#HolyRomanEmpire

"I really wish we wouldn't always be climbing mountains..."
Nadia complained somewhat insecurely as they were ascending the one whose direction they were pointed to. It was neither extraordinarily tall nor steep, but a rich and dense forest covered its side, hampering one's advance. Many relatively sizeable edges protruded from its face, occasionally breaking the green cover with their barren rocky sides. Over its siblings with whom it formed a small range the sun had begun to set and enchanted the treetops with a golden shine.
"This one isn't that high... And look, where're almost at the top."
The trees seemed to be clearing. Looking downwards one could see through their branches the valley, yet the top of the mountain was hidden from sight by a light carpet of green forms diverse in their shape but not their intense and vital colour.
"I admit I hope this is the right mountain though... I haven't really seen a castle or anything y-"
Abruptly Ruben ended his sentence and quickly seized hold of the arm of the girl with him, dragging her behind a broad tree silently urging her to keep her voice low.
"What did you see?", she whispered.
Then, from a few metres higher up, the sound of mighty footsteps sounded through the air up until now enriched by but the wind brushing up waves within the blooming crowns. Despite that all the creature could tread on was soft moss and a the undergrowth, they were loud and seemed as though there was a knight in heavy armour, with metal grinding at its kind. As it came even closer, the footsteps were overshadowed by an even more oppressive noise the two could not identify. It sounded numb and yet enormous, somewhat akin to some of what could be heard in a smithy.
"What... is that?"
Ruben was unable to bear his curiosity. With a bit of freight he peeked around the wooden trunk and was soon glared by the fiery sunlight which after seeping through the lively ceiling was reflected by a mighty metal armour.
"It's... some kind of knight."
"It is? Perhaps we could talk to him then..."
"No, let's... stay here. Something seems odd about him."
After a short while, the bulky armoured figure carrying a most mighty halberd, fully made of steel and bearing a tip more akin to an actual axe turned around and with all the accompanying rattling and metallic coughing wandered off into the density of nature, until the silence of the forest had swallowed any traces of its presence.
"That guy seems to be patrolling around here... Let's head for the top quickly, he somehow gave me the creeps."

- Chapter 2: Cistercium Mater Nostra -

The boat docked at a small wooden pier from which a small rocky flight of stairs descended, leading to a small path between two rustic half-timber buildings. Nadia stepped onto the planks and stretched out, while Ruben tightly towed their boat to the pier. The sun had already passed its zenith and was about halfway back downwards. The two exited the small alley onto a small market square. It was a humble village, filled with but a few dozens of crudely arranged buildings ranging from the charming simplicity of black wooden bars crossing white spaces to a handful of entirely grey stone constructions, lacking in ornaments. Even the church was but a small and simple chapel in size.
"We should probably look for an inn or something like that.", Ruben announced as he started to explore the convoluted streets if they could be called that. "Tomorrow we'll see where we should head next."
A peasant crossed their path. A grown and sturdy man, carrying the weight of a bag of flour on his back.
"Sorry, could you tell us wh-"
He cut short his sentence upon receiving a most piercingly accusing glare from the serf.
"Err... We just want to know if there's an inn here."
"Go away, you're not welcome here."
After but this brief line, he vanished into one of the small alleyways and possibly somewhere into a building.
"...what a nice welcome."
"Uhm..."
A middle-aged peasant woman approached the two.
"You have to excuse him. In this village we're all a bit careful about strangers... If you still look for a place to stay for a night though, just head down this street and go around the first corner to the left, there is a small tavern there that has a few beds too."
She pointed past the stone town hall.
Nadia smiled.
"Thank you."
"Yeah, thanks a lot. But why are you this cautious about strangers...?"
"There's rumours about some strange things going on in the cloister on the mountain... Anyway, I have to go."
Ere the curiosity of the travellers could be, the female figure had already stepped out of their sight.

I just returned from a walk in the early morning.

It was not early enough, for the moments between night and dawn had already passed. That magic void between light and darkness, when it feels as though the forces of the day are besieging the night, who is gradually expelled. When the battles rage silently in a frozen world, only embodied by the lanterns whose shine gradually fades, being engulfed by the ghostly radiance of the sun. The golden shadows they cast on the dark blue plaster are devoured into the grey monotony of a world between worlds, while the battle cries of the two times mute the rest of the air, shrouding it in a most calming silence setting the stages for the so easily overheard gentle whisper of the leaves in the light breeze and the endlessly motioning waves of the river.
Alas, I had come too late for the siege of the night. Its forces were already retreating, and only the thinnest veil remaining upon the land indicated its former presence. The light had captured the lanterns and becoming obsolete they were turned off far too quickly. And yet the sun had not yet performed its triumphant march into the captured fortress, and its inhabitants still remained cowering in their sheets, letting the silence echo through the still empty streets.

