Building the Aatanian Military

[Wanderjar]

gamemaster said:

Talajar says, "That sounds good. I'll get to work on a map."


(OOC: there is no word for "parliament" in the Aat language because there is no such institution in Aat custom. There isn't even any tradition of central government. The whole idea of government is associated with the Empire for virtually all Aats. The gathering of clan chiefs is traditional, but it does not make decisions that all clans must abide by nor does it hold votes. The gathering of clan chiefs is essentially a council of war where clan chiefs would come together to discuss war plans and sometimes to coordinate them with each other. But the Aat method of warfare generally requires no coordination. Each clan operates independently or with a few other clans skirmishing with enemies in small engagements and retreating to mountain strongholds. Enemies are destroyed or driven off by a war of attrition that is waged against enemy warriors and civilians alike. No one is spared, though women and children of enemy tribes were sometimes enslaved rather than killed. There is no special term for a gathering of clan chiefs. It is called simply a "gathering of clan chiefs", the same phrase that was used repeatedly by the clan chiefs who came to visit you. In the Aat language, this is "friven buh pandenet". "Friven" means a gathering or meeting. "Buh" means "of". "Pand" means a clan. "Panden" means a clan chief. "Pandenet" is the plural form of clan chief. In general, an "et" suffix makes a word plural in the Aat language. You will notice that the grammar of the Aat language involves putting the adjective before the noun, as in English. In the Zekresh language, the adjective comes after the noun.)

"Excellent. My friends, I feel that we have entered a great new age for humanity."

[Gamemaster]

Ulor's Palace
Renifar
Aatan

34/10/40 Cledman VI

Jezefar comes to the Ulor and says, "Your excellency, if you wish to be sure of getting to Kelingam in time for the gathering of clan chiefs, you will need to leave soon. Tomorrow or the next day I would say."

[Gamemaster]

Jezefar says, "Also, this is the time of year we prepare the budget for the next year. It's not a complicated process. Ordinarily we just copy the old one. Do you want to make any changes for next year's budget?"

[Wanderjar]

"Yes, I shall begin to leave soon. And it is necessary to spend heavy in the military sector. I feel a great war coming."

[Gamemaster]

Jezefar asks, "shall I decide how much to increase military spending, or do you have a specific number in mind?"

[Wanderjar]

"You may set it for me, thank you."

[Gamemaster]

Ulor's Palace
Renifar
Aatan

35/10/40 Cledman VI


The Ulor's entourage is prepared to depart for the gathering of clan chiefs. The Ulor and all of his men are on horseback.

The group consists of:

Ulor Wanderjar
Primary Advisor Jezefar
Military Advisor Ek. Korifar
Economics Advisor Lorifar
Advisor Andifar
Advisor Moribar
Advisor Nurinar
Advisor Zundifar
Advisor Talajar
Five of the Ulor's servants
20 bodyguards from the Ulor's Palace Guard

In all, 34 people. Unless the Ulor decides to change this, the group will set out from Renifar for Kelingam in the Blue Mountains today, Oron 35, Salgan 10.

[Wanderjar]

gamemaster said:

Ulor's Palace
Renifar
Aatan

35/10/40 Cledman VI


The Ulor's entourage is prepared to depart for the gathering of clan chiefs. The Ulor and all of his men are on horseback.

The group consists of:

Ulor Wanderjar
Primary Advisor Jezefar
Military Advisor Ek. Korifar
Economics Advisor Lorifar
Advisor Andifar
Advisor Moribar
Advisor Nurinar
Advisor Zundifar
Advisor Talajar
Five of the Ulor's servants
20 bodyguards from the Ulor's Palace Guard

In all, 34 people. Unless the Ulor decides to change this, the group will set out from Renifar for Kelingam in the Blue Mountains today, Oron 35, Salgan 10.

OOC: SOunds good

[Gamemaster]

Kelingam in the Aat Mountains (Blue Mountains)
Aatan

42/10/40 Cledman VI

Wanderjar and his entourage arrive at the tiny mountain village of Kelingam on the 42nd day of the 10th month, the day before the day the Zekresh call Oronoran or "Winter Day".

The Aat Elden call this day Plavreynon whch means "Darkest Day", because it is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight and the most hours of darkness of any day of the year. While Oronoran is the last day of the year in the Zekresh calendar, it is considered the first day of the new year by the Aat Elden because from this day forward the days grow longer again eventually leading to Spring and the beginning of the life cycle for many animals and plants and, seemingly, for the whole world.

