The Secret History of the Badlands: An After the End AAR

[Deaghaidh]

Foreward for the bicentennial edition: The History of the Secret History.
By Brother Amos, Archivist of the Order of St Liebowitz

The Secret History of the Badlands is a strange text. It is simultaneously a work of propaganda, a religious hagiography, and a secular history. It describes the authors ancestors in highly mythologized terms, yet it was written when living witnesses to the events described were still abundant. It was written for an audience of rampaging horsemen who had no previous interest in scholarship or literacy. These men and women almost instantly embraced it as part of their religious canon.

It's author was no less peculiar. Sheriff Jim "The Feeble" of the Badlands was, as the nickname suggests, the smallest and weakest of the numerous descendants of Hoss Daggett. Yet such was the force of his personality and intellect that he was chosen to lead the greatest of the hordes of the northern plains. Those who judged him by his frail physique would have regretted it, if he had left any of them alive.

Absurd as it may seem in the light of subsequent events, at the time Jim the Feeble was laboring on his magnum opus in Deadwood the Catholic Church in New Rome had great hopes of turning him to their side. True, Badlander raiders had twice besieged the holy father and repeatedly pillaged christian settlements all along his southern borders. But he had also married some of his numerous relations to Catholic rulers. The Daggett clan had also married into the royalty of Iowa, now overrun by Norsemen. Best of all, he was a frequent and successful adversary of those Norse warlords. Rumor had it that he was very interested in literacy; his prize possession was an authentic old world typewriter. Perhaps we could interest him in our Good Book?

Needless to say, these hopes were dashed decisively. His successors, The Bane of Alberta and The Despoiler both proved that beyond any shadow of a doubt. But the presence of Catholics in Deadwood, along with his great pride in his work, meant that Liebowitzan monks were allowed, even encouraged, to make a copy for their Holy Father. This quirk of history is how we came into possession of this unique text. It depicts the Badlanders as they saw themselves just before they burst into the forefront of history. They did not see themselves as the scourge of God sent to punish us for our sins. Our sins were never their concern.

 

[Deaghaidh]

Hello! I've been absent from these boards for quite some time. But I've been playing a lot of After the End: Fan Fork during the plague hiatus. And while I had no intention of making an AAR of this campaign, it set me up with a great framing device for one due to the timing of my character writing the Secret History.

Since I didn't plan on this being an AAR, there won't be any screenshots until long after the fact for most events. However since the book is being written by the great-grandchild of the first ruler I feel like this will work to my advantage. Older events will be described in broad, mythologized terms. The closer we get to the 'present' of the book, the more grounded things should become.

As should hopefully be clear, I'm playing as the Badlands, a nomadic horde of Mountaineers who follow the Trailwalker faith. The Trailwalkers are relatively new to AtE, and I hadn't played as them before. Essentially they worship the Old West. Their gods include figures like Missus Sureshot and Bountiful Sacajawea. The description in the game:

"Trailwalker is a religion invested in the borderland, the crossings between flesh, soul, and dream. Trailwalkers believe in an omnipresent spiritual plane called the Frontier, ruled by a pantheon headed by the Almighty Spirit of the West. In the beginning, there was only the Frontier, and men lived short and harsh lives. However, the Almighty Spirit took pity on humanity and, with the help of his otherworldly servants, cleaved the Range from the Frontier. The Range was the new home of humanity, where men could live free lives. However, in exchange for this gift, the Almighty Spirit asked humanity to follow the Trails, the righteous paths through life. Mankind at first heeded his words, but eventually turned away from the Trails and took the Range for granted. In anger, the Almighty Spirit briefly reunited the Frontier and the Range, destroying mankind's works. Mankind should never again stray from the Trails."

My only personal connection with the Great Plains was three years that I lived in Nebraska as a teen. Hated pretty much every minute of that time. More the people's fault than the land itself, but I will concede it influenced my approach to this campaign. Also, I've been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 a lot, which started me on a general kick of western/frontier stuff. I re-read Black Elk Speaks and Undaunted Courage, both of which paint vivid pictures of the high plains before we , you know, ruined it. Highly recommend both.

 

[stnylan]

Yay, another @Deaghaidh After the End AAR!

 

[Deaghaidh]

The World of the Elder Hoss, 2666

There are hills in the west of the Dakota Range that are the holiest and greatest on Earth. The Indians know them, and the Americanists know them, and we know them. For all time they have been fought over and cherished. We call them the Black Hills. But while they can provide everything that is good in life to those who know how to find it, they do not do so easily. Summer heat and winter cold alike can kill. Water can be hard to find. Therefore they are not good places for sodbusters ((editor's note: a catch all term used by Badlanders for all settled, agricultural peoples)). They struggle to live on the Range, and call this the Bad Land.

