Secret History of Empire Quest

March 3, 1999 from Nessalin: Why Allanak Should Expand Its Borders Why now? 
I. Quintus is in charge of Allanak, not Tektolnes. 
# Quintus was never a sorcerer, he was the commander of a large mundane army that rolled around the Southlands and formed the government that his son took over. He has the knowledge and skills it takes to manipulate a non-magickal legion that Tektolnes never did.
# Quintus isn't interested in becoming a dragon, he just wants power and a large empire. Although the Allanak economy has doubtless suffered from the loss of Tuluk it also isn't consuming as many resources as it did before Without Tektolnes draining the city's resources in his quest to become a dragon, it probably has a surplus that Quintus can put to good use.
# Tektolnes really only cared about having a safe haven where he could move along his, hoped for, transformation into a Dragon. The world outside of the city only concerned him in so far as it affected his safety. Quintus has aspirations that do involve the outside world, as much of it as he can take control of.
II.The Southlands have the resources for a campaign of conquest. 
# Obsidian. Allanak has an obsidian mine that provides them with steady supply of weapons material.
# Man Power. Allanak, previously the smaller population, has now swelled immensely with refugees. i.Access to craftsmen and artisians previously available only in Tuluk are now present in Allanak. ii.Deserters from Tuluk's militia, Noble house guards, and the private armies of the merchant houses have shown up in Allanak in search of regular meals and a safe place to sleep.
# Wood. With the planned Airship invasion of the mantis valley Allanak will soon have a steady supply of wood that can be used for weapons, armor, transportation and fuel.
# Magick. Allanak has one of the only sources of aggressive magick in the Known World. Although Quintus isn't as powerful a sorcerer as Tektolnes was (by several magnitudes) he did learn more than a few parlor tricks from centuries of being an undead advisor to his son. The best the northlands can muster is the anti-magick zone that surrounds Gol Krathu where Muk Utep keeps Isar in hand in the basement.
III.The Northlands is Weak
# A near inverse of the situation we see in the Southlands, with the exception of wood that is harvested from the Grey Forest.
# Halaster has estimated that the Tuluki militia is at about 60% of the strength it new before the elementals attacked. What force does exist we can assume to be disjointed and demoralized, working with a less than professional leadership.
# The reason for the disjoined leadership is that a good deal of the Jihaen templars in Old Tuluk (The ones that ran the army for the most part) are now dead. Any followers of Isar were wiped out in the aftermath of the elementals attack when Kul and those loyal to him were mopping up and making things stable politically. Those that remain are loyal to Kul who spent several years in exile, and may be viewed by much of the professional army as a deserter, traitor, usurper of power, or any combination of these.
# The social system is breaking down. Without the daily political and social interaction of the ruling class within Tuluk the northlands, as a population, is beginning to splinter government has begun taking unprecedented steps such as appropriating land from nobles and even confining them to their estates.
A chronology of proposed events 
I.Allanak takes the mantis valley with their airship
# This provides them with a much needed supply of wood.
# To protect their aquired wood supply, they will establish a fort here (like the one above the obsidian mines). The fort will protect the valley and exist as a military outpost.
II.Quintus starts making deals.
# An offer to let Kurac operate in Allanak once again. In return for opening the gates to Kurac's wagons and giving them a place in the Bazarr, Kurac agrees to let Allanak occupy Luir's Well. Kurac still controls all business within the Outpost, but will not fight the presence of the Militia camped outside the walls.
# Quintus was not alone in the basement of Tektolnes' tower, Verra was there, too. When the shit hit the fan they both had a hand in kicking Tektolnes in the teeth, and are aware of each other. Quintus offers
# peace of a sort to Verra; if she and her people stay out of the fight, not offering Kul or his nation help, he will ignore them If she helps the Northlands he will do his best to drive the Tan Muark into the Tablelands.
# Kadius, with its experience in the Northlands of harvesting wood, is offered a protected complex within the military outpost established in the Mantis Valley. They will be put in charge of wood harvesting and allowed to keep a percentage of the harvest for their own uses. In return they have to change their trade with the northlands into a one way flow. Goods can come south, but nothing goes north.
III.Attempts are made to further weaken the Northlands. Raids are started, especially on food stores, and caravans are hijacked/diverted south. 
The ultimate goal is to box Kul into a corner in the northlands, without the resources he needs to keep his military going. Once he is under pressure, and hiding within the anti-magick zone of Gol Krathu, Quintus will offer him an easy out. Kul can rule Gol Krathu and the existing areas surrounding it as a military ruler of the Allanki Empire. Quintus will admit that Gol Krathu is a great distance from Allanak and would be difficult for an outsider to rule. 
