ruthless barbarians! As they join the family of Gao, we are determined to drive those monsters of the north out into their graves for what they have done!
After several hundred seasons of life, the city of Gao has made its first monument in dedication to its founding, and the angelic continued life of Askia, I, their great leader who has lead them for a century of barbarian conflict.
3640 BC
Pottery! My people, clever in their beautiful ways impress me, as I notice through the years these structures of clay, which may hold water, or food, or anything which is desired. I thank them for their gifts of pottery, and wish them life as long as my own.
I hear reports from the north that the barbarians are no more, and we are enriched from their defeat. A band of scouts come together in Gao, pledging themselves to me, and I send them out to the east, pleased with their devotion. It becomes clear to me, the piety of my people. While I am weary of their beliefs... I cannot deny them that truly I am divinely blessed with hundreds of seasons of life beyond the founding of Gao.
Our skillful scout band of the east has explored a site of ancient ruins... who held the technology of the Calendar! We are amazed by their findings, and I too am helped by this. Now I may speak in terms of 'years'... I know now that I have lived 660 years After Gao, and around 20 or 30 Before Gao. With this revelation of hundreds of years of life... it comes as no surprise that a shrine had been built in my name. I will not deny the pleasure in knowing I am blessed, and my people are blessed for it.
3160 BC
Recently, I have seen my people digging into the earth, and pulling from these holes lost pieces of gold coin, buried beneath our city by our growing homes! They call it mining, and I applaud them for their useful efforts. There is much the earth may grant us.
My warrior band spots another barbarian, and in the distance, a ruin. Those uncivilized bastards killed another city! As I ponder now, what it means to be civilized beyond whether one is or is not a barbarian... I begin to see something among my people... a gathering of pious individuals. An organized system of ‘faith’... I ask them one year, what it is they do, and they tell me they have organized their faith, into 'religion'. For forty years I study with them, among them, and they are happy. So happy are they, they profess their divine mission to build more monuments in honor of me, their god, foremost of the spirits of the Forests, Hills, Wheat, Dyes, and Earth. They would build monuments to their Pantheon of Gods! I hesitantly smile, as I embrace the ideas of my kins descendants. Then, my scout band encounters the ruins, to find a secret religious community, foretelling the arrival of a great prophet!
Then as religious euphoria takes the people of Gao... I grow both excited and concerned to see a survivor of the barbarians...
2800 BC
The ‘Mongols’ of Karakorum continue to face an invasion of multiple war bands of raging barbarians, their city besieged! But even as 'Mongolia' faces misfortune, the people of Gao continue to fascinate me with their thoughts... as a band of workers sets off into the forest, my people tell me of 'Bronze Working' and of Iron they have found to the west of Gao, in the plains. Impressed by this, I await the day to touch this iron myself.
Our scouts have found another city! 'Bratislava', they give us gold upon meeting us, and we smile upon them.
Barbarians were spotted in the eastern plains by Gao, and their presence worried the workers in the forest... in the interest of protection, with our warrior band so far away, I begrudgingly sink into the treasury, to enlist a band of spearmen, nearly depleting it entirely. Gold, as beautiful as it may be, isn't worth the lives of my people. The work forces retreat into Gao as the Spearman prepare. Our Warrior band meanwhile, discover more survivors of the ancient ruins once assaulted by barbarians, and we welcome them to Gao.
A Warrior band from the north stands at our borders, who looked neither barbarian nor ‘Mongolian’... and we discover they are 'German'! Somewhere, another city survives! Just as this discovery is made, a plantation of dyes is opened next to the city of Gao, and people rejoice.
2480 BC
Masonry! What marvelous ideas my people are privy to, these skills undoubtedly will assist in keeping Barbarians out should they ever survive our band of Spearmen.
Bratislava tells of another barbarian encampment, asking us for assistance in destroying them. We promise on our honor to defeat them... and our awareness of other camps became apparent, near enough to our borders to worry. Once more, our troop of warriors far to the east spot another camp, just as they find the remnants of cultural artifacts in the ruins of their destructive raging.
2200 BC
I wake one morning, and I walk to the edge of the sea as I often do... but as I sat there in the sand... I saw something in the water. A rock edging over the water? A god-sized fish? It looks to be wood; a bundle of floating logs? But what of that...
