Lords of the Earth

Campaign Six

Age of Wonders

Turn 1

1716-1717 Common Era

TURN 2 ORDERS DUE BY: 30^th January 2003

ANNOUNCEMENTS

The year 1717 CE was plagued by numerous ‘natural’ disasters scattered around the globe but it also saw the miraculous appearance of large new islands in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. As yet science has found no answer as to why these new lands should appear where none have been before of if they are somehow related any of the disasters that occurred at approximately the same time these new lands appeared.

TROOP CONVERSIONS

Airships (1 airship = 1 point)

Artillery (2 guns = 1 point)

Cavalry (200 men & horses = 1 point)

Infantry (200 men = 1 point)

Sappers & Engineers (200 men = 1 point)

Ships (1 ship = 1 point)

EUROPE

Mercs: none available

Kingdom of Sweden

Karl XII, King of Sweden

Capital: Stockholm in Uppsala

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: Swedish

Population: 8.5 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

King Karl XII orders the construction of fortified port cities in the regions of Kopparborg (Gavle), Jamtland (Sundsvall), and Vasterboten (Lovanger) and his generals and admirals to ready the troops for an expected conflict with Prussia that does not materialize. Meanwhile Swedish engineers and scientists are hard at work advancing the frontiers of knowledge in the aviation and maritime fields. The UEIC is granted certain rights in Stockholm in exchange for gold.

Kingdom of Denmark

Frederik IV, King of Denmark and Norway, Lord Protector of Iceland

Capital: Copenhagen in Denmark

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: Danish

Population: 6.4 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

The Danes ignore all of the political intrigue happening on the continent and content themselves looking after economic matters. The government is expanded, several cities increase in size, and several prospective monopolies are sold to the Royal Africa Company. The Danes also engage in a bit of joint city construction in Naskapi with the British.

Kingdom of Great Britain

George I, King of Great Britain, Lord of the Isles

Capital: London in Sussex

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: English

Population: 20.3 million

Diplomacy: Andaman Islands (t), Qatar (nt)

Conversion: Togo (68%), Transkei (67%)

King George spends his time checking out the seedy underbelly of London while leaving the reins of government to his eldest son and the Privy Council. This proofs effective at increasing the size of His Majesty’s Government. The British engage in a bout of city building in the Home Isles along with a new city in far off Qatar and a joint construction project with the Danes in British North America. British missionaries are busy in (not so) darkest Africa while the British Navy expands its fleet bases in Asia. A large shipment of wheat is purchased from the Ottoman Empire.

Lutheran Evangelical Church

Matthias Steuchius, Archbishop of Canterbury, Pastor of the Evangelical Church

Holy City: London in Sussex

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: Latin

Adherents: 49.5 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

Kept to themselves. Open for a player.

East India Company (EIC)

Robert Clive, Director-General of the East India Company

Headquarters: London in Sussex

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: English

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

Kept to themselves.

Royal Africa Company (RAC)

Edward Colston, Director-General of the Royal Africa Company

Headquarters: Bristol in Wessex

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: English

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

The Royal Africa Company pays out large amounts of gold to secure monopoly rights in Denmark, Ottoman Empire, Morocco, and Ethiopia. The RAC also arranges to setup cartel routes for Morocco and Ethiopia.

Republic of the Seven Netherlands (Dutch Republic)

Johan Willem Friso, Stadtholder of the Netherlands, Prince of Friesland

Capital: Amsterdam in Holland

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: Dutch

Population: 22 million

Diplomacy: Pajajaran (a), Palembang (a), Kediri (a), Perak (a), Jambi (a), Pandya (a), Seylan (a), Sri Lanka (a)

Conversion: Akan (100%), Niete (65%)

The Dutch embark on an impressive bout of overseas expansion and colonial city building. Several local trade routes are transferred to UEIC cartel control. All of this economic activity results in something of a urban population explosion with numerous Dutch cities swelling in size.

Finally the Dutch feeling that their position in Europe is relatively secure decide to engage in some more aggressive foreign adventures in Africa. Assembling an expeditionary force in Capetown of almost 12,000 men (plus 10 field guns, 8 siege guns) and 65 ships, Pieter Paulus, sets sail up around the horn of Africa the Dutch make landfall in Aswan with the permission of the Ottomans. The Dutch force assembles in good order and then marches into Suakin where it easily overwhelms the region’s 4000 defenders. The Dutch then turn their attention on the port city of Suakin, the Dutch general decides to attempt a quick assault on the city rather then a long drawn out siege. The Dutch commence their assault but before they can breach the walls of the city the whole region is rocked by an series of earthquakes during the Dutch organized assault into a unorganized mass of men and horses trying to stay alive. After the ground stops shaking and Pieter Paulus manages to get his forces regrouped he is appalled at the losses his forces suffered by the earthquakes and decides against assaulting the city again.

