The Summer of 503
By Summer of 503, it seemed the famine that had killed so many had finally come to an end in Makria. Enough food had been grown so far this year to feed everyone, and the continent looked as if it was settling in for a mostly regular year. Though it seemed that the war with the Ardans might at long last be over, it could not be said that the continent was at peace. The Tavan Morin continued to bear down ruthlessly on Arevmarch, while Dalmira looked to be in the middle of a large-scale succession dispute. The Ardans, meanwhile, seemed teetering on the brink of civil war.
In this still-volatile climate, and with many turning to the church for answers about the famine (not to mention renewed calls to strengthen the forces of Namidism against any future war against the heretics that might manifest), thousands again flocked to the banners of the Forgiven Knights, who had deployed anew to the new Meddish territories captured from the Ardans.
Hendal
In Hendal, Queen Marie mandated a new sweeping military reform of tremendous scope that left nearly everyone speechless. The soldiers would have new uniforms, new units, new weapons, new organization, new colors... Military officers balked at this incredibly dramatic reorganization of the armed forces, which essentially shredded the old army and its traditions in its entirety. It also demanded a very different composition of forces than the army had previously had, with many more infantry and fewer crossbowmen than there had been before, and infantry tactics had surely changed precipitously, with pikes under Marie's reforms being replaced by spears and shields. An additional problem presented itself - Marie had ordered formations of units totalling 46,000 men deployed to various parts of the nation, while the Hendalese army had only 22,000 men (excepting the still-autonomous River Watch, who continued to guard the river). The result was that most cohorts were left at less than half strength. Many officers began to (at least privately) voice the opinion that the Queen had no idea what she was doing, and that she was using the army as a plaything. The reforms nevertheless began, albeit slowly and at tremendous cost, with blacksmiths and tailors nationwide struggling to turn out the required volume of weapons, shields, armor, uniforms, and other equipment.
The Soldier's Coin proved to be even more disastrous. The Queen demanded one centime from most persons and one argen from every burgher, clergyman, and nobleman for the upkeep of the army. This demand was outrageous; for the regular folk it represented a doubling of their taxes or more, for the burghers, it represented a four-fold increase - for most, this tax simply could not be paid; the burghers did not have enough money. While the church lodged an official complaint, most went further, assaulting tax collectors in the street and running them out of town. The resulting tax rebellion meant that not only was the soldier's coin not collected, but many other taxes went unpaid. The Queen's public reputation was much tarnished. She was spoken of particularly bitterly by settlers of North Hendal and those hardest hit by the famine, many of whom had nothing to pay her taxes with. Near the end of the summer, the Lord Treasurer ((who I think is an NPC)) was found with a dagger in his back, and there was little doubt left in the court that the Soldier's Coin was dead.
In the North, the sudden disappearance of Baldwin Montague had puzzled Prince Henry, but he continued on his mission to rebuild North Hendal with growing zeal. With the difficulties of previous seasons clearing up, his mission continued at an aggressive pace, convincing people to flock to the national north and rebuilding villages. However, this required his attention out in the countryside so often that he had little time to devote to supervising construction projects in Sanapiro itself, and the refugee housing he had envisioned was largely not built.
Meanwhile, a serf - going by the name of Daniel Anderson - was commissioned to build a library in Sanapiro. Though some eyebrows were raised as to why this job had gone to a serf after a chance encounter with Gregory the Crow, the construction of a library was the least of the city's worries and not particularly important or honorable at that, so not much was said of it. He began to draw up plans for an enormous building - perhaps some sort of Great Library - and work proceeded swiftly. Still, it looked like the construction of such a large building might take a year at least, even under Anderson's surprisingly competent supervision. What local books there were to collect were collected.
With the old wall projects abandoned, Gregory Riddlemen deploys to the Arevmarch border to oversee the construction of a new, vast wall there. He makes little progress on construction or conscription as it takes him the whole season simply to reach the location.
Thomas William Vasterlan does some work on restoring the roads in North Hendal; there is not much to do in this since they were the one thing the Tavan Morin could not truly destroy. The ancient footpaths were little more than dirt in most cases. Restoring roads is one thing; restoring commerce is another. It remains to be seen if any trade traffic returns to North Hendal.