This place is considered holy by the Aat Elden. It is located in a narrow mountain valley, high in the mountain range that the Zekresh call Karak Grif, the Blue Mountains. The Aat Elden call these mountains the Aat Mountains. ("Aat Orfenet" in Aatan)

The village of Kelingam is a village of herdsmen and hunters for these lands are not suitable for growing crops. The village of Kelingam has been here since before the Aat Elden had ever heard of farming and it was considered holy even then.

Looming over Kelingam is Lingeltas Orfen ("Skyseat Mountain"). It is said that the sages of Kelingam in ancient times would climb this mountain and from there they could touch the sky and look down upon the world. It is said that sitting upon the skyseat, (the summit of the mountain) a man who is already wise may see the world and hear whispers of the wisdom of the ages.

There are still sages at Kelingam, but not as revered or as wise as the ancient ones.

When Wanderjar and his entourage arrive at Kelingam, there are already well over a hundred visitors in the tiny village. Two dozen pandenet (clan chiefs) are present and more were arriving by the hour. The mountain trails are alive with little single file lines of Aat people like little streams running uphill to Kelingam.

The visitors are camped on a high meadow near the village. There is much excited talking, but it stops when they see Wanderjar and his men arrive.

As Wanderjar and his entourage walk into Kelingam, leading their horses (the trail was too steep to ride), all eyes are on them, but nobody speaks to them. Then, a man from the village comes out and greets him, "Wanderjar! Welcome to Kelingam. I have not seen you for some years, but you are welcome in my village. Do you not remember me? I am Nalibar. When you were an officer in the Imperial Army your men once arrested me for smuggling. I was flogged by Ulor Klemt's men for that, but times have changed and it is you who have changed them. I forgive what has gone before and I hope others will as well."

After this, a group of Pandenet (clan chiefs) approaches from the encampment on the meadow along with a few warriors carrying slings. Wanderjar recognizes the three Pandenet as Ondifar, Gelibar and Ossifar, the men who invited him to attend the Friven buh Pandenet which is to be held here tomorrow.

"Greetings Wanderjar!" Ondifar calls out with a smile.

[Gamemaster]

Ondifar, Gelibar and Ossifar greet Ulor Wanderjar warmly and after that, others are more willing to speak to him.

Wanderjar and his entourage make camp on the meadow where the other visitors are camped.

There is much talk of freedom for the Aats. Wanderjar is treated as a hero for his declaration of independence.

Then talk turns to the war that everyone expects with the Empire. Everyone has a plan for how to fight the Imperial Army. Most of the plans involve abandoning the cities and the low country without a fight and ambushing Imperial columns that try to march into the mountain valleys.

This is the traditional tactic of the Aats. Usually the ambushers are uphill from the victims and pelt them with stones called "bullets" or "sling stones" ("trillonet" or "weshdavet" in Aatan) which are flung from slings at high speed. Advancing up steep mountainsides under such a hail of stones is considered nearly impossible. The victims are essentially helpless. If the ambush site involves extremely steep mountainsides, larger stones can be hurled down on the enemy as well with even more lethal effects than the slings.

The talking goes on late into the night even though the meeting is supposed to be tomorrow. Nobody expects it to start early in the morning.

[Gamemaster]

Kelingam in the Aat Mountains (Blue Mountains)
Aatan

Oronoran, 40 Vylor Cledman VI


It is Plavreynon, the Darkest Day, the Winter Solstice and also, the Friven buh Pandenet. Fittingly, it is the last day of the Zekresh calendar and the first day of the Aat calendar, marking the end for the Zekresh and a new beginning for the Aats.

There were about two dozen panden (clan chiefs) present at Kelingam when Wanderjar and his entourage arrived yesterday. More have been arriving ever since. By midday of Plavreynon, there are about four dozen. Each of them has several people with him so the total number of guests is well over two hundred now.

Wanderjar had previously wondered if there was a word in the Aat language that was similar to "parliament", but could only think of the unwieldy phrase "Friven buh Pandenet" (Gathering of Clan Chiefs) which is the formal name for this gathering. But now that he is actually attending such a gathering for the first time (it's the only one that's been held in his lifetime), he hears some of the participants calling it by the less formal name of "Pandenfriven" which is not strictly grammatically correct and translates as "Chief Meeting".

Midday has come and everyone is eating their midday meal, but still the Friven buh Pandenet has not resulted in a formal meeting. It is not clear who, if anyone, is in charge, but Nalibar, the man who lives at Kelingam apparently knows who is expected and is telling various pandenet that more are expected "from over the mountains".

Ondifar and Gelibar are telling everyone to wait for the others who have not yet arrived and their word seems decisive.

As the midday meal is being finished, one of Wanderjar's advisors, the one named Talajar, says to Wanderjar, "I want to show you something. I found a pretty good map of Aatan before we left. While we've been waiting around this morning, I sketched in possible province boundaries. Let me show you."