United East Indies Company (UEIC)

Johan van Oldebarnevelt, Director-General of the United East Indies Company

Headquarters: Amsterdam in Holland

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: Dutch

Diplomacy: Benin (t), Ife (nt), Oyo (nt)

Conversion: Benin (100%), Ife (46%)

The UEIC undertakes a massive overseas expansion effort including colonization projects in South America, Africa, and Indonesia. Several deals are signed with foreign nations.

Kingdom of Prussia

Frederick William I, King of Prussia

Capital: Berlin in Lausatia

Religion: Protestant Christianity

Language: German

Population: 11.5 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: Kauyavia (56%), Silesia (48%)

King Frederick William, mind full of tension between Prussia and its neighbors is careful to do nothing to provoke his neighbors and concentrates his efforts on expanding Prussia’s internal road network, building and expanding the nation’s cities and bringing the true faith to his Polish subjects.

Kingdom of Poland

Frederick I, King of Poland

Capital: Warsaw in Poland

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: Polish

Population: 6.9 million

Diplomacy: Galich (f)

Conversion: Goryn (100%)

Poland assured of its security by certain arrangements, focuses on internal development of new city construction and city expansion. Galich becomes fully integrated into Polish society with the marriage of Galich Hungarian noblewoman Soma Wajda to Prince Frederick Augustus. In other notable events there is an outbreak of Protestantism among the Germans of Danzig, a gold heist in Warsaw, and something of a gold rush in Kielce as an influx of miners and merchants arrive to take advantage of the newly discovered gold mines in Volhynia.

Russian Empire

Pyotr I, Czar of Russia

Capital: St. Petersburg in Novgorod

Religion: Orthodox Christianity

Language: Russian

Population: 27.7 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: Ghuzz (35%), Kama Bulgar (78%), Kazan (29%), Khirgiz (15%)

The Russians ignore their neighbors and concern themselves with internal matters such as road building, public works and regional cultivation (the regions of Sviria, Vologda, Kotlas, and Kirov become cultivated). Extensive missionary activity is directed towards the Czar’s Islamic Kazakh subjects.

The idyll tranquility of the Russian Empire’s Don valley is shattered on June 23^rd 1717 by what the valley’s 800 hundred thousand inhabitants first believed to be an earthquake but soon became apparent was something much more horrible. The very land itself began to liquefy (like quicksand) and quickly sink below sea level which resulted in tidal waves rushing from the Sea of Azov in the west and the Caspian Sea in the east destroying everything in their path. Less then 24 hours later where there was once prosperous farmland there now stood a murky new sea.

Kingdom of France

Philippe duc d’Orleans, Regent for

Louis XV, King of France

Capital: Paris in Ile de France

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: French

Population: 27.8 million

Diplomacy: Erie (nt), Miami (nt), Wenro (nt)

Conversion: Huron (100%)

Regent Philippe oversees the dismantling of most French fortifications with the notable except of those around Paris while his generals keep a watchful eye on the Prussian border. The largesse gained from the fortification dismantling is spent expanding French cities, public works and building roads. Massive amounts of foodstuffs are imported from the Ottomans and the Chinese. French holdings in North America are expanded.

Kingdom of Austria

Charles VI, King of Austria and Hungary, Holy Roman Emperor

Capital: Vienna in Austria

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: German

Population: 9.2 million

Diplomacy: Switzerland (f)

Conversion: Switzerland (100%)

The Habsburgs warily watch Hohenzollern Prussia to their north as they quickly move to bring the Protestant Swiss back into the Catholic flock. Of other interest there is an outbreak of Perfectibilism among university students in Bavaria which quickly spreads from them to the apprentices of the numerous Bavarian guilds.

Kingdom of Portugal

John V, King of Portugal

Capital: Lisbon in Portugal

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: Portuguese

Population: 22.7 million

Diplomacy: Sarawak (nt), Rozwi (t)

Conversion: Bassa (32%), Melela (16%), Shona (49%), Takrur (85%)

The Portuguese focus on expanding their colonial empire in Africa and Asia while reduce its size in South America. The regions of Maku, Manao, Araukai, Kaxuyana, Piaul, and Kraho in Brazil are granted their independence by King John. Henrique de Bessa tasked with bringing part of the Recife based fleet from Brazil back to Lisbon encounters severe storms at sea in the Atlantic resulting in the loss of 16 ships.

Kingdom of Spain

Felipe V, King of Spain

Capital: Madrid in New Castille

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: Spanish

Population: 39.1 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

Spain ignores the rest of Europe instead focusing its efforts on internal improvements and redeploying its armies and fleets from Spanish America to assemble a vast armada of military power in Granada. University of Madrid students riot protesting the inequality of Spanish society and take to the streets as an armed mob looting numerous storefronts before the army is called in to put them down.