In exchange for this Quintus wants all of the nobles rounded up and removed from the area so they will not be a problem, trying to rally the masses into revolt into their new rulers. Presumably Quintus will then march most of them into the sea of silt, where he can be sure they will have no followers. 
With Kul in charge, Quintus will place increasingly high demands on the Northlands seasonal tributes. This is in the hope that Kul will ruin the goodwill of the people he rules (all other considerations aside, at least he's a Northlander, and not a southern barbarian) by pressing them too hard to keep up with the empire's demands. If they can destroy his popular support, they can replace him with a ruler of their choice, possibly a particularly weak-willed Noble that didn't get sent off for silt therapy.
June 21, 1999 from Halaster: The Taking of the Mantis Valley
Liktith interviewed and sent out the scouting party to the mantis valley. They've pitched and tent, setting up a small, temporary base and from there will spend a day or two RL exploring. Upon their return (or death) Allanak will begin to complie what they have on the Valley in preperation for invasion.
The northlanders all believe that the temple in Allanak is being built by Tek to complete his transformation to Dragon. Therefore, they're sending Thanos to blow it up (sunday night). Most likely, he'll try using flash powder and rukkian magicks to do it (recruiting Gerrol).
Basically, he will be successful in blowing it up, but it will become very evident to everyone that this temple had another purpose - the airship. When the temple falls, the airship will be floating there in full-view and nearly immediately take off for the valley. Convienently, everyone will blame Thanos and/or Tuluk for instigating this.
Kul and the northlands council assume, currently, that this will provoke a military response from Allanak, so they're having a war council meeting Wednesday night to discuss it. The end-result will really only be troop movements in the north. This will also help set the stage and atmosphere for the future northlands invasion later this summer.
Thanos may not be able to make it RL, so if that happens, Brooks is taking charge for him. Whoever leads it, they will drive a Kuraci-loaned wagon south and park it along the Red Silt road. From there 3 teams will head out to do their jobs. Team 1 is comprised of 4 people who will each be leading a cart full of flashpowder (with an attempt to disguise the contents by adding a few other mundane items). Team 2 is comprised of 4 people who will be a backup to team 1, each of them wearing a backpack full of flashpowder with the sole purpose of KILLING themselves by setting it off if team 1 fails. Team 3 is Isar, who will send a salt golem to fuck around as a distraction.
Team 2 is supposed to go into the city beforehand and be in the general area of the temple. Team 3 (Isar) will send his golem to the eastern merchant's gate. There it will just stand there, saying random insults to people, in an attempt to draw a crowd. If attacked the golem will explode doing 50 points to whoever attacked it. While the golem is distracting, team 1 will pull their carts to the temple, and set them off near each of the statues. If for whatever reason they fail, team 2 will suicide to make sure the 2nd tier (and temple) comes crashing down.
When the temple crashes down, at first everyone will think they succeeded. But when the smoke clears, all eyes will see that the airship (sdesc: a massive, oblong flying structure) is hovering there. Within moments, troops will board it and it will set out for the mantis valley. Once there, the mantis will be slaughtered and a small tent-camp will be setup.
Meanwhile, Tuluk expects retaliation from Allanak, so they will be sending troops to Luir's, and generally making their army move around and position in expection of defense. No immediate reponse, however, will come from Allanak. (behind the scenes, of course, the templarate will be furious and begin to plot an invasion.. which so happens to fit our plans).
The end result: No more mantises in the valley, being replaced by Allanaki troops. More Tuluki troops in Luir's and other spots throughout the north. No more 2nd tier in Meleth's Circle. MUCH higher tensions between the North and South.
Someone asked me about the mul bandit outpost. For now, Allanak will leave it alone, but sometime before they invade the north, they'll occupy the outpost (it's a simple matter for them to do so, really).
Final Aftermath: Everything went almost exactly according to plan. Now that Allanak is in the valley, they'll begin to build a more permanent settlement there, perhaps even shipping in PC's. Tuluki troops will be stationed throughout Luir's and the north.
June 28, 1999 from Halaster: What Happened Next
The Invasion of the Mul-Bandit Outpost:
There isn't much to this, really. Allanak owns the valley next door, so it'd be a very simple matter to walk over and take control of the bandit outpost. This outpost would provide a good fortified defense of the valley, too.