He gets out a map:

nationsandempires5.blogspot.com/2006/11/proposed-aatanian-provinces.html

"I marked the proposed boundaries in orange and wrote in the names. I just named them after the largest towns. I was going to have seven provinces and name two of them 'widden' (Central) province and 'tolda' (South) province, but then I remembered that there are only five of us who are supposed to run those provinces, so I cut it back to five."

[Esinie]

Dear Wanjar I Esinie have sent this message in reference to a coordinated attack on neighboring Imperial garrisons.

We need to put some distance between us and imperial forces if we want to survive. I suggest that with out combined forces we wipe out the imperials foot hold in these anchient lands they have taken an iron grip on our anchient allies and if we free them from imperial rule we will have more force then any army the imperials can muster.

So I ask join us now and save this noble lands from rule of the rotting empire.

Signed esinie of the free nation of helmarie.

[Gamemaster]

During the conversation about dividing Aatan into provinces, someone new arrives at the meadow where the Aat Pandenet and their men are camped.

He is one of the Rizado Uloresh, the palace guards of Wanderjar from Renifar, but he is not one of the ones that came here with Wanderjar's entourage. The man is leading a horse and soon finds Wanderjar.

He says, "A message for you arrived at the palace three days after you left. I have been sent to catch up to you and deliver it. I'm sorry, but I was unable to catch up to you on the trail."

He hands you the message above from Esinie.

(OOC: The player controlling Esinie is weeks behind where you are in game time so even though he just wrote this in real time, it has already had time to reach you.)

[Gamemaster]

Some time after the midday meal, two more Pandenet arrive and the meeting of the Friven buh Pandenet actually gets started.

The Pandenet gather in a circle around a central campfire. The people who came with the Pandenet sit in a second and third row behind the Pandenet.

At the beginning, each Panden says his name, claims to have warriors ready to fight the enemy and gives a brief speech. Since there are now 52 Pandenet present, this takes a while. From the speeches, it is already clear that the Pandenet have some concerns. There were some who called their warriors a "kantora" and said they were ready to answer the Ulor's call to battle. Others, especially those from the mountains and over the mountains, said their warriors would obey only their own Panden and no one else. Still others asked who the true enemy was since the tax collectors were still "harassing our people in the mountains."

After everyone has given a speech, Ondifar apologizes to the group for inviting someone who is not a Panden, but begs their forgiveness and says that since Wanderjar (he does not call you by your title) is the one who issued the declaration of independence and created the situation that led to this Friven buh Pandenet, that it was reasonable for him to attend.

It was clear from the reaction that some Pandenet were not at all happy with that.

Ondifar then urged the assembled Pandenet to consider that while each of them might have hundreds of warriors they could lead into battle, that Wanderjar had thousands. He told them that while of course, the mountains could be held in the traditional way against any enemy, that this time the Aat Elden were stronger than before and perhaps, with new tactics, they could hold the lowland towns and farms as well. But for that, Ondifar said, it might be necessary to fight the way the Zekresh fight in large armies with one overall commander. Ondifar said that this Friven buh Pandenet should choose that leader and that it should either be Wanderjar, or the Aatanian military commander Ardimuk or someone else chosen by the Friven buh Pandenet.

There were loud objections, some interrupting Ondifar. A group of Panden from the mountains said they would not take orders from Wanderjar. One of them, a Panden named Darifar said, "If the Empire is our enemy, then an Ulor of the Empire is not our friend. And I, for one, don't care about the Empire and don't believe the Empire cares enough about me to send its soldiers all the way to the Aat Orifenet to bother us. Our enemy is the same enemy we have faced for year after year. Our enemy is the tax collector who takes what is ours and the soldiers from the lowlands who protect him and the man in Renifar who gives them orders. I say this Friven should oust the enemy from our midst and make war upon him and his army and their halfbreed commander!"

[Gamemaster]

After Darifar spoke, other Panden spoke, some supporting him, others opposing him.

The essential issues which emerged from the debate were these:

(1) Whether or not to attempt to hold the lowlands if an enemy attacks.

(2) Whether the Aats need to copy Imperial tactics to hold the lowlands.

(3) Whether there needs to be an overall commander of all Aat warriors.

(4) Who the overall commander should be.

(5) Whether tax collectors and the Ulor's soldiers should be withdrawn from the mountains or whether the taxes are necessary to support the soldiers commanded by the Ulor.

(6) Whether there should be an Ulor of the Aats.

(7) Whether Ulor Wanderjar should be expelled from the meeting for his prior association with the Empire.