"It's a sailboat!" A child sat down next to me, offering an apple as he explained to me 'Sailing', and I, just as fascinated as he, ask him questions as a child might an elder... but the opposite was true! I revel in the irony with a hearty laugh, and ask to be taken sailing when they returned from their maiden voyage.
I hear of another successful conquest near the eastern plains. The savages had captured Mongolian settlers... and this worries me. Lucking, the band of Spearman saw in thier best interest to protect these civilians, and to teach them properly the way of Gao the Monuments of the Gods.
2080 BC
I have seen the great stones of Gao upon the coast before, growing into larger circles over the decades and centuries... never before have I seen such growing beauty, and as 'marble' is taken from a new quarry, the final construction is completed... Stonehenge is born, and built to live as long as I, great Askia, and longer.
Reports from the east indicate that a new city has been constructed. It is called Beshbalik... and it seems that is a part of 'Mongolia'... it is then that I understand the meaning behind them. A people can be more than just their city. They could be more, and greater! My dreams become filled with a thousand city's! All kin of Gao... I call the family, Songhai... and it is good. One day, this dream will be realized, at all costs.
Suddenly, a convoy of ‘Germans’ enter my city, bringing with them their current leader... who I am shocked to find... is the same leader whom I had first met.
The 'Germans' offer Songhai gold in exchange for hosting an 'embassy' in my capital... they explain to me what it is, and while I and my people are at a loss to its meaning... I do not deny gold tributes. I accept as I watch the silly Germans try to speak with us and make squiggles in clay tablets.
1760 BC
One morning as I skillfully steer the rudder of my hand carved sail boat, and notice a girl on the shore holding something to her eye. Curious, I return my boat to shore, disembarking near to her, and ask the youthful lady what she had been doing. Her face reddened, she hides her strange device behind her.
"I had been using this telescope to observe you-your skill! I mean, it lets me see far away! It is strange our Angel of Gao knows not of it..." I smile to the bashful woman, and ask to see it with my hands, and upon putting it to my eye... my mind is thrown adrift across the ocean...
The ancient times are done, and our naked form is draped now with the cloak of the ocean... I am awed in the presence of my people, the descendants of my kin and children. Glorious is Gao, glorious is Songhai.
Recognizing our glory, silly Germany and the one called 'Bismark', extends the hand of friendship, and smiling with charm, I accept his embrace... he seemed rather surprised by my familiar custom. I hear reports in the far east that my warriors had once more vanquished a barbarian camp, to discover civilians of Germany shackled... in light of our recent friendship, I send word back to release them to return to our friends, to the land of Germany.
Soon, a boy by the name of Chandragupta Maurya is born. Over the years, he learns much from the conquests told orally of the past, and by the time he is old enough his ideas of a warrior code, enthrall myself and all of Songhai. He heads east for the plains as he becomes much older. By his age, I realize this boy must be a direct descendant of myself, for he becomes very venerable, older than most... he is truly a person of greatness, a great general, and a good friend. But before his eventual death, he leaves his mark in the world, with a great Citadel within the plains, expanding the borders of Gao and Songhai.
1520 BC
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus... a tomb befitting the man who would be put into it... and it is decided all people of greatness, would find their way into this tomb when their lives are finally at rest.
1480 BC
Writing! What an astonishing art form! The people in only a few short years have put spoken word into... symbols! I am particularly fond of the writings of the life of General Maurya... but then, I become aware of a man named “Shinto”, whose scriptures titled "Songhain", baffle me by the name alone... no one knew of my dreams... then I remember the message of those of the ruins, "A great prophet is foretold". This man, his teachings of regular pilgrimage, and the divine inspiration of life, are blessings I know well for my extended life.
Gao is a holy city, and this man, my descendant, was its greatest prophet.
Our band of warriors to the east make contact with another city "Wittenberg", who give us their religious idols and gold as gifts to us, and I am pleased.
1320 BC
Archery! Today, I learned how to quiver an arrow in a bow, and to launch it far into the sky! It is amazing, and proud my people share with me their ingenuity over the ages. It is pleasant and exhilarating.