On June 23^rd, 1717, a day that started as any other in the Valley of Mexico, something most terrible occurred. It was if the Almighty himself decided to cast the Valley of Mexico into the fires of Hell. A bolt of pure white light, brighter then the sun, shot out of the heavens and struck Lake Texcoco with incredible force. Lake Texcoco almost instantly superheated into steam. Then Iztacchuatl and Popocaceptl began to erupt and ground shake. Several new volcanoes formed around the edge of the Valley. The volcanoes spewed massive quantities of fiery ash and poisonous gases into the sky turning day to night. Meanwhile the superheated steam of Lake Texcoco began to rise scalding to death every living thing it’s path meet by the molten lava flowing down. The volcanic and tectonic activity lasted for the better part of a week. Parties send to investigate the Valley of Mexico failed to return if they attempted to descend into the Valley which appears to have turned itself into a smoldering pit of superheated steam and noxious gases. It is estimated that nearly 3 million people lost their lives in this disaster.

Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

Michelangelo Tamburini, Vicar-General of the Society of Jesus

Headquarters: Navarre

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: Latin

Diplomacy: Romagna (oh), Bologna (oh), Lombardy (oh), Milan (oh), Savoy (oh), Turin (oh), Champagne (oh), Hainaut (oh), Vermandois (oh), Nivernais (oh), Rheims (oh), Palermo (oo)

Conversion: none

The Jesuits work on expanding their holdings in Italy and France. Father Buenaventura Suarez takes a 4000 man cavalry force through France, Italy, Austria and then up to Poland to bolster Polish forces in Warsaw in case of Prussian aggression which doesn’t materialize. The Society builds a fortress in Palermo and then donates it to the Italian government. Father Girolamo Cassanata is dispatched to the Viceroyalty of New Spain to expand Society holdings in the New World which he undertakes by taking a small guard of 200 men with him into Valley of Mexico where he proceeds to setup a Oratory in the city of Texcoco, regrettably he and his men perish along with all living creatures in the Valley of Mexico due to the events of June 23^rd 1717.

Kingdom of Italy

Vittorio Amedeo II, King of Italy

Capital: Rome in Latium

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: Italian

Population: 17.5 million

Diplomacy: Sardinia (f), Corsica (ea)

Conversion: Dalmatia (78%)

The House of Savoy concentrates on building their realm’s infrastructure by building new cities, expanding existing cities, public works, and a spate of road building. In addition the Italian colony of Fria is planted in West Africa. A red tide afflicts the Italian peninsula resulting in great difficulties for fishermen and those who depend upon them. Finally the events of June 23^rd are responsible of large numbers of the faithful gathering in Rome which greatly swells the city’s population.

Roman Catholic Church

Clemens XI, Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Christ, Pope of the Roman Church

Holy City: Rome in Latium

Religion: Catholic Christianity

Language: Latin

Adherents: 119 million

Diplomacy: Fria (ch), Cagliari (ch), Sardinia (mn), Bastia (ch), Diu (mn), Ancona (ch), Bari (ch), Rijeka (ch)

Conversion: none

The Holy Father oversees the expansion of the Holy See’s holdings throughout Europe, Africa, and India. The Vatican provides extensive economic aid to the kingdoms of France and Italy and administrative aid to Portugal and Italy. Regrettably Cardinal Stephan Arellano is lost in the conflagration that was the Valley of Mexico.

Ottoman Empire

Mahmut I, Sultan of the Ottomans, Caliph of the West

Capital: Istanbul in Constantinople

Religion: Sunni Islam

Language: Turkish

Population: 59.8 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: Heraclea (15%), Lydia (12%), Smyrna (4%)

The Sultan orders the construction of a truly Imperial road network stretching from Izmir on the Aegean Sea to Alexandria in Egypt and Basra on the Persian Gulf. Numerous cities are expanded while eight new cities are constructed. Work is begun on the Suez Canal. While Ahmed III is focused on the reigns of state he neglects to keep an eye on his eldest son who was just waiting for such an opportunity to take his father’s place. Prince Mahmud assassinates Ahmed III an assumes the throne as Mahmut I with the tact support of the army. The regional governor of Aswan watches with amusement while the Christian Dutch land forces to attack the Christian Ethiopians.

Greek Orthodox Church

Ieremias III, Patriarch of Constantinople, Supreme Prelate of the Orthodox Church

Holy City: Istanbul in Constantinople

Religion: Orthodox Christianity

Language: Greek

Adherents: 48.2 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

Kept to themselves. Open for a player.