In ancient times the Americans conquered the Bad Land from the Lakotah. It took many wars, but they drove the Lakotah away, and forced them to become mere sodbusters themselves. Some Americans came, and lived on the Range, and were glad. But most Americans did not respect the Range. They grew greedy and strayed from the right Trail. Their kings took the wealth of the land far away and did not share it with their people. In time they grew proud, and mocked the great spirit. They declared that they were gods, and shaped the sacred hills to bear the likeness of their kings.

The American Kings ignored their people who lived on the Range. Left on their own, the Americans who lived on the Range chose their own leaders. They would keep the peace when the Kings would not. These men became the first Sheriffs, and the Sheriffs named their Deputies, who would settle disputes and protect the people. The American kings did not care, so long as their wealth and pride was not challenged. But in time the Great Spirit struck them all down.

Their kingdoms fell, and the Sheriffs fought each other and the Indians and the Christian Kings. This was the state of things for hundreds of years. The Black Hills became Bad Lands even for those who knew how to live on the Range, caught between the Lakotah and Crow nations, and raided by other Sheriffs. Only few people grazed their herds there.

One day ((circa 2660)) this began to change, when a son was born to the Sheriff Hoss Dagget.

The Elder Hoss Dagget

Hoss Dagget was not a good Sheriff. Neither was he a truly wicked one. He was kind to his people, but he was weak in body and spirit. He could be brave when pushed to fight, but he fought poorly. He thought of his own pleasure first, and left every decision he could to someone else. His only way of getting money was to take his small posse and raid the lands around Rushmore. He had too few men to take the fort at Keystone, but he would help himself to whatever the Americans there did not hide behind the walls. He rarely fought battles, and won no renown.

Strangers liked him better than his own people, because he would host splendid rodeos whenever he had money. His favorite kind of Rodeo was barrel racing. He loved to watch young women race their horses through the course. He would usually ask the winners to join him in his lodge. Two of these would become his wife, and many others long serving concubines. He was as good to them as he could be, and no one has ever said he took one unwilling.

His first wife was named Cheyenne, and she was a fearless rider. It is also said that it was impossible to hide anything from her. She needed only to speak with someone once to know what they would say or do in any situation. She knew what her husband was worth, for good and ill. When she bore him a son she named him Hoss, pleasing him. But she had already decided that her son would far eclipse him.

The younger Hoss grew swiftly. He was a brawny child who would wrestle much older children. He could run faster and shoot better than any of them. Sometimes his half-brothers or the other children of the camp would try to get revenge by taking him by surprise in a group. But no matter what they did he was always ready for them. When he was only nine, he killed his first buffalo. This is how it happened.

The Elder Hoss had lead a hunting party out from his camp at Deadwood. They were out to enjoy themselves rather than gather meat, so they were careless and noisy. Thus they found no game, and by the middle of the afternoon they were hot and cross at having failed. When they were turning their horses for home, young Hoss galloped up on his pony and asked them for help. "I'm trying to butcher my buffalo," he said, "but I can't lift its head." Rather than boasting, young Hoss was ashamed at not being strong enough.

The hunters were in no mood to humor him. They told him to go away, and that they weren't going to waste time with his pretend kill. Young Hoss got very upset. He showed the hunters the blood on his knife. He shamed them for letting good meat go bad in the summer sun. He said that Bountiful Sacajawea looked harshly on wasted kills, but it would be their fault not his.

His father decided to go and see this "buffalo." "Maybe he's actually shot something. He could have killed a faun, or wounded something bigger." Young Hoss was angry, and shouted that it was a buffalo, and that they could whip him if he was false. And when they came to young Hoss's kill, the crows had gathered. They flew away and lo! there was a yearling bull with an arrow in its throat.

The hunters were amazed, and asked the boy how he had found the only game in miles. "What do you mean," young Hoss replied, "I only followed the trail." When the people at camp heard this tale, they started calling the younger Hoss "the Bloodhound," and many secretly looked forward to such a boy becoming their Sheriff. But that was many years and troubles yet to be.

 

[stnylan]

That is a wonderful start to the legend of this man.

 

[Specialist290]

Glad to see another After the End AAR, especially when it's a new one from you @Deaghaidh

 

[Deaghaidh]

The strength of young Hoss was a comfort to the Badlanders. The weakness of the elder Hoss was an opportunity to their adversaries. Great among the later were the Crows, and their Chief Akiichiileessdesh. A brilliant rider and fearless hunter, Akiichiileessdesh took over leadership of the Crow Nation when their young chief Aakkaapeesh the Just suddenly sickened and died. It was widely whispered that Akiichiileessdesh poisoned him, but Aakkaapeesh had no relatives besides his four children. His daughters were so young they had yet to mount a horse, and his sons were still babes in their mothers' arms. So Akiichiileessdesh became chief, and despite the dark rumors many were glad, and expected great deeds of war.