When I went down to the Rhine, I was delighted to see that his water level had reached its former height. No longer were the barren scars of the drought tainting his shores, and he had reclaimed the land he once paved into the rocks. Like an old friend recovering from an illness to see him having regained his strength was heartening. He had, however, left me a small dry space beneath the flight of stairs leading down to him, where I would stay to stare out into his waters. So crystal clear it was at its outer reaches, not hiding the rubble and stones beneath his waves but having laid his fatherly hands upon them as to shield them from any evil, stroking them lovingly with his endearing waves.

O to stand by his side blesses the time spent there. I would compare it to the one spent with a lover, but this would be wrong. Within the sight of his rippling surface the time is washed away in a most kind manner, running down the mighty stream without you noticing it was missing, as all your worries and doubts were carried away with it leaving you in but the admiration for his beauty, pouring out minute after minute. Whereas to be with a loved one is nothing like this. Normally, whether one has fun or is grieving, the time is torn from you violently. Without noticing, hours have passed, and all they leave behind are a void (one which the river at least floods with his diamond-like fluid). Like the grains of sand in an hourglass second after second, minute after minute, hour after hour rain down the endless abyss of one's life, escaping one's grasp and piling up at the bottom like the dirt they are. But the moment one rests next to the side of a beloved one, these grains of sand turn into gold dust. Shining most brightly whenever they flow down the stream of time, so valuable and beautiful that you want to hold on to them. No, it's more akin to honey. The usual stream of empty water pouring down the days turns golden and stringy, not simply rushing past unnoticeable but slowly stretching out, bestowing upon you the blessing of being able to enjoy the most endlessly sweet taste of every millimetre it moves, mesmerising you with its golden colour, making one desire to not just let it run by without indulging most deeply in it. Every second prolongs and seems to extend into a much longer period of time, becoming filled with the bliss which not hours could grant one.

I need to take walks more often, for they are so infinitely fulfilling. They seem to fix all that is wrong, bridging the gaps between my thoughts, the wind blowing out the dust having collected in my mind. If there is a chain connecting me to the world and its flow, then these walks are the missing links. Completing the connection and once again making me one with myself and existence.

La grande finale! I had reached my goal of being able to erect a cathedral but then kept playing a little longer until all the houses on my main island had become ones housing aristocrats.
This last update will consist of but images and names of the islands I possessed at the end, as there is nothing more to say, other than that I went around and upgraded the harbours of most of my islands just because I could and to have more storage for all the excess goods I was producing. Except perhaps that in my honour another statue was be built. I'm so cool.

Because this game is uncomfortably addicting, I couldn't wait until tomorrow to keep playing.
The first thing I encountered was a shortage of jewellery. upon looking at Abendsonne's depot however I found a lot of excess unrefined gold and therefore built two more goldsmiths, which solved the problem.



I also built one such along with a gold mine on Neupersien (new Persia), which is what I entitled my newest possession, in memory of the ship Darius which was consumed by the waves in the first battle.



On Rhenus I also created a few more stonemasons and tool factories; the former to take care of my constant shortage of bricks hampering the growth of my city (although later I discovered that assigning a few ships to carry stuff hither and fro would have solved the problem as well) and the latter because I had so much useless iron stocked up that I could have plastered the streets with it!



The ore mine on Victoria, which I called my first spoil of war, was also replaced by a deeper one after it had reached its limits.



To ensure that my rapidly growing populace would have enough food to stuff their abysses of stomachs, I furthermore built yet another couple of wheat farms, mills, etc on Victoria.



And then, lo and behold, I had reached my goal. 2500 aristocrats without any unfulfilled desires populated my city, and I was finally able to build the greatest building in the game, the mighty cathedral.



The next update will be the last one.

Between the two invasions, cocoa was getting a bit sparse. Therefore I used the empty island in the south whose ore mine had emptied to set up a few mote plantations for the good.



Rhenus had grown quite a fair bit, and my aristocrat count reached 1500. This gave me the honour of being able to build a palace!



It has no purpose whatsoever and does nothing but waste money and space, but it looks shiny and a solid proof for my success, and that's all that matters! I also built a few more houses and streets for my city to look more complete; I don't think it will need any further expansions.



I had to restrict the further increase in my population numbers however, as due to my warfare I did not have the time to concentrate on their growing needs. In particular tobacco was getting rare, and since Delirium was almost completely filled with plantations already and I was currently still trying to seize another island able to grow it, I had to start buying it from flying merchants. It worked out in the end however.

This was all the more pressure on me for conquering the red player's remaining island. After having built up quite a sizeable army, I set foot on it.



Unfortunately, I forgot to take screenshots here. There was not too much going on though - I split my troops into two groups and took on two of the island's marketplaces and cannon towers each. The latter, much to the disadvantage of my men, kept being rebuilt, but fortunately (after some reloading of saves and thus luck manipulation) the CPU opponent started erecting them within the reach of my ships' cannons, able to destroy them much more easily than my frail musketeers and artillery. For the last attack wave against the remaining tower and marketplace I had to bring in fresh troops however, as my initial ones had been decimated quite a bit.



They did their job well.



Some of my ships had been damaged in the battle, so I sent them to my two wharfs for repairs and transported my now useless units back to Festung Erpel. Who knows if I might need them again in the future, hohoho!