Dalmira
Augustyn Landau, Duke of Weldheim, arrived in Halbstadht to assert himself as rightful King of Dalmira. However, he is not the only one... the Duke of Erdheim-Rortzen is not far behind him. When he arrives at the Halbstadht court, Augustyn notices that one of the local nobles' daughters is a very pretty young woman... very pretty indeed...
Duke Krasnikas arrives at Halbstadht with 2,000 soldiers of his realm, hoping that another 3,500 that he dispatched with the late King Magnus will meet him there. To virtually everyone's surprise, about 3,000 of soldiers do in fact arrive - returning safely from the siegeworks at Desrois. They are some of the few who do, bringing tales of horrible famine and cold with them. Krasnickas, now accompanied by 5,000 men, camps outside the walls of Halbstadht - which is itself without more than a token few soldiers. He fails to convince the city to open the gates to him, however. His calls for the selection of a new King - very likely his pressing his own claims to the throne - remain unanswered.
With Duke Krasnikas right outside the walls with an army, Augustyn Landau calls for talks to discuss claims to the throne, rather than taking the riskier but more aggressive move of simply declaring himself King. Most sense that Dalmira is teetering on the verge of a dangerous succession dispute.
Duke Wiegraf, seemingly oblivious to the troubles in the capital, continues to dote on his newly established military academy. He looks for competent retired military officers to teach and finds them (albeit at cost) and establishes examinations for admission at his academy. It starts to look as if Foldgart-Victorsburg will have the most competent officer corps this side of Hendal... however, Wiegraf has spent lavishly on his military hobby, and it remains to be seen how long coin will hold out to support his warmongering habits.
Meddeland
A strange ship arrives in Meddeland in the Summer of 503. Its sails and construction are strange and its sailors stranger still, men of unnaturally pale complexion with colorful jewels adorning their persons. They speak in a stuttering, sharp tongue. The ship docks in the harbor at Port Reale and begins to offer exotic spices and silks for trade.
The King concerns himself with two matters in Summer - the army and the famine. He purchases food for his forces based in the west, who happily receive it, and tries to continue to mitigate the famine through the Giving Hand. By the end of the season the famine is over, which is a cause for much rejoicing, both by the King and the commoners.
Lord Hantre, the Meddish Seneschal who seems the most likely candidate to replace the now-dead traitor Windfell, continues on his mission to organize the offices of tax collectors, censusmen, and record-keepers in South Hendal. He brings some local authorities under more central control, though progress is fairly show and the fruits of such efforts unclear. The task probably requires more effort to reap any benefits. His work on the Blóstmbóc is similarly slow, as it turns out there are rather a lot of plants in Meddeland to document.
Redvin Castillien is dispatched to bring the bandits into line and curb spreading national anarchy, which has seriously hurt the integrity of the Kingdom. While Redvin does his best, and brings more than a few to justice with heavy-handed tactics, it simply begins to seem like he will need more men or more time or both to bring restive Meddeland in line.
Albert Cappning, meanwhile, is finally satisfied that no attack is coming and withdraws the army to Kandon. He begins work on forming a professional instructor and drilling corps. He also deploys some troops to battle banditry in South Meddeland, but so much of his army's time has been spent marching and drilling that few bandits are hauled in... Perhaps if he unified his efforts with Redvin's...
However, the would-be peace and recovery of Meddeland is suddenly abruptly shattered when Haaken the Vandal abruptly and unexpected appears in the largely unguarded North Meddeland leading a militia force of about 5,000 men and looting at random. The Vandal is harassed by the local militias previously formed up by Cappning, but these simply aren't enough to stop the force that Haaken has at his back - he burns much of what has only recently been rebuilt and loots everything of value. North Meddeland really does begin to seem like the unluckiest province in the world.
Though the nation is war-weary, the public is outraged by the Vandal's sudden sneak attack. Is war about to begin with the Ardans again?
Ardans
With public order rapidly deteriorating in Ardans, banditry begins to break out - particularly in the city of Desrois, where streetfighting and looting become common. A new Marcher still has not been elected by the Oligarchs and the nation seems to be suffering for it.