Akiichiileessdesh

Akiichiileessdesh led the Crow warriors on raids against the Blackfeet, and into the Wyoming country. He returned with much loot and many horses, and more warriors flocked to him. Then Akiichiileessdesh sent a party of warriors to Sheriff Hoss in Deadwood. They scorned him in his own camp, saying, "You are too weak to protect your herds and people. You know that it is true, but if you wish we shall prove it to you. Or you can save time and blood, and send to us each year the finest of your cattle and horses, and become Akiichiileessdesh's loyal man, to come and fight when he calls."

All the camp at Deadwood were outraged at their words and their manner, and many reached for their arms and would have slain the Crows. Hoss quieted his people, and only sent the Crows away. All began to be made ready for war, without him even having given any orders. In his heart Hoss was dismayed. He knew that even with all of his posse gathered together with that of his Deputy he would not have as many men as the Crows. But his people's pride was wounded, and he had no heart to disappoint them.

Most eager for war was young Hoss, now 12 years old. He was a strong and brave boy, but a boy all the same. Though he demanded to ride in his father's posse, the Elder Hoss would not hear of it. In this he had the support of his wife, and all the camp. Knowing her son would try to sneak away to ride to war, Missus Cheyenne bade a servant take the younger Hoss' horse and take it deep into empty country far from Deadwood, and not come back until the snows began to fall. She knew that great though his desire to take up arms might be, young Hoss would never steaal a horse. And so young Hoss was not in his father's posse when it rode to war against the Crows. Perhaps it would have gone better for them if he had, or else he may have come to an early grave.

The elder Hoss had only one Deputy. This Deputy's name was Holger Morton, and his people camped at Mandan, across the Missouri from the sodbusters in Bismark. Holger was akin to those people, and worshipped Thor and Odin, though his people lived on the Range and were as one with the Badlanders. So Hoss sent his fastest riders to Holger's camp, and bade him gather his posse. The two posses joined up in the Shiasapa country. Hoss had with him 500 riders, and Holger had half as many. Nobody knew how many Crows would be coming.

Holger was an even worse fighter than Hoss, and a coward besides. He did not ride in person, but sent his posse under his best fighter. This man's name was Bent Langrishe. Before he sent them off, Holger spoke to Bent saying, "I pay my tribute to Hoss. I don't care if he sends it on to the Crows. Do not waste my men for his pride. "

Bent was a prideful man, and looked on his deputy with contempt. He did not pass those orders on, and kept silent about them until many years afterwards. Instead he gave good counsel to Hoss, saying, "We do not have enough men to fight all the Crows in one body. Our best hope is that Akiichiileessdesh, being sure of victory, will send many small bands to seek us out. If he does then we must swiftly crush them separately, and so reduce the odds against us." Hoss swiftly agreed, and had his best scouts watching the approaches from the Powder River country where the Crows lived.

For seven days after the Badlander posse waited. At last they spotted a sizable body of Crows. They were several hundred strong but for the moment numbers favored Hoss. "Yee-ha!" he cried out, "Get after 'em boys!" The badlands host charged. The Crows launched a single volley of arrows before they turned and ran. Some of the Badlanders fired as well, but neither side could hit the enemy well at the speeds they were riding. All the afternoon they raced across the plains toward the Powder River.

At last the Crow horses seemed to falter, and Hoss's men pressed their own mounts, man and horse exhausted but finally closing in. But in truth they had fallen for Akiichiileessdesh's trick. The main body of the Crow were waiting behind a low hill, and now on fresh steeds they rode to encircle Hoss. There were at least 3 Crows to every 2 Badlanders. Pierced with countless arrows Badlander horses and riders fell, and though he fought bravely Hoss was at last forced to surrender. He agreed to all Akiichiileessdesh's demands for tribute, and counted himself lucky that his people were not forced from their lands entirely.

 

[Specialist290]

The old "bait the enemy into an ambush" trick. The Crow chief is a cunning and ruthless foe indeed.

I do have to wonder how seeing his father beaten and his people forced to pay tribute to their enemies will affect young Hoss as he grows into a young man. I imagine he's going to have quite the chip on his shoulder once he takes the post of Sheriff for himself.

 

[Deaghaidh]

The old "bait the enemy into an ambush" trick. The Crow chief is a cunning and ruthless foe indeed.