- Interlude: Catnap -

The sun had neared its climax and its bright light melted the sleep from Ruben's eyelids. Stretching out his arms he let out a loud yawn and looked into the blue sky. Just that moment, the boat of theirs was passing beneath the branch of a tree standing at the river's side. All of a sudden, the boy was fully awake.
"Nadia, we have to..."
Too urgent seemed what bothered him to finish the sentence. He grabbed the tow of the boat and tied it to the hilt of his longsword, which he thereupon took and rammed into the soil at the shore. Immediately, he jumped off the nutshell and ran towards the plant which the two travellers had just sailed by.
"What is it?"
Nadia had stood up, startled, and chased after him, who had already climbed half of the trunk.
"Look!"
To the branch hanging over the stream clung a small figure. Nadia looked more closely. It was a young striped kitten, about to fall off into the water.
The frail magician stated the obvious: "It's about to fall!"
Her comrade had meanwhile reached the crown of the tree and tried to get closer to the animal in peril. Suddenly, the sound of wood snapping.
"No!"
The small cat fell, along with a part of the limb it was grasping. Ruben watched in terror; this turned into surprise as the boat of the two was suddenly darting upstream, its sail inverted as though a giant had blown into it from the front, having torn out his weapon. Just ere the kitten could be devoured by the river, Nadia's cloak which she had discarded earlier due to the warmth brought upon her by the sunny morning buffered its fall, shoved below its rapidly descending body along with the even more rapidly moving vehicle, which soon came to a halt a bit further away from the scene. Ruben's eyes were widely open in disbelief as he turned to his friend. She in turn panted heavily, staff in hand.
"What... just happened?"
"I quickly cast a wind spell to propel the ship backwards."
She let out the words along with her nervous breathe.
"...wow."

I shipped over a few newly recruited men and destroyed the second-to-last cannon tower. One remained, but I lacked the manpower at the moment to get rid of it immediately.



I decided I should already settle down on the island however, as I would just remove the leftovers of my enemy's settlement later on and thus already built a small harbour.



Not losing any time, I erected a marketplace (later followed by two others after I had a new ship of mine bring over a couple of resources to my new colony) to expand the territory on which I am able to build. I made sure that the radius of the buildings would also encompass the area yet to be... "liberated".



Immediately I started building a few vineyards and wheat farms. By now reinforcements had arrived from Rhenus, and at last I was able to end the rest of the red player's influence on the island, albeit with some losses.



After having gained complete control of the area I tore down the buildings that remained and has passed over to my possession, as they were of no use for me and only consumed some of the taxes I earn. I also built a few more mills and bakeries, and assigned the ship so diligently having supplied my new settlement with raw materials to now carry over the goods produced there to Rhenus. And since it also harboured a small mountain with ore in it, and iron mine was soon established which was particularly welcome as one on one of my southern islands had recently become exhausted.



Lastly, since I now had more than enough space for vineyards, I tore down two of them on Delirium to make way for two more tobacco plantations, as my people all seem to be heavy smokers. In the long run this won't be enough however, and I shall have to also wrestle the red player's remaining island to the north-east under my control to expand my cigar production towards it. But this is something that shall be undertaken at some later point in time!

With the Red fleet being sunk, crushed, destroyed, wiped off the surface of the- Well, anyway, the time is ripe for an invasion of the island itself.
To prevent any further ships from being produced I bombarded the wharf already. In order to conquer the island entirely, I have to destroy all the marketplaces and towers on it. Fortunately, some of them are situated nicely in reach of my ship's cannons and thus I already began to decimate them after breaching holes into the island's fortification walls.





Since I also did not want to waste too much or my army on eliminating my enemy's one, I postponed my setting foot on the craved soil and rather lured the opposing land units towards the shore where my ships could open fire on them. (Guess who won.)



After the area was clear thanks to the use of my unfair and not very honourable tactics, I finally landed my troops and sent them to destroy as many marketplaces and cannon towers as possible.





Sadly the latter tend to be quite costly when taking and I ended up with most of my soldiers having fallen to their spherical iron projectiles, forcing me to postpone the rest of the invasion until I had trained enough fresh troops again. They had nonetheless done a good job and after the fall of the targeted facilities the land surrounding them automatically deserted, although on one occasion the enemy had rebuilt a tower.



In the meantime I had to witness my main island's alcohol depot rapidly depleting, forcing me to temporarily build two more vineyards on my main island.



This was later followed by another, and yet a fourth newly erected plantation on Delirium. Fortunately I will be able to tear down these unpleasantly situated ones as soon as I have taken the red island and am finally granted its vast, untended, and fertile ground.

After taking care of that matter, I had my ships destroy the rebuilt tower, which yielded the desired effect.





I also found another marketplace I could easily shoot upon with my fleet, which I promptly did. By now a sizeable enough number of new soldiers had finished training and equipment, allowing me to penetrate deeper and to launch a second wave of attack. But this will be something for the next update!

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