380YE Spring Equinox winds of fortune

A wet Autumn, and now a cold Winter. Spring cannot come soon enough.

Ongoing Events

Hearth Tithe

During the Autumn Equinox 379YE, both the Wintermark and Marcher assemblies threw their support behind the reintroduction of the Hearth Tithe. The Wintermark assembly named Ealstan of Stormspire to encourage the reintroduction of the practice, while the Marcher Assembly named James Appleseeder of Upwold. As a consequence, for the next year. every farm in the Marches and Wintermark will set aside a plot of land to grow medicinal herbs to help the war against the Jotun. Every farm produces a little less money, but provides the owner with useful herbs. You can learn more about the effects of the Hearth Tithe here.

Crows and Colleges

Following the peace treaty agreed with the Thule, several opportunities rose for the Imperial Senate to commission special projects in Varushka.

As the Spring Equinox draws near, work is completed on the program of public works designed to rebuild the roads of Karsk. With the completion of this great work, all mines and forests in the territory of Karsk have received a boost to their productivity. Perhaps just as importantly, the Varushkan nation is now able to fully support a third Imperial army. With that in mind, the long process of mustering the new Iron Helm army has begun in Karsk and if it continues at the current rate will likely be completed in time for Winter.

Progress on the Icy Crag of the Eternal Sun in Volchitrava appears to have stalled, however. While a Summer regio has been raised with the patronage of Cathan Canae, the actual construction of the college is no farther forward. Likewise, while construction has begun in Mieriada on the Hearth of the Tempest, it is not clear how much progress has been made - it is not believed to be perating as a college of spring magic at this time.

Archive

This material is temporary and will be removed when the Spring Winds of Fortune are published. The Spring Equinox winds of fortune will come out shortly before the next event. However, there are a number of significant things arising from the Winter Solstice that will affect players' Downtime actions, primarily effects on personal resources.

As a temporary measure we'll be outlining, and offering some context for, these various effects on this page. In each case, there will be further information in the Spring Equinox Winds of Fortune - once they're ready, they'll replace this content.

If you have any problems with your downtime you should send an e-mail to: empire.plot@profounddecisions.co.uk

Without further ado, then.

Military concerns

There's been a minor re-arrangement of the interface for military units, differentiating between the four options - paid work, support an army, support a fortification, and scouting. As always, you can get further information about each action by selecting it, including the orders issued by the generals to their campaign armies.

It's also worth noting that we've tweaked some of the ritual enchantments that work with military units. Previously the downtime system did not support strict differentiation between the various types of support action and now it does. These tweaks are summarized here.

Trade winds

As with military units, there's been some tweaks to the fleet downtime interface. There are three options available to fleet captains: privateering, trading with a foreign port, and supporting a (the) navy. As with a military unit, you can see what order the Admiral has given by selecting the support action .

When making your decision about what your fleet is doing, there are a couple of situations to bear in mind - especially if you are thinking of trading with a foreign port. As usual, these effects should be visible to any fleet owner who looks over their downtime.

Commonwealth tariffs

The Commonwealth are making a show of checking every Imperial ship for slaves. There are claims that the Empire is obviously buying slaves from Jarm, and the decision to remove the short-lived trade embargo against "blood granite" has done little to dispel this perception.

This means that the existing tariffs restricting trade in the Commonwealth have been expanded to include all goods traded through Leerdam and Volkavaar.

Jarmish politics

Mana embargo

During the Winter Solstice, shortly before sunset on Sunday, the Jarmish House of Princes met to discuss making the ban on trading crystal mana to Imperial citizens permanent. In part due to some diplomatic correspondence from Cato Echostorm on behalf of the Senate and then-archmage Corvus on behalf of the Conclave, the House not only declined to extend the embargo, but ultimately voted to remove it entirely. The Imperial apology for past acts of piracy against Jarmish citizenry in particular has done wonders for international relations.

North and South

All is not sunshine and roses, however. Many of the Magician-Princes of the Northern and Southern factions are still unhappy with what they claim is continuing Imperial interference in Jarmish politics (specifically, Imperial support for the Eastern faction). This means that any Imperial captain visiting Vezak or Kavor will still need to navigate all sorts of bureaucratic nightmares and uncooperative merchants, meaning reduced profits and opportunities, resulting in less materials gained by using these ports.

Eastern alliance

By contrast, the Eastern princes are overjoyed and very well disposed toward the Empire. The continued support of Imperial captains in establishing Rigia as a significant trade port has paid dividends, with other foreign nations taking a lead from the Empire. As such, Rigia is fully established as a functioning port - and the merchants responsible for trading green iron in particular are being quick to offer excellent deals to the Imperial captains.

It's not clear how long this gratitude will last - presumably long enough for sufficient Imperial ships to go there to collect all the slaves Duke Ferrero has purchased.