In response to a barbarian naval ship, I hire capable sailors to combat the threat, once more draining much of the treasury for the sake of security. Quickly they discover the source of the rogue ships, as well as the city known as Malacca.
Another barbarian camp appears in the east while my bands of Spearmen and Scouts besiege a northern encampment. This is troublesome, but I will respond with proper force in time.
1160 BC
My people bring me new scriptures they write to my residential home often, and recently I have been reading about 'The Husbandry of Animals' it is enthralling, but I have no seen it done within Gao before. I am aware of deer within our borders, and cows and sheep just outside our reach. I wonder if all of them can be tamed as the writing suggests?
I hear reports that the northern campaign is successful, as our Trireme engages a barbarian fleet in the southwest. My warrior band approaches the encampment, while a new band of settlers await their safe passage to new fertile lands.
We meet the city state of Buenos Aires, who gives us much gold. They tell us of a barbarian encampment they wish destroyed. In Gao, I hire competent archers to help in destroying marauding spearmen from our borders and to protect our valuable resources and workers.
A Mongolian Convoy enters my borders... and once more I am confronted with a face I had seen more than a thousand years ago... they offer us gold, horses and an embassy for our dyes. With it being plentiful in our lands, I accept.
In the south, our Trireme encounters the religious Lhasa, who give us gifts of gold and their religious idols. In addition, we discover a volcanic island off the coast of Lhasa, whose name is Krakatoa, and it pleases my people its magnificence!
Another German Convoy arrives, offering gold and an embassy for our Songhain Dyes. I accept, pleased.
925 BC
I have finally learned my lesson in animal husbandry... deer are not to be kept in captivity. Though still, I am impressed with my people's resourcefulness to trap and ensnare the wild life. This could be quite productive practice for my people.
The barbarians of the east are vanquished, allowing once more our settlers to trek into the forest safely. Eventually they settle along the Tombouctu river, across from the now ravage barbarian camp, with many resources surrounding the desert town. All bands of warriors, spearmen, archers, and scouts protect it. A caravan built in Gao moves to Tombouctu in the hopes of economic opportunity. Additionally, a band of missionaries come together in Gao, planning to spread the faith.
Genghis Khan expresses his worry about the recent expansion of Songhai. I apologize, and promise to refrain in the future.
775 BC
A discovery is made which I can hardly believe hadn't been discovered sooner - the wheel! The simplicity of its roundness over the terrain astonishes me. Even after over 3,000 years of life, I hadn't thought of it. With the wheel, Songhai prospers, and enters into a golden age of opportunity!
To the far south, reports arrive that our Trireme crew has discovered the city state of Sofia. They warn us if a camp of barbarians they wish destroyed, and for such a threat walls rise in Gao. Ancient ruins are discovered near Sophia, but we are too far away to explore it. An encampment appears to the north, and a band of Spearman move to attack, along with archers.
575 BC
The horses of Mongolia are magnificent! And my people have done well to learn to tame them, and to ride them well. Today, I was given my first lesson, but I desire more! Oh the uses of riding on horseback, what joys!
The campaign to the north continues, but the discipline of soldiers will prevail over their savagery. And they do, though not without dangerous injury. Tombouctu builds a shrine to Songhian.
350 BC
I noticed something today upon my walk... the buildings, are so different from what they used to be. Their advancement is beyond what I could've known. The /construction/ amazes my simple mind.
Barbarians raided the dyes this month, sending my people into unhappiness. Enraged, I use funds from the treasury for more Spearman to destroy them hastily.
325 BC
A lighthouse of lighthouses, the wondrous people of Gao never cease to amaze me with their creations... the Great Lighthouse, once opened, is marvelous for all the sea to behold!
Unfortunately, the unhappiness of Songhai grows, as barbarians sake the marble quarry. My soldiers move to destroy them with my godly rage. Their righteous death does not come soon enough.
When finally the marble quarry is repaired, I hear reports that Bratislava has become faithful to Songhain, and is impressed by the Great Lighthouse. In awe, they declare themselves our allies and grant us their resources... but along the border of Tombouctu, I see a Mongolian army building, and my eyes squint in rage. I know what is coming, and prepare my troops, renew my friendship with germany, and pledge to protect my new city state ally. Only now do I realize, Mongolia is at War with my newfound ally! Germany though is not pleased by my influence over their former allied City State, while it was out of my control they fell in line with my natural charisma, I apologize for the divide it may have caused.