I do have to wonder how seeing his father beaten and his people forced to pay tribute to their enemies will affect young Hoss as he grows into a young man. I imagine he's going to have quite the chip on his shoulder once he takes the post of Sheriff for himself.

It seemed a likely scenario to hit a brave but incompetent fighter like the elder Hoss.

In hindsight, I think being a tributary to Crow might actually have wound up helping me. My #1 fear in the early game was my bigger neighbor, Lakotah. Not only was all my land part of their de jure kingdom, but Black Hills is a holy site for Peyotists (which all the plains indians are). Being part of the Crow sphere of influence might have deterred the Lakotah AI from trying to pick me off.

But it will certainly have a big influence on the development of our future Sheriff. And we haven't heard the last of Akiichiileessdesh.

Side note, if anyone knows what Akiichiileessdesh would translate to I'd appreciate it if they shared it. AtE does not use the usual American convention of translating indian names into their English equivalent. I respect that but it can be rather hard on an Anglophone author. By context I'd guess "Magnificent Bastard."

 

[Deaghaidh]

When the posse returned to Deadwood there was much lamentation over the fallen. The Badlanders were not in those days as numerous a people as they would later be. Each fallen man was a terrible blow. There were many widows left with small children, but gradually the older boys became men and took up their father's place. Some drifters also came to Deadwood, working as hands or even marrying into the clan. But they were few enough, for the shame of defeat hung over Hoss' name. Among these young bucks and desperadoes were some men whose names would become great by their deeds, or those of their sons. Lolo Meek, Osbourne Fairweather, and Clarkand Schuyler all joined in this manner, and Bent Langrishe left Holger Morton's service and came to Hoss in Deadwood.

After some time word came from Akiichiileessdesh that he was making war upon the Blackfeet, and he called on the elder Hoss to join him. This the Sheriff did, and with 500 men he rode to join the Crow warriors. The Crows were victorious in that war, and took much of the best hunting grounds from the Blackfeet. But that was not the most important thing to happen in that war.

Young Hoss was now 13, and this time his father brought him along. He served as a hunter, and his father's posse was better fed than the Crows. He and the other boys whose fathers brought them made a posse of their own, calling themselves the Regulators, after a band of outlaws from old campfire stories. The Sheriff was very pleased with his son's bravery and leadership, and each night he would bid him come to his fire and tell his men of the adventures the Regulators had that day. He would laugh and cheer in his great bellowing voice, and boast of what a fine man his son was becoming, drinking and celebrating well into the night.

Akiichiileessdesh's men disliked this very much. Hoss' celebrating kept them awake, and they felt he was not humble enough for a beaten foe. Akiichiileessdesh said, "Trouble will come of that boy. Maybe we will be lucky, and a bear will rid me of him." And trouble did come, and Hoss did meet with a bear, but it did not go how Akiichiileessdesh had hoped.

It happened like this: the Regulators were spread out, hunting on foot in the long dry grass. Hoss spied a dark shape hiding in the brush: a black bear sleeping in the shade. So sure of his skill was young Hoss that he did not call for his friends to help him, but thought, "At this distance, I can pierce the bear's throat while it sleeps. It will die before it wakes. What a deed that will be, for one boy to kill a bear!" He thought of the pride it would bring his father, and the annoyance it would bring the Crows, and notched his bow.

His shot was true, and the bear jerked once and was still. But the cry it gave was not a bear sound at all, and when Hoss and his friends reached it they found it was a man. A Blackfoot scout had lain in the brush in a cloak made of a single black bear. When the Crow scouts had ridden past they either did not see him, or mistook him for a real bear. His eyes were open, and he was facing the direction the boys had come from. But he had not seen Hoss approach, and when his arrow had flown true for the throat of the bear it instead pierced the skull of the man.

When word reached the warriors camp, Akiichiileessdesh was very surprised the Blackfeet were so close and angry that his scouts had missed this man. To shame them he called young Hoss to his fire, and had him tell his story, and praised his courage and skill. Then the Crow chief asked him, "How did you like killing your first man?"

"I should have liked it much more if it had been for my father, instead of his master." Young Hoss told him.

 

[stnylan]

I do believe Akiichiileessdesh has been put on notice

 

[Specialist290]

It might be the bravado of youth talking here, but Young Hoss has certainly proved himself capable of pulling off feats of incredible skill and bravery already. I can only picture the look on Akiichiileessdesh's face when he first heard about Hoss's encounter with the "bear" in question.

 

[Capage]

Nice writing. I've almost started writing an AAR yesterday focused on your neighbor. Deputy Winchester of Trapper.
I also wanted to make a retrospective AAR like this for one of my other playthroughs.
It's great to see someone more competent combining both.