The Founding
Ah, but where to found? While a-peeling,(ha.) the settlers were too far from the grapes! We can't have that. But merely crossing the southern river allows us to contain both these intoxicating fruits and delicious corn in our borders! As well as... rocks? Why the hell not? After tasting the fermented grape juice and roughly extorting 44 gold from the local villagers, gay Paris is founded! [Bad move, I ultimately decide. Yes, I get wine, but otherwise I trade 3 grasslands, a grassland hill, and a plains for a river-grassland, 2 desert hills, and a desert.] Some bloody Africans come by the next day when the whole French population has a hangover. Not good news for you, Mansa buddy... we'll get you back for this! Just let us sleep it off for a bit first...
Thars gold in them thar hills! We'll have to send the miners out ASAP. The surrounding villages are too poor to provide any cash, but after a thorough... search... they do tell us all they know about the surrounding areas. With the advent of hard, shaped clay, our scientists are instructed to figue out how to get metals out of the ground using slightly harder metals.
Looks like we're in the north. Very well, I dub that body of water the Southern Sea! Or maybe the Sea of France. Nah, Southern Sea will do for now.
Years pass. Bronze is discovered at the gates of Paris, land is scouted, we learn the secrets of masonry and hunting, some strange-looking people approach from the west, east and south, calling themselves "Arabians", "Mongols", "Romans", and "Greeks" (Our scribes take note for future historians, but otherwise they make little splash), word reaches our people of a few -isms being worshipped elsewhere, and just like that it's time to plan another city. To the gold! We will have productivity!
Orleans is founded on red dot, and I eventually get the blue dot as well, but the rest is wishful thinking. Animal husbandry is researched.
My scout on Saladin's borders runs into an ambush of barbarians disguised as a quiescent village. Saladin is behind this, I know! He must pay! Sadly, we now lack a way to get intel on his lands. We only know enough to see that he has encroached on lands that will rightfully be French! Jihad on him! What do you mean I have to wait for Islam? Ok, crusade then! What...? Bugger it. Not worth the semantic trouble just now.
The people begin grumbling about the lack of things to worship. Not just in France, but in every known civilization. We may just have to make up something. Maybe we should ask the lawyers.... In the meantime, we'll tell the slaves to build me a nice tomb - not that I plan on dying. And we need a new city. Perhaps something with good earning potential... between the rivers or something. We'll call it...
The pyramids are built, and the people demand representation! And... slavery? Well, if the people want it, who am I to deny them? We find some iron at our borders east and west. The western vein is easier to reach, and thus Lyons is founded to secure it.
A little bit of Catherine in my hair, a little bit of Izzy stole religions there... With the wonders of alphabet, I decide to parlay with the neighboring civilizations. They may be dead in the long run, but right now they know some interesting things. The blighters grabbed the Oracle and Stonehenge already though. In the course of negotiations, I discover that my neighbor Mansa Musa currently lacks any metal. Eeexcellent.... Let's ring up the armorer. Hatty ofthe Egyptians stops by. She's Jewish. How... ironic. She's not a fan, but is too far away to matter at this point. Around 350BC, Bede makes a list:
And Mansa doesn't even make it.
The lawyers in Orleans decide to name their new bureaucracy "Confucianism" and tell the peasants to worship it. It works surprisingly well. Maybe other civilizations will pick up on it. In the meantime, Mansa's skirmishers (which are archer units, not melee like I initially thought) seem to be more menacing up close. We'll put that score on hold. Now, where do I put this army...
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