In the Holy City of Gao... a new holy man by the name of “Zues” has risen, preaching of new Songhain texts that promote our Religious Community, and the prospect of a Just War... I find the text both riveting... and useful for the coming conflict. It is no secret Mongolia harbours the faithful... and war was coming.
This became clear to me when Genghis Kahn approached to me, asking me to look away from his conflict... I stared him down and refused. I was enraged, and I let him know what was coming with my face.
Germany, meanwhile offers me gold for my dyes. I needed more gold to field a larger army, and had plenty of dye. I accepted. Mongolia had the audacity to attempt to trade his horses for my dyes, and I refuse with my enraged glare.
(The Mongol War)
My warbands could not save my ally, but I have hopes to return them to their glory. I will not stand for this warmongering.
I enlist the help of our German friends to declare war on Mongolia. The price in gold was steep, and some of our iron was sacrificed for the deal, but I hope it will all be worth it in the end when Brasitlava is liberated, and Mongolian conquered.
25 BC
Iron Working! What better forge for iron, than the forge of bitter war? We lost a band of warriors, but their sacrifice was not in vain, as a band of Spearman marched into Bratislava, and liberated it! The Military Tradition of Songhai prevails over these glorified savages known as the Mongols!
Soon enough, Mongolia offers to surrender, and concede their city Beshbalik as well as make peace with MY city state. I accept his surrender, surrounded by guards, keeping my calm in the face of his blatant transgressions.
I find it disheartening to see so many of his faithful people starving and unhappy.... in the name of holy Songhai, I would save this city. I trade my iron for gold, no longer needing it to pursue war, but needing the finances to keep my nation moving forward to rebuild our spent treasury. Mongolia foolishly asks to trade his horse for our dyes. I deny him that luxury. I grew frustrated when he makes a counter offer. I shoot it down with archers.
100 AD
The Terracotta Army, a wondrous monument to the great victories of Songhai's noble protectors. I sit within my palace, please by my new bands of soldiers enlisted into my powerful military. Tombouctu finds a band if the faithful and send them to Germany, while a band of scouts were honorably discharged from their duty to save the empire's gold.
150 AD
One and two parts are always equal to three parts, this I have learned today. A boy had visited my courtyard from his school, and I am astounded by his intelligence. I set out to learn as much as this boy knew. Another band of scouts are discharged. Their use these days are limited, and with the Mongol War concluded, efforts would be needed to restore our economy.
Germany suggests to mutually open our borders, and I graciously accept for my dear friend. Meanwhile, as a nearby barbarian camp is destroyed by my war bands, I denounce Mongolia... I cannot forgive him, nor allow Germany to forget.
(Active Mongol Hostility Ends)
300 AD
With the Mongol War over, I calm my rage like demeanor, and return to my traditional home among the people. I had secluded myself away I my palace, but with my troubles over, I may now focus upon the faith Songhain, and its spread across the world.
375 AD
A man the size of a great wonder, encased in bronze, with the face of I, Askia the Great... The Colossus. The piety and ingenuity of the Holy City of Gao knows no bounds, and I am proud of them.
400 AD
Wealth, once more Songhai is pleased and enriched... and this new found obsession with the production and maintenance of wealth has lead to official means of trading gold - currency and legal tender. I smile in the growth of Songhai's treasury.
Within all this wealth, I meet a man who calls himself "Sir Alexander Mackenzie" within the city of Gao... and I feel a draw to him... he is a great person, who would do Songhai proud. He tells me he has planned a trip to Wittenberg, and I encourage him with his dreams. I would not seem him for many years, but his life enriched me in more than gold the day he left. I will miss his humor.
To the west, we spread the faith go Malacca, kill barbarian savages and clear their camp with a missionary... we earn their trust, and become allied with them as they grant access to their resources. It is a happy day. We pledge to protect them, and give them a massive gift of gold.
Germany seeks to renew our deal, and I accept.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