Realizing that he simply cannot pay for it, Michel Szabolcsi disbands much of the national army, leaving only 5,000 men. His idea that a "semblance of peace" has been restored to Ardans could not be more wrong; nevertheless, Szabolcsi aggressively pursues greater enforcement of the city tax which - yes - had been widely shirked before. He gets the greater enforcement he seeks, with revenues sharply increasing... from those two cities still paying tax. At least he seems to have stabilized the budget for the time being. The crackdown on tax evasion, however, occupies much of his time and much of the bureaucratic infrastructure, which prevents him from starting a new census. Desrois and Leganum may also prove problematic for such an undertaking.
The man responsible for much of this disorder is Ailxander Gerant van Leype, who seems to have assumed control of what little authority there is left in Desrois. His cries for purges of traitors seem vindicated by the betrayal of the Marcher and his subsequent assassination - his idea to use fines on suspected traitors to generate funds for his own projects, however, fail, as those accused of treason are inevitably killed one way or another. He declares "the People's Republic of Ardans" in the City of Desrois, a moved applauded by some and despised by others. He gathers scholars and drafts a code of laws, but his bureaucratic ambitions for statebuilding go no further than that; the anarchy in the streets stops him from doing any "state-building." However, he also dispatches an envoy to Leganum, perhaps with the objective of forming a bloc of two of Ardans' remaining four cities.
Morgan Bolingbrook ascends to become the Oligarch of Cirtirus. He manages to use his society funds, rather than Ardans state funds, to build a number of wooden shelters in Leganum and Cirtirus for refugees, as part of an effort to resettle them. This goes reasonably well, with him loaning out materials to refugees to build their own houses. Many of them have little means to pay or repay his society, however, and the venture ultimately is a loss on his accounts.
Reports also begin to come to Ardans that Haaken the Vandal, apparently acting on no one's volition but his own (since there is no Marcher, there is no one to have given him orders anyway) has raised a militia force of about 5,000 men attacked wartorn North Hendal, slashing and looting everything he can find.
Tavan Morin
The creation of a code of laws proves to be more work than the Dagch Morin had guessed. Much of his time is spent settling and enforcing judgements under the new laws, and his work on the written language continues to stall. He tries to bribe the guards - but after hearing what they did to North Hendal, no one seems particularly eager to let them into the city, even for coin. When this fails, he does everything else imaginable to try to force the city to surrender - poisoning the water supply with corpses and dead animals, bombarding the city with arrows of fire, etc. Despite his best efforts, this does not break the city, though with food supplies probably gone within the walls and the water poisoned, how much longer can Arevmarch really hold out?
However, his efforts to sack Arevmarch continue unabated.
Jo'chi Hasar concerns himself with militias, bandits, and pirates in the summer of 503. While he happily slaughters the bandits (though frankly the locals turn out to be more of a hindrance than a help and he ends up slaughtering more than a few of them too), the pirates stump here. There are few experienced mariners in Arevmarch and few ports; his scheme to empower local ports seems to have little effect.
Other
The Forgiven Knights deploy to the newly Meddish Bar River valley and begin to organize a fief only to discover that most of the population has now fled rather than stay behind to endure Meddish occupation. He nevertheless begins to organize a fief on the Meddish crown's dime, with them now paying for the Forgiven Knight's upkeep costs and new castle construction costs. Work is started on three small castles to shore up defenses in the valley; with new recruits flocking to the Forgiven Knights, work proceeds reasonably swiftly. Rock has to be quarried from nearby mountains, but by the end of the season, some of the stone walls are already taking shape.
With the attention of the Dalmiran kingdom elsewhere, Chryfallnioch continues to be allowed access to the ancient scrolls that Vasa painstaking excavated from the ruins. However, they are written in a dead language and despite his enthusiasm, translation is slow going. Chryfallnioch finds scholars to help him, but even after a season of hard labor, they have diciphered just one word: "Dragon."
((end of update. Next update is next Saturday, as usual. The Ardans still haven't elected a Marcher, though the way things are going, maybe they won't...))
Hint: If you submit multiple sets of orders, I will execute all of them unless you make it clear that I shouldn't.