Missionary work

The Synod has also taken the bold step of dispatching a missionary to Eastern Jarm to counter Sumaah Republic efforts to convince Jarmish followers of the Way that the Empire is a den of heretics. Stormcrow Beodun Snowlock of Wintermark has been sent to Rigia with a satchel of liao to coordinate efforts by Imperial wayfinders in the eastern principalities. How effective this will be remains to be seen, but has certainly contributed to the slow thaw in Jarmish relations.

War with Sumaah

Despite the completion of the embassy in Necropolis, the south-western republic remains at war with the Empire - and the port of Zemeh remains closed to Imperial visitors. The Imperial Senate, however, has not declared war on Sumaah in turn - which means that Sumaah citizens are still considered foreigners. The Senate votes (again) to appoint a Ambassador to the Sumaah Republic at the next summit.

Dawnish crusade

Of particular interest to our Dawnish players, the national assembly of the Synod has raised and secured a judgement in support of the Dawnish conquest of the Barrens. As a consequence, any Dawnish military unit that gets involved in the Barrens crusade by supporting the Towers of the Dawn fortification or fighting alongside the Golden Sun Imperial army receives the Glorious Crusade effect providing them a significant increase to their fighting strength.

Conversely, any Dawnish military unit that does anything else receives the Scorn of the Troubadours effect which reduces their effective fighting strength. This applies to the calculations to determine the outcome of a military campaign; to the loot secured with paid work; and to Guerdon shares received by Dawnish military units. This penalty does apply to Dawnish military units supporting the Barrens spy network unfortunately.

In further good news, the Senate has declared war on the pesky Barrens orcs meaning that there are no legal repercussions involved with fighting them.

Highborn Conviction

The situation with preacher Golan in Reikos has continued to deteriorate. Despite the efforts of the Synod, Golan has not stopped preaching his divisive sermons about the First Empress.

As a consequence, Golan's fiery rhetoric has spread to the rest of Highguard. As a result, any congregation in Highguard belonging to a character dedicated to Courage is receiving a major boost to attendance which is reflected in a similar increase in votes in the Synod and liao. At the same time, every other Highguard congregation is seeing a decline in attendance and thus receives a minor penalty resulting in fewer votes and less liao.

Marcher food prices

The Marches has largely recovered from the curse that struck them in Autumn, but the repercussions of that event are far from done. With the breadbasket of the Empire dangerously tapped, the national assembly made a judgement that Marcher farmers should tighten their belts, and sell food to the Imperial army quartermasters at a price which means they are taking a significant loss. Coupled with the bitter Winter, this means that all Marcher-owned farms including those in Mournwold will produce half as much coin in the coming season.

This sacrifice mitigates the lingering effects of the disastrous Marcher harvest. While the costs to run the Imperial armies are still heightened, the status quo should be restored by the end of the the Spring Equinox.

Howling winter in Skarsind

The northern Empire is having a cold winter anyway ... but nowhere is it colder than Skarsind. The new homeland of the Imperial Orcs has an atrocious winter, one of the coldest and storm-wracked of recent memory. The effects hit the farm owners worst; they need to break open their stockpiles just to keep alive through the bitter, bitter winter. The mechanical effect is that the production for farms in Skarsind is halved during the coming winter.

Roleplaying wise, the bad winter means that orcs and Winterfolk alike will struggle through the next three months, both with the weather and with the illness and general malaise that accompanies it.

The lure of Adventure!

All fleets belonging to Navarr and Varushkan characters are under a potent effect from the Summer realm called the "Lure of Adventure".

This means that, when they engage in privateering or trade with a foreign port, the ships of these nations have ... adventures! Adventures that lead to booty! The purely mechanical effect is that these fleets gain additional random income, but the narrative effect is that all fleets from those nations who are not supporting a navy find themselves encountering strange obstacles - mist-shrouded islands not on any map inhabited by unliving courtiers; a disgruntled Night magician with a penchant for making people think they are pigs who must be wooed and shown the error of his ways; friendly dolphins who help lost sailors find fresh food and water on an island of marvellous ambergelt apple trees; angry independent pirates who must be faced down or outrun; ghost ships; leviathan whales that spew ambergris all over the deck of a ship; strange birds with gems set in their foreheads ... and so on. Within the confines of the Empire world you are free to make up your own stories.

This effect comes from magic used at the last event. Due to the problems with the wind, we're extending the potence of the little scrolls used to create this magic. If you have one, please bring it to GOD at the next event and we will replace it with a proper one that has the right code on it and is less obviously been bodged together by a fat-fingered sleep-deprived fellow.

Delayed diplomacy

One casualty of the weather were the diplomatic groups from the Druj, Thule, Axou, Skourans, Faraden, Iron Confederacy, and the Freeborn hakima. We made the (hard) decision to pull them once it was clear just how bad the weather was getting and how many people were (sensibly) calling it quits. The IC explanation is that the terrible wind and rain that hit the Anvil area caused them all to break their journey and wait for another appropriate time to turn up. Obviously, this was not ideal, but an unfortunate consequence of the real-world situation.