AFRICA

Mercs: none available

Sharifate of Morocco

Nasir Ismail, Sharif of Morocco

Capital: Tangiers in Morocco

Religion: Sunni Islam

Language: Berber

Population: 13.4 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: Senegal (23%)

The Sharifate warily watches its coastlines for any hostile interlopers while focusing on economic expansion at home. To that end several trade deals are signed with the Royal Africa Company. A massive fire sweeps through the city of Fez resulting in over 65,000 deaths, city officials suspect arson.

Kingdom of Ethiopia

Dawit III, King of Ethiopia

Capital: Axum in Axum

Religion: Monophysite Christianity

Language: Ethiopian

Population: 11.1 million

Diplomacy: Gamo-Gofa (t)

Conversion: none

The Ethiopians undertake a modest internal expansion and road building program. Exclusive trade rights are signed over to the Royal Africa Company.

The region of Suakin is assaulted by foreigners and rocked by earthquakes (see the Dutch entry above).

ASIA

Mercs: none available

Safavid Shahdom of Persia

Hosayn I, Shahanshah of Persia

Capital: Tehran in Persia

Religion: Shi’a Islam

Language: Persian

Population: 27.1 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

Kept to themselves. Open for a player.

Omani Supremacy

Sayf ibn Said II, Emir of Oman

Capital: Muscat in Oman

Religion: Sunni Islam

Language: Arabic

Population: 7.1 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

Kept to themselves. Open for a player.

Mughal Empire of Hindustan

Jalal Farrokhsiyar, Sultan of the Mughals, Maharaja of Hindustan, Caliph of the East

Capital: Delhi in Chitor

Religion: Sunni Islam

Language: Persian

Population: 49.9 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: Maghada (100%)

The Mughals expand their army and build a nice road network for it. The regions of Rajput and Jaunpur are colonized by Mughal soldiers against the Hindu populaces will resulting in a minor revolt which is quickly crushed by the Imperial army. Extensive flooding in Palas results in severe property damage and loss of life.

Manchu Empire of China

Qing Xuanye, Celestial Emperor of the Middle Kingdom, Son of Heaven, Great Khan of the Manchus

Capital: Beijing in Yen

Religion: Mahayana Buddhism

Language: Manchurian

Population: 70.9 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

The Son of Heaven decides that the Middle Kingdom should follow learn what it can of the ways and technology of the Datsin kingdoms, to that end massive projects are begun to change the very fabric of Middle Kingdom society and hideously large sums of gold are invested into the land’s schools of learning.

Jade Dragon Sect

Chung Fu, Grand Abbot of the Temple of the Jade Dragon

Holy City: Xuzhou in Honan

Religion: Mahayana Buddhism

Language: Chinese

Adherents: 30.1 million

Diplomacy: none

Conversion: none

The Celestial Emperor issues an edict declaring that the Jade Dragon Sect of Mahayana Buddhism is the official Buddhism of the Manchu Empire and funds the establishment of an official church.

Kingdom of Siam

Phumintharacha Chakkri, King of Siam

Capital: Bangkok in Siam

Religion: Theravada Buddhism

Language: Siamese

Population: 16.4 million

Diplomacy: Andaman Islands (t)

Conversion: none

The Siamese build several new cities and the beginning of a road network to link these cities to their capital. There was a bit of diplomatic wrangling with the British over the Andaman Islands, but for now it seems to have worked itself out. Tests are begun to see if underwater breathing apparatuses are feasible, regrettably they result in several deaths due to drowning.

OCEANIA

Mercs: none available

Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan

Tokugawa Yoshimune, Shogun of Japan, Protector of

Yasuhito, Emperor of Japan

Capital: Tokyo in Kwanto

Religion: Mahayana Buddhism

Language: Japanese

Population: 16.3 million

Diplomacy: Sakhalin (f), Beringa (t), Truk (nt)

Conversion: none

The Shogunate grants the UEIC extensive and exclusive trading rights to all Japan in exchange for access to UEIC technology. An attempt to sign a non-aggression pact with the Manchu Empire is rebuffed. Several cities are expanded, some new cities built, and new islands are added to the Shogunate.

Bank List

Nation Bank GP Rate

Kingdom of Austria Banc Suisse 625 40%

Kingdom of Great Britain Bank of England 1186 40%

Kingdom of Denmark Danske Bank 497 40%

Republic of the 7 Netherlands Bank Nederlandse 1618 40%

Kingdom of Italy Banca di Roma 1389 40%

Kingdom of Poland Bank Polska 400 40%

Kingdom of Portugal Banco de Portugal 1162 40%

Kingdom of Prussia Deutsche Bundesbank 741 40%

Russian Empire Russian Imperial Bank 1660 40%

Kingdom of Spain Banco Espana 1647 40%

Kingdom of Sweden SkandiaBanken 549 40%