The Take-Over of Luir's:
Allanak will begin a slow take-over of Luir's Outpost by means of politics, diplomacy, and trade. To start, Tek will repeal the ban on spice, allowing its use within the city. The sole intention of this is to get the word out, knowing that the Kuraci will hear about it. Soon after, the Trade Ministry will try and setup a meeting with the Kuracis, most likely using templar Heeth (since he's in that ministry). Their approach towards Kurac would be that they have three choices:
# Let independents deal in spice. This would cause a lot of competition that could turn ugly easily, thus causing a very large headache for the templarate.
# Have the spice market be government controlled. Again, this would cause the templarate a lot of grief because they would have to devote quite a number of resources regulating the market.
# Invite Kurac back into the city to run the spice market.
Allanak would, obviously, try and push the third option when dealing with Kurac (it's their "official" reason for the meetings). They would be willing to give quite a few concessions to get Kurac back into the city. If all went well, Kurac would come back to the city to run the spice market. Allanak would let things go like that, for a while, letting the Kuracis get comfortable in their new position. After a short while, the Allanaki militia would then clear off the road to Luir's (or embrace and encourage the new obelisk-system of travel) in order to promote trade between Allanak and Luir�s. The idea behind this, is that the more trade there is, the more dependent Kurac becomes on Allanak, and the more people from both sides get to know one another and intermingle. Soon, Allanak would send people to Luir's to live there and stay long-term. Obviously they would be in direct association with Tulukis, and you can bet that hostilities would arise. Allanak would instruct their people, however, to not instigate any fights. Always let it look like the Tulukis started it. Eventually Kurac would grow tired of the fights � and Allanak would always make sure the blame was laid on the Tulukis. At some point, Allanak would approach the Kuraci leadership and suggest ousting the Tulukis altogether. Soon after that, the Allanaki militia would offer to station troops there to protect the outpost from northern revenge or aggression. And wala, troops are in the outpost. From there, it's a very simple matter for Allanak to suddenly seize all Kuraci holdings, etc. etc.
The alternative to this is war. If this plan doesn't seem to be working out for the Allanakis, they could attack the outpost, with the airship being their main weapon.
The Invasion of Gol Krathu:
Once in control of Luir's, Allanak can launch their final campaign to invade the north. A lot can happen between now and then, so I won�t even bother to speculate on details of HOW yet. But, from previous immortal meetings, I think the consensus was that Allanak would take over Gol Krathu, but leave Kul in control as a sort of puppet leader. The Kadians would easily capitulate but Reynolte would probably scram and go hide out and start an uprising.
August 5, 1999, from Halaster: More Subplots
The Blackmoon Sub-plot:
The black-robe Vlath will instruct Heeth to begin the negotiations with Kurac in preparations for the peaceful takeover of Luirs. Heeth will be encouraged to send a letter to some important Kuracis in Luirs stating their desire to have a meeting to discuss allowing Kurac back into Allanak. The letter will be vague enough not to reveal specific battle plans, but specific enough to be appropriately juicy. Heeth will be encouraged to send this letter through Salarr so as to throw off any potential spies. However, Blackmoon will so-happen to raid that particular caravan, getting their hands on the letter. What they do with it is entirely up to them (granted, they can't read, so for all we know, they might just use it as toilet paper). If the letter eventually reaches Kurac, fine. If not, then Vlath will instruct Heeth to arrange it through a different means.
The Kuraci-Allanaki negotiations:
Allanak will offer to the Kuracis the possibility of re-entering the city in order to sell desert gear. If that doesn�t get them, then they�ll go further and offer to secretly ignore 4 out of 5 spice shipments to the city. Kurac would have to "hand-over" 1 in 5 shipments to make the templarate look good. Spice would technically remain illegal, but obviously the templarate would in general start looking the other way. If someone did spice on the streets, sure they�d go to jail. But generally speaking, the laws would only mildly be enforced. The reason Allanak would give to Kurac for allowing this, albeit quietly? The nobles want it. If Kurac accepts, then all haste will be made to have them back in the city, setting up shops to sell desert gear. Prices could be lowered on the spice sold in the �rinth, and we could even have some npc�s or pc�s start selling in the taverns (discreetly). Very soon thereafter, commoners would be encouraged to travel to Luirs to trade and generally hang out. In fact, some would be paid by the templarate to do so. Allanak would basically start having their people integrating into Luirs and its population. Soon after that, certain elements would be sent to Luirs to start causing trouble - people who would instigate fights with northerners, etc. Eventually it would become clear that the place is rather rough because of the tensions between the southerners and northerners who hung out there. At this point, Allanak would come to Kurac and "offer" to send troops to keep the peace and eject those trouble-making northerners. Assuming Kurac agreed, Luirs is now controlled by Allanak.
If at any point some of this failed, Allanak would say fuck-it, and invade through force, with a combination of the airship and